The best new TV dramas to start the year
Our pick of 6 top new dramas coming to our screens in January, plus earlier ones to catch up on that you might have missed.
Our pick of 6 top new dramas coming to our screens in January, plus earlier ones to catch up on that you might have missed.
The wrapping paper is recycled, the tree is down, and the feasting and merriment is done for another year. And we are confronted by a January stretching out seemingly endlessly before us.
But the cold, dark nights are the perfect opportunity to draw the curtains, dim the lights and curl up on the sofa with a riveting TV drama. And happily, there is a surfeit of them just now. Here are six of the best new ones, and six you may have missed in recent months.
It’s fully ten years since the first series of BBC One’s high-octane, cinematic John le Carré adaptation transfixed the nation – bad news for those of us who struggle to remember plot details from one day to the next.
Happily, season 1 is available on iPlayer for a much-needed refresher and has lost none of its lustre in the intervening decade.
Le Carré never wrote a sequel, so no follow-up was planned. But five years ago, the show’s creator, David Farr, had a vivid dream about where next to take his characters.
He awoke the next morning to learn that le Carré had died in the night aged 89.
Eight years on from the cataclysmic events of season one, Jonathan Pine (Tom Hiddleston) has switched careers from hotel night manager to low-level MI6 operative (pros: better hours, pension; cons: paperwork, higher chance of being executed).
But his comfortable life is thrown into chaos when he spots a figure from his past and begins to pick at a thread that leads to a group fomenting armed revolution in Colombia.
While the returning cast includes Alistair Petrie, Douglas Hodge, and the magnificent Olivia Colman, there is no word as to whether Hugh Laurie will reprise his Golden-Globe-winning turn as spectacularly evil arms dealer Richard Roper.
My guess – and fervent hope – is that we haven’t seen the last of him.
Simon Greene (James Nesbitt) has it all: a loving wife Ingrid (Minnie Driver), three kids, a great job and a beautiful home. Unfortunately for Simon, he inhabits the world of author Harlan Coben, where anyone with a happy life in the opening scenes is about to be plunged into an unthinkable nightmare.
For Simon, that nightmare begins when his eldest daughter Paige (Ellie de Lange) disappears.
As his frantic search starts to uncover some dark secrets (there are always dark secrets in Harlan Coben’s world), he learns he’s not the only one looking for Paige.
Private investigator Elena Ravenscroft (Ruth Jones) would also very much like to find her. Now the pair must figure out if they can trust one another and work together.
This eight-part thriller lands on New Year’s Day, the third year running that Netflix has launched a Coben miniseries on 1 January (after Fool Me Once in 2024 and Missing You in 2025).
The timing makes perfect sense: After the excesses of New Year’s Eve, nothing beats settling down for a tale full of unexpected plot twists that keep you guessing right up until the last scene.
If you ever find yourself on a mode of transport with Idris Elba, just get off. Don’t pause to grab your bags, your pets, or even beloved family members. Just. Get. Off. Because Elba, or at least his character Sam Nelson, seems to have a knack for finding himself in the midst of catastrophic hijackings.
The adrenaline-fuelled first season of Apple TV’s thriller saw Elba pick up an Emmy-nomination for his portrayal of a corporate negotiator forced to use his brokering skills – and fists – when his flight is seized by organised criminals.
The eight-episode second run sees Sam once again at the mercy of nefarious actors, this time on board the Berlin subway.
As a security team above ground races to work out who has taken control of the train, and why, Sam battles to save the lives of 200 passengers on board.
The returning cast includes Christine Adams, Max Beesley and Archie Panjabi, while there is the welcome addition of the incomparable Toby Jones, star of Mr Bates vs The Post Office.
The first two episodes drop on Apple TV on 14 January, followed by weekly additions thereafter. It’s brilliantly silly, addictive stuff. But next time, Sam, for goodness sakes, just take the car.
There’s never a wrong time to screen an Agatha Christie miniseries – which may be why only four of her 66 novels have not been adapted for TV.
But this month seems a particularly apposite piece of scheduling, as 12 January marks 50 years since the Queen of Crime died aged 85.
In recent years, we were often treated to a Christie at Christmas on BBC One, but this year the action moves to Netflix, with all three episodes landing on 15 January. Intriguingly, this adaptation comes from the pen of Chris Chibnall, the former Doctor Who showrunner and creative genius behind Broadchurch.
But purists need not worry – we won’t be seeing Daleks storming through the ornate stately homes or quaint tea rooms of interwar rural Britain.
Indeed, all the Christie tropes are alive and well here – the lavish country house, the roll call of glamorous but suspicious guests, a bizarrely elaborate death, and a quirky amateur sleuth.
When a practical joke at a house party goes fatally wrong, Lady Eileen “Bundle” Brent (Mia McKenna Bruce) steps in to investigate, aided by the redoubtable Lady Caterham (Helena Bonham Carter) and the solid Superintendent Battle (Martin Freeman).
