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The 50 best new TV shows of 2024 to stream (so far): Our critics select the year's must-watch dramas, comedies and documentaries - from big hits to shows you WON'T have expected to see
It's only May but already 2024 has proved to be a great year for TV. And while you might have water some cooler-favourites already on your to-watch list, there's so many more not on your radar that should be.
From a Second World War experience of Coco Chanel and Christian Dior to a high-octane thriller set on a flight from London to Beijing, we've selected the 50 best new offerings for you to binge. Read on to find out the shows worth investing your precious time in...
One Day
TV adaptation of David Nicholls's novel about life and love
Year: 2024
Certificate: 15
Watch now on Netflix
Beginning with their final night at university together, One Day follows Dexter and Emma (The White Lotus's Leo Woodall and This Is Going To Hurt's Ambika Mod) across almost two decades, as they cross in and out of each other's lives and fall in and out of love with one another. The twist? We only catch up with them on one day each year, 15 July.
It's a great conceit that allows time to flicker past as the pair's lives and looks change across the series. It's already been adapted into a lovely 2011 film (starring Anne Hathaway and Jim Sturgess), but this 14-parter has much more elbow room to dig into elements from the novel, delighting fans as it expands upon the joys and tragedies of Dex and Em's lives. The fact that each episode is only around 30 minutes long helps the show to zip along at a great pace, as does the liberal use of music from each year.
The show's makers do a good job of capturing the 1990s in particular, especially the spell when Dex becomes the odious host of low-rent, post-pub TV that's all too close to what was actually on our screens at the time. It says a lot for Woodall's charm as an actor that he manages to keep Dex at all likeable during those years, while you're always rooting for the endearing Mod - who was the tragic heart of This Is Going To Hurt - to find a happy ending as Emma. (14 episodes)
Shogun
Adaptation of James Clavell's epic novel about an Englishman in 17th-century Japan
Year: 2024
Certificate: 18
Watch now on Disney+
Fans of a certain generation will fondly remember the 1980s adaptation of James Clavell's novel, which saw Richard Chamberlain star as John Blackthorne, a shipwrecked English sailor trying to survive dangerous political and military machinations in 17th-century Japan.
This ten-part adaptation doesn't let down the good name of that show, presenting an impressively atmospheric rendering of a tale full of murky betrayal, forbidden romance and truly epic war. British actor Cosmo Jarvis is tough and battered as the indomitable Blackthorne, guided through the dangerous waters of Japanese society by Anna Sawai as his translator Lady Mariko.
The series actually presents Clavell's story with considerably more edge and scale than the 1980s version did, and comes from FX. That's the US TV brand that has given us such shows as The Shield, Sons Of Anarchy and The Americans down the years, so think of this very much in that tradition, rather than the soapy miniseries mould the 1980s version sprang from. The cast is terrific - Jarvis is reminiscent of Tom Hardy in the lead, while Sawai delivers an intriguing mix of composure and subtly bubbling emotion as Mariko, and Hiroyuki Sanada is riveting as Toranaga, a local lord who strikes an uneasy alliance with Blackthorne. The series itself evolves with a surely handled mix of action, intrigue, humour and real moments of pure, soul-stirring emotion that should earn it fans across the board. (Ten episodes)
Mr Bates vs The Post Office
Real-life drama about a terrible miscarriage of justice
Year: 2024
This superb four-part drama tells the story of one of the greatest miscarriages of justice in British legal history. In the early 2000s, hundreds of innocent sub-postmasters and postmistresses were wrongly accused of theft, fraud and false accounting due to a defective IT system. Many of the wronged workers were prosecuted, some were imprisoned, all had their lives irreparably damaged by the scandal.
Toby Jones is his usual brilliant self as sub-postmaster Alan Bates, who refused to believe his colleagues were responsible for the mysterious financial losses and led the fightback against the Post Office. Julie Hesmondhalgh plays his long-suffering wife, while Monica Dolan, Shaun Dooley and Ian Hart are among the strong support cast in a story that will make your blood boil. (Four episodes)
Ripley
Andrew Scott stars in an eight-part take on the 1960s-set con artist story
Year: 2024
Certificate: 15
Watch now on Netflix
The 1999 movie of Patricia Highsmith's novel, The Talented Mr Ripley, left you wanting more of the con artist character at its centre. Andrew Scott gives you just that in Netflix's eight-part take on the same source material, following Ripley from New York to Italy as he insinuates himself into the life of clueless American playboy Dickie Greenleaf (Johnny Flynn) and his justly suspicious fiancée, Marge (Dakota Fanning).
Set in sunny Italy but filmed in black and white, the series has much more space to give us a rounded portrait of Ripley, to the extent that you may even find yourself sympathising with him early on: he's ripped off by an Italian taxi driver and trudges around the country, unable to speak the language, desperately looking for his ticket to a better life.
You see a lot of his struggle, in short - perhaps a little too much for some tastes. Still, it scarcely matters as Scott is, of course, brilliant in the lead. The character of Ripley is a mimic and Scott, as an actor, is fantastic at that - when he starts to copy Dickie it's genuinely unsettling and weirdly accurate, despite the fact that Scott looks nothing like Flynn. And that performance is allowed to stand largely on its own, with no fancy cuts and barely any background music. Flynn and Fanning are both excellent too, and Fanning in particular does a lot with a look. But this is Scott's show, and justly so. (Eight episodes)
Masters Of The Air
Epic fact-based WWII drama about US airmen in Britain
Year: 2024
Watch now on Apple TV+
Like Band Of Brothers but about the US airmen who flew out of the UK during the Second World War, this nine-part drama is a very impressive piece of work. Produced by Steven Spielberg's Amblin (which also gave us Band Of Brothers and its sequel, The Pacific), it's stacked with talent in every area, most obviously in the creation of the aerial sequences and in its cast, which boasts Austin Butler (Elvis), Callum Turner (Fantastic Beasts), Barry Keoghan (Saltburn) and even Doctor Who himself - Ncuti Gatwa - among the aviators flying with the 100th Bomb Group.
The 100th fly their bombing missions in daytime, so the impressive aerial sequences are visible in all their glory, and it's not just CGI bringing them to life, either. Amblin used a neat combination of replica B-17 Flying Fortresses and digital wizardry when they were filming in the UK, and built a full-scale air base too - so it all feels fairly real. We also see the social side of the airmen's lives, and the impact those missions had as the series goes beyond the British Isles and even into a PoW camp. It's true that the tone of the whole thing is rather American, but then it is an American story so that seems fair enough. And it's hard to resent all that Hollywood money when it brings this kind of big-screen scale to the small screen. (Nine episodes)
Baby Reindeer
Riveting drama based on comedian Richard Gadd's experiences with a stalker
Year: 2024
Certificate: 18
Watch now on Netflix
Described as 'not your typical bunny-boiler story', this bracing seven-part drama is based on Scottish comedian Richard Gadd's award-winning debut play of the same name. That play came from his horrifying real-life experiences with a stalker who, at the very mild end of things, sent him 41,000 emails.
