Alma’s Not Normal
Sophie Willan’s brilliant sitcom returns for a second series. The first was basically miraculous, taking a superficially bleak premise – a meditation on Britain’s care system during the age of austerity – and making it rich and hilarious in equal measure. If the follow-up is even half as good, it’s going to be very special indeed.
• BBC Two, date TBC
Amandaland
The best character in Motherland was always the vain, grasping, status-obsessed Amanda, played by Lucy Punch. Now, in Amandaland, the character gets her own Frasier. She’s relocated to a rough part of town. Her kids are now teenagers. Her mum is Joanna Lumley. This has the potential to be just as big as Motherland.
• BBC One, date TBC
Apples Never Fall
This drama, based on Big Little Lies author Liane Moriarty’s bestselling novel, sees Annette Bening and Sam Neill as a married couple whose perfect lives are thrown into disarray when one of them goes missing. When it aired in the US earlier this year, critics praised it as a highly slick piece of television.
• BBC channel TBC, September
A Very Royal Scandal
Netflix may have snuck in there earlier this year with the film Scoop, but the interview between Prince Andrew and Emily Maitlis was so gobsmackingly awful it was never going to get just one streamer excited. Here, Ruth Wilson is the Newsnight anchor and Michael Sheen plays the fumbling prince. The other key difference? This one has the blessing of Maitlis herself.
• Prime Video, 19 September
After Baywatch: Moment in the Sun
“Some people stand in the darkness afraid to step into the light!” Who could forget the soapy plots and slow-mo beach shots of the sunkissed 90s staple? Thirty-five years since it started, this documentary relives the heady days of sand, swimsuits and life-saving courtesy of the Hoff as Mitch Buchannon and Pamela Anderson – yes, CJ Parker herself. Sure to perk you up as the nights close in.
• Disney+, date TBC
After the Party
Any show with Peter Mullan in it is guaranteed to be a winner – but it says a lot about Robyn Malcolm’s performance that he is far from the best thing about this gripping drama set in New Zealand (which already has rave reviews from when it aired there). Malcolm plays Penny, who blew up her own life when she accused her ex (Mullan) of awful inappropriate behaviour at his own birthday party.
• Channel 4, date TBC
Agatha All Along
The magnificent Kathryn Hahn played the standout character in 2021’s WandaVision (a nosy neighbour who was secretly a witch), and now she’s getting her own spin-off. In Agatha All Along, Hahn looks set to wake from her humdrum slumber and form a new coven of witches. Like the wonderful WandaVision, this was created by Jac Schaeffer, which is highly promising in itself.
• Disney+, 18 September US, 19 September UK and Australia
Bad Sisters
Sharon Horgan’s deliciously black tale of a group of sisters who conspire to kill their sibling’s abusive husband returns for a second series – and all bets are off as to where this gleefully morbid comedy will go. But given its creator’s track record of writing astonishing television, we’re excited to find out.
• Apple TV+, 13 November
Before
Billy Crystal stars as a recently-bereaved child psychologist who attempts to treat a boy who turns out to have a haunting connection to his past. It’s billed as an “atmospheric, character-driven psychological thriller” and boasts a cast including Rosie Perez and Judith Light, hot on the heels of the latter winning an Emmy for playing a bomb-making pensioner in Natasha Lyonne’s Poker Face. Expect it to go with a bang.
• Apple TV+, 25 October
Black Doves
Joe Barton of Giri/Haji fame has come up with a festive spy thriller, and it sounds like a corker. Keira Knightley plays a spy whose lover is murdered. Her spymaster (Sarah Lancashire) puts her together with Ben Whishaw, a champagne-drinking assassin, to keep her safe as conspiracy rages around them. Netflix are likening the London-set series to Die Hard, so it could be a very merry Christmas indeed.
• Netflix, date TBC
Colin from Accounts
Stars such as Kevin Bacon are lining up to star in this ace Aussie comedy about a woman, a man and a dog brought together by a nipple flash. In the second series, Gordon and Ashley realise they never should have let their pup Colin go to another home … and they may be stalking his new owners.
• BBC Two/iPlayer, 3 September
Curfew
Imagine the freedom from fear and panic of a world in which every man has to stay home from 7pm to 7am and is ankle-tagged to ensure it stays that way. That is the thrust of this timely feminist crime drama about the Women’s Safety Act – but just as our story opens, a woman has been murdered overnight. Surely it was done by a man, but how did he flout the curfew?
• Paramount+, date TBC
Disclaimer
Easily the most talent-soaked show on the list, this psychological thriller stars Cate Blanchett and Kevin Kline, and is written and directed by none other than Oscar-winner Alfonso Cuarón. This tantalising prospect sees Blanchett star as an investigative journalist who has the tables turned on her by a mysterious novel in which she is the main character – and which reveals her darkest secrets.
