A new comedy series has arrived at the BBC, and it is earning praise as the finest fantasy show on television right now. Created by Mackenzie Crook, who starred in The Office, Small Prophets debuts on Apple TV Wednesday, October 7. It is being called a plucky underdog worthy of complete affection.
The show follows Brian Sleep, a retired adventurer living with dementia in a retirement home, and his son Michael, a middle-aged man whose life is in tatters after his wife leaves him without explanation. Michael takes up a hobby of tending jars with magical contents, on the advice of his father, who once visited sorcerers in Egypt. The fantasy elements start as figments of Brian’s senile imagination, but Michael’s son Michael eventually follows the advice, and the show becomes a tale of magical realism.
Brian’s Secret Pastime
Brian has visited sorcerers in Egypt during his travels, and he passes on what he knows to his son. Michael later lets a workmate who shares his interest, Kacey, in on his secret pastime. It is still unclear whether Michael will find what he seeks through the jars, his father, or his curious colleague.
The Cast Behind The Jars
Among the British luminaries delivering terrific performances in the show are Pearce Quigley, Michael Palin, and Lauren Patel. Palin plays Brian Sleep, Quigley plays Michael Sleep, and Patel plays Kacey.
A Quiet Premiere Date
Two episodes of Small Prophets will arrive together on October 7, with the remaining installments following at a weekly pace, dropping each Wednesday through November 4. The series first aired in the UK in February, where it earned rave reviews even though its audience numbers were small.
Renewal For Season Two
A second season of Small Prophets has already been secured for the BBC. The series has attracted sufficient attention to be taken on by Apple TV, and its critical reception indicates that audiences have latched onto its strange and delightful premise.
Comparing The Fantasy Competition
2026 has been a big year for fantasy TV in the United States. The Witcher’s final season, The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power season 3, and Harry Potter’s debut on HBO are all set to dominate headlines. Yet, any of these series will do well to match Small Prophets as a work of art.
| Show | Platform | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Small Prophets | Apple TV | Premiering October 7 |
| The Witcher | Netflix | Final season |
| The Rings of Power | Prime Video | Season 3 |
| Harry Potter | HBO | Debut season |
The Heart Of The Story
Small Prophets is described as a “hilariously relatable and intensely moving story.” The magic is concealed, turned into a tantalizing mystery for the audience to solve. The show’s title suggests that the warmth and humor come from the little things.
Seven years ago, Clea vanished from Michael’s life. Bereaved and alone, he turned to an ancient alchemical formula for crafting homunculi capable of prophecy, believing these strange beings might finally reveal whether he would ever see her again.
What We Make Of It
It is a delightful kind of absurdity to call Small Prophets the best fantasy TV of 2026, since it is a sitcom about jars of alchemy and dementia rather than a grand epic with dragons or spells. Yet the show’s warmth and empathy are increasingly rare on television.
Genuine emotion and humor coexist within the show’s British premiere drew rave reviews, and its arrival on Apple TV gives it a chance to find a wider audience. The performances from Palin, Quigley, and Patel are terrific, and the show’, and that pairing stands as its chief strength.
The show’s title suggests that the warmth and humor come from the little things. Whether it’s an awkward conversation between Michael and Kacey during lunch hour, or Michael’s increasingly incensed next-door neighbors trying to spy on his garage, the true magic of Small Prophets is that it’s painfully relatable.
Anyone who watches Small Prophets can’t help but buy into its protagonist’s strange journey. The show is a plucky underdog that deserves to be loved wholeheartedly, much like its relatably tragic protagonist.
American audiences now have the opportunity to form their own opinions about the program, with its first episode airing on October 7.
See the video the story is built around at Screen Rant.
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