Mr Bates vs The Post Office
Despite being one of the biggest miscarriages of justices in history, the British Post Office scandal – in which nearly a thousand sub-postmasters were privately prosecuted for theft or fraud in error, due to a faulty IT software system – never gained the public traction it deserved. Hopefully Gwyneth Hughes’s new drama starring Toby Jones and Julie Hesmondhalgh will give this matter the attention it deserves.
• ITV1, 1 January
The Traitors
Hooded cloaks at the ready! Claudia Winkleman and her knitwear are back in the castle for the second season of the evil/genius reality TV smash hit. Will the new batch of Faithfuls manage to outwit the Traitors and take home the cash? And will anyone play as much of a blinder as Wilf? We live in hope.
• BBC One, 1 January
Truelove
You know that friend you’ve loved dearly for decades, ever since you were young, wild and untethered? Would you kill them if they asked you to? That is the pitch-black premise of this euthanasia drama by Charlie Covell (known for The End of the F**king World) which stars Lindsay Duncan and Clarke Peters as the friends and former flames charged with the task of bumping off their old gang. Do they have the stomach for it?
• Channel 4, 3 January
Julia
A world away from Sgt Catherine Cawood, Sarah Lancashire is back on cracking form (is she ever not?) as Julia Child, the pioneering, plum-mouthed, innuendo-loving TV chef. In this second outing, Julia heads to Paris to get more inspiration for her show The French Chef – which is becoming so popular back home she ends up in the White House. As ever, expect this show to be swimming in so much butter your arteries will get clogged just watching. Yum.
• Sky/Now, 5 January
Criminal Record
It seems like a tremendous oversight that the world has not already presented us with a crime thriller starring Peter Capaldi and Cush Jumbo, but at least Criminal Record is here to set things right. Created by genre veteran Paul Rutman (Marple, Inspector Lewis, Vera), this looks set to be gritty and grimy and growling in equal measure.
• Apple TV+, 10 January
Echo
Fans of 2022’s Disney+ Hawkeye series will already be aware of Maya Lopez, a deaf hero driven to revenge following her father’s murder. In Echo, Lopez finally gets her own series. Best of all, however, is the fact that the wonderfully glowering Vincent D’Onofrio is returning as the evil crime lord Kingpin.
• Disney+, 10 January
Gladiators
Gladiators, are you ready? Players, are you ready? The classic 90s show returns – pugil sticks, Hang Tough, The Wall and all – with more supremely ripped sporting heroes ready to try to whup brave members of the public. Will they have what it takes to beat Fury, Electro, Nitro and Bionic in the Eliminator?
• BBC One, 13 January
Big Boys
Jack’s back – and he’s still as obsessed with huns as ever. As the second year of Brent uni kicks off, a newly out Jack (Dylan Llewellyn) is determined to have some sex at last – but he’d still rather watch Alison Hammond on Strictly than go out on Saturday night in Freshers’ Week. The sophomore season of Jack Rooke’s semi-autobiographical comedy is just as much of a laugh-out-loud delight.
• Channel 4, 14 January
True Detective
Although it’s hard to remember the ferocity with which True Detective roared out of the gates during its first season, it still has the ability to surprise and confound. The upcoming fourth season (the first not to be written by Nic Pizzolatto) is an Alaska-set thriller subtitled Night Country and has no less than Jodie Foster in the lead role.
• Sky Atlantic/Now, 15 January
Expats
Amazon’s new drama already comes with a healthy dose of controversy: it was filmed in Hong Kong during Covid, and star Nicole Kidman made waves by being granted exemption from quarantine. Hopefully this will vanish into the distance when people have actually seen it; created by The Farewell’s Lulu Wang, it holds a lot of promise.
• Prime Video, 26 January
Masters of the Air
You loved Band of Brothers. You loved The Pacific. And now the Spielberg/Hanks second world war extravaganza concludes with Apple’s Masters of the Air. Like the two previous shows, this promises to be a sprawling ensemble piece that, a decade from now, will be remembered for launching dozens of young actors into the stratosphere.
• Apple TV, 26 January
Mr and Mrs Smith
A TV show based on an almost 20-year-old espionage thriller, Mr & Mrs Smith has not had the smoothest of journeys to TV. The adaptation was initially announced as being created by Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Donald Glover, who would also star. But then Waller-Bridge left, and Maya Erskine replaced her, and the thing was moved back from 2022 to 2024. Despite all the upheaval, this show still has a ton of potential.
• Prime Video, 2 February
One Day
Thirteen years on from the Anne Hathaway movie (the less said about that the better), the hit David Nicholls book finally gets the nostalgic treatment it deserves, complete with lots of laughs and an impeccable soundtrack. Leo Woodall is a wonder as the entitled yet vulnerable posh boy Dexter, and Ambika Mod brings her excellent comedy chops to the role of Emma, as we watch the pair’s lives roll out via snapshots of one day every year. You will have goosebumps – and lots of them.