• Apple TV+, 11 October
Dress the Nation
If you like the idea of The Apprentice but can no longer watch it because of all the terrible harm it has inflicted on the world, this might be the next best thing. AJ Odudu and Vernon Kay host this high-fashion battle between a clutch of would-be couturiers – who are all competing to get a permanent job as a junior designer at M&S.
• ITV, September
Dune: Prophecy
There will be swords, scheming and sorcery in this prequel to the 2021 film set 10,000 years prior to Zendaya and Timothée Chalamet’s dynastic battle. It follows Emily Watson and Olivia Williams as two siblings who found a mysterious sect in a fight for humanity’s future. Even the guest stars are impressive, from Bridgerton’s Charithra Chandran to The End of the F***ing World’s Jessica Barden.
• Sky Atlantic/Now, date TBC
Gavin and Stacey Christmas special
The joyfully daft sitcom is back for its final episode ever. Surely it will give us an answer to the huge cliffhanger with which the last Christmas special ended, a mere nine years after its third season. Will it top the 11.6 million viewers it drew last time? Given that was the biggest festive viewing success in a decade, it would be no mean feat – but we wouldn’t rule it out.
• BBC One/iPlayer, Christmas Day
Generation Z
A new Ben Wheatley series is nothing to be sniffed at, especially when it comes with a premise as offbeat as this. A chemical spill happens in a fictional British town, turning all the old people into zombies. Can the youth of today beat off this vicious, unthinking horde? Sue Johnston, Robert Lindsay and Lewis Gribben star.
• Channel 4, date TBC
Heartstopper
Alice Oseman’s gorgeous graphic novels became hits, sure – but the lovable and romantic Netflix treatment sent Heartstopper stratospheric, justifiably turning its teen cast into global stars. Kit Connor and Joe Locke are back as Nick and Charlie for the third season. Will they finally say “I love you”? We live in hope.
• Netflix, 3 October
High Potential
It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia’s Kaitlin Olson stars in a remake of hit French comedy-crime series HPI: Haut Potentiel Intellectuel. After she helps solve a seemingly unsolvable crime during her cleaning shift at a police station, she’s roped in as a consultant. Its cast include Judy Reyes (AKA Scrubs’ Carla) and it’s created by the Oscar-nominated writer-director behind The Martian and upcoming fifth Matrix movie.
• Disney+, date TBC
Industry
In its first season, this BBC/HBO investment bank drama’s focus on a crop of young employees drew comparisons to This Life. But, following an explosive second season, it is now being positioned as nothing less than the successor to Succession. As it returns once more, prepare for scandal, intrigue, sex, drugs and – in new cast members Kit Harington and Sarah Goldberg – a pair of ringers set to boost the show into the big leagues.
• BBC One, date TBC
In Vogue: The 90s
“There’s no one like Naomi Campbell; no wonder she gets away with murder.” Within one minute, this show sets out its stall as the starriest documentary ever with Edward Enninful dropping this bombshell, plus Kate Moss, Sarah Jessica Parker, Kim Kardashian and Campbell herself as talking heads. They unpack the 90s, and Vogue editor Anna Wintour dissects her own reign, all while refusing to take off her sunglasses. Iconic.
• Disney+, 13 September
Joan
Set to have the most incredible wardrobe since Villanelle in Killing Eve, this show starring Sophie Turner as Britain’s most infamous jewel thief sounds irresistible – and it’s based on a true story of Joan Hannington, AKA “the Godmother”. Brace yourself for a wild and sparkling ride.
• ITVX, September
Junior Taskmaster
The all-conquering gameshow finally embraces its family audience with its first kids-focused show. The delightfully dry Rose Matafeo is the taskmaster and standup Mike Wozniak adapts his whimsical comedy to a turn as Little Alex Horne’s stand-in. Will children prove more capable than comedians at challenges?
• Channel 4, date TBC
La Maison
Might Apple’s first ever French-language drama become their equivalent of Call My Agent? The streamer is no doubt hoping so, given the wealth of Gallic talent they’ve signed up to this high-fashion drama. Its tale of a prestigious couture house on the brink of collapse is absolutely packed with winners of Césars (the French Baftas), as well as a director who worked on Netflix hit Lupin.
• Apple TV+, 20 September
La Máquina
Stellar Latin talent abounds in this tale of ageing boxer La Máquina (Gael García Bernal) who’s given one last shot at a title by his flamboyant manager (Andor’s Diego Luna) – only for him to be drawn into the sport’s underworld alongside his investigative journalist ex-wife (3 Body Problem’s Eiza González). Grit, steel and punch-ups loom.
