The essential digest of all that’s worth watching in 2026 sees the licentious pleasures of Rivals season 2 sitting alongside the visceral traumas of Half Man, while those looking to leaven their viewing with laughs can do so with the second outing for superior cringe comedy Amandaland.
New documentaries, meanwhile, shed light on such diverse issues as the privations of the Blitz and the malign messaging of the manosphere.
So, read on for a guide that will undoubtedly suit all cultural palettes, as selected by Radio Times’s team of expert reviewers.
1. Half Man
How do you follow a discomfiting drama like Baby Reindeer? If you’re Richard Gadd, you create an even more dysfunctional relationship than stalker-victim and chart its damaged anatomy with a pathologist’s diligence. And so Half Man focuses on the toxic codependency between de facto stepbrothers Ruben (Gadd) and Niall (Jamie Bell). There will be blood.
Can a drama be unmissable and unwatchable? Half Man is certainly unmissable. Richard Gadd’s follow-up to Baby Reindeer, in which he explored his experiences of being stalked and sexually assaulted, shares a conceit with its predecessor – what happens when someone, an apparently unstoppable force, suddenly decides to hijack your life?
It tackles similar themes, too – that of co- dependency, of shame and denial, of complicity in one’s own abuse. But Half Man, charting the toxic relationship between mild-mannered Niall (Jamie Bell and Mitchell Robertson as young Niall) and violent Ruben (Gadd and Stuart Campbell as young Ruben) over 25 years, is a bigger, more ambitious, darker drama.
And this is where it starts to get unwatchable. Because the show isn’t just dark, it’s bleak. With its focus on male sexual repression, the corrosive consequences of sexual abuse, and self-loathing so suffocating that just observing it feels like drowning, it’s also revoltingly violent. All of which makes it rather traumatic instead of enjoyable.
Undoubtedly very good, the drama also showcases Gadd’s unflinching eye and steely nerve as a writer. For viewers in possession of the same – and the rest of us girding our loins – this show will be among this year’s most captivating viewing experiences. Gareth McLean
- Where to watch in the UK: BBC iPlayer
- Where to watch in the US: HBO Max
2. Widow’s Bay
Matthew Rhys rarely puts a foot wrong and, although it’s not his normal fare, he lands another winner as the lead in Katie Dippold’s very funny comedy-horror. The manic intensity that tends to bubble inside Rhys characters now fuels a faultless comic turn as Tom Loftis, the perpetually thwarted mayor of Widow’s Bay. Beset by lazy, eccentric underlings, Loftis wants to turn this slightly dilapidated island community into a tourist destination for north-eastern Americans, to rival Martha’s Vineyard or Cape Cod – and he has a newspaper travel writer arriving today to write the place up. Just one problem: could today also be the dawn of “the terror”, an ancient curse manifested in a smothering fog that steals mortals’ souls?
With Rhys superb as the only sane man in whichever room he walks into – or at least, that’s what Mayor Tom thinks – the fact that the idiot locals’ daft superstitions might well be correct cleverly adds another layer to a reliable comic set-up. Tom wants to control the world around him, but Widow’s Bay has a mind of its own. Jack Seale
- Where to watch in the UK: Apple TV
- Where to watch in the US: Apple TV
3. Dear England
According to James Graham, the worst thing he could have done when adapting his Olivier Award-winning play Dear England – about how Gareth Southgate transformed the fortunes of the England football team after being appointed manager in 2016 – would have been just “to put the play on screen, but set some scenes outside and think that would make it cinematic”. Instead, as he tells RT, he has rewritten the stage play to make the most of what he describes as “the strengths of screen – intimacy, interiority, naturalism and authenticity”.
Happily, one element endures from the theatrical version – and that’s Joseph Fiennes’s uncanny resemblance to and brilliant performance as Gareth Southgate.
