The 10 best Siobhan Finneran movies & TV shows to watch, including Unchosen
Unchosen is out on Netflix now
Siobhan Finneran is about to return to our screens in Unchosen, Netflix’s new psychological thriller – so, we’ve marked the occasion by rounding up her best TV shows and movies.
Finneran is a true stalwart of British telly. Her career dates back to the late ’80s, debuting in the controversial Rita, Sue and Bob Too, before landing a role in Coronation Street as Josie Phillips.
Since then, she hasn’t stopped. Whether it’s Emmerdale, Heartbeat, Benidorm, or her dozen-plus crime dramas, she’s one of the most prolific (and popular) actresses working in the UK.
This month, she’ll play the wife of a cult leader in Netflix’s Unchosen. Before it drops, these are the Siobhan Finneran TV shows (and a movie) you should seek out.
Unchosen
- Genre: Drama
- Year: 2026
- Cast: Asa Butterfield, Molly Windsor, Siobhan Finneran, Christopher Eccleston
- Creator: Julie Gearey
- Length: 1 season, 6 episodes
- Where to stream in the UK: Netflix
What it’s about: Adam and Rosie are members of the Fellowship of the Divine, a Christian sect in England. Life is simple and controlled, but the sudden appearance of a mysterious stranger makes Rosie question the powers that be and if she’d be happier on the outside.
Why to watch: There’s an impressive sense of emotional (and literal) scale to Unchosen; its cult’s quietly insidious, unshakeable prejudices, the eerie tranquility, and fantastic production design. It may not satisfy your desires for a scary cult thriller, but it’s still a poignant story – and Finneran’s Mrs Phillips, the wife of the sect’s leader, is the best character in the whole show.
The Loch
- Genre: Crime, Drama
- Year: 2017
- Cast: Laura Fraser, Siobhan Finneran, Don Gilet, John Sessions
- Creator: Stephen Brady
- Length: 1 season, 6 episodes
- Where to stream in the UK: ITVX, Netflix
What it’s about: In a quiet lakeside community, a shocking death pulls a local detective into her first murder investigation. As more unsettling clues surface, outside help arrives and suspicion spreads through the town, turning a search for answers into a tense race to stop further violence.
Why to watch: The Loch has the advantage of being set around the most famous loch in the world: Loch Ness. Only here, instead of Nessie, its monsters are hiding somewhere on its shores. The scenery is breathtaking, it has a twisty and satisfying serial killer plot, and it runs its course before you can get tired of it; in short, you’ll enjoy it!
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The Damned
- Genre: Horror, Drama
- Year: 2025
- Cast: Odessa Young, Joe Cole, Siobhan Finneran, Rory McCann
- Creator: Thordur Palsson
- Length: 1 hour 29 minutes
- Where to stream in the UK: NOW TV / Sky Cinema
What it’s about: In a remote Icelandic fishing village during a brutal winter, a widow leading a small crew faces an impossible moral decision after a foreign shipwreck appears offshore. As isolation deepens and supplies grow scarce, fear and old folklore begin to seep into daily life, testing trust, sanity, and survival.
Why to watch: Quite the departure from Finneran’s usual brand of British TV drama, The Damned is a (literally) nippy, deeply unsettling horror movie about a nightmarish moral dilemma. If you like the stark, desolate vibe of The Thing and The Terror, and enjoy guilt-ridden, paranoid scares, this is the film for you.
Inside No. 9: ‘Boo To A Goose’
- Genre: Comedy, Thriller
- Year: 2024
- Cast: Steve Pemberton, Reece Shearsmith, Siobhan Finneran, Mark Bonnar
- Creator: Steve Pemberton, Reece Shearsmith
- Length: 29 minutes
- Where to stream in the UK: BBC iPlayer
What it’s about: Late-night passengers get stuck in a tunnel when their train breaks down. Patiently, they wait for the replacement service until a nurse gets her purse stolen and tempers start to fray.
Why to watch: Siobhan Finneran has only starred in one episode of Inside No. 9. It happens to be one of the best stories in the entire series; taut, chilling, and it’ll keep you guessing until the credits roll. As one viewer said, it has “everything you’d want from Inside No. 9”, and Finneran delivers a standout performance.
Unforgiven
- Genre: Crime, Drama
- Year: 2009
- Cast: Suranne Jones, Siobhan Finneran, Peter Davison, Douglas Hodge
- Creator: Sally Wainwright
- Length: 1 season, 2 episodes
- Where to stream in the UK: YouTube and DVD
What it’s about: Upon release from jail, a woman who was found guilty of murdering two police officers when she was a teenager is determined to find her sister, who was adopted after the incident.