• Disney+, 9 October
Landman
Taylor Sheridan, creator of smash-hit ratings success Yellowstone, follows up the Kevin Costner-starring cowboy saga with this A-lister-packed tale of how the Texan oil industry is reshaping our world. Billy Bob Thornton stars alongside Demi Moore, Jon Hamm and Heroes’ Ali Larter in a story that promises to go from boardroom scheming to the everyday struggles of frontline workers.
• Paramount+, 17 November US/18 November UK and Australia
Ludwig
David Mitchell and Anna Maxwell Martin star in this “genre-bending detective comedy” with an intriguing premise. Mitchell plays a reclusive puzzle designer whose police officer twin brother suddenly goes missing – prompting him to adopt his sibling’s persona and sort things out himself. It promises to be highly entertaining, not least due to Mitchell’s character also needing to convince his brother’s kids that he is in fact their father.
• BBC One, September
Matlock
Oscar and Emmy-winning actor Kathy Bates stars as a brilliant septuagenarian who decides to rejoin the workforce at a prestigious law firm. It’s a case-of-the-week reboot of the popular 80s/90s US legal drama in which Bates’s character wins courtroom battles in unconventional manner, and – given it’s made by the creator of the joyfully preposterous comedy drama Jane the Virgin – should be tons of fun.
• Sky Witness/Now, October
Miss Austen
This four-part adaptation of Gill Hornby’s bestselling novel tells the real-life tale of how Jane Austen’s sister Cassandra burned the author’s letters after her death, and promises to reimagine it as “a fascinating, witty and heartbreaking story of sisterly love”. Basically, it turns Austen into an Austen character – and with a cast including the excellent Keeley Hawes and Rose Leslie, will likely do so thoroughly convincingly.
• BBC/iPlayer, date TBC
Mr Loverman
Bernardine Evaristo’s 2013 novel brimmed with family secrets and illicit love as it tackled a relatively rare subject: the bid for a 74-year-old Caribbean Briton to come out as gay after 50 years of marriage. Now, Lennie James will become the dapper and swaggering Barrington “Barry” Walker.
• BBC One/iPlayer, date TBC
Nightsleeper
This one is going to be enormous. A six-part, real-time thriller set on a runaway sleeper train travelling from Glasgow to London, Nightsleeper looks set to have all the propulsive thrust of Line of Duty, all the tension of 24 and all the silliness of Speed.
• BBC One, September
Nobody Wants This
A love story between an unconventional rabbi and an outspoken agnostic woman might not sound the most promising of comedy setups. But given that they’re played by The Good Place’s Kristen Bell and The OC’s Adam Brody, we’re willing to bet it’s a romcom full of heart, warmth and impeccable comic timing.
• Netflix, 26 September
Playing Nice
Happy Valley’s James Norton steps away from being smoulderingly malevolent in this psychological drama about two couples who discover their toddlers were switched at birth. The ever-excellent Niamh Algar plays his partner in a four-parter as they wrestle with a world-shatteringly difficult dilemma: do they keep the child they’ve raised – or take back their biological son?
• ITV1/ITVX, 19 September
Rivals
Shoulder pads and jodhpurs at the ready – this autumn is going to gift us a delicious 80s-tastic slice of camp from the queen of the rural bonkbuster, Jilly Cooper. It kicks off with two people joining the mile-high club on Concorde then only gets juicier from there. Every star from David Tennant to Katherine Parkinson and Aidan Turner dials it up to 11.
• Disney+, date TBC
Senna
Given the green light by the Senna family, this biographical drama will tell the incredible rise and untimely death of racing superstar Ayrton Senna – whose fatal crash in 1994 remains one of the most horrific and indelibly shocking moments in Formula One history.
• Netflix, 29 November
Slow Horses
Gary Oldman’s crew of reject espionage operatives return for a fourth season of wise-cracking thriller action. It’s based on Spook Street, the fourth book in novelist Mick Herron’s Slough House series, and promises more huge juggernaut crashes, Swat team standoffs and at least one criminal who’s taken out by an erratically driven black cab.
• Apple TV+, 4 September
Solar System
TV’s favourite physics professor Brian Cox takes us on five journeys through our solar system to reveal the discoveries that are being made by the dozens of space missions currently revolutionising our knowledge of the galaxy. It promises to be magical.
• BBC Two/iPlayer, date TBC
Squid Game 2
Three years ago, Squid Game became such an overnight sensation that it caught Netflix on the back foot. After throwing out an (admittedly quite good) reality show to tide people over, the sequel is finally ready to go. So far, nobody knows anything about Squid Game 2. Will there still be deadly games? Will we discover more about the organisation behind it? Will anyone actually understand the rules this time? We’ll find out in December.