• Netflix, 8 February
The New Look
Apple TV+ shows have come to be known for their immense production values. This means that The New Look – a drama about how Christian Dior and Coco Chanel created modern fashion from the embers of the second world war – is guaranteed to look spectacular. Ben Mendelsohn is Dior, Juliette Binoche is Chanel and Maisie Williams is Dior’s sister Catherine. This will have elegance in spades.
• Apple TV+, 14 February
Palm Royale
Kristen Wiig and Laura Dern star in this fun piece of high camp about high society ladies who lunch in Palm Beach, 1969. Drenched in sunshine, it’s a wild ride as Maxine (Wiig) desperately tries to infiltrate an elite members’ club. She soon gets found out as an imposter, because she gets her haute couture by robbing an old woman, and her clothes are so not this season. All the women put in iconic turns, from Allison Janney to Carol Burnett. Ricky Martin also stars as an evil waiter. Yes please!
• Apple TV+, 20 March
3 Body Problem
Based on Liu Cixin’s sprawling sci-fi series Remembrance of Earth’s Past (endorsed by the likes of George RR Martin and Barack Obama), this is Netflix’s big shot at globe-straddling Game of Thrones-style domination. Set in the future, present and past where Earth encounters aliens, the show has been brought to fruition by GoT’s David Benioff and DB Weiss with Alexander Woo. A big one.
• Netflix, 21 March
Doctor Who
After his unconventional introduction (regenerating from David Tennant instead of Jodie Whittaker, and letting David Tennant also be the Doctor), it’s finally time to see what Ncuti Gatwa has in him. Luckily, Gatwa is young, charismatic and beautiful, Russell T Davies is back in charge and Doctor Who is now dripping with Disney money. This could be spectacular.
• BBC One/iPlayer, spring
Renegade Nell
Given the untrammelled success of Happy Valley, Sally Wainwright should by all accounts be swaggering into 2024 like a heavyweight champ. As such, Renegade Nell will count as her victory lap. A period drama about the most feared highwaywoman in the country, it stars Louisa Harland, Joely Richardson, Adrian Lester and Nick Mohammed. More than anything, though, it’s a Sally Wainwright show, so it’s guaranteed to be a banger.
• Disney+, spring
House of the Dragon
The first season might have been slightly confusing, with its mid-season cast changes and unannounced time jumps, but its climax was an absolute thumper. The last we saw of Rhaenyra, her son had just been killed by his uncle. If the look in her eyes was any indication, then season two will be 10 hours of straight-up murder. Fantastic.
• Sky Atlantic/Now, summer
A Gentleman in Moscow
An adaptation of the 2016 novel by Amor Towles, this prestigious series is a decades-spanning drama set against the Bolshevik revolution of the early 20th century. Ewan McGregor is the fictional Count Alexander Ilyich Rostov, an aristocrat doomed to spend the rest of his life under house arrest. If nothing else, this is worth watching purely to see McGregor’s wildly ostentatious moustache.
• Paramount+
Alice & Jack
Victor Levin, a writer with credits including Mad Men and The Larry Sanders Show, has created what sounds like one of the year’s most intriguing offerings. Alice & Jack charts the course of a 16-year relationship between Andrea Riseborough and Domhnall Gleeson, and by all accounts sounds ambitious and heartfelt in equal measure.
• Channel 4
Alma’s Not Normal
One of the very best comedies of 2021 – an audacious and uproarious look at class, sex work and brilliant northern women – is coming back for more, neon fur coats and all. The last time we saw Alma Nuthall (the exceptional Sophie Willan), she had to make the tough decision about whether to go on tour with her theatre troupe, or set her dreams aside to care for her mum who had started using heroin again. Let’s hope Siobhan Finneran and Jayde Adams will still be by her side.
• BBC
Big Mood
It’s going to be a huge year for Nicola Coughlan, who’s taking up the lead in Bridgerton in May, while also starring opposite Lydia West – another woman of the moment – in this Channel 4 show about two thirtysomething best friends, one of whom has bipolar disorder which may derail their life-long relationship. It’s sure to be a funny, sensitive take on mental health and sisterhood and the things that bind us together.
• Channel 4
Black Doves
Joe Barton, of Giri/Haji and The Lazarus Project, returns with his biggest show yet. In Black Doves, Keira Knightley plays a politician’s wife who passes all her insider information on to a shadowy intelligence organisation headed by Sarah Lancashire, until a shocking act ruins everything. Better still, Ben Whishaw gets to play a suave, champagne-swigging assassin. Perfect.