When Gadd performed that play on stage, Martha was represented by a bar stool. In this TV series which he wrote, produced and stars in she's a loud and colourful presence, played with vulnerability and a dark, dangerous hilarity by The Outlaws' Jessica Gunning. She's a woman who Donny (Gadd) wants to understand - not your typical bunny boiler, in short, and it's this rounded approach to character that really marks the show out as something special.
Gadd has been very clear that he made mistakes in the way he handled his stalker, and the honesty he's poured into the script translates into a show that's very hard to stop watching even when, at some points, you may really want to.
While far from an easy watch, Baby Reindeer (the title comes from Martha's nickname for him) is certainly a gripping one that plays with your sympathies throughout. And don't forget that Gadd is also, fundamentally, a comedian - so it's also a very funny show at times too, sometimes when you least expect it to be. (Seven episodes)
The Gentlemen
Crime thriller series based on Guy Ritchie's movie The Gentlemen
Year: 2024
Certificate: 15
Watch now on Netflix
Full of dangerous Cockney geezers, treacherous aristos and all manner of other colourful underworld characters, Guy Ritchie's 2019 movie The Gentlemen was a brutal thriller romp. This eight-part series may not use any of the same characters but it captures the same wisecracking sense of violent excess as its movie big brother (no surprise really, as Ritchie produces the whole thing and even directs a few episodes).
The White Lotus star Theo James takes the lead as the black sheep of a noble family who discovers that unexpectedly inheriting his family estate puts him in the crosshairs of a number of dodgy characters, not least those played by Skins's Kaya Scodelario, Better Call Saul's Giancarlo Esposito and crime-drama legends Vinnie Jones and Ray Winstone. (Eight episodes)
Truelove
A dark comedy-drama that tackles the subject of assisted dying
Year: 2024
Watch now on Channel 4
Don't let the dubious name of this six-parter put you off - it would be a real shame to miss this tragicomic British drama. Truelove follows a group of friends in their 70s who reunite at a funeral, where they flirt, get drunk and crack jokes about their own mortality. Afterwards, fuelled by booze, they make a pact to 'help each other across the threshold' rather than suffer a horrible death. But will Phil (Lindsay Duncan), a chain-smoking ex-cop with laugh-out-loud lines, and Ken (Clarke Peters) actually help their old friends to die when asked?
The other members of the gang include The Royle Family's Sue Johnston, Lark Rise To Candleford's Karl Johnson and Ever Decreasing Circles' Peter Egan, making Truelove a rare thing in that its core cast are all over the age of 70.
Clarke, 71, says it was fun to be with people his own age. 'When you're the oldest person in the room it sometimes feels like everyone is looking to you for something. And sometimes those young people aren't patient enough,' he laughs. 'Sometimes when we older people have forgotten something, we feel bad that we're holding things up. But in this company, when that happened there was a wonderful sense of support.' (Six episodes)
Shardlake
Sean Bean plays Thomas Cromwell in this TV series take on the Tudor mystery books
Year: 2024
Certificate: 15
Watch now on Disney+
The author CJ Sansom wrote a series of seven books about the fortunes of Matthew Shardlake, a hunchbacked barrister toiling in the reign of Henry VIII, against the backdrop of the dissolution of the monasteries. They make for absorbing reading and this TV adaptation brings them to atmospheric life even if, as is ever the case with such things, the actors they've chosen don't always match the characters you had in your head while reading.
The Archers' Arthur Hughes is our Shardlake, a man oft-judged for his appearance but who holds himself straight and true to one principle - the truth. His uneasy companion in investigation is Jack Barak, a fearsome henchman of Thomas Cromwell's who is less keen on truth than he is on serving his brutal master's version of it. Masters Of The Air's Anthony Boyle plays Barak with swagger and violence, both traits masking a compelling chink of insecurity that ensures it's his character's journey you're watching most closely here.
The collision of Barak and Shardlake's motivations plays out to fascinating effect in this opening four-part murder case, which begins with the latter being instructed to investigate by Cromwell himself, imperiously played by Sean Bean. Don't expect to see much of Bean, though, fun as he is, or of Peter Firth's deliciously Machiavellian Norfolk - this is all about Shardlake and Barak, a partnership that becomes stronger and deeper as the books go on. Hopefully, the TV series will get the same chance to show us that. (Four episodes)
Extraordinary (series 2)
Comedy about the world's only person without a superpower
Year: 2024
Certificate: 18
Watch now on Disney+
Imagine a world in which every adult has a superpower except you. That's the position that sarcastic 25-year-old Jen (Mairead Tyers) finds herself in Disney's fantastical British series. From shapeshifting to flight, from super strength to the ability to make anyone tell the truth, everybody else in the world got a special gift when they turned 18, but Jen is still waiting for hers to arrive.
Can she kick-start the process with the help of her weirdo flatmates? Or is she doomed to be the ordinary one in the world of the extraordinary? The show has some great turns of phrase and some of the riotous spirit of Misfits (available to stream on Channel 4), and it succeeds because it's more about the characters' lives and loves than it is about their powers - many of which are played for laughs. (Two series)
Fool Me Once
Richard Armitage stars in a thriller series based on a Harlan Coben book
Year: 2024
Certificate: 15
Watch now on Netflix
Prepare for more shock revelations and domestic thrills as Netflix adapts another Harlan Coben thriller for the screen. Maya (Michelle Keegan) believes her husband Joe (Richard Armitage) was brutally murdered. But long after his funeral, she's shocked to find new footage on the nanny cam of someone who looks an awful lot like Joe entering the house. As she sets out to discover whether Joe really is alive, Maya's taken to some very dark places...
Tense and often scary, this is another satisfyingly brain-twisty British adaptation of a Coben thriller. Joanna Lumley and Adeel Akhtar line up alongside Keegan and serial Coben star Armitage, who also starred in adaptations of The Stranger and Stay Close for Netflix. (Eight episodes)
Mary & George
Julianne Moore plays real-life 17th-century schemer Mary Villiers
Year: 2024
Certificate: 15
Watch now on NOW
Watch now on Sky
If you prefer your costume dramas with a little more edge - more like The Great than Downton Abbey - then Sky's seven-parter based on the real-life story of Mary Villiers should be right up your street. The Countess of Buckingham plots her way up the ladder of 17th-century England from the bottom to the top, and the object of her machinations is the installation of her initially less-than-worldly son George (Nicholas Galitzine) as the lover of the unpredictable King James I.