In the first episode, he manoeuvres himself from caretaker manager to manager of the England team by charming the FA’s Greg Dyke (played with panto relish by Jason Watkins). With big plans, Southgate inherits a squad broken by a humiliating defeat. Now he just has to convince them that to be strong, they need to show their vulnerability… Gareth McLean
- Where to watch in the UK: BBC iPlayer
- Where to watch in the US: N/A
4. Star City
Although this stellar new thriller is a prequel and spin-off to Apple TV epic For All Mankind (the fifth season of which ends this week, see right), no prior knowledge is needed to enjoy this alt-history epic, where secrecy and surveillance collide.
Set in the 1970s, it asks what would have happened had the Soviets not only won the Space Race but then continued venturing into the stars. Anna Maxwell Martin and Rhys Ifans are two sides of the same coin: she as the ruthless head of KGB intelligence, tasked with uncovering any small act that may jeopardise the Soviet Union; he as the shadowy Chief Designer – the brains behind the space programme and the man who must remain shrouded in mystery.
There’s some crossover between the two starry Apple series, as we’re re-introduced to younger versions of For All Mankind’s Sergei Nikulov and Irina Morozova, and thanks to its focus on standout characters like Adam Nagaitis’s cosmonaut Valya and his wife Tanya (Ruby Ashbourne Serkis), a show that could have been abjectly bleak also offers up a huge amount of heart. But perhaps most absorbing are the moments plucked from Soviet history, such as the state arranging marriages for its cosmonauts in a bid to control them, and missions landing off-course in Siberia’s wilderness. Sometimes, reality is more astonishing than fiction. Louise Griffin
- Where to watch in the UK: Apple TV
- Where to watch in the US: Apple TV
5. The Pitt
This highly lauded medical procedural aired in the US over a year ago and now — having already won best drama at the Emmys and Golden Globes — finally arrives in the UK. With actor Noah Wyle front and centre and back in scrubs, it might appear like ER 2.0. But where that show thrived on the relationships between its doctors, The Pitt is more concerned with staff members’ relationships with the system they work inside.
The structure is a case in point. Set in the emergency room of a Pittsburgh hospital, each episode covers a single hour of the same shift, a device that results in the series becoming an increasingly insistent pulse of pressures and crises, many of which are closing in on attending physician Dr Michael “Robby” Robinavitch (Wyle).
He’s someone who, on the surface, appears battle-hardened, but it soon becomes clear that Robby is still feeling the aftershocks of the pandemic, his PTSD making its presence felt moments of fatigue and frustration. – David Brown
- Where to watch in the UK: HBO Max
- Where to watch in the US: HBO Max
6. Power: The Downfall of Huw Edwards
The risk with a project such as this is that it exploits a traumatic situation for entertainment or humanises Huw Edwards to the point where it feels like mitigation. Thankfully, the focus here is less on any remorse Edwards may have felt after his fall from grace and more on the controlling grip the former BBC newsreader — played with quiet menace by Martin Clunes — exerted over 17-year-old boy.
The result is a stark study in the imbalance of power, with vulnerable youngster Ryan (Osian Morgan) depicted as someone caught in the psychological leverage Edwards wielded as an influential public figure. Clunes’s casting also works to the drama’s advantage. Widely associated with warm roles, he brings a subtle symbolism to the part. Edwards himself once presided over moments of national solemnity, as we see in a re-creation of his announcement of the death of Queen Elizabeth II. Watching a similarly familiar figure portray this only sharpens the point about the speed with which trust can collapse. – David Brown
- Where to watch in the UK: 5
- Where to watch in the US: N/A
7. Amandaland
Sitcom spin-offs that bring side characters into their own world don’t always work – just look at the likes of Joey or The Cleveland Show – but sometimes, there is a Frasier. And Amandaland falls into the latter camp, matching and often surpassing its (ahem) parent show Motherland in both laughs and ratings for its first series and Christmas special last year.
It’s not hard to see why. In some ways, Amandaland works more cleanly as a sitcom than the grounded, ensemble piece Motherland ever did, with Lucy Punch’s failed influencer the kind of deluded, ridiculous figure that great comedy is built around. She’s the David Brent of South Harlesden, the Hyacinth Bouquet of the Instagram grid. Watching her missteps you laugh, you cringe… but sometimes, a little bit of you celebrates her (few) victories as well.
