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The Lycett Arms
Wayward and chaotic, in the grand tradition of The Word and TFI Friday, Late Night Lycett proved that Joe Lycett had fully inherited Friday nights on Channel 4. Its follow-up sounds even more TFI-esque. The Lycett Arms is a real east London pub, open for just one hour a week, which required Lycett to train to be accredited with a level 2 award for personal licence holders. The show promises “top-drawer comedy entertainment from Joe and a pub full of celebrity guests”. What could possibly go wrong?
Channel 4, 4 September
Last Seen
Colin from Accounts’ Patrick Brammall is totally changing tack with this intense drama about a one-time cop whose three-year-old daughter Mags disappeared more than a decade ago. When the remains of a young girl are found nearby, Ian Ridley (Brammall) is first on the scene – and his former colleagues in the police force know there’s nothing they can do to stop him from doing some digging. But the truth about the victim is far murkier. A twisty six-parter that will keep you guessing.
Apple TV, 9 September
Slow Horses
Jackson’s Joes are being picked off one by one – and everyone who has ever worked at Slough House has been wiped from the system at MI5 HQ the Park, so no one will even know they’re goners. The sixth season of the smash-hit drama about supposedly second-rate spies kicks off with a horrifying fire in a shipping container and a very violent funeral, and only ramps up from there. The usual suspects, from Gary Oldman and Kristin Scott Thomas to Jack Lowden, are still at it. Plus, the brilliant Lenny Rush joins the cast – and turns out to be a dab hand at spycraft.
Apple TV, 16 September
Youth
“Has any man ever said: ‘Have you met my girlfriend? She’s sexy, she’s fun, she’s 60.’ I need to meet someone now. I think I’ve got 10 years left as a sexual person, tops.” Sharon Horgan’s new comedy is as scabrous and hilarious as always. Things aren’t going great for Alex (played by Horgan herself): her body is failing her, her son Ruari is veering off the rails (mooning at his school graduation) and her ex is moving abroad, leaving her even more of a single parent. Let’s hope she’s able to spice things up with some “new dick energy”.
HBO Max, 20 September
Brothers
First Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey starred in True Detective. Then McConaughey revealed that he recently discovered he might have the same father as Harrelson. And now, bizarrely, they are basically Curb Your Enthusiasming this new dynamic. In Brothers, the pair play fictionalised versions of themselves who learn that … well, you can see where this is going. You have to applaud the effort, since making an entire television series about some family gossip seems like so much more hard work than simply getting a DNA test.
Apple TV, 23 September
Strictly Come Dancing
All eyes on the Elstree and Borehamwood ballroom for the first series of the sparkly dance staple without Claudia Winkleman and Tess Daly. How on earth will the trio of new hosts – former pro dancer and all-round icon Jojo Radebe, Emma “safe pair of hands” Willis and comedian and former penguin suit-wearing Christmas contestant Josh Widdicombe – fare? And will any other scandals befall the show as it attempts this reset? The contestants include Shaun Wright-Phillips, Jaime Winstone, Dani Dyer, Delta Goodrem and, er, celebrity hair stylist Chris Appleton.
BBC One, September
The Great British Bake Off
Stale no more! Bake Off has been in serious need of a revamp for a while now – and who better to zhuzh it up than the queen of sass herself, Nigella Lawson. The grande dame of spoon-licking cookery TV, and all-time winner of best pronunciation of the word microwavay, joins as the new judge. Expect to be whisked away by her charm, withering putdowns and (fingers crossed) fantastic repartee with Paul Hollywood.
Channel 4, September
Kill Jackie
Well, this one looks bonkers. Catherine Zeta-Jones plays a former international cocaine dealer who has spent 20 years hiding in plain sight as an ostentatiously wealthy art dealer. But her cover is blown when she discovers that a group of elite assassins called the Seven Demons has been hired to kill her. Needless to say, she tries to kill them first. Co-starring Daniel Ings, Julian Barratt and Julian Rhind-Tutt, this has the potential to be the most entertaining thing in forever.