Julianne Moore is superb as Villiers, playing her as Machiavellian but also seemingly not without vulnerabilities, especially in her dealings at the king's intimidating court, which is packed with flamboyantly diabolical characters. Are the weaknesses she occasionally displays real, though? Or just part of an act to get what she wants? That's one of the things that keep you watching this show, along with seeing all the darkly enjoyable schemes unfold. Look out for Nicola Walker having a whale of a time as Lady Hatton, one of the opponents Mary clashes with most directly. Their sparring matches are a lot of fun. (Seven episodes)
Silverback
Stunning, up-close portrait of an eastern lowland gorilla
Year: 2024
Watch now on BBC iPlayer
This extraordinary documentary follows the award-winning wildlife cameraman Vianet Djenguet (Planet Earth III, Attenborough's Life In Colour) as he joins a team of conservationists in the Kahuzi-Biega National Park in the Democratic Republic of the Congo who are determined to save the critically endangered eastern lowland gorilla from extinction.
The apes' best hope lies in tourism and the vital revenue it will bring to the area, but first Vianet must win the trust of the family's notorious alpha male, a 450lb silverback called Mpungwe, who is fiercely protective of his 23-strong group and not easily won over... (90 minutes)
Criminal Record
Cush Jumbo and Peter Capaldi star in this London crime thriller
Year: 2024
Certificate: 15
Watch now on Apple TV+
Could Peter Capaldi be playing the bad guy? That's what you're wondering in episode one of this bruising London crime drama, which stars Cush Jumbo as a rising detective who thinks she's found something suspicious in an old investigation. Capaldi plays a grizzled veteran who rebuffs her concerns, and the sparring between them is a joy to see - so it's no surprise to learn that the show was actually born out of Jumbo and Capaldi's desire to work on something together, and their mutual love of crime dramas.
So, is DS Lenker (Jumbo) being overeager and missing the bigger picture? Or is DCI Hegarty (Capaldi) covering something up? Both actors are great at keeping us guessing in a rich and twisting eight-parter that, despite its grimy London feel, clearly wasn't short on cash. It was created by Paul Rutman, a seasoned crime writer (Vera, Inspector Lewis, ITV's Marple) who has weaved racial and generational themes into his script here. He's also pretty keen on drinks. Keep an eye out for how many times we learn character details from what and how people are drinking in a scene. During a Q&A after a preview screening for the show, Rutman remarked that 'every cup of tea is different' and, if you watch closely in this show, you'll see that kind of eye for detail reflected everywhere. (Eight episodes)
Mr & Mrs Smith
A funny, grounded TV take on the spy film
Year: 2024
Certificate: 15
Watch now on Prime Video
Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt met on the set of Mr. And Mrs. Smith, the fun 2005 movie about married undercover secret agents. Amazon's TV series is based on the same premise and, while it doesn't have Pitt and Jolie's megawatt charm in the leads - or the gossip that surrounded them - it is a whole lot of fun and feels much more real.
Donald Glover (Atlanta) and Maya Erskine (Obi-Wan Kenobi) are our John and Jane Smith, put together to work as a married couple by a mysterious agency and taking on assignments they don't understand. They move in glamorous circles for these frequently explosive missions, but John and Jane aren't glamorous themselves - they need the money these jobs provide and aren't quite sure how much to trust each other, which gives the show a real sense of danger. It's also very funny at times (Glover has a long track record in comedy, and is co-creator), and features a great supporting cast including Michaela Coel, John Turturro, Sharon Horgan and the great Parker Posey.
The real draw, though, is the to-and-fro between the Smiths. The meat of their interaction is much more about marriage and partnership than it is about a will-they, won't-they romance, and that's a much deeper and more interesting thing to pick apart over the course of a series. (Eight episodes)
Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour (Taylor's Version)
Watch the singer's sensational $1 billion concert from the comfort of your own home
Year: 2024
Certificate: 15
Watch now on Disney+
Every generation has a few stars who burn brighter than all the others. In 2023, Taylor Swift proved she was burning the brightest by far
The experience survived the transition from stage to big screen when Swift bypassed all the major studios to release her tour in cinemas, setting new box office records in the process. Then it became available to rent at home with three extra songs, and now it's part of the subscription on Disney+ - with four extra acoustic numbers that didn't make either of those previous releases. We haven't even touched on the breathtaking scale and skill of the show itself but, suffice to say, The Eras Tour is a spectacle for the ages, and Swift richly deserves all her success. (210 minutes)
Renegade Nell
Sally Wainwright's family adventure about a super-powered highwaywoman
Year: 2024
Certificate: 12
Watch now on Disney+
Sally Wainwright is one of our finest screenwriters. Over the years she's given us great shows like At Home With The Braithwaites, Last Tango In Halifax and Happy Valley to name but three. Renegade Nell, her eight-parter for Disney+, feels like her entry into the genre of family-friendly TV adventure serials, telling the story of a young 18th-century highwaywoman with special powers.
Derry Girls' Louisa Harland plays the gutsy Nell who, in moments of peril, is able to slow down time like Neo in The Matrix and stop bullets with her bare hands. Nell is very British - she says things like 'have you learned nothing from the last time I duffed you all up?' - as is the show, with an array of familiar UK acting faces in supporting roles such as Adrian Lester, Joely Richardson and Pip Torrens, along with Ted Lasso's Nick Mohammed as a diminutive fairy at Nell's side. The moments when we're not with Nell do sag a little - the plotting of her enemies simply isn't as interesting - but she's on-screen a lot so it's a small problem in context, and the excellent action sequences are both unusual and a lot of fun. (Eight episodes)
The Dry (series 2)
Darkly funny Irish drama raises a glass to a very dysfunctional family
Year: 2024
Certificate: 15
Shiv (Roisin Gallagher) arrives home in Dublin for her granny's funeral. She's 'five months, 17 days and six hours' sober - not that she's counting - and being around her judgmental yet equally dysfunctional family will be sure to test Shiv's resolve.
The focus of this dark comedy drama, dubbed an Irish Fleabag, is on addiction, though not on the fireworks of hitting rock bottom but on the everyday struggles of staying sober. And anyone would struggle with a family like this. Shiv's uptight sister Caroline (Siobhan Cullen) is a full-blown misanthrope, her mum Bernie (Pom Boyd) is a just-about-functioning alcoholic and her dad (a heroically moribund Ciaran Hinds) is using his affair with his acupuncturist as a distraction from his own meltdown.
