It was very British of us to expect the UK version of the long-running American sketch show to flop – and thank goodness we were wrong. actor Freddie Meredith joins the cast for a hotly anticipated second series – I wonder if he’s been drafted in to play Andy Burnham, who was not PM but simply the mayor of Manchester last time was on.

Rather than tracking down dodgy MI5 spies or KGB killers, the Slow Horses find themselves on the run in this new series of the best spy drama on TV (if not in history). Thanks to deputy director general of MI5, Diana Taverner, Slough House boss Jackson Lamb must protect his “Joes” from an unknown assailant hell-bent on revenge. Oh, and bad guy Frank Harness is back. What could possibly go wrong?

MobLand series two

Conrad and Maeve Harrigan (Pierce Brosnan and Helen Mirren) are out of prison and back to their old gangster ways – much to the dismay of their son Kevin (Paddy Considine), who, in their absence, had already cast himself as leader of the Harrigan crime family. It makes their fixer Harry De Souza’s (Tom Hardy) job of protecting them all the more difficult, almost making his troubled marriage look like a walk in the park.

We haven’t seen Sharon Horgan star in one of her own creations since the excellent but now she’s back on our screens in a brand-new series – and it’s one of her very best. She plays Alex, a menopausal divorcee who, between parenting her immature son and looking after her elderly parents, has let her love life fall by the wayside. Until now, as Alex is determined to embark on a sexual reawakening.

Dani Dyer, Dame Sarah Storey, Shaun Wright-Phillips and Jaime Winstone are just some of the famous faces who will be putting on their dancing shoes this year – but they won’t be the stars of the show. That honour falls to the new presenting trio of Emma Willis, Josh Widdicombe and Johannes Radebe, who have the unenviable job of ushering in a new era of . No pressure.

What would happen if Russia attacked the UK? That’s a question that the government has had to reckon with over the last few months, and the central crux of this week-long series, which has a fairly astonishing-sounding premise. Instead of actors, the situation will be played out by politicians – including Michael Gove, Nicola Sturgeon and Harriet Harman – military leaders and intelligence chiefs in a realistic COBR-style crisis room. Is it an overblown reality series or – as Sky is calling it – a “constructed documentary series”? That remains to be seen.

The Great British Bake Off

’s not the only show entering a new era. is also changing up the ingredients this year, with Dame Prue Leith out and Nigella Lawson in as judge. There’ve been rumours that Lawson and long-serving judge Paul Hollywood didn’t get on during filming, but I’m not sure how much credence I give such gossip – what’s there to be so miserable about in a tent full of cake? Anyway, contestants include a drag king, a politics student and a doctor.

East of Eden

We don’t often see her as a villain, but Florence Pugh is the much-maligned Cathy Ames in this sweeping adaptation of John Steinbeck’s 1952 novel. Unlike the book, Netflix’s version of the story of the Trask family is told from Cathy’s perspective as she drives a wedge between warring brothers Adam (Christopher Abbott) and Charles (Mike Faist). Expect an epic – some might say even biblical – tale of inherited trauma and the push and pull of good vs evil.

The most exciting thing about this upcoming thriller isn’t seeing Catherine Zeta-Jones take down bad guys – it’s the fact that she’s doing it while speaking with her native Welsh accent. She is the eponymous Jackie, a former cocaine dealer who is enjoying her retirement in the lap of luxury. That is until she finds out a team of the world’s best assassins have been hired to take her out and Jackie realises she only has one option: kill them before they kill her.

Dominic West and Sienna Miller are heading to war in this new drama from and writer George Kay. Not on the battlefield, but in the courtroom as tech magnate Morgan Henderson and his soon-to-be ex-wife and film star Carla Duval. The pair have hired rival law firms to represent one another, making an already bitter separation even nastier.

Friday 2 October, Sky One and Now

Mike Flanagan has proved himself a master of horror with The Haunting of Hill House and so it’s especially exciting that he’s recreating Stephen King’s classic 1974 novel. For those who haven’t read it (or seen the blood-soaked film), it follows misfit schoolgirl Carrie, who discovers she has telekinetic powers following her father’s death. Driven to the edge of sanity by her bullies and her overbearing mother, she ends up wreaking havoc.

