With a new year comes a bounty of brilliant new telly. In 2024, we were treated to excellent offerings in the form of Baby Reindeer, Fallout, House Of The Dragon, Gladiators, Mr Bates Vs The Post Office, One Day, Fool Me Once, and so much more – and 2025 looks set to be just as exciting.
Let’s look ahead to the new year in television and the highlights of what’s to come.
– The Last Of Us, season two, HBO/NOW
Season one of The Last Of Us, a post-apocalyptic drama based on the Naughty Dog video game franchise, was a 2023 TV highlight.
It won eight Primetime Emmy Awards, and fans old and new fell in love with Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey’s portrayals of Joel and Ellie, so its return for a second season in 2025 is highly anticipated.
Based on the first game’s sequel, The Last Of Us Part II, the show picks up five years after season one’s finale.
We find Ellie and Joel right at home in the Wyoming settlement founded by Joel’s brother, despite the raging Cordyceps infection ravaging the world outside of their haven’s gates.
However, when a vengeful figure from Joel’s past arrives, the two are back in a fight for survival.
– Playing Nice, ITV1
This gripping psychological thriller follows two sets of parents – Pete and Maddie, played by Happy Valley’s James Norton and Malpractice’s Niamh Algar, and Miles and Lucy, played by Mare Of Easttown’s James McArdle and Downton Abbey’s Jessica Brown Findlay.
They discover that the little boys they’ve been raising are not, in fact, their biological sons, and were switched at birth in a hospital mix-up.
Do they keep the sons they have raised and loved, or reclaim their biological child?
Adapted from JP Delaney’s novel by Malpractice writer Grace Ofori-Attah, Playing Nice is a haunting tale of any parent’s worst nightmare realised.
– Stranger Things, season five, Netflix
Eight years after Mike (Finn Wolfhard), Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown), Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo), Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin), Will (Noah Schnapp) and the gang first encountered the Upside Down in Stranger Things, the sci-fi horror series is coming to an end.
When season five lands on Netflix, we can expect more horrifying monstrosities, the wrath of Vecna wreaking havoc on Hawkins, and the ultimate battle between good and evil set, as ever, against a nostalgic 1980s backdrop.
– The White Lotus, season three, HBO/NOW
Fancy hotels, dramatic twists and turns, and wealthy people being just plain weird – it’s time for another series of The White Lotus, as ever with a whole new cast of ultra-rich guests.
This time, Carrie Coon, Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Parker Posey and Aimee Lou Wood are joining the cast, as it heads to Thailand for a wellness-themed luxury resort stay.
– Dear England, BBC One
The Olivier-winning National Theatre production Dear England, written by Sherwood’s James Graham, was a smash hit, telling the story of Gareth Southgate and the England men’s football team, a team which just can’t seem to clinch a trophy, no matter how close they get.
In 2025, the story will be told through a BBC television drama, with Graham writing the fictionalised account of the team’s struggles and successes for the screen, and The Handmaid’s Tale’s Joseph Fiennes returning to star as Gareth Southgate.
For those of us who have spent too much time singing It’s Coming Home, only to end with tear-stained cheeks down the local as the Three Lions miss another chance at victory, this will certainly be one to watch next year.