That said, victories are in short supply in this opening episode, where Amanda’s jealousy towards a new rival (played by Big Boys’ Harriet Webb) leads her into a mortifying (and hilarious) display at a school careers day. Huw Fullerton
- Where to watch in the UK: BBC iPlayer
- Where to watch in the US: N/A
8. Two Weeks in August
Zoe (Jessica Raine) is taking her family on holiday but, from the taxi ride to the villa onwards, we can see that this is anything but a relaxing getaway. As the car hurtles down the dusty roads of a beautiful Greek island, Zoe looks after the kids while her other half Dan (Damien Molony) sits pale and anxious in the back. The couple are on their way to meet a group of their friends, most of whom have partners in tow, and none of whom are much more content than Zoe and Dan. The first night of the break is a dinner and pool party at which more than one awful secret comes out; after that, the group’s decision to take a boat trip the next day seems positively reckless. This trip is going to haunt them.
Catherine Shepherd’s austere drama takes its time to draw us in, with a script that isn’t afraid to include plenty of extended two-handers between characters who have a lot of stress and regret to unload. So far the result is easier to admire than it is enjoy, but the island seems to have plenty more in store for the visitors, none of it pleasant. Jack Seale
- Where to watch in the UK: BBC iPlayer
- Where to watch in the US: N/A
9. Babies
In this six-part drama, writer Stefan Golaszewski painfully captures every moment of what can be a fraught and emotional journey to parenthood. Stephen (Paapa Essiedu) and Lisa (Siobhán Cullen) are happily married but keen to start a family. Stephen’s friend Dave (Jack Bannon) has a child by an earlier relationship, but has recently fallen for the composed and unemotional Amanda (Charlotte Riley).
Superb performances from the leads coupled with Golaszewski’s writing (he penned the acutely observed sitcom Him & Her, as well as the bittersweet Mum) perfectly sum up what it’s like to experience the volatile emotions of loss, grief, hope, love and despair, while all around life continues as normal. – Jane Rackham
- Where to watch in the UK: BBC iPlayer
- Where to watch in the US: N/A
10. Your Friends and Neighbours
Jon Hamm returns as the most Jon Hamm-y character ever conceived: Coop, a whisky-sippin’, womanising smoothie who is secretly so disillusioned with life in a super- privileged community of financiers and their wives, he’s taken to earning a living by breaking into his friends’ mansions and stealing from them. Now James Marsden arrives as Owen Ashe, a man whose confidence and wealth is a bit much, even for Coop and co: he’s certain to threaten Coop’s secret in some way, but initially we’re more concerned with Coop’s ex-wife Mel (Amanda Peet), the soul of the show, whose attempts to return to dating soon falter. As for Coop’s illicit new career, it’s not easy being a cat burglar when you’re 50 and you’ve got a bad back… – Jack Seale
- Where to watch in the UK: Apple TV
- Where to watch in the US: Apple TV
11. Malcolm in the Middle: Life’s Still Unfair
From 2000 to 2006, Malcolm in the Middle was a cheerfully anarchic series following boy genius Malcolm (Frankie Muniz) and his antisocial family. It was a big hit that ended pretty well, which means that it’s now getting the inevitable reboot treatment. In the intervening years, Bryan Cranston (who played sappy, kind-hearted dad Hal) has become a huge star, winning awards and plaudits for roles in Breaking Bad and Oscar-nominated movies.