• Netflix
Blue Lights
Two of the greatest new police dramas of our day get their sophomore outings in 2024: The Responder, starring a spectacular Martin Freeman as a soul-destroyed scouse night cop, plus the second runout for the blistering Belfast cop drama. As it returns, our response officers are caught in the crosshairs of a gangland feud, so expect even more explosive TV – plus, we’re told, an incredibly starry cameo.
• BBC
Bluey
Bluey is the best show on television, thanks in part to its wildly ambitious attitude to storytelling. This is the show, remember, that told the entire history of humanity from prehistory to a post-Earth utopia in just seven minutes. So think what could happen in its upcoming 28-minute episode. Minds will be blown. Tears will be shed. This could be everything.
• BBC
Breathtaking
Covid dramas tend to be quite patchy (especially any that involve Boris Johnson impersonations), but Jed Mercurio’s new series has a great deal of potential. Based on Rachel Clarke’s memoir of the same name, Breathtaking promises to plunge us into the struggle of healthcare workers during the terrifying early days of the pandemic. Few people do medical drama as well as Mercurio, so this should be thrilling.
• ITV
The Day of the Jackal
Lots of potential here, in this contemporary reimagining of Frederick Forsyth’s classic spy novel. Written by Ronan Bennett, whose previous work includes Top Boy and Michael Mann’s Public Enemies, the production is so far shrouded in secrecy. One thing that can be confidently announced, however, is that Eddie Redmayne will play The Jackal. He’d be a good Jackal, wouldn’t he?
• Sky Atlantic/Now
Disability Benefits
Rosie Jones has become something of a foundational voice for Channel 4 in recent years, so it was only a matter of time before she got her own sitcom. Disability Benefits began life as an absolutely tremendous Comedy Blap about a disabled woman who, when her benefits are cut, decides to build an illegal drug network.
• Channel 4
Domino Day
Buffy fans, look no further! This sexy, witchy new BBC drama is about a world in which witches must always work as part of a coven – until one is discovered operating alone, and sucking the power out of lots of men while she has sex with them, no less.
• BBC Three
Dune: Prophecy
Denis Villeneuve’s film series has finally delivered all the promise of Frank Herbert’s books (Action! Complexity! Very loud bits!), so here’s a chance to see how it came to be. Dune: Prophecy is a prequel, set 10,000 years before the book took place. Emily Watson and Olivia Williams play sisters who establish the superhuman sect of Bene Gesserit, so that’s fun.
• Sky Atlantic/Now
Eric
Abi Morgan follows The Split by making what sounds like the oddest work of her career. Benedict Cumberbatch plays a 1980s puppeteer with substance abuse issues whose son goes missing. The story follows his attempts to locate his son, aided by a 7ft puppet named Eric.
• Netflix
The Jinx: Part Two
The 2015 HBO documentary The Jinx will for ever be remembered for having one of the most extraordinary endings to any television programme in all history. Its forthcoming sequel continues to mine the story of real estate magnate turned murderer Robert Durst, and is made up of new evidence and interviews. It would be miraculous if this was as much of a jaw-dropper as its predecessor, but here’s hoping.
• Sky Atlantic/Now
Joan
The story of Joan Hannington – a jewel thief who ran riot in London in the 1980s – is so irresistible that two decades ago Gwyneth Paltrow and Madonna were apparently competing to play her in a movie. But now the project has migrated to television, with Sophie Turner playing Hannington. If the set pictures are any indication, this will be a whole lot of full period glam.
• ITVX
Junior Taskmaster
Over the years, and despite its occasional fruity language, Taskmaster has become something of a children’s show by stealth. Now it is finally embracing this mantle with a dedicated kid’s offering. Rose Matafeo takes the Greg Davies role, Mike Wozniak plays Little Alex Horne, and all the contestants are aged between 9-11. This could be absolutely wonderful.
• Channel 4
Mary & George
Julianne Moore stars as Mary Villiers, the Countess of Buckingham, who moulded her son to seduce James I in an attempt to gain unknowable power. Mary & George is based on a true story, but if the trailer – with music by the Stooges and Moore lasciviously slurring the word “cockstruck” – is any indication, this will be anything but dry.
• Sky Atlantic/Now
Mr Loverman
Based on the 2014 novel by Bernardine Evaristo, the first Black woman to ever win the Booker prize, Mr Loverman tells the story of a septuagenarian Caribbean Londoner who is secretly gay despite a half-century marriage. Lennie James will play the titular character in the BBC adaptation. If it’s a patch on the book, this will be terrific.