Prime Video, 2 October
War
It’s juicy, it’s bitchy and it’s very starry indeed: George Kay’s tentpole divorce drama looks at the bitter end of a relationship from both sides, meeting the lawyers making cases for all parties. Here, the movie star and tech billionaire going through proceedings – after he serves her divorce papers on her own red carpet – are played by Sienna Miller and Dominic West. The cast is absolutely stacked, from reunited Celebrity Traitors mates Nick Mohammed and Celia Imrie (who could forget when he dug up her grave?) to Aran Murphy (son of Cillian – and set to be everywhere on our screens) as the feuding couple’s son.
Sky/Now, 2 October
Last One Laughing Halloween special
Last One Laughing is such an ingenious money-maker – a whole series spun out from putting some comedians in a room for less than a day! – that we were always going to get more of it. While we await the third series (which stars Harry Hill!) this Halloween special features Jack Dee, Phil Wang, Reece Shearsmith, Harriet Dyer and Tom Allen, alongside the returning Lou Sanders and Daisy May Cooper, and there’s an intriguing new rule: competitors will be punished not just for laughing, but also for screaming.
Prime Video, 23 October
Nocturne
Rowan Joffé has long been a writer worth paying attention to, most recently for Edward Berger’s film Ballad of a Small Player. Nocturne sounds like it might cement his reputation once and for all. A drama about a homicide cop who relocates to Pennsylvania and finds himself having to deal with a serial killer, it stars Liev Schreiber and Zazie Beetz. Best of all, Stephen Graham plays the serial killer. Entertaining grisliness should ensue.
Apple TV, 30 October
The Altruists
Television loves to adapt real-life things that have only just happened, and that’s the case with The Altruists, which deals with the rise (and subsequent implosion) of cryptocurrency exchange FTX. This is the one where Sam Bankman-Fried came out of nowhere to become the 41st richest man in the US, only to get sentenced to 25 years in jail for fraud, conspiracy and money laundering. When this genre gets it right, it makes for gripping TV. When it gets it wrong, it leaves you wondering why you didn’t just read the Wikipedia page. Fingers crossed for the former.
Netflix, 19 November
Blade Runner 2099
After two dazzling big-screen outings (neither of which were commercially successful at the time) comes the inevitable TV adaptation. Set 80 years after the original, and 50 since the sequel, Blade Runner 2099 revolves round the aftermath of a Replicant uprising. Michelle Yeoh plays a dying Replicant Blade Runner. Hunter Schafer plays a human pretending to be a replicant. The amount of money thrown at this thing must be staggering, not least because the production design looks absolutely gorgeous. A must-see.
Prime Video, 25 November
Rivals
Where can TV’s most rollicking bonkfest possibly go after part one of this second series ended harrowingly in the 1987 hurricane – and denied us the queer epiphany we’d all been waiting for? As we return to Rutshire, will Lizzie actually leave her abominable husband? Will Declan find out his wife Maud slept with his sworn enemy? Will Taggie ever move on from Rupert Campbell-Black? Expect sex, more sex, some gleefully evil regional TV wars and at least one funeral.
Disney+, November
Harry Potter
Both anticipation and trepidation are high for the small-screen version of JK Rowling’s wizarding classic. Security has had to be ramped up on set because of intense heat on stars such as Paapa Essiedu (who plays Severus Snape) and John Lithgow (Albus Dumbledore), and there have been calls for actors to quit the project. But the first teaser looks truly epic – and child actors have upped their game since the movies.
HBO Max, Christmas Day
A Bitter Pill: The Sodium Valproate Scandal
Sodium valproate is an effective epilepsy treatment. However, if it is taken during pregnancy, one in nine babies will have a physical birth defect. It is estimated that 20,000 children in the UK were affected. A Bitter Pill (made by the co-producers of Mr Bates vs the Post Office) follows the story of two mothers – Janet Williams and Emma Murphy – who spent decades battling doctors and drug companies to first find answers and then compensation. It is an incredible story of bloody-minded tenacity, and hopefully this documentary will help it reach a wider audience.