The show can be subdued and a bit melancholy at times, but the flashes of startling and sometimes painful humour are welcome jolts that ring true more often than not. Series two opens with Shiv having her sobriety sorely tested once again. (Two series)
Constellation
Noomi Rapace stars in a mind-bending space thriller
Year: 2024
Certificate: 15
Watch now on Apple TV+
Apple's thriller starts out looking like a big-budget space survival blockbuster, but ultimately it's something much more human than that, and all the better for it as a result. The eight-parter stars Noomi Rapace as an astronaut who suffers through a terrible catastrophe on the International Space Station, then arrives back on Earth to find her reality, and family, subtly but alarmingly different.
Without giving away any spoilers, the viewing experience of what follows is rather like a detective drama as we start to wonder whether Jo (Rapace) is reacting to the trauma or if her life really has been changed, somehow. 'Reality is a conspiracy' goes the tagline for this show and that certainly pushes you in one direction, but you can never be completely sure and that's the fun of a series that gives its actors a lot of ambiguity to play with. Our only criticism is that, before it becomes clear that it's not meant to be a fast-paced action thriller, you might feel like it's moving a little slowly - but Constellation is just taking its time, and for good reason. (Eight episodes)
Curb Your Enthusiasm (Series 12)
The final series of Larry David's superb comedy of embarrassment
Year: 2024
Certificate: 18
Watch now on NOW
Watch now on Sky
For years, Larry David has had a standing agreement with HBO that he'll make new series of his great comedy of embarrassment when he's good and ready. The co-creator of Seinfeld, David is one of the few comic talents in the world who can write his own ticket in that regard and, while he has called time on this show on more than one occasion in the past, for this 12th series Larry apparently means it.
'As Curb comes to an end, I'll now have the opportunity to finally shed this "Larry David" persona and become the person God intended me to be - the thoughtful, kind, caring, considerate human being I was until I got derailed by portraying this malignant character,' remarked Larry about the return of a show he began 25 years ago with the one-off special Larry David: Curb Your Enthusiasm.
Series 12 opens with David riding the fame of the Young Larry show, the breakout star of which is a smug rising actress who seems tailor-made to irritate him. Irritations are what Curb is all about, of course, and the first episode is full of those, from an incident with a pair of stretched glasses to an argument over nicknames Larry can't seem to let go off, and a dispute with hotel housekeeping about toilet water. It's all vintage, perfectly executed Curb material and, even if it does occasionally feel almost like a parody of itself, it's still hilarious - and that's what counts. (Ten episodes)
Griselda
Fact-based drama about a female crime boss starring Sofia Vergara
Year: 2024
Certificate: 18
Watch now on Netflix
Almost unrecognisable under a raft of prosthetics designed to mimic the hawk-faced profile of real-life drug boss Griselda Blanco Restrepo, Modern Family star Sofia Vergara is icily impressive in this six-part miniseries. A story of female empowerment and brutal criminality in equal bloody gobbets, it charts the Colombian immigrant's rise to become one of the most powerful and feared drug importers in Miami. It's all the more powerful a story because, when she first arrives with children in tow, Griselda's position is very precarious indeed. You can see the vulnerability in her face, although it doesn't last too long.
Created by many of the same team behind Narcos and with Vergara acting as producer, it's exciting, dark and no-holds-barred stuff that brings the freewheeling cocaine underworld of the 1980s US to dangerous life. Episode one grabs you by the throat right from the start with this quote from Pablo Escobar: 'The only man I was ever afraid of was a woman named Griselda Blanco'. You'll see why in short order. (Six episodes)
Fallout
Explosive video game adaptation from the creators of the Westworld TV series
Year: 2024
Certificate: 15
Watch now on Prime Video
Video game adaptations used to have a bad name - does anyone remember Bob Hoskins playing the Italian plumber Mario in 1993's Super Mario Bros film? It's probably best that you don't.
Those days are now long gone though, especially after HBO's The Last Of Us upped the dramatic ante in 2023 and won eight Emmy Awards for its trouble. Fallout looks set to continue that trend, coming as it does from Westworld creators Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy, a producing duo with great expertise in serving TV audiences big and complex worlds.
And Fallout is certainly that - the games are set in a sprawling, post-apocalyptic wasteland centuries after a nuclear war has devastated the planet's surface. Underneath that wasteland are The Vaults, in which cheery survivors have been living lives of order and relative luxury while those above scrabbled for scraps.
That culture clash is at the centre of the series, following Lucy (Yellowjackets' Ella Purnell) as she leaves the safety of The Vaults for the chaos above. 'Practically every person I've met up here has tried to kill me,' she despairs in her opening week. There's a lot of comedy in that clash and we meet a lot of eccentric characters as it unfolds, too, especially Justified's Walton Goggins as a roaming bounty hunter.
Fallout is primarily an epic action game though, and this ambitious and visually impressive series keeps that very much in mind. It should certainly please those in search of a little popcorn entertainment and, even if it doesn't quite reach the dramatic heights of The Last Of Us, it's also a rich evocation of an exciting world. There will be a second series. (Eight episodes)
The Brothers Sun
Action comedy series about a crime family starring Michelle Yeoh
Year: 2024
Certificate: 15
Watch now on Netflix
When the head of a brutal Taipei crime gang is murdered, his eldest son Charles (Justin Chien) - himself also a ruthless killer - heads to Los Angeles to protect his estranged mother (Michelle Yeoh) and younger brother Bruce (Sam Li) from assassins sent by rival gangs.
Feeling like a merrily gory mix of martial arts, black comedy and The Godfather, this eight-episode comedy thriller centres around Bruce's clueless attempts to get used to the idea that he's part of a clan of murderous crooks, but it really belongs to the deadpan Yeoh, who steals every scene she's in as Charles and Bruce's merciless mom. (Eight episodes)
True Detective: Night Country
Jodie Foster stars in this eerie, Alaska-set outing for the HBO crime anthology
Year: 2024
Certificate: 18
Watch now on NOW
Watch now on Sky
The big draw of True Detective has always been the actors, and series four has one of the best you can get - Jodie Foster, playing Detective Liz Danvers in the town of Ennis, Alaska. That setting is the other big attraction. As with Louisiana back in series one, Alaska is a very particular place, especially during the state's long sunless winter. That's when Night Country is set, beginning with the disappearance of eight men at a remote research station where bold scientific truths were being sought, and unfolding in an environment where the barrier between our world and the next seems somewhat thin. And people seem just that little bit more prone to madness.