As a result, seeing him flailing around on screen again (and showing off quite a lot of himself in a hair-raising, body-shaving scene) feels a little odd, albeit serving as a reminder that his comic powers are perhaps even greater than his dramatic abilities. Anyway, to the story. Twenty years on from the finale, we join a house divided. While Malcolm hasn’t quite achieved the fate foretold for him in the original series finale – becoming President of the United States – he’s managed to find a romantic partner and bring up a daughter, mostly because he’s finally cut off his “toxic” family for good. Or so he thinks, because it’s not long until his two worlds collide and poor old Malcolm has to deal with the usual calamities. – Huw Fullerton
- Where to watch in the UK: Disney+
- Where to watch in the US: Hulu
It’s not hard to work out how Neil Forsyth’s new thriller got commissioned. Forsyth wrote The Gold, the BBC’s excellent drama based on the 1983 Brink’s-Mat robbery. So, said Netflix: got any more true stories about seedy organised crime from around the same time that you can draw on to repeat the trick? Forsyth has delivered with a dramatisation of an outlandish scheme UK customs officials came up with in 1990, amid political pressure to stop heroin imports: they sent ambitious customs officers with no experience of field work under cover to infiltrate trafficking gangs.
Steve Coogan is in his element as Don, a damaged but still driven veteran of clandestine stings who trains up a crack unit of officers to live in Liverpool and London, on rough estates and in the Turkish immigrant community respectively. As they embark on a mission that could end in violent death if the slightest error is made, Forsyth’s skill for paring narrative down to just the fun parts makes Legends irresistible: every scene is tense, funny or both at once, and the sense of Thatcher’s Britain as a place defined by grubby, brutal dysfunction is intoxicating. – Jack Seale
- Where to watch in the UK: Netflix
- Where to watch in the US: Netflix
13. Miriam Margolyes Made Me Me
Simon Draper intended to make a podcast with Miriam Margolyes, whom he met when he directed an amusing documentary about a Florida retirement home with her. For two years he filmed her on his phone – there’s lots of wobbly footage as evidence – starting with a recording of her talking to her friend Sally Phillips. Eventually he realised the footage he captured was so wonderful that he decided to use it for a TV film instead. And he was right.
At the start Miriam says “I don’t want to be just a foul-mouthed, farty old lady because I know I’m more than that” but she’s as honest, outrageous, raucous and wickedly funny as we know her to be, whether she’s talking about her weight, her finances, death or her dodgy bladder.
However, she is also a terrific actress and a wonderfully warm person who is shocked by the love and adoration she gets from an audience. “In my early 80s, I’ve not only become disabled, but I’ve become more popular. I don’t know what to do about that!” I suggest you keep on doing what you’re doing, Miriam. – Jane Rackham
- Where to watch in the UK: BBC iPlayer
- Where to watch in the US: N/A
14. Beef season 2
Having scored a hit in 2023 with the story of two strangers who are involved in a road-rage incident, writer Lee Sung Jin’s withering comedy drama returns for a new season with all new characters. The second tale leans harder into the subtext, which is ordinary people plagued by anxiety and anger caused by modern, capitalist America: when a young couple who work at a posh country club (Cailee Spaeny and Charles Melton) film the older couple who manage the place (Carey Mulligan and Oscar Isaac) having a violent row, they see a chance to lift themselves out of poverty.
But their middle-class targets are also employees at the end of their tethers – and when the warring quartet collectively cross swords with people who have a lot more money, everyone plunges into a crisis that steadily, giddily escalates. – Jack Seale
- Where to watch in the UK: Netflix
- Where to watch in the US: Netflix
15. Waiting for the Out
There is layer upon layer of satisfying dramatic sophistication in this new series by the playwright Dennis Kelly, whose eclectic TV CV consists of the Sharon Horgan sitcom Pulling, startling Channel 4 conspiracy thriller Utopia and the Jude Law-led folk horror The Third Day. This is much more what you’d expect from a writer known mostly for theatre, since it includes long, talky scenes set in the prison philosophy classes led by Dan (Josh Finan), a clever but nervous young man whose troubled background has left him with obsessive behaviours and a limited capacity to cope with adulthood.