BBC, TBC
Apocalypse
A reality show/social experiment in which 16 participants/foolish guinea pigs are dropped in an actual ghost town in the US to see if they could survive the end of days. There will be no electricity or water or any mod cons, and they will be stuck there for a month. Think The Road for the influencer age. Sure to be utterly bananas.
Channel 4, TBC
Big Swiss
Jen Beagin’s 2023 novel has all the hallmarks of a television adaptation – it’s full of rich people with good taste, almost all of whom have endured some form of terrible trauma – and so it has come to pass. Jodie Comer will star as Flavia, a woman in a sexually unfulfilling marriage who embarks on an affair with a woman she meets at the dog park. However (possible spoiler, although probably not), the woman is secretly employed as her sex therapist’s transcriber. It is a dynamic that cannot possibly hold.
HBO Max, TBC
Black Doves
The Ben Whishaw-Keira Knightley spy epic returns for more killer espionage fun with incredible new cast members Ambika Mod, Sam Riley and the Scream queen herself, Neve Campbell. Better still: Sarah Lancashire will have a far more prominent role in season two! Always a reason to celebrate.
Netflix, TBC
Blue Lights
The Bafta-winning show about the “peelers” of Blackthorn police station in Belfast always sets out its stall with a stunning set piece in the opener. Season four is no exception, as police are called to a gathering at a migrant centre where multiple far-right groups are converging and ready to attack. Somehow it gets even more gripping and politically on point every time.
BBC One, TBC
Blue Planet III
It was announced on David Attenborough’s 100th birthday that he would be back to narrate the final part of this world-changing trilogy – and we got a sneak peek of him in his home studio intoning about the mating rituals of a whale. Given that this follows his spectacular feature-length film on the urgency of protecting our oceans to ensure human survival, and that it might well be the last time we hear his honeyed tones adorn something new, this will be totally unmissable. What a way to cap off his centenary year.
BBC One, TBC
The Boys from Brazil
Ira Levin’s bracing Nazi thriller has already been adapted into one masterpiece – the 1978 film starring Gregory Peck and Laurence Olivier – and now it is heading for the small screen. Peter Morgan has adapted the story into a five-part limited series starring Jeremy Strong, Gillian Anderson, Daniel Brühl and Lizzy Caplan. A film about a resurgence of nazism feels painfully relevant, although it remains to be seen how straight the show will play some of the story’s battier sci-fi elements.
Netflix, TBC
Break Clause
Many of us may have experienced the peculiar anguish of being trapped in a tenancy agreement with someone you’ve just broken up with, and this premise forms the spine of the new Channel 4 comedy Break Clause. Lara Ricote and Samuel Bottomley play the couple, working from a script by Jess Bray from the brilliant We Might Regret This. The series originated as a 16-minute Comedy Blap that you can – and should – watch on Channel 4. If the series maintains the charm of the original, this should be something very special.
Channel 4, TBC
Carrie
Mike Flanagan is very much The Stephen King Guy at this stage, having written and directed the 2017 adaptation of Gerald’s Game, the 2019 adaptation of Doctor Sleep and 2024’s The Life of Chuck. And now (while he apparently readies adaptations of The Dark Tower and The Mist) he has adapted Carrie for television. You know the story already – a telekinetic teen with a horrible mother has to navigate school bullies – but this will apparently be an update, complete with modern technology and a sorority of telekinetic girls.
Prime Video, TBC
The Celebrity Traitors
We didn’t think it was possible to trump the first lineup of celebrities entering the castle with Claudia – but this year’s casting may just have done it. With superstar luvvies such as Jerry Hall, Richard E Grant and Michael Sheen, double act Rob and Romesh pitted against each other and some tantalising curveballs – what will Ross Kemp, Myha’la and Bella Ramsey possibly chat about? – it’s sure to be another winner. This can’t come soon enough.