As such, there are moments when it all feels a little like The Thing or Sky's Fortitude, but the series always keeps its feet on the ground, and Foster's performance as Danvers - determined, cynical and manipulative with just a chink of vulnerability, very much a 'true' detective and with a very complicated and overlapping work/family life - is a big part of why. Foster is paired with Kali Reis as Detective Navarro, who is very convincing in a different way. Reis is also a world champion boxer, so keep that in mind during her instantly convincing fight sequences. Look out for Fiona Shaw and Christopher Eccleston in the cast, too, but this show is mostly and justifiably about Foster. (Six episodes)
The New Look
The Second World War experience of Coco Chanel and Christian Dior
Year: 2024
Watch now on Apple TV+
The scars and secrets of war are the subject of this complex ten-part drama, based on what actually happened to fashion designers Christian Dior and Coco Chanel in occupied Paris during the Second World War. If you're new to the history of it, there will be surprises - chiefly that Chanel collaborated with the Nazis, and that Dior fought to save his younger sister, a French resistance fighter, from death at their hands in the camps.
The drama focuses on the whys, hows and consequences of their choices and moves across their lives, taking us through the occupation and liberation of Paris and beyond. It comes from Todd A Kessler, who brought us the brilliant Damages, and whose reputation and script has attracted a first-rate cast. Juliette Binoche has by far the trickiest job bringing dimension to Chanel, who is clearly set up as the villain of the piece but whom Binoche manages to frame as a survivor, while Ben Mendelsohn (who starred in Kessler's Bloodline on Netflix) radiates vulnerability and quiet nobility as Dior.
The horror of the occupation is keenly realised in the opening episodes, which also feature Game Of Thrones' Maisie Williams as Dior's sister and Dracula's Claes Bang as Chanel's slippery introduction to the Nazis. Glenn Close, who picked up multiple awards as the force-of-nature lawyer Patty Hewes in Kessler's Damages, pops up later in a series of such high quality that it feels uncommonly addictive for its type. (Ten episodes)
Manhunt (2024 series)
True crime thriller about the search for Abraham Lincoln's killer
Year: 2024
Certificate: 15
Watch now on Apple TV+
A drama about the hunt for Abraham Lincoln's killer doesn't sound like the most obviously compelling thing to a British audience. One, we know who did it - the actor John Wilkes Booth, who shot the US President while he was watching a play in 1865 - and two, it happened a long time ago in the US. Still, execution is everything - no pun intended - and it soon becomes apparent that Manhunt is essentially a true crime thriller, just one that happens to be set more than 150 years ago, and against the inherently interesting backdrop of a sharply divided country where conspiracies abound.
That last point could be said to have relevance to today's polarised US too, but what makes Manhunt compelling to the more casual viewer is its star, Tobias Menzies (Outlander). Always a compelling actor in whatever he does, here Menzies takes centre stage as Edwin Stanton, Lincoln's colleague and friend and the man leading the hunt. Stanton's personal investment in seeing justice done is what hooks you, and the details of the country around him - divided over Lincoln's abolition of slavery and tangled up in conspiracies left, right and centre - is just an intriguing bonus. And, while this almost goes without saying since the show was bankrolled by Apple, the re-creation of the period is a rich and instantly convincing one. To British eyes, at least. (Seven episodes)
The Tourist (Series 2)
Jamie Dornan's amnesiac returns in the frenetic hit action thriller
Year: 2024
Certificate: 15
Watch now on BBC iPlayer
Two years ago, The Tourist crashed onto our screens when a juggernaut smashed into a car in the Australian Outback and left Irishman Elliot Stanley (Jamie Dornan) with amnesia and a posse of bad guys on his tail. The twisty caper that followed was Britain's most-watched drama of 2022, with 11.4m viewers.
Now it's back for a thrilling second series with Jamie reprising his role, but this time in Ireland. In series one, Elliot finally learned his name and horrific details about himself; now he's trying to piece together his previous life and find redemption . . . but there's more trouble in store.
From Harry and Jack Williams, creators of The Missing, Boat Story and pretty much every other drama on the BBC at the moment, this darkly comic and at times very violent six-part mystery thriller sees Elliot joined in his quest once again by lovable Aussie police officer Helen (Danielle Macdonald). The pair are soon in danger as they are dragged into a long-standing family feud - and face the consequences of Elliot's past actions. (Six episodes)
Expats
Nicole Kidman stars in a finely woven Hong Kong drama
Year: 2024
Certificate: 15
Watch now on Prime Video
Living in another country can be a strange and even alienating experience, especially if you're not really allowed to have your own life. That's the human core of this series based on the novel by Janice YK Lee, which stars Nicole Kidman as a mother and wife of a corporate high-flyer, trying to hold onto her identity in Hong Kong.
There's another dimension to this. Margaret (Kidman) has lost a child and her grief about that, and the stories of the people around her (locals, friends, her husband) fill out the rest of a perspective-shifting series that jumps around a little in time, too, to build up a rounded picture of everyone's lives, lies and motivations. Kidman's performance is mesmerising and understated, and the show itself has the feel of an Oscar-worthy movie, but widened and deepened into a six-part series - it was adapted by Lulu Wang, the writer-director of The Farewell. (Six episodes)
3 Body Problem
Dazzling sci-fi adaptation from the duo behind Game Of Thrones
Year: 2024
Certificate: 15
Watch now on Netflix
What would you do if aliens were invading our planet, but not for hundreds of years? That's one of the many questions posed by this epic sci-fi thriller based on a trilogy of Chinese novels. 3 Body Problem comes from David Benioff and DB Weiss, the pair who adapted Game Of Thrones, and has a similarly impressive scope. The storyline flits between the stunningly re-created 1960s China of the Cultural Revolution, a mysterious virtual reality simulation and present day Oxford (shifted from China in the books), where a quintet of scientists - the 'Oxford Five' - steadily realise that something terrible is happening out in space. One of them will be familiar to Thrones fans - it's John Bradley, who played the studious Samwell - while Benioff and Weiss brought plenty of behind-the-scenes talent with them from their HBO fantasy show, too.
To say more would spoil the twists and turns of this eight-part first series, although we will say that the adaptation takes some challengingly complex source material and manages to weave it into a highly watchable and entertaining series without losing what made the original so remarkable - the cleverness of its concepts, and the sheer alien-ness of its invaders. And, as you'd expect since it's based on a trilogy, the way this batch ends certainly leaves room for a return. (Eight episodes)
Palm Royale
Kristen Wiig stars as a social climber determined to crack 1969 Florida high society
Year: 2024
Certificate: 15
Watch now on Apple TV+
'All I ever wanted was to belong. To be a somebody in this world.' Kristen Wiig stars in Apple's glitzy comedy about one woman's determination to con her way into the high society of Palm Beach, Florida - specifically that of the exclusive Palm Royale club. It's set in 1969 and has all the jet-set glamour one would expect of the time, but it's the cast that really sells this ten-parter. Wiig is vulnerable but steely as ex-pageant queen Maxine, while the Queen Bee in the society she's trying to crack is the magnificently uppity Evelyn Rollins (The West Wing's Allison Janney), a leading light in the local fight against paediatric cancer.