Last One Laughing: Halloween Special

is one of the best new comedy formats I’ve seen since started all the way back in 2015. Who knew not laughing could be so hilarious? In this Halloween-themed four-part series, Daisy May Cooper and Lou Sanders return to see if they can last longer than they did in the first series, alongside Jack Dee, Reece Shearsmith, Phil Wang, Harriet Dyer, and Tom Allen.

Stephen Graham’s presence is usually a sign of a decent series. In this crime drama he plays devious, terrifying imprisoned serial killer Jurek Walter. As the cops search for the body of Jurek’s final victim, homicide detective Jonah Lynn (Liev Schreiber) comes up with a dangerous plan – to send his own FBI agent daughter undercover to get closer to the murderer and extract information.

Based on Elizabeth Day’s 2017 novel of the same name, this thriller thrusts us into the clandestine world of Britain’s elite. The party in question is the 40^th birthday of Ben Fitzmaurice (Tom Cullen), a politician with plans to become the next leader of the Tory party. But when he gets into an altercation with an old school friend, a deadly secret threatens to upend his entire privileged life.

Set 50 years after the film sequel of the original this eight-part sci-fi spectacular follows Cora (Hunter Schafer), a woman who has lived many lives and assumed many identities. Now working as a blade runner hunting down dissenting replicas (fake humans, who are stronger and more influential than in previous iterations), Cora and her partner Olwen (who happens to be a replicant, played by Michelle Yeoh) track down a runaway with the power to destroy the fragile, recently rebuilt city of LA.

Rivals series two part two

A new batch of episodes is the perfect antidote to colder weather and darker days. No spoilers for anyone not up to date, but part two of the second series will pick up after the death that closed the last episode. Tony Baddingham is only getting meaner and more ruthless in the battle for Corinium’s franchise. Elsewhere, it looks as though Taggie and Rupert will finally get together – though I doubt it will be an easy road.

Pride and Prejudice

Do we need another adaptation of Austen’s most dissected novel? Netflix certainly thinks so, and it’s drafted in the big leagues. Everything I Know About Love author Dolly Alderton has written the script, while Emma Corrin and Jack Lowden are the lovelorn leads. But perhaps the biggest coup is Olivia Colman, who will play Mrs Bennet – a character Elizabeth famously describes as a woman of “mean understanding, little information, and an uncertain temper”.

This City Is Ours series two

After the dramatic climax of series one, we saw Michael and a pregnant Diana (breakout star James Nelson Joyce and Hannah Onslow) hightail it to Spain to escape their gangster life. But that was never going to last for long, was it? The arrival of Colombian cartel member Felipe – brother to the recently murdered Ricardo – pulls Michael back to Liverpool and back into the murky world of drug trafficking.

In this drama adapted by Caroline O’Donoghue from her 2023 novel of the same name, student Rachel (Máiréad Tyers) sets her sights on an inappropriate relationship with her married university lecturer Fred (Daniel Ings). With the help of her housemate James (Ellis Howard), she sets up a book launch for Fred at the shop she works at, hoping to kick-start a romance. But the resulting relationship ends up a lot more complicated than she imagined.

The producer of this new police procedural has compared it to , thanks to its “extraordinarily complex central female character”. The woman in question is Emma Crane (Michelle Keegan), a detective inspector who – alongside her colleague DI Tom Radley (Douglas Booth) – is tasked with solving the murder of a 16-year-old figure skater. But when her suspicions turn towards her own force, Emma uncovers a disturbing culture of misogyny and abuse.

just can’t stay away. This new spin-off introduces us to the Kishan family, who – like the Defoes before them – are also divorce lawyers, helping the rich and powerful settle their disputes. Patriarch Dhruv (Sanjeev Bhaskar) is preparing to retire, but he’s worried that his daughter Aria (Ritu Arya) isn’t ready to take on the business – not least because her complicated love life keeps interfering with her work.

Aside from his work with Ernie Wise, Eric Morecambe was also a novelist and this new comedy is based on his stories written in the early 80s. If that’s not enough to tempt you, the series itself is written by the blokes behind Alan Partridge and stars the excellent Lenny Rush as Val, a young boy who – despite growing up in a traditional vampire family – discovers he isn’t undead at all.