BBC One, TBC
Colin from Accounts
What a beautiful thing Colin from Accounts is. A relationship dramedy written by its stars, the husband and wife team of Patrick Brammall and Harriet Dyer, it is a funny and tender exploration of romantic compatibility in the modern age. In season one, Ashley and Gordon met and fell in love. In season two they tried to work out if they should stay together. In its third and final season, we learn that they didn’t. But might they again?
BBC, TBC
Damilola Taylor: The Last 24 Hours
The murder of 10-year-old Damilola Taylor in a Peckham stairwell 26 years ago has lost none of its horrors with age. One of the last people to see Taylor alive was actor John Boyega, then eight, who was friends with the family. In this documentary, Boyega explores Taylor’s final day, along with other close friends and family members, discussing both the events that led to his death and the impact his murder had on their lives.
BBC, TBC
Deadpoint
Between Baby Reindeer, Somewhere Boy and Misfits, Clerkenwell Films has developed an incredible pedigree when it comes to television. Deadpoint looks primed to continue this. A five-part action thriller set in Wales, it is the story of a man forced back to Snowdonia after the disappearance of his sister, only to discover that a far-right faction is planning to carry out a violent attack there. So it’s a survival thriller, a missing persons mystery and a domestic terrorism drama all in one. What could be better?
Channel 4,TBC
East of Eden
You don’t adapt Steinbeck unless you’re willing to go all in on it, and happily this seems to be the case with Netflix’s new show. This epic tale of family, inheritance and jealousy spans decades, and judging by the trailer its writer, Zoe Kazan, has committed entirely. Florence Pugh plays Cathy Ames, the beautiful monster at the story’s heart, with Christopher Abbott, Tracy Letts and Martha Plimpton rounding out the cast. This looks as sumptuous and panoramic as television will allow. On first impressions, it could be an award winner.
Netflix, TBC
I Am Helen
Dominic Savage’s semi-improvised I Am … series has drawn some of the best female performers to its flame since it began, including Vicky McClure, Samantha Morton, Lesley Manville and Kate Winslet. Now it is the turn of Nicola Coughlan who (in a break from tradition) is starring in a two-part story. I Am Helen will explore themes of control and toxic masculinity in the setting of a modern relationship. Early reports suggest that it will deal heavily in the manosphere. If it manages to broach this as well as Adolescence did, it might be essential viewing.
Channel 4, TBC
It Gets Worse
A fresh comedy from Leo Reich, whose debut Edinburgh fringe show Literally Who Cares?! was such a barnstorming success that it immediately got picked up by HBO Max. It Gets Worse is a look at three young mates in London who are on the verge of getting evicted. But what’s really staggering here is the sheer number of A-listers who have signed on – from Andrew “hot priest” Scott to Lena Dunham. This should be special.
Channel 4, TBC
Legacy of Spies
If you can see a theme emerging in this list, it might be the Big Legacy Television Adaptation. Not being ones to miss out, the BBC has got involved here, with a series adapted from John le Carré’s The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, and drawing on material from his 2017 novel A Legacy of Spies. If nothing else, it has been exquisitely cast, with Matthew Macfadyen playing George Smiley, Charlie Hunnam as Alec Leamas, Hugh Laurie as Control and supporting roles played by Daniel Brühl, Joe Alwyn and Agnes O’Casey.
BBC, TBC
Maya
Daisy Haggard’s writing is always dark and very funny, and her new witness protection thriller Maya is no exception. Anna (Haggard) and her daughter Maya (Bella Ramsey, as wonderful and unrestrained as ever) are forced to leave their home with no notice and move to the back of beyond in Scotland to escape her abusive ex (played by a chilling Tobias Menzies). It’s a moving look at survival and hope, with cliffhangers galore and gags about Frazzles crisps. What’s not to love?