The series is based on the novel Mr & Mrs American Pie by Juliet McDaniel, and the pleasure in watching the story evolve is in seeing the lengths Maxine will go to in order to secure the social elevation she so dearly wants, and the comeuppance others get along the way. Her schemes are a lot of fun, but you have to ask: how much will it all cost her? And if the club waiter Robert looks familiar, he should - that's snake-hipped pop legend Ricky Martin. (Ten episodes)
A Gentleman In Moscow
Ewan McGregor stars in this tale of an aristocrat living a life sentence in Revolutionary Russia
Year: 2024
Certificate: 12
Watch now on Paramount+
Holding onto your dignity in adversity is an appealing idea, and it's at the heart of this eight-part adaptation of Amor Towles's novel. Ewan McGregor stars as Count Alexander Rostov, a man of wealth and taste who loses the first of those to the Russian Revolution. The Bolsheviks sentence him to life inside the gilded cage of the Hotel Metropol, a place where, Rostov is told, he will be shot if he leaves.
As the decades pass, the Count strives to hold onto his taste and good manners, and steadily finds new things to live for. McGregor brings a childlike sense of hope to the role, a hope that's tempered by the very real sense that, especially at the start, the hotel is not just a cage but also a trap.
Aside from McGregor's performance, the location is the key to this show's success. The finely detailed set was built in Manchester, and created on such a scale that it allowed the cast to lose themselves in their environment - at least one of them would play the hotel's piano in idle moments. It affords the viewer the same luxury, too. You're right there with Rostov as he journeys through the decades, in a show that gives us both a very narrow and a very broad picture of how a life and country can change.
What may not be clear about A Gentleman In Moscow is that it's also disarmingly funny at times, partly in those moments when Rostov is clinging to his identity as a gentleman, insisting on such things as his regular appointment with the hotel barber. Those moments also hold a danger and a poignancy in them. Ultimately, the way all of that can co-exist in one scene gives you an idea of how lightly this show wears its substance. (Eight episodes)
Mandy (series 3)
Diane Morgan's comedy creation has hapless adventures in the job market
Year: 2024
Certificate: 12
Watch now on BBC iPlayer
You may know her as Philomena Cunk, the moronic presenter of entirely inaccurate history and culture documentaries, or as chaotic single mum Liz in Motherland, but Diane Morgan's oddest creation is all her own. Constantly chewing her lip to grotesque degrees, Mandy is the backcombed heroine of these bitesize episodes who spends her time trying and failing to get gainful employment.
Over three series, she has not learnt a single lesson about how to get on in the world. She's tried working in a banana-processing warehouse, biscuit factory, in a supermarket and a stately home and there are always surreal and outrageous catastrophes, and the odd fatality. Series three appears to have had a bit more budget to play with, enabling some fun special effects when Mandy has leg-lengthening surgery to become an airline hostess. Whether she's flying high or low, Mandy always picks herself up and starts again. (Three series)
Mammals (2024)
The great David Attenborough tells us the 200-million-year story of mammals
Year: 2024
Watch now on BBC iPlayer
Even at 97 years old, David Attenborough refuses to retire - and that's good news for us as he's still at the top of his game. As its title suggests, this six-parter tells the story of mammals (including humans), which began 200 million years ago, at the time of the dinosaurs.
Episode one focuses on animal behaviour after dark (in fact, more than two-thirds of mammal species are nocturnal). We follow a leopard - which has superb night-vision - as she hunts, filmed using sophisticated cameras that capture her climbing up trees in exquisite detail. We also see foxes and hyenas, before a truly stunning sequence where Sir David explains how bats have conquered the night skies. The incredible second instalment examines how human dominance over the planet is impacting other mammals, and it goes on in very fine style from there. (Six episodes)
The Regime
Kate Winslet delivers a fascinating performance as a deranged dictator
Year: 2024
Certificate: 15
Watch now on NOW
Watch now on Sky
You never know what's coming next in this six-part mix of drama and political satire, and that's the glory of it. A big part of why is Kate Winslet's deranged but somehow emotionally consistent performance as Chancellor Elena Vernham, the leader of a proud but economically hobbled Central European nation.
Vernham is a seemingly unstable woman full of contradictions, the most obvious of which is that she is a trained doctor but is terrified of invisible spores, and has ordered that her palace be constantly monitored for signs of mould. Is she really scared, though, or is her fear just a way of controlling her staff?
Into this nest of paranoia steps a troubled soldier recruited by Vernham to be her new assistant, and we learn steadily more about her regime from that point on. We won't spoil what happens because the unpredictability of the story and the way it plays with your perspective is part of the fun.
Of the cast, Winslet's performance is the undoubted centrepiece but there are other standouts, chiefly the chameleonic Andrea Riseborough as Vernham's most level-headed employee. Hugh Grant is in it too, but the less revealed about why the better - he's not part of either of the two musical numbers though, we'll say that much. (Six episodes)
Blue Lights (Series 2)
Return of the explosive, character-led Belfast cop show
Year: 2024
Certificate: 15
Watch now on BBC iPlayer
This Northern Irish cop show struck a chord with critics and audiences alike, and now the 'Peelers' are back for a second series. Crime is flooding the streets of Belfast, but this first episode spends as much time reacquainting us with the characters - rookies, veterans and dearly departed - as it does establishing that there's a new crime gang in town.
Partners Stevie and Grace are still flirting over their lunchboxes, Tommy (Nathan Braniff) catches the eye of the paramilitary task force whilst also trying to sort out his love life and Annie gets an eyeful of the hunky new guy Shane (Frank Blake).
Jen (Hannah McClean), meanwhile, might have left the force, but has not forgotten her late comrade, Gerry. She's now working as a solicitor and sets out to investigate the chip-shop bombing that haunted him.
As for that crime wave, you can expect plenty of nail-biting action for the response teams, from life-threatening stand-offs with desperate junkies to dramatic rescues from burning buildings. (Six episodes)
Franklin
Michael Douglas shines as Benjamin Franklin in a drama about saving America from defeat
Year: 2024
Certificate: 15
Watch now on Apple TV+
There's a lot to recommend this rich, eight-part drama, and it's got a wonderfully simple premise: following Benjamin Franklin as he asks the French to save the Americans from defeat by the British.
This desperate quest for help makes it an underdog tale, which is always an appealing thing to watch, and they've got a coming-of-age story in there too, as Franklin is accompanied by his naive grandson, a boy who has a lot to learn.