Why to watch: Arguably Sally Wainwright’s best pre-Happy Valley series, Unforgiven is a bleak, beautiful drama with a truly spectacular central performance from Suranne Jones. She’s supported by a wonderful supporting ensemble (Finneran included). Also, if you’ve seen Sandra Bullock’s The Unforgivable on Netflix, here’s something you should know: it was a remake of this show!
The Stranger
- Genre: Drama, Thriller
- Year: 2020
- Cast: Richard Armitage, Siobhan Finneran, Hannah John-Kamen, Jennifer Saunders
- Creator: Harlan Coben
- Length: 1 season, 8 episodes
- Where to stream in the UK: Netflix
What it’s about: A family man is blindsided when a stranger shares a disturbing claim about his wife, setting off a chain reaction that shakes his trust and routine. As he searches for answers, he’s pulled into a wider tangle of secrets and side stories that draw in police and people across the community.
Why to watch: For some viewers, the names “Harlan Coben” and “Siobhan Finneran” will be enough to convince them to watch The Stranger (us included). However, admittedly, some of Coben’s mysteries can be overwrought and a little too silly – whereas The Stranger is grippingly (and never badly) preposterous, with strong emotional stakes and great performances.
The Moorside
- Genre: Drama
- Year: 2017
- Cast: Sheridan Smith, Siobhan Finneran, Sian Brooke
- Creator: Neil McKay
- Length: 1 season, 2 episodes
- Where to stream in the UK: ITVX
What it’s about: In 2008, Yorkshire schoolgirl Shannon Matthews mysteriously disappears, and the local community rallies together to find her.
Why to watch: Sheridan Smith is a stalwart of British TV dramas, and The Moorside remains her greatest work to date. Written by Neil McKay (Appropriate Adult), it’s a sympathetic, hopeful, yet necessarily gritty ‘Broken Britain’ story, with Smith in inspirational form. And, if that wasn’t good enough, it also stars Finneran with a superb performance as a real-life police officer.
Downton Abbey
- Genre: Drama, Historical
- Year: 2010 – 2015
- Cast: Hugh Bonneville, Michelle Dockery, Maggie Smith, Siobhan Finneran
- Creator: Julian Fellowes
- Length: 6 seasons, 52 episodes
- Where to stream in the UK: ITVX, Disney Plus, Prime Video, Netflix
What it’s about: Set across 14 years in the early 20th century, Downton Abbey depicts the lives of the Crawleys, an aristocratic family who live in a large country estate, and the events that change and shape their lives, as well as wider society.
Why to watch: Downton Abbey is, in part, a lavish, comforting fantasy of pomp and pageantry. Yet, there is more to it than that (it’s the most successful costume drama after Brideshead Revisited); not as sophisticated as its aristocrats, but certainly noble in its own way.
Time
- Genre: Crime, Drama
- Year: 2021 – present
- Cast: Sean Bean, Stephen Graham, Siobhan Finneran, Bella Ramsey
- Creator: Jimmy McGovern
- Length: 2 seasons, 6 episodes
- Where to stream in the UK: BBC iPlayer
What it’s about: In a British prison, a first-time inmate and a prison officer face guilt, violence, and impossible choices as they try to get through each day. This tense, gritty drama explores survival, responsibility, and the emotional toll of life in prison.
Why to watch: The first series of Time, following Sean Bean and Stephen Graham’s profound, harrowing life behind (and in front of) bars, was a grim masterpiece. It had two British TV heavyweights at the absolute top of their game.
Series 2 is sorely underrated, boasting a pained, accomplished turn from The Last of Us star Bella Ramsey. Finneran is the link between the two series (and the third in development), playing a prison chaplain who’s a “glimmer of hope” for the inmates. What else did you expect; it’s written by Jimmy McGovern!
Happy Valley
- Genre: Crime, Drama
- Year: 2014 – 2023
- Cast: Sarah Lancashire, Siobhan Finneran, James Norton, Rhys Connah
- Creator: Sally Wainwright
- Length: 3 seasons, 18 episodes
- Where to stream in the UK: BBC iPlayer
What it’s about: A tough, experienced police officer juggles demanding cases with a complicated home life while raising a grandchild after a personal loss. Set in a close-knit Yorkshire community, the series blends dark humour with tense investigations and the everyday pressures that follow her on and off the job.
Why to watch: Is Happy Valley the best drama the BBC has ever made? Quite possibly. It has everything: Sarah Lancashire at her furious and lovable best, brilliantly loathsome characters (particularly James Norton’s icy, magnetic villain), and a story that starts strong, stays strong, and sticks the landing. Siobhan Finneran plays one of the show’s best roles: a sympathetic foil and tonic to Lancashire’s boiling kettle.
It is the ultimate foolproof TV show: don’t trust anyone with a bad word to say about it.
Read more: The 15 best Netflix series you should watch in April 2026
