How is your 2024 going? If you are in need of some TV gems to help take the edge off what often feels a dull and dreary time of year, then look no further.
Here, we round up the best new dramas, comedies, psychological thrillers, documentary series and small-screen adaptations to enjoy during the rest of January and through February.
The Way
He has portrayed everyone from Tony Blair to David Frost and Brian Clough with pitch-perfect aplomb, but for his latest project, Michael Sheen finds himself working on both sides of the camera. The Welsh actor will make his much-anticipated TV directorial debut in BBC drama The Way.
The Staged and Good Omens star is also a co-creator of the three-part series, which is described in the programme blurb as “ambitious, powerful and surprising” as it “taps into the social and political chaos of today’s world by imagining a civil uprising which begins in a small industrial town”.
On-screen, meanwhile, Sheen will lead a strong cast with Steffan Rhodri, Mali Harries, Sophie Melville and Callum Scott Howells playing a family caught up in an explosive chain of events.
Expected to air on BBC One and BBC iPlayer in early February
One Day
David Nicholls’s literary tearjerker One Day has previously been adapted for the big screen with Anne Hathaway and Jim Sturgess leading the cast of the 2011 Hollywood version.
This time around Ambika Mod and Leo Woodall will play star-crossed lovers Emma Morley and Dexter Mayhew who, in the summer of 1988, spend the night of their graduation from Edinburgh University together, only to go their separate ways the next morning.
The 14-episode Netflix series charts the story of the pair across the years as they build their lives, traversing joy and heartbreak, yet never quite escaping the invisible strings that bind them.
Coming to Netflix on February 8
Sexy Beast
Scottish actors James McArdle and Emun Elliott lead the cast in this TV prequel to the 2000 movie that starred Ray Winstone and Ben Kingsley.
The small screen incarnation sees McArdle (Mare of Easttown and Angels in America) play Gal Dove with Elliott (The Rig and The Gold) as Don Logan. The duo are best friends/small-town thieves living the good life in 1990s east London.
Coming to Paramount+ from next Thursday (January 25)
Trigger Point
The hit ITV crime thriller is back for a second series with Line of Duty star Vicky McClure reprising her role as a bomb disposal officer – an “expo” – plying her trade with the Metropolitan Police in London.
The latest run sees McClure’s character Lana Washington fresh from secondment training Ukrainian bomb disposal teams. Yet to return to active duty, she is giving a presentation to security specialists at financial institutions when a bomb attack takes place in the heart of the city.
Coming to STV and STV Player later this month
Mr. & Mrs. Smith
Three’s a trend? Another premise making the jump from big to small screen is Mr. & Mrs. Smith, which many viewers will know from the 2005 Hollywood movie starring Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie.
Comedian and actor Donald Glover is behind this TV reimagining/reboot, with co-creator Francesca Sloane, who has written for shows such as Atlanta, Fargo and The First.
Glover and Maya Erskine play the titular duo, two lonely strangers who land jobs “working for a mysterious spy agency that offers them a glorious life of espionage, wealth, world travel, and a dream brownstone in Manhattan”.
The catch? They must adopt new identities as married couple John and Jane Smith. The star-studded guest cast includes Alexander Skarsgard, Sarah Paulson, Sharon Horgan, Ron Perlman and Parker Posey.
Coming to Prime Video from February 2
Black Cake
Based on the bestselling novel of the same name by Charmaine Wilkerson, Black Cake promises “a family drama wrapped in a murder mystery with a diverse cast of characters and a global setting”.
The eight-part Disney+ series is variously set in Jamaica, Italy, Scotland, England and the US, spanning the decades from the 1960s – when a runaway bride takes flight and disappears after her husband dies – to the present day.
Coming to Disney+ from January 31
Boarders
This comedy drama follows five underprivileged black students from inner city backgrounds who gain scholarships to an elite boarding school where they find themselves thrust into a world that resembles “something out of Harry Potter”.
