Ewan McGregor has made a triumphant return as the titular Jedi Master in Disney+’s Obi-Wan Kenobi, but which of his TV shows ranks best? Since making his acting debut in Dennis’s Potter’s Lipstick on Your Collar in 1993, the Scottish-born McGregor has gone on to enjoy an illustrious career in film and TV spanning almost three decades. Although far more prolific as a big-budget film actor, some of McGregor’s earliest work was in British television – winning him widespread acclaim and launching his career.
Yet despite taking on a slew of memorable roles over the years, Ewan McGregor is perhaps best known for his iconic performance as the Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi. First portraying Qui-Gon Jinn’s (Liam Neeson) apprentice in Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace, McGregor has since made the role his own with a string of memorable turns as the wise Obi-Wan. In particular, McGregor’s portrayal of a heartbroken Obi-Wan Kenobi in Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith drew many plaudits as his character was agonizingly forced to confront his friend-turned-Sith Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen).
While Obi-Wan Kenobi’s release has naturally led to a spike in talk surrounding Ewan McGregor, there is far more in the actor’s television repertoire than his appearances on the Disney+ series alone. From playing the struggling Stussy brothers in FX’s acclaimed Fargo to a surprise appearance in Tales from the Crypt, McGregor has shone across a variety of televised genres. Here’s every Ewan McGregor TV show ranked from worst to best, including Obi-Wan Kenobi.
9. Scarlet and Black
First released in 1993, Scarlet and Black follows McGregor’s Julien Sorrel, an ambitious yet impoverished man who believes the key to social mobility lies in seducing the high-class women of 19th century France. A three-episode epic that sees none other than Napoleon Bonaparte (Christopher Fulford) counseling Sorrel on his womanizing ways, Scarlet and Black attempts to impart lessons of comeuppance a-la Stendahl’s original source material without ever truly escaping its stuffy aesthetic and need for suspension of disbelief. Scarlet and Black is notable for several of its performances, however, with a young Rachel Weisz stealing the show as the dangerous Mathilde alongside McGregor’s earnest early career turn.
8. Doll & Em
Created by and starring Emily Mortimer and Dolly Wells, Doll & Em is a faux-biographical comedy-drama that sees the pair satirize Hollywood’s increasingly bizarre entertainment industry. Doll & Em undoubtedly mines much of its charm from the fact that Mortimer and Wells have truly existed within entertainment circles, making their send-ups of their various celebrity friends all the more hilarious. While Doll & Em‘s appeal does peter out as the more dramatic acts for each character begin to take over, McGregor’s fictionalized version of himself is riotous viewing here.
7. Lipstick on Your Collar
Ewan McGregor’s first TV acting role was as Pte. Mick Hopper in Dennis Potter’s Lipstick on Your Collar, which acts as a musical take on the loves and lives of military intelligence officers during the Suez Canal crisis in 1956. Lipstick on Your Collar is undoubtedly something of a TV oddity as the series’ characters lip-syncing to popular 1990s music and bursting into spontaneous, combat-themed song, but it is also a riveting look at the pressures of societal expectation and the changing of the guard at the beginning of the “rock n’ roll” generation.
6. Kavanagh QC
Kavanagh QC is a shining example of the type of taut British dramas produced in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Focussing on the titular, hard-nosed barrister James Kavanagh (John Thaw), Kavanagh QC sees Thaw’s character tackling difficult, Poirot-Esque cases in the courtroom and primarily defending those society has written off. Ewan McGregor stars in Kavanagh QC‘s debut episode “Nothing But The Truth” as David Armstrong, which sees Kavanagh defend Armstrong after he is falsely accused of assaulting housewife Eve Kendall (Allison Steadman).
5. Tales From The Crypt
The horror anthology series Tales from the Crypt has become a cult classic since it first aired in 1989, with the HBO show one of the first premium cable series to be free of the then-restrictive network standards and practices. Tales from the Crypt’s iconic puppet Cryptkeeper has become a horror icon used in numerous spin-offs and homages, while several of the stories covered in Tales from the Crypt have also been adapted into movies such as Demon Knight and Bordello of Blood. Tales from the Crypt‘s final season was filmed in the UK in 1996, resulting in the series adapting several British horror stories, with McGregor starring as the murderous Ford in “Cold War.”
4. Halston
Based on the life of American fashion icon Roy Halston Frowick, Netflix’s Halston documents the celebrity-laced true story of the legendary designer. While some of Halston‘s more run-of-the-mill elements, such as Halston’s increasingly destructive cocaine habit and the Halston board’s schemes feel shoehorned into the narrative, Halston is nonetheless carried by Ewan McGregor’s larger than life performance as the fashion mogul. Halston also massively benefits from Netflix’s lavish production values here, with its reconstruction of the Battle of Versailles fashion show a set-design sight to behold.
3. ER
The second longest-running primetime medical drama in American television history, ER is nothing short of a cultural phenomenon. McGregor makes his appearance in the seminal medical procedural as assailant Duncan Stewart in the 1997 episode “The Long Way Around,” – which sees Nurse Carol Hathaway (Julianna Margulies) caught in a convenience store when a robbery turns into a shooting, and then a hostage situation. While McGregor’s menacing performance as the brash Stewart does not linger long in the context of ER‘s ever-evolving narrative, the NBC series deserves its spot on this ranking for churning out a prolific 15 high-quality seasons of entertainment.
2. Fargo
FX’s dark-comedy crime drama anthology Fargo has taken home a slew of awards since its 2014 inception, and season 3 is no different in this regard. Fargo season 3 centers on Ewan McGregor’s Ray Stussy, who quickly becomes embroiled in a murder case with his twin brother Emmit (also played by McGregor). Fargo represents taut storytelling at its very finest, with season 3 a particularly gripping and bleak chapter in the anthology’s dark compendium. McGregor is central to Fargo season 3’s success, giving a tour-de-force performance as the tortured Stussy twins that builds to a bloody crescendo as they clash with the IRS and David Thewlis’ salacious Varga.
1. Obi-Wan Kenobi
Obi-Wan Kenobi represents a triumphant return to the role of the titular Jedi master for McGregor 17 years after he last portrayed him in Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith. To that end, Obi-Wan Kenobi is rightfully laced with emotion as a dejected Obi-Wan is cut off from the Force and pushed to contend with the demons of his past. Parallel with the highly anticipated return of Hayden Christensen as Darth Vader, McGregor slips easily back into his role here, playing Obi-Wan with a depth of sadness and restraint that belies the gap between Obi-Wan Kenobi and George Lucas’ prequel trilogy. Obi-Wan Kenobi naturally delivers on its biggest promises, such as seeing Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan clash again under their respective new guises of Ben Kenobi and Darth Vader, but it is the rich story carved from an otherwise murky period in Star Wars canon that really allows Obi-Wan Kenobi to excel as a narrative force. Containing just six episodes, Obi-Wan Kenobi season 1 serves to once again whet the appetite of Star Wars prequel fans rather than completely satiate it – but it nevertheless remains a towering series that manages to respectfully bring back a beloved Star Wars character and cement its place as Ewan McGregor‘s best TV show to date.