• BBC
Queenie
Candice Carty-Williams must be settling comfortably into the showrunner seat by now. Hot on the heels of her grime/garage family saga Champion, she’s adapted the novel that made her name and won her a slew of awards. Dionne Brown stars as Queenie, the eponymous 25-year-old Londoner going through a bad break-up from her boyfriend Tom, played by Jon Pointing. Comedy royalty Sally Phillips also stars, so this is sure to be razor-sharp. South London crew, assemble!
• Channel 4
The Regime
The Regime is a political satire written by Succession’s Will Tracy and directed by Stephen Frears, about a crumbling central European authoritarian regime. Starring Kate Winslet and Hugh Grant, among an enviable lineup of talent, this has “Potential Best Show of 2024” written all over it.
• Sky Atlantic/Now, March
Ripley
Based on Patricia Highsmith’s Tom Ripley novels, this series is essentially The Talented Mr Ripley: The TV Show. Netflix picked up the drama after Showtime abandoned it, and a good thing too. Because here Tom Ripley will be played by Andrew Scott – an inspired piece of casting that promises to electrify a story we’ve heard before.
• Netflix
Rivals
Jilly Cooper! Aidan Turner! David Tennant! Need we say more? This series is pumped full of top British actors, and it’s penned by Dominic Treadwell-Collins of A Very English Scandal fame plus playwright Laura Wade, known for cutting upper-class satires like The Riot Club. Hopes are sky-high for a high-society masterpiece of camp.
• Disney+
The Savant
Based on the 2019 Cosmopolitan story Is It Possible to Stop a Mass Shooting Before It Happens?, about an investigator infiltrating online hate groups in an effort to preempt crimes by violent men, The Savant stars Jessica Chastain and boasts Melissa James Gibson (The Americans) as a showrunner.
• Apple TV+
Stranger Things
Already guaranteed to be the biggest show of the year, in 2024 Stranger Things will finally reach its conclusion. It doesn’t matter what will happen in it – although you’d imagine the kids will triumph against the demon Vecna – because at this point Stranger Things is such a cultural juggernaut that it will dominate every conversation you have for months.
• Netflix
The Sympathizer
It’s difficult not to fizz with excitement about this one. The Sympathizer is based on Viet Thanh Nguyen’s incredible Pulitzer-winner novel of the same name, about a Vietnamese spy sent to America, and is directed by Park Chan Wook. Better yet, it stars Robert Downey Jr who, post-Oppenheimer, seems gripped by a burning desire to remind the world that he can act the pants off anybody alive.
• Sky Atlantic/Now
The Tattooist of Auschwitz
Heather Morris’s novel – about a tattooist who falls in love with a girl he inks during the Holocaust – was an absolute phenomenon when it was published in 2018, shifting more than 3m copies. The television adaptation starring Jonah Hauer-King and Anna Próchniak will hopefully find a similarly willing audience.
• Sky Atlantic/Now
This Town
Steven Knight is one of the most prolific writers around, putting out three TV shows and three movies in the last two years. However, This Town looks set to be one of his best. Set against the ska explosion in the Midlands, it’s a sprawling drama starring Michelle Dockery, Jordan Bolger and Geraldine James. With original music by Dan Carey and Kae Tempest, too.
• BBC
Toxic Town
A thumping new miniseries from Charlie Brooker’s production company Broke & Bones, about the Corby toxic waste scandal of the 1980s and 1990s, where mismanagement of waste from an abandoned steelworks led to a number of birth defects. Jodie Whittaker, Robert Carlyle and Rory Kinnear star. It’s written by Jack Thorne, too, if you needed further convincing.
• Netflix
The Way
Certain to dominate conversation for weeks, The Way is a series – written by James Graham and directed by Michael Sheen, featuring Adam Curtis as an executive producer – about a civil uprising that begins in Wales, and results in a family trying to flee the country. It also stars Callum Scott Howells, so is surely set to be amazing.
• BBC One
We Are Lady Parts
The return of Nida Manzoor’s rocking revolutionary comedy about a Muslim feminist punk band will be a thrill indeed. Will they still be just as badass? Will guitarist Amina still vomit every time she’s anywhere near a stage? And will the tunes rival season one’s Bashir With the Good Beard and Voldemort Under My Headscarf? All signs point to yes!
• Channel 4
We Might Regret This
Created by the company who brought us modern classics People Just Do Nothing and Stath Lets Flats, this BBC comedy comes from filmmaker and disability activist Kyla Harris and fellow Canadian Lee Getty. Harris stars as Freya, a tetraplegic woman who’s in a new relationship – but can’t ever get a moment alone with him without her personal assistants being there, so enlists her best mate to do the job. Talk about third wheel …
• BBC Two
• This article was amended on 28 December 2023 to correct a misspelling of the name of the author Viet Thanh Nguyen. Also, the new series of Gladiators is on BBC One, not ITV 1/ITV X as an earlier version said.