As Dan’s class of prisoners challenge his attempts to school them on Locke, Descartes and the rest – either because they don’t have any knowledge of academic philosophy, or because they do – the conversations shape Dan as much as they do the inmates. Kelly’s deft, wise script is equalled by a lead performance from Finan – so good in The Responder and Say Nothing, and grabbing a bigger chance here – that delicately brings all of Dan’s vulnerability and strength to life. Waiting for the Out will tickle your brain in a way that few dramas can. – Jack Seale
- Where to watch in the UK: BBC iPlayer
- Where to watch in the US: N/A
16. A Thousand Blows season 2
One of last year’s best dramas was already back in 2026 for a second season, but now with two of its three central characters beginning the new run in the doldrums. East London in the 1880s, one year on from where we left it, is a harsh environment for Jamaican immigrant Hezekiah (Malachi Kirby) and the former king of the bareknuckle boxing scene, Sugar (Stephen Graham).
But as before, their existences are shaken up by Mary (an unstoppable performance by the brilliant Erin Doherty), the leader of all-female pickpocket gang the Forty Elephants. Her new plan of action pitches them all back into that familiar Thousand Blows world of street menace, cruel hard luck and a sense that this is a time where, for the ambitious, anything is possible. – Jack Seale
- Where to watch in the UK: Disney+
- Where to watch in the US: Hulu
17. Heated Rivalry
If you’re under the age of, say, 25, you’ll have heard plenty about this Canadian drama already – and perhaps seen videos on social media of people “reacting” to the instantly notorious “shower scene”. It’s the story, told across a number of years beginning in 2008, of young ice hockey stars Shane Hollander (Hudson Williams) and Ilya Rozanov (Connor Storrie), whose rivalry becomes the dominant narrative in press coverage of the Major League. What fans and reporters don’t know is that the Canadian and the Russian are embarking on a torrid, halting love affair behind the scenes.
Yes, there are a lot of sex scenes, but this is something much more than trash titillation: commentators have applauded the way the show deals with the affair itself – one participant is more at home with their sexuality than the other – and the different strains of homophobia in both Russia and the West. – Jack Seale
- Where to watch in the UK: Sky and NOW
- Where to watch in the US: HBO Max
18. Industry season 4
When Industry started in 2020, you wouldn’t have put money on a drama about grift in high finance making it to a fourth season. It was great – and still is. But the dialogue is like a cryptic crossword, the characters rarely likeable and most episodes have at least one scene that smacks you in the face with a bedroom kink or humiliation.
It turns out there’s a market for that. Industry has grown and grown. The tone is as spiky as ever, but with our ensemble of City traders now scattered. Harper is running a short fund but (as in every previous job) hamstrung by people who aren’t as smart as her. Her former boss, Eric, is playing golf on a course where “47” (ie President Trump) is blocking his path. And heiress Yasmin is now installed as Lady Yasmin Muck. (The series likes Dickensian names.) The opening episode introduces new characters tussling over a payment app called Tender, whose CEO at one point orders a cocktail “bone dry and cold as space”. It could be the motto of the series. – David Butcher
- Where to watch in the UK: BBC iPlayer
- Where to watch in the US: HBO Max
19. Agatha Christie’s Seven Dials
This is Agatha Christie on high-spirited form, her 1920s-set story of Bright Young Things dicing with danger more similar in tone to Why Didn’t They Ask Evans? than to any of the traditional mysteries featuring Miss Marple or Poirot for which she’s best remembered.
Light on clue-finding but strong on a sense of youthful adventure, it takes its wilful aristocratic heroine Lady Eileen “Bundle” Brent (a well-cast Mia McKenna Bruce) on a caper from a country estate to a shady London nightclub as she pursues a murderer with possible links to the worlds of espionage and secret societies.
If all this sounds too far-fetched to be credible, then the same thought must have struck screenwriter Chris Chibnall (Broadchurch, Doctor Who) who, following a slightly sedate opening hour, leans increasingly into the romping, light-heartedness of the plot. In this endeavour, he has able assistance from Helena Bonham Carter (as Bundle’s sardonic mother Lady Caterham) and Martin Freeman (playing dry, wry Superintendent Battle) – both actors pitching their performances just the right side of parody. – David Brown
- Where to watch in the UK: Netflix
- Where to watch in the US: Netflix
20. Hijack season 2
To find yourself embroiled in one high-stakes hostage situation would be considered ill fortune. But for it to happen a second time… well, that sounds like a huge contrivance. But lightning-strikes-twice syndrome never did Die Hard or Under Siege any real harm. And to be fair to Idris Elba, this fresh outing for Hijack does find a credible and surprising reason for immersing his business negotiator turned action man Sam Nelson in more mayhem.