It's also a political show about double-dealing and betrayal but, first and foremost, it's a character study of Franklin himself. You need a good actor for that and thankfully they have a great one in Michael Douglas, and watching this Hollywood legend twinkle and scheme his way through one situation after another is a delight in itself.
Daniel Mays is another bright point on the cast as Edward Bancroft, one of his allies in France, as is Ludivine Sagnier as Anne Louise Brillon de Jouy, a married Frenchwoman who catches Franklin's eye. The scenes between the two of them are the only time when Franklin fully lets his guard down, and give the show a real heart, too. (Eight episodes)
The Jury: Murder Trial
Extraordinary legal experiment follows the restaging of a real-life murder trial - with not one but two juries
Year: 2024
Certificate: 12
Watch now on Channel 4
This compelling four-parter is sure to get you talking. It's the recreation of a murder trial. The twist is that we will follow the jurors as they deliberate throughout - something which is strictly prohibited during actual proceedings. Not only that, but there are not one, but two sets of 12 jurors, all chosen completely at random, just as they are in the real world.
The case itself is far from cut and dried: a man accused of killing his wife, who admits causing her death, but denies murder. You get a clear sense of the extreme pressure the jurors are under, and the differences of opinion.
There is also the very real prospect of two different verdicts, and although it is staged and there are no real-world consequences, this is not pure fantasy; this is how the juror system really works. (Four episodes)
Big Mood
Comedy starring Nicola Coughlan and Lydia West as best friends forever
Year: 2024
Watch now on Channel 4
Frequently very funny, and also touching and wild, this millennial comedy celebrates female friendship while reminding us that life for 30-something, not-so-young adults is fraught with chaos and uncertainty. Especially when you suffer from bipolar disorder.
Derry Girls' Nicola Coughlan is perfect casting as Maggie, whose mood slips from way up to deep down in a beat. 'It's not a funk, it's a mood disorder,' she says of her illness, which is never swept under the carpet or treated as a taboo subject. Nor is it trivialised, the reality of living in this precarious state demonstrated by her best friend Eddie (It's A Sin's Lydia West), who takes it in turns to worry, party, cajole and supervise Maggie through her unpredictable states of manic energy or a sofa-cocoon slump.
Coughlan and West make a fantastic double act and we need to see more of them, together and apart. (Six episodes)
Death And Other Details
Homeland's Mandy Patinkin stars in this sunny, Agatha Christie-style mystery
Year: 2024
Certificate: 15
Watch now on Disney+
'If you want to solve a crime, you must first learn to see through the illusion. Details matter.' So says Rufus Cotesworth, once hailed as the world's greatest detective, who happens to be onboard when murder strikes on a luxury cruise. And not just any murder - a locked-room murder. The unravelling of the case is the business of this sunny ten-part mystery from the US, which is clearly aiming for Agatha Christie-style territory by the way it's gathered a lot of glamorous suspects together in one place.
Homeland's Mandy Patinkin plays Cotesworth, a man 'brought low by circumstance', while his prime suspect for the crime is Imogene Scott (Violet Beane), a woman who insists she's innocent and who Cotesworth has known since she was a child. So, the two work together to prove she didn't do it. Now, ten episodes is a long time to sustain one mystery and it's true that you can feel the strain on the script at times. Still, these kinds of shows don't come along often and the sunny setting, rogues gallery of guests and many twists and turns - some of which involve jumping back and forward in time - make for pleasingly stimulating viewing. Patinkin and Beane also make for a decent odd-couple double act, and the show has some thought-provoking things to say about memory along the way. (Ten episodes)
Breathtaking
Chilling drama recreating the early days of the pandemic inside a big city hospital
Year: 2024
Certificate: 15
As this is based on the book by NHS doctor Rachel Clarke, who wrote about working in a big city hospital in the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic, you know it's going to be a harrowing watch. It's also important, so brace yourself for another chilling reminder of what we - and the NHS - went through.
With her everywoman quality, Joanne Froggatt (Downton, Liar) is perfectly cast as Dr Abbey Henderson. She spends significant sections of this three-parter swaddled in PPE, which was part of the problem - there wasn't enough of it, or nonsensical guidelines meant its use was restricted. The confusion at the start of the pandemic is palpable, intercut with those all-too-familiar official announcements from politicians and medical experts.
Primarily, this comes from Abbey's point of view, making it a deeply personal account of a national tragedy. Abbey rallies all her energy and strength - and spends vast periods of time away from her family - as the virus commences its relentless march through the population. It all feels so disturbingly real. (Three episodes)
This Town
Electrifying 1980s-set series from Peaky Blinders' Steven Knight
Year: 2024
Watch now on BBC iPlayer
Despite the raging riots and racist policemen in 1980s Birmingham, young dreamer Dante (Levi Brown) is upset because his heart has been broken - the girl he likes at school won't join him for a cup of tea. So begins this unmissable drama from Steven Knight (Peaky Blinders, SAS Rogue Heroes) which follows an extended family of Jamaican and Irish heritage who navigate the turmoil of the period by forming a ska band.
This Town is both a thriller and a family saga, shot through with Knight's signature swearing and deadpan humour. Despite the serious subject matter, this is a fun show set to an upbeat reggae soundtrack. (Six episodes)
Feud: Capote vs The Swans
Tom Hollander plays Truman Capote in series two of this star-studded anthology
Year: 2024
Certificate: 15
Watch now on Disney+
With Susan Sarandon and Jessica Lange excelling as Bette Davis and Joan Crawford, the first series of this grand anthology show by TV giant Ryan Murphy set the bar punishingly high. This second run matches it, though, as British actor Tom Hollander takes on the role of waspish US writer Truman Capote as he faces off against a group of vengeful New York socialites after he reveals their dark and frequently twisted secrets in a magazine article.
The female cast alone makes it worth streaming as Naomi Watts, Diane Lane, Chloë Sevigny, Calista Flockhart, Demi Moore and Molly Ringwald all relish the chance to portray the iciest of high society queens. (Eight episodes)
Red Eye
Fasten your seatbelts for this high-octane thriller, set on a flight from London to Beijing
Year: 2024
Buckle up for this nerve-jangling six-parter in which Richard Armitage (Fool Me Once) plays Dr Matthew Nolan, a British surgeon who becomes entangled in an international conspiracy. The series begins with Dr Nolan barely surviving a car crash in Beijing while at a medical conference - but far worse is to come. When he arrives back in the UK, he's arrested over the death of a Chinese woman - Matt insists he's innocent, but he's extradited to face charges.
It's on the red-eye flight back to China that this thriller really ramps up. London detective Hana Li (Crazy Rich Asians' Jing Lusi) has been assigned to escort Nolan on the overnight flight, but when passengers start dying on board, she realises Nolan's life is in danger. Who wants him dead and why? Lesley Sharp also stars as an MI5 boss investigating events on flight 357.
