It has won 21 Emmies, five Golden Globes and even been parodied by Hillary Clinton in her presidential campaign; reasons enough to explain why The Sopranos – the violent and compelling tale of murderous New Jersey mobsters – has been voted the greatest TV drama series of all time by a panel of Guardian TV critics.

Second place went to Brideshead Revisited, ITV's 1981 11-part adaptation of Evelyn Waugh's novel about nobility, religion and romance. In 2000 the BFI placed it 10th in its 100 greatest TV programmes.

The Wire – the HBO network's widely praised and much discussed study of ­Baltimore street life – only managed to make it to No 14. Sex and the City did not even make the top 50, just scraping to 51st place, behind Grange Hill. Other drama series often acclaimed as classics, such as I, Claudius, also failed to make the list.

Ahead of some of the great contemporary US drama that has attracted praise and fans in the last 10 years came a raft of British drama from the 1980s and 1990s: Our Friends in the North, A Very Peculiar Practice, Talking Heads, The Singing Detective, Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit and Boys from the Blackstuff. Mad Men, the saga of 1960s New York advertising executives, made the No 4 slot.

The seven regular Guardian TV writers, who individually rated the shows, praised The Sopranos' original, absorbing and "affectionate take on family values". The series stars James Gandolfini as Tony Soprano, a mobster in therapy, and Edie Falco as his wife, Carmela. Nancy Banks-Smith called it "ancient Rome with good jokes".

But they also rated Brideshead highly. "You don't realise at the time what goodies you've got," said Banks-Smith. "I remember watching it in a preview theatre with [the critic] Sean Day-Lewis, who stood up and said 'This is what TV was born for', and then stormed out. We all came round to it rather more slowly."

"It's the most beautiful thing that's ever been on TV," said Sarah Dempster. "It's exquisite in every way. The dialogue is incredibly well written."

Charles Sturridge, the Bafta-winning director of the adaptation, declared himself delighted that the series was in "honourable company" with the mafia drama.

The reason for its enduring appeal?

"It wasn't bowing to a particular fashion of the day. It was quite unlikely that it would be popular at the time. It had an integrity that survives and that's perhaps what other programmes on the list show."