If you’re yearning for an exquisitely plotted old-fashioned thriller with vicious verbal barbs replacing machineguns and explosions, look no further. Thanks for everything, Agatha.
This month Netflix continues its relentless march to global domination, following up New Year’s Day’s launch of the final episode of Stranger Things by ending the month with another of its colossally successful televisual behemoths, the regency bodice-ripper Bridgerton.
It's almost two years since the show’s third series aired, racking up more than 106 million views, making it the broadcaster’s second-biggest original series of 2024.
As ever, the new season – once again adapted from Julia Quinn’s book series – will primarily focus on the romantic shenanigans of one of the eight Bridgerton siblings.
This time, it’s the turn of perennial wallflower Benedict (Luke Thompson) to take centre stage.
When Benedict meets the mysterious Lady in Silver hiding behind a mask at a masquerade ball, he is instantly bewitched.
But he also finds himself increasingly drawn to a ladies’ maid, Sophie Baek (Yerin Ha) – unaware that the two objects of his ardour are one and the same.
The first four episodes are available from 29 January, but we have to wait until 26 February for the second four. How will we all cope?
I feel a despairing swoon coming on. Bring me a fan, a glass of punch and a brocaded chaise longue immediately.
The intellectual Inspector Morse and the down-to-earth Sergeant Lewis; brash American James Dempsey and his urbane counterpart Harriet Makepeace; maverick genius Sherlock Holmes and solidly dependable Dr Watson: mismatched detective duos are a familiar trope, but rarely used to better effect than in BBC One’s new adaptation of Elizabeth George’s Lynley novels.
Tommy Lynley (Leo Suter) is not your average copper. Eton-and-Oxford-educated, and heir to an earldom, he wasn’t so much born with a silver spoon in his mouth as with a whole diamond-encrusted cutlery set in his privileged gob.
So when he is paired with no-nonsense, working-class detective sergeant Barbara Havers (Sofia Barclay), sparks inevitably fly.
But, wouldn’t you know it, amidst the barbs and cynical asides, the pair form a grudging respect, forged by their shared commitment to justice and the truth.
While the premise may sound a trifle hackneyed, the pair’s complex working relationship unfolds with gratifying depth over four standalone 90-minute episodes.
Twenty-five years ago, a previous adaptation, The Inspector Lynley Mysteries, starring Nathaniel Parker and Sharon Small, garnered a significant following and ran for six years.
The BBC will be hoping for similar success with this new iteration, and with two charismatic leads, some zippy dialogue, and George’s gripping, labyrinthine plots, they seem to be on to a winner.
When Marissa Irvine (Sarah Snook) goes to pick up her five-year-old son Milo from a playdate, the woman who answers the door has never heard of him. So begins a riveting eight-part thriller that tackles themes of gender politics, psychological trauma, addiction and corruption.
The superb Snook is ably abetted by Dakota Fanning, Sophia Lillis, Jake Lacy and Michael Peña.
Grieving author Aggie Wiggs (Claire Danes) has writer’s block following the death of her young son four years ago. When real estate developer Niles Jarvis (Matthew Rhys), suspected of murdering his first wife, moves in next door, she decides to interview him for a book telling his side of the infamous case.
So begins a hugely tense eight-part psychological thriller heavy with menace.
Writer Sally Wainwright achieved national treasure status with Last Tango in Halifax and Happy Valley, and this six-part drama is shot through with her trademark humour and pathos. Joanna Scanlan, Lorraine Ashbourne, and an electrifying Rosalie Craig play members of a newly formed rock band of menopausal women who are sick of being ignored and overlooked.
A beautifully written, immaculately performed howl of rage.
This eight-part series from Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan has an astonishingly ambitious premise: an alien virus has transformed humanity into a blissfully contented hive-mind… apart from Carol Sturka (Rhea Seehorn), a writer from Albuquerque, who sets about trying to reverse the virus’ effects.
Funny and disturbing in equal parts, this is TV of genuine originality and courage.
When schoolteacher Cushla (Lola Petticrew) meets barrister Michael (Tom Cullen) while working in her brother’s pub, Cupid’s arrow strikes home. But this is 1970s Belfast, and Cushla is catholic, while Michael is married, protestant, and a controversial human-rights lawyer. Based on Louise Kennedy’s acclaimed novel, this four-part drama is as unbearably tense as it is profoundly moving.
As an added bonus, Gillian Anderson is in electrifying form as Cushla’s alcoholic mother Gina.
The dreadful ordeal of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe (Narges Rashidi), imprisoned for six years by Iranian authorities on trumped-up espionage charges, may be grimly familiar to readers, but the heartbreaking details of the case will not.
This four-part series, based on a forthcoming book by Nazanin and her husband, Richard Radcliffe (played here by Joseph Fiennes), reveals the emotional toll taken by this Kafkaesque ordeal, and the diplomatic buffoonery that allowed it to happen.
Hero image credit: Apple TV
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