Channel 4, TBC
Number 10
Steven Moffat’s ludicrously anticipated comedy-drama is finally almost here. A workplace show set in Downing Street – starring Rafe Spall as the prime minister, with Jenna Coleman as his deputy chief of staff – it could well be the British West Wing. And given Moffat’s flair for witty dialogue (and his form writing Press Gang), this has the potential to be one of the year’s best. But let’s hope it doesn’t run and run, because at this stage a British prime minister lasting more than a couple of years is nothing short of fantasy.
Channel 4, TBC
Pierre
Finally, David Harewood gets the starring vehicle he deserves. In Pierre, he plays a London duty solicitor described as “charming and funny, a glamorous character in an unglamorous profession”. However, he is forced to step up when he realises that the death of one of his clients might have been the result of a vast institutional cover-up. Pierre sounds like old-school television at its best; a show with something to say, and the smarts to wrap it in an irresistible character.
Channel 4, TBC
Pride and Prejudice
“Miss Elizabeth Bennet? I’m all astonishment!” There’s long-awaited, and then there’s Dolly Alderton’s update of Pride and Prejudice, which comes with sky-high expectations. Thankfully, Olivia Colman is downright hilarious as the busybody Mrs Bennet, determined to marry off one of her five daughters to the swanky neighbour who just moved in next door. Emma Corrin stars as Elizabeth and Jack Lowden is heralding himself as the first “ginger” Mr Darcy. We’re promised even more spark than the Colin Firth classic from the 90s – though there will be no lake scene.
Netflix, TBC
The Rachel Incident
Based on Caroline O’Donoghue’s 2023 novel, beloved of countless millennial women, this is a new Channel 4 show about a young student’s attempt to seduce her married professor. The cast, including Máiréad Tyers, Ellis Howard, Daniel Ings and Ardal O’Hanlon, is worth getting excited about. But the real draw is the fact that O’Donoghue collaborated on the script with Jen Statsky, fresh from conquering the world with Hacks. If she can bring even a hint of the same sparkle to this, we will be in for a treat.
Channel 4, TBC
The Reluctant Vampire
“You don’t pick up being a vampire … it’s not conversational French!” Valentine hates drinking blood, has no truck with violence and – horror of horrors – he has a reflection. But his vampire family still don’t know he’s actually a human and they want him to pass his initiation ceremony in front of the whole community of Katchem-By-the-Throat. This BBC comedy from the Gibbons brothers (renowned for keeping Alan Partridge alive), based on a book by Eric Morecambe, has an incredibly high gag rate and a cracking cast. It includes Lenny Rush as the titular non-vamp, Sian Clifford and Tom Davis as his parents, Asim Chaudhry as Igon the family assistant and Bill Bailey and Ross Noble as a hilarious pair of gargoyles.
BBC One, TBC
Reputation
Well this one sounds like fun. Written by Anya Reiss and starring Naomie Harris and Christina Hendricks, Reputation is a glossy drama about a celebrity lawsuit that spirals out of control. A pop star writes a song accusing her husband of infidelity. He fires accusations back. Social media goes wild, and a phalanx of dirty PR tricks comes into play. The enjoyment won’t just come from seeing the inner workings of the lawsuits we only hear about in the news, but presumably also trying to guess which precise celebrity lawsuits the show is based on.
BBC One, TBC
The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13¾
There aren’t many characters in literature more beloved than Sue Townsend’s self-importantly earnest adolescent, whose diaries enthralled a nation across four decades and eight books. After 1985’s classic ITV adaptation, David Nicholls has come on board to bring him back to life as a period piece. Writers for this new version include Caitlin and Caroline Moran, Dillon Mapletoft, Oliver Taylor and Jack Rooke, while Oliver Savell from Changing Ends will play the lead. Can lightning strike twice?
BBC, TBC
70 Up
One of the most seminal documentaries ever made finally concludes. Since 1964, the Up series has followed the lives of several perfectly normal people across the social spectrum at increments of seven years. Through the decades, the participants have fallen in love and endured hardships, and now they are almost at the end of the road. The final chapter – directed by the Oscar-winning Asif Kapadia after the death of Michael Apted – is bound to be poignant, but the series as a whole will remain an important document about life in Britain in the 20th and 21st centuries for ever.
