At long last, the miserable winter is over and spring is upon us. As the glorious sunshine returns to our shores once more, you could be forgiven for thinking now is the time to switch off the television and head outdoors to soak in some Vitamin D.
But wait! That would also mean missing some excellent television. And there’s plenty of it coming down the line over the next few months, from the dystopian Handmaid’s Tale sequel The Testaments, to Richard Gadd (yes, the Baby Reindeer one)’s new TV show.
Here’s our roundup of the best.
The Testaments
The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood’s dystopian vision of future America – finally ended its run on our screens last year. But because nature abhors a vacuum, we now have a follow-up in the form of The Testaments. Though we finished the last series with June (Elisabeth Moss) bringing down Gilead’s rule in Boston, we start this new series back in the theocratic heartlands. Chase Infiniti plays a blinder as Agnes, a young member of the elite who is being groomed to marry and procreate – until, at least, her life is thrown into chaos by the arrival of Daisy (Lucy Halliday).
Twenty Twenty Six
It’s Jonathan Partridge, but for football! The latest show from the W1A and Twenty Twelve team sees Hugh Bonneville makes his return as the champion of failing upwards, Ian Fletcher. Formerly the BBC’s head of values, he’s now been appointed the Director of Integrity (Miami based) at the upcoming 2026 World Cup, a massive spectacle spanning three countries, 48 contenders and 16 venues.
As Bonneville puts it, “Ian has evolved. Although, ‘evolution’ is, of course, an interesting word, conjuring images of change - development from flaccid amoeba, for example, to homo erectus and indeed sapiens. Ian sees himself as crouching somewhere in between.” Which should give you some idea as to how things go.
The Boys Season 5
Eric Kripke’s sadistic, satirical vision of America finally comes to a gruesome end. But not, we hope, before some more gratuitous gore and violence. In this last season, Homelander has ascended. He’s basically in charge of the US, and he’s ready to finally execute several members of the Boys in one of his ‘freedom’ camps. Meanwhile, Butcher (Karl Urban) is running around with superpowers, and a supe-killing virus, and a chip on his shoulder. Cue the chaos.
Euphoria
After years (and years) of waiting, HBO is finally giving the fans what they want – which is one final season of the immaculately curated aesthetic that is Euphoria. All our favourites are back – Cassie, Nate, Rue, Jules and Maddy – but this time, they’ve left school and have struck out into adult life with varying levels of success. Rue appears to be smuggling drugs across the border from Mexico, Cassie is working as an OnlyFans model and Maddy appears to be a hotshot Hollywood agent. But things never stay calm for long in the world of Euphoria, and this season looks to be the darkest yet: think guns, police and maybe some angry cartel members.
Malcolm In the Middle: Life’s Still Unfair
Hello, the Noughties are calling. That’s right, it’s time for every member of Gen Alpha to look confused, and every Millennial to go misty-eyed, because Disney have seen fit to revive one of their original mega-shows for a four-episode special. Incredibly, most of the cast are returning, too: Frankie Muniz is back as Malcolm, the perennially overlooked middle child of his chaotic family.
He’s an adult now, and has successfully managed to distance himself from them, but when parents Lois and Hal (Jane Kaczmarek and Bryan Cranston, excellent as ever) demand his attendance at their 40th wedding anniversary, things (naturally) spiral.
Margo's Got Money Troubles
Apple TV really has got an excellent slate of shows coming out in the next few months (looking at you, Ted Lasso) – the latest of which is this adaptation of the winning 2024 novel. Elle Fanning is Margo, who finds herself pregnant after a rather torrid affair with her community college English teacher. Desperate to make ends meet, and with two very dysfunctional parents (Michelle Pfeiffer and Nick Offerman) to contend with, Margo winds up turning OnlyFans cam work to make ends meet. The result is both witty and wise, and (naturally) stuffed with great character work.
Big Mood Season 2
Nicola Coughlan and Lydia West make everything better, and so it proves with Big Mood, their returning Channel 4 dramedy. In it, the pair reprise their roles as the chaotic Maggie and Eddie. Following the fallout of season one, the formerly inseparable friends haven’t seen each other for a year (since Maggie contracted lithium poisoning, in fact), but after being reunited as bridesmaids at a wedding, Maggie is desperate to win back her friend, while Eddie has moved on by attaching herself to a spiritual influencer from California.
Beef Season 2
Beef’s first season took over the internet when it aired in 2023. Naturally, that means a sequel – which swaps out Steven Yeun and Ali Wong and their road rage feud for an elite country club. Whilst there, a young couple (Cailee Spaeny and Charles Melton) witness a fight between their boss and his wife Oscar Isaac and Carey Mulligan). They’re low-level staff members, he’s the General Manager – but soon they’re all embroiled in a web of blackmail that stretches all the way to the club’s billionaire owner, Chairwoman Park (Youn Yuh-jung). Juicy.
Half Man
Remember Baby Reindeer? It’s kind of impossible to forget: Richard Gadd’s semi-autobiographical TV show in which he retold (with dramatic licence, though how much remains unclear) the story of how he was stalked by a woman named ‘Martha’. Cue armchair detectives and a press frenzy that eventually resulted in the real ‘Martha’ being discovered – a nightmare for both Gadd and Netflix, which is presumably why he’s pivoted to fiction in this new offering for BBC One.
In this show, Gadd and Jamie Bell play Ruben and Niall, two men who were inseparable as young men. But three decades later, when Ruben turns up at Niall’s wedding, things seem off. One violent incident later, and we’re exploring their past, as well as what exactly happened to make them both so broken.
BBC One, April 23
Rivals Season 2
Jilly Cooper’s calling and she wants her riding crop back. Yes, the bonk-tastic TV adaptation of her Rivals series has returned, and with it, more machinations, more big egos and certainly more sex. The season one finale left off with Sir Tony Baddingham having been clobbered with his own award and left to bleed out by Cameron Cook (Nafessa Williams).
Spoiler alert: he’s survived and he’s out for revenge against anybody associated with the new Venturer TV station. That would primarily be Alex Hassell’s Rupert Campbell-Black, but there’s space too for Aidan Turner’s news anchor Declan O’Hara. And in case that isn’t enough to sell you, this season is also set to introduce polo. Strap in. Or on.
Spider-Noir
Look, Spider-Noir damn near stole the entire Spider-Verse film franchise out from under Miles Morales, so it feels only right that he should get his very own TV spin-off. Nicolas Cage returns to voice Ben Reilly, a version of Spider-Man hailing from a hard-boiled gumshoe version of 1930s New York, for a standalone adventure. Even better, the series will be available to watch in black and white (for the true purists) as well as ‘True Hue’, aka full colour. Also, apparently, cartoon as well as live action. How it will all hang together is anybody’s guess.