This series won't win any prizes for realism, but writer Peter A Dowling, who created the successful 2005 movie Flightplan starring Jodie Foster, about a girl who goes missing on a transatlantic flight, sure knows how to keep us watching. (Six episodes)
The Jinx: Part Two
The six-part sequel series follows the investigation into suspected killer Robert Durst
Year: 2024
Certificate: 15
Watch now on NOW
Watch now on Sky
When HBO's great true-crime documentary The Jinx ended in 2015, it signed off in a way that none of its kind has equalled since - with Robert Durst's apparent confession: 'What the hell did I do? Killed them all, of course.'
The evidence uncovered in the series led to the LAPD renewing their investigation into the murder in 2000 of Bob's friend, Susan Berman, and he was arrested the night before the final episode aired. Justice was not swift, though - Durst was only convicted of her murder in 2021 and died the year after, aged 78.
That span of time is where this sequel series fits in, following the investigation that led to that conviction. 'There's a certain image, even as a seasoned prosecutor, that you have of a killer. You can't help yourself. And it's not Bob,' says LA Deputy District Attorney John Lewin, who is one of the guiding voices in this steadily gripping series.
As soon as you start watching, you realise how much space there is to fill in, and with how much fascinating detail, like this from when he was found by the FBI: 'When they end up going into the room they find drugs, a bunch of money, a loaded firearm and a map of Cuba. There was also a very expensive latex mask.' (Six episodes)
The Artful Dodger
Oliver Twist's light-fingered friend returns for a grown-up adventure
Year: 2024
Certificate: 15
Watch now on Disney+
Having escaped his life as the prince of pickpockets in Victorian London, the now-grown-up Artful Dodger aka Jack Dawkins (Love Actually's Thomas Brodie-Sangster) is doing very nicely for himself as a surgeon in 1850s Australia. But then a certain old friend by the name of Fagin (David Thewlis) turns up and Jack is dragged back into a life of crime for one last job.
This cheery eight-part adventure owes as much to Indiana Jones as it does to Charles Dickens, as Jack and Fagin duck and dive their way out of perilous scrape after perilous scrape. Thewlis is a drawling scene-stealer as Fagin, while Brodie-Sangster makes certain that his matinee idol looks never completely hide the gleeful twinkle in his eyes. Can we have some more please. (Eight episodes)
The Traitors (Series 2)
Addictive game show of bare-faced treachery, hosted by Claudia Winkleman
Year: 2024
Watch now on BBC iPlayer
This back-stabbing reality series was the TV hit of 2022, and in series two host Claudia Winkleman welcomes a new group of 22 people to a dramatic Highlands setting, where three of the contestants will be secretly assigned as Traitors before the tense games begin. Who will win the prize of up to £120,000 this time around?
Superfans of the show can also find the US and Australian versions on iPlayer and, if you want to get a little closer to the action, give the online game a whirl. You can work your way up a leaderboard by predicting who will be murdered, banished and make it through to the end, and by answering bonus questions about the show. It's available at bbc.co.uk/traitors and on mobile devices. (12 episodes)
The Completely Made-Up Adventures Of Dick Turpin
Noel Fielding plays the highwayman in this pleasingly ridiculous comedy
Year: 2024
Certificate: 15
Watch now on Apple TV+
Fans of Noel Fielding will be well served by this six-part Apple comedy, in which he has a grand old time playing a peace-loving, vegan version of the highwayman who comes across very much like Noel Fielding himself. His Turpin becomes a gang leader by accident, and is surrounded by many familiar British comedy actors including Mark Heap, Marc Wootton, Joe Wilkinson and Ellie White - and then there's Hugh Bonneville, also having a grand old time as Turpin's nemesis, the Thief-Taker General.
The opening set-up for the whole thing is Turpin re-telling his life story to a playwright-turned-true-crime writer (Dolly Wells) in a tavern, a premise that carries a whiff of satire. The show as a whole is a pleasingly irreverent and ridiculous affair, occasionally reminiscent of a very expensive episode of Horrible Histories but without the songs and facts - and that's not a criticism. (Six episodes)
Alice & Jack
Disarmingly funny romance starring Domhnall Gleeson and Andrea Riseborough
Year: 2024
Certificate: 15
Watch now on Channel 4
Relationships don't always happen like in the movies, and here's one that starts messy, and stays that way, over a 15-year period and six episodes. Written by Victor Levin, a writer with form in romantic comedies (TV show Mad About You, Destination Wedding), it follows Andrea Riseborough's wealthy loner Alice and Domhnall Gleeson's gentle scientist Jack.
They fall for each other, and into bed with each other, pretty instantly and Jack is smitten, but Alice constantly pulls away. She wants someone kind like Jack, but she's also self-aware enough to believe that she's wrong for him.
Riseborough and Gleeson are superb, making their flawed characters eminently watchable and likeable. (Six episodes)
Our Living World
Cate Blanchett narrates an innovative series about the interconnected natural world
Year: 2024
Certificate: PG
Watch now on Netflix
Just what links the habits of hippos in Africa to the grazing patterns of reindeer in the Arctic? No idea? Don't worry - this four-part documentary series reveals all, as it sets out to uncover the interconnected web of natural life that covers our planet.
Looking at everything from chimpanzees to penguins, hammerhead sharks to tiny bugs, the plants of the rainforests to the concrete jungles of humanity, it offers a fascinating new way to approach the concept of nature filmmaking. It's a memorable one too, with fantastic visuals bolstered by a powerful narration from Oscar-winning actress Cate Blanchett, who also happens to keep bees. (Four episodes)
Dinosaur
Quirky new show about autistic thirtysomething Nina and her best friend and sister
Year: 2024
Certificate: 12
Watch now on BBC iPlayer
Cute, funny and refreshingly honest, this new Scottish show is a breath of fresh air. Thirtysomething palaeontologist Nina (Ashley Storrie) is in for a big shock when her sister and best friend Evie (Kat Ronney) comes home engaged to a man she met just six weeks ago.
Nina, who's autistic, is happy following her structured routines and working with dinosaur bones in the museum (hence the show's title). So unsurprisingly, the new development throws everything into disarray for her - and that's before she's even met the man. As the series unfolds, Nina must learn to cope with all the big changes it brings to her life, including welcoming Evie's fiancé Ranesh (Danny Ashok), in her words 'arguably the most irritating man alive'.
An insight into feeling like an outsider, this series and its protagonist Nina offer a refreshing take on how to accept all your quirks and eccentricities - even when they make you feel just a little out of place. (Six episodes)