ITV1, TBC
Sherwood
Fresh from his job consulting on SNL UK, of all things, James Graham gets back to his masterwork. In its two series so far, Sherwood has been an almost unbearably dark investigation of a community left to hold itself together with threads. Six months have passed since the climax of season two, in which evil matriarch Ann Branson drowned, yet more human remains have been found. Who in the town has a dark secret this time?
BBC, TBC
The Slightest Touch
A documentary in which Colin Farrell meets up with his friend and discusses running a marathon. The catch is that his friend is Emma Fogarty, a survivor of epidermolysis bullosa, a rare and painful genetic condition that renders the skin fragile enough to blister and tear at the slightest touch. Fogarty has already confounded medical science once before – she was never expected to reach the age of 40 – so why not go the whole hog and run the Dublin marathon? Powerfully emotional and uplifting in equal measure.
HBO Max, TBC
The Split Up
Over its three series (and Christmas special), Abi Morgan’s divorce drama The Split became one of the highlights of the annual schedule. Rather than ending, it has now morphed into The Split Up. This is a new, Manchester-set series about a powerful family struggling to decide who should inherit its prestigious divorce firm. Morgan is just executive producing this one, handing the reins to Ursula Rani Sarma. Ritu Arya, Sanjeev Bhaskar, Aysha Kala and Arian Nik star.
BBC One, TBC
This City Is Ours
The first season of this swaggering Liverpool gangland thriller didn’t quite get the dues it deserved (that rooftop scene in the finale was gasp-inducing), but it did establish James Nelson-Joyce – who got his big break after chatting to his idol Stephen Graham at Nando’s – as a swiftly rising star. He returns for more explosive drama, as well as Endeavour star Shaun Evans, who joins the cast.
BBC One, TBC
Time
Jimmy McGovern’s prison anthology has so far been absolutely gripping. And now, following runs led by Sean Bean and Jodie Whittaker, David Tennant gets a turn at the wheel. This story is set at a young offenders institution, and Tennant plays a custodial manager concealing knowledge about a serious incident. As connective tissue, Siobhan Finneran returns as prison chaplain Marie-Louise O’Dell, now undergoing a crisis of faith, who clashes with Tennant over it.
BBC One, TBC
The Unlikely Cook With Awkwafina
Once a mainstay of the television schedules, the food show has lost no end of ground to YouTube in recent years. Perhaps this series is the thing to right it again. In The Unlikely Cook With Awkwafina, the titular star will travel across the US exploring modern Asian-American cuisine. Why is Awkwafina an unlikely cook? Because she is apparently extremely unskilled in the kitchen and will have to rely on a host of people more talented (but less famous) than she is to show her the way.
Apple TV, TBC
The Wargame
Picture this: Michael Gove is the prime minister. Nicola Sturgeon is his deputy. His cabinet comprises Penny Mordaunt, Baroness Harman, Baroness Warsi and Kim Darroch, while Anthony Scaramucci plays the US secretary of state. If that doesn’t sound awful enough, Russia has just invaded the UK. Welcome to The Wargame, a series where these figures enter a Cobra-style briefing room and attempt to deal with the minute-by-minute developments of such a crisis. This could be gripping or it could be the television equivalent of banging yourself on the head with a tin tray. Either way, it will probably be worth watching.
Sky, TBC
The Witch Farm
Few things have been as flat-out terrifying as Danny Robbins’s podcast The Witch Farm, about the supposedly true haunting of an isolated Welsh farmhouse 30 years ago. Now the podcast has been made into a TV show. If it can cram as many unsettling incidents as the podcast – think apparitions, dead animals and unusually high utility bills – while maintaining its tone of sceptical unease, this will hands down be the scariest thing on television in several years.
BBC, TBC
Yaga