• Netflix, 26 December
Star Wars: Skeleton Crew
A gear shift is on the horizon for the latest instalment from a galaxy far, far away. It’s a Goonies-esque space caper about a group of children who stumble across a lost Jedi temple in their home town – and then end up whisked away on an adventure packed with skeletons, shootouts and hyperspace jumps. Jude Law stars as an enigmatic Jedi.
• Disney+, 4 December
Strictly Come Dancing
Despite the ongoing accusations of bullying and substandard aftercare from former contestants, the BBC has made it clear that the dance contest will be back this year. So expect them to pull out all the stops to try to overshadow the scandal with their biggest and best series to date. This year’s cast includes Chris McCausland, the show’s first blind participant.
• BBC One, September
Sweetpea
As the star of smash-hit series Yellowjackets and Fallout, you might have thought that we had lost London actor Ella Purnell to Hollywood. However, this British comedy drama proves these fears are premature. This “coming-of-rage” story, based on a 2017 novel, follows an ignored woman whose life takes an unexpectedly violent turn, and is written by Kirstie Swain, who previously brought us Channel 4’s Pure.
• Sky Atlantic, October
The Day of the Jackal
Frederick Forsyth’s classic gets the Eddie Redmayne treatment in this 10-part reimagining, featuring the Oscar winner as an exceptional assassin and master of disguise. Top Boy writer Ronan Bennett’s reboot also features Bafta winner Lashana Lynch as an MI6 agent trying to prevent a high-profile political assassination.
• Sky Atlantic/Now, 7 November
The Listeners
Apparently 4% of people can hear the Hum, a low-level sound that’s a very modern mystery and global phenomenon. Is it a conspiracy theory, or a gift for the chosen few? Based on Jordan Tannahill’s evocative novel, this poetic series shows what happens after a teacher named Claire (Rebecca Hall) discovers that a student hears the Hum just like she does and they form a rare and strange bond.
• BBC One/iPlayer, date TBC
The Madness
This new Netflix conspiracy thriller follows a media pundit who must fight for his innocence after he stumbles upon a murder deep in the Poconos woods. It also boasts Emmy-winnng, Oscar-nominated actor Colman Domingo – who is poised right at the very brink of megastardom – as its lead. If he won’t get bums on sofas, nothing will.
• Netflix, date tbc
The Penguin
Colin Farrell provided one of the rare moments of joy in the most recent Batman film, burying himself in prosthetics and hamming it up a storm as the Penguin. Now he gets his own series. Judging by the trailer, his overcooked dramatics promise to border on outright silliness once again – which should make for lots of fun.
• Sky Atlantic/HBO, 19 September US, 20 September UK and Australia
The Perfect Couple
Nicole Kidman is the seemingly amazing matriarch prepping for her son’s wedding. Liev Schreiber is her husband, who sneaks vodka into his green juice to make it through the day. We follow the well-to-do Winbury family as they unravel after a body washes up right outside their model family home. What emerges is a mystery for fans of Big Little Lies.
• Netflix, 5 September
The Savant
The exact details of Jessica Chastain’s new series are so super-secretive that Apple is refusing to tell anyone what it’s actually about. It’s strongly rumoured, however, to be based on the fascinating 2019 Cosmopolitan story of an investigator infiltrating online hate groups to take down the US’s most dangerous men. Its greatness is almost guaranteed no matter the plot.
• Apple TV+, date TBC
Showtrial
After a three-year wait, BBC court drama Showtrial is back. Last time we followed the case of a rich girl who was arrested after the disappearance of a working-class student. This time the focus switches to a policeman accused of murdering a climate activist. It features a fantastic cast, led by the always incredible Adeel Akhtar.
• BBC One, date TBC
Smoggie Queens
An out-and-out comedy set in Middlesbrough, Smoggie Queens sounds like the antidote to the barrage of trauma-coms we’ve all endured lately. The BBC says it’s about “a gang of friends who are fiercely proud of their north-eastern town and their small pocket of the LGBTQ+ community”. The creator calls it “stupid” and “weird”. What’s not to love?
• BBC Three, date TBC
Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light
Based on two of Hilary Mantel’s books, 2015’s Wolf Hall stands out as arguably the towering pinnacle of British drama. So good was it that news of a sequel sparked ripples of disquiet – but it seems people needn’t have worried. The tremendous-looking follow-up sees Mark Rylance back as Thomas Cromwell, as is Damian Lewis as Henry VIII – and early glimpses are frankly sumptuous.
• BBC One/iPlayer, date TBC