The show is the brainchild of Daniel Lawrence Taylor – the creator, writer and star of Timewasters – and features a quintet of up-and-coming stars: Josh Tedeku, Jodie Campbell, Aruna Jalloh, Myles Kamwendo and Sekou Diaby.
Coming to BBC Three and BBC iPlayer in February
Constellation
If you love a twisty conspiracy-themed space adventure, then this eight-episode Apple TV+ series will be right up your street. The action-packed psychological thriller stars Noomi Rapace (The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo) and Jonathan Banks (Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul).
Created and written by Peter Harness, whose past credits include Wallander, The War of the Worlds and Doctor Who, it certainly has an impressive pedigree.
Coming to Apple TV+ from February 21
Fire Country
This show crosses the Atlantic with a lot of buzz, ranked as the top-rated new TV series on US network CBS last year. The high-octane drama is partly inspired by the experiences of Max Thieriot – the show’s creator and star – who grew up in wildfire-prone Northern California.
The redemption tale centres on troubled convict Bode Donovan, played by Thieriot, who is given a reduced prison sentence in return for joining a firefighting programme in his rural hometown.
Coming to Sky Witness and NOW from next Wednesday (January 24)
Breathtaking
Drawn from doctor-writer Rachel Clarke’s unflinching memoir of the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic, this upcoming ITV drama looks set to be a thought-provoking and poignant watch.
Downton Abbey star Joanne Froggatt leads the cast playing a frontline hospital consultant. Line of Duty creator Jed Mercurio worked with Clarke in adapting the book for television, alongside fellow writer/director Prasanna Puwanarajah who, like Mercurio, is a former junior doctor.
Coming to STV and STV Player in February
Brian Johnson and Mark Knopfler’s Good Times
As lead singers of AC/DC and Dire Straits respectively, Brian Johnson and Mark Knopfler have sold an incredible 300 million records between them. This new Sky Arts series will see them reflect on their remarkable journeys as they “embark on a joyous romp through the history of popular music”.
Coming to Sky Arts, Freeview Channel 36 and NOW in February
Masters of the Air
The producing dream team of Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks are back in action with what is being touted as a companion piece to Band of Brothers and The Pacific.
Based on Donald L Miller’s book of the same name, the eight-part Apple TV+ series follows the adventures of US Air Force officers during the Second World War.
The cast reads like a Who’s Who of red-hot Hollywood talent with Doctor Who star Ncuti Gatwa, Austin Butler of musical biopic Elvis fame and Barry Keoghan, whose recent role in Saltburn has helped propel his career even further into the stratosphere, among their number.
Coming to Apple TV+ from next Friday (January 26)
Shogun
An adaptation of James Clavell’s bestselling novel, Shogun is set in Japan as a 17th-century civil war unfolds. The 10-part series centres on Lord Yoshii Toranaga who is “fighting for his life as his enemies on the Council of Regents unite against him”.
The arrival of a mysterious European ship in a nearby fishing village, however, could help turn the tables in Toranaga’s favour when the vessel’s pilot John Blackthorne imparts some valuable secrets.
Coming to Disney+ from February 27
Alice & Jack
As on-screen pairings go, Andrea Riseborough and Domhnall Gleeson are a top-tier choice. Between them they have racked up a raft of mesmerising performances, including the heavily award-nominated Too Leslie and The Patient respectively.
Writer and director Victor Levin, whose past projects include Mad Men and Heels, has penned what is billed as an “honest, intimate, and surprisingly funny” love story about the power of connection and the myriad ways the unexpected twists of life can make or break that bond.
Coming soon to Channel 4
Expats
From Big Little Lies to The Undoing and Nine Perfect Strangers, Nicole Kidman has been at the forefront of a clutch of compelling TV dramas in recent years.
She looks set to continue in that vein with her role in Expats. The six-part Prime Video series is based on The Expatriates by Janice YK Lee and follows three American women in Hong Kong whose lives intertwine as they face tragedy, relationship cracks and attempt reinvention.
Coming to Prime Video from next Friday (January 26)
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