The setting the last time around was a flight from Dubai to London, whereas here Sam is trapped on the Berlin underground rail network with increasingly nervy commuters and tourists. With trips on planes having already proven dangerous and trains now appearing equally perilous, Sam would surely be wise to also stay away from automobiles in any future third season. – David Brown
- Where to watch in the UK: Apple TV
- Where to watch in the US: Apple TV
21. Believe Me
It’s the early hours of the morning. A young woman takes a black cab home after a night out, the friendly driver tells her he’s had a win at the casino and invites her to celebrate with him. Insisting she has a drink, the female passenger accepts it out of politeness. Unbeknown to her she has been drugged, and she falls unconscious. The following morning, horrifying details of how the driver sexually assaulted her start to come back.
This was the ordeal endured by the numerous victims of prolific sex attacker John Worboys (played here with nuanced menace by Daniel Mays). Dubbed ‘the black cab rapist’, he preyed on vulnerable women for years, but his crimes went undetected for far too long. Jeff Pope’s shocking four-part drama tells how the system failed Worboys’s victims, who felt the authorities didn’t investigate thoroughly, and that they simply weren’t believed.
The first episode focuses on Sarah Adams (an empathetic Aimee Ffion-Edwards), whose claims are dismissed in 2003 due to lack of evidence. And are the Metropolitan Police doing enough? Johnathon Hughes
- Where to watch in the UK: ITVX
- Where to watch in the US: N/A
22. Children of the Blitz
“You carry the consequences with you for ever,” says Gill, remembering the intense bombing of Coventry when she was a child. She is one of a dozen or so interviewees gathered here to explain what it was like in 1940 to be in British towns and cities as they were devastated by the Luftwaffe.
The cumulative effect of the stories is knotty and powerful. We get a sense of how resilient they must have been as children, but also of how the fear and shock they endured – and often kept shtum about – coloured their later lives. Several are still visibly moved today, describing horrors they saw or people they lost.
Jean from Sheffield recalls losing her mother in a raid and then being left by her father. Monica from Croydon remembers two of her best friends being killed and how it brought home to her that the war was not a game. Ernie from Liverpool remembers the erasure of whole streets and neighbourhoods: “It was the end of our community. It was my life, my childhood had gone.” David Butcher
- Where to watch in the UK: BBC iPlayer
- Where to watch in the US: N/A
23. A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms
Nearly seven years after Game of Thrones ended, we’re back in Westeros for our second spin-off (following prequel House of the Dragon, which returns for series three later this year). But this tale, adapted from short stories written by Thrones author George RR Martin is a less grand affair than its predecessors. Leaving the noble Targaryens and Baratheons in the background, the series instead focuses on Dunk, a working-class lad who’s become a Knight – albeit a very poor one – known as ‘Ser Duncan the Tall’. When his master dies, Dunk decides to risk his remaining horses and money at a local tournament. He’s so down-at-heel he doesn’t even have a squire, so when a mysterious bald lad named Egg offers to help out, he’s not too choosy.
Westeros is still a bleak, violent medieval world, but Dunk and Egg are more optimistic heroes than we’ve come to expect from Thrones, brought to life winningly by two newcomers, former rugby player Peter Claffey and 11-year-old Dexter Sol Ansell. – Huw Fullerton
- Where to watch in the UK: Sky and NOW
- Where to watch in the US: HBO Max
24. Bridgerton season 4
The queen of modern period dramas returns, in typically mischievous mood: a masked ball allows numerous members of the “ton” to play around with their established public personae or break the rules entirely. Acting up more than anyone is tricky second Bridgerton son Benedict (Luke Thompson), who begins the season in a messy boudoir with two women of dubious standing, to the horror of his mother, Lady Violet (Ruth Gemmell) – put under pressure to marry properly, Benedict falls in love at the ball, the two slight snags being that he doesn’t know who his new paramour is, and that when he does find out, she’s a maid named Sophie (Yerin Ha).