Ever wondered what really goes on behind the door of the most famous address in the country? Of course you have – and so has writer Steven Moffatt. He casts Rafe Spall as prime minister, Katherine Kelly as chief of staff, and Jenna Coleman as her deputy in this imagining of the inner workings of 10 Downing Street, from the man who fixes the perennially broken lift to the ambitious, backstabbing advisers. It’ll be fictional, but the problems will be all too real.

There’s a lot to live up to for the second series of – last year’s finale which saw Traitor Alan Carr take the win by the skin of his teeth was the TV moment of the year. This time, Miranda Hart, Ross Kemp, Richard E Grant, Maya Jama and Michael Sheen are among the Traitors and Faithfuls, and with promises of “off the scale” paranoia and “tears”, it’s shaping up to be another unmissable series.

Fans of Danny Robins might recognise this ghost story – it first came to life as a BBC podcast written by the host. This TV version of the paranormal cold case stars Gabrielle Creevy and Michael Socha as Bill and Liz, a couple who move to South Wales in the late 80s. Before long, strange figures start appearing in their farmhouse and inexplicable disturbances start to occur. The creepiest part? It’s all based on testimony from the real Bill and Liz.

It’s time to head back to Belfast, where peelers Grace (Siân Brooke), Stevie (Martin McCann), and Annie (Katherine Devlin) are three years into life in the police. Details of what crimes they’ll be tackling are being kept under wraps for now, but we do know that we’ll be seeing the return of seasoned copper Gerry (Richard Dormer) – an intriguing development, considering we saw him die in the very first series… I smell a flashback episode.

David Harewood is a criminally underrated actor – though perhaps that’s all about to change with the introduction of Pierre, a duty solicitor with an unwavering appetite for justice. Assigned to the case of Michael, a young Black man who dies under suspicious circumstances, Pierre sets out to challenge the portrait of his client as a dangerous criminal – and uncovers a web of institutional corruption in the process.

No prizes for guessing what this drama is about. and writer Danny Brocklehurst has created this series exploring what happens when two married people (not to each other) can’t resist romance on the side. It all kicks off when 15-year-old Jess starts going out with her schoolmate Ollie – and their parents Tom (Dominic Cooper) and Beth (Romola Garai) decide to risk it all for an intense, all-consuming affair.

I’ve been waiting for a new series from Daisy Haggard since 2019’s darkly hilarious Back to Life. As well as writing she plays the title character’s mother Anne as both of them are forced into witness protection from a dangerous threat. But as Anne and Maya (Bella Ramsey) attempt to settle into their new rural lives, hitmen turn up to take them out – proof that they’re not as safe as they thought they were.

No, not the season, but an eccentric forensic pathologist, Dr Ethan Winter (Richard Armitage). Set in Bristol, this traditional procedural follows Winter and his detective sidekick DI Lauren Bell (Annabel Scholey) as they solve a murder case per episode. It all sounds delightfully old school – perhaps because it’s based on the French series which has been on TV for almost a decade.

The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13¾

Sue Townsend’s iconic diarist has been on television before, when Julie Walters played Adrian’s mother in ITV’s 1985 version. Excitingly, the BBC’s iteration is written by David Nicholls (author of and ), and the role of Adrian will be played by Bafta-nominated Oliver Savell, who you’ll recognise as the young Alan Carr in the brilliant . Multi-coloured ballpoint pens at the ready…

Time series three

Can Jimmy McGovern strike gold for a third time with his excellent and bracing prison series? It’s looking that way, with Siobhan Finneran reprising her role as prison chaplain Marie-Louise, who has a new job at a young offenders’ institute after losing her faith. Also working there is Bailey (David Tennant), a prison officer who clashes with Marie-Louise when tragedy strikes within the prison walls.

Dominic Savage’s anthology is some of the most arresting television of the last decade. In this latest episode, Nicola Coughlan (who, as is tradition for the leads, developed the story alongside Savage) plays a woman whose partner (Joe Cole) falls under the spell of the manosphere. Toxic masculinity, male aggression, the pressures put on women – and the effect these problems have on romantic relationships – are all put under the microscope.