10 TV Spin-Offs Better Than The Original

8. Phoenix Nights

Original Show: That Peter Kay Thing

There was a time in the early 2000s when, in the UK at least, Peter Kay was The Man. He had two great stand-up specials, he had That Peter Kay Thing, and he had Phoenix Nights (which spawned its own not-quite-as-great-but-still-good spin-off, Max & Paddy's Road To Nowhere).

That Peter Kay Thing was a six-part series, each focusing on a different set of characters, and it was the characters of the Neptune Club (the show's second episode) that became the spin-off. The Neptune became The Phoenix, but it retained just about everything else and expanded upon it over the course of 12 episodes.

Like Fawlty Towers and The Office, it's the kind of show where you can't believe only a dozen episodes were ever made because of how endlessly rewatchable they are, and few shows have so perfectly encapsulated and lovingly satirised the working class North. With an array of colourful characters, some absurd moments of humour, but a lot of warmth behind it too, this is a lynchpin of British comedy in the 00s.