The first half of season four sees Bridgerton follow, as always, an on/off romance, this time with an upstairs/downstairs dynamic that gives the show a different feel; but while the staff of the various houses do play a more central role in the complex interpersonal shenanigans, we still get plenty of high-society sass. And the normally fussy Lady Violet herself might be about to loosen her corset… – Jack Seale
- Where to watch in the UK: Netflix
- Where to watch in the US: Netflix
25. Shrinking season 3
One of the warmest, sharpest comedy dramas on telly slips straight back into the old groove as season 3 begins, reuniting us with a gang of Los Angeles friends who love each other dearly and tease each other remorselessly. Paul (Harrison Ford) faces the worsening of his Parkinson’s disease, although a meeting with another patient, Jerry – a lovely cameo by Michael J Fox – helps him focus.
As a special occasion looms, Paul is part of several storylines where characters come to a realisation about their own emotions, with a little help from their friends: the classic Shrinking set-up, in other words, and all of them are resolved with the usual deft bittersweetness, from teenager Alice (Lukita Maxwell) potentially leaving home to self-absorbed lawyer Brian (Michael Urie) facing the sacrifices and compromises of parenthood. The closing scene will, very gently and affectionately of course, knock you sideways. – Jack Seale
- Where to watch in the UK: Apple TV
- Where to watch in the US: Apple TV
26. The Lincoln Lawyer season 4
A smoothly entertaining legal drama with a strong pedigree – it’s the creation of David E Kelley (LA Law, Big Little Lies), based on books by Michael Connelly (Bosch) – has its fans on tenterhooks after an explosive third season. The fourth run begins with Mickey (Manuel Garcia-Rulfo), the criminal defence attorney who works out of his car, on trial himself on account of the corpse that had turned up in the boot of said vehicle the last time we saw him. Constance Zimmer and Cobie Smulders join the cast for these new episodes. – Jack Seale
- Where to watch in the UK: Netflix
- Where to watch in the US: Netflix
27. Lord of the Flies
William Golding’s multi-award-winning novel about a group of schoolboys stranded on a desert island powerfully demonstrates how, without the restraints of society’s rules, humans can easily sink into moral decay.
It starts post-plane crash with Piggy (David McKenna), the asthmatic intellectual of the group, and elected leader Ralph (Winston Sawyers) sensibly suggesting plans for survival. However, without any grown-ups around most of the other youngsters are more interested in play fighting, teasing each other, showing off and having fun than building a shelter. Power-hungry Jack (Lox Pratt), despite his initially angelic appearance, preys on this, quickly learning that the more savage he becomes, the more he can control them.
There have been two, very different, cinematic versions of this 1954 classic (Peter Brook’s 1963 black and white film and Harry Hook’s contemporary version in 1990) but Adolescence writer Jack Thorne’s nuanced adaptation remains faithful to the original. Director Marc Munden gives the production a confident, cinematic quality and its young cast, most of whom are making their professional acting debuts, are astonishingly good. – Jane Rackham
- Where to watch in the UK: BBC iPlayer
- Where to watch in the US: N/A
28. Rivals
What a pleasant surprise this show was when it debuted in 2024. Those with a passing acquaintance with the bestselling books of Jilly Cooper expected the TV version of her Rutshire Chronicles series to be shameless trash, and it sort of was – but as real aficionados of Dame Jilly might have predicted, it had wit and heart to go with its tales of lust and power in the Cotswolds in 1986.
Now it’s 1987 and malign media mogul Tony Baddingham (David Tennant) – who like all the men in Rivals, seems to have been lightly sprayed with weatherproof varnish – renews his enmity towards his emotionally inert rival Rupert Campbell-Black (Alex Hassell) and the rising star of Rupert’s operation, the thrusting Declan O’Hara (Aidan Turner). A viciously contested polo tournament is just the start of a fresh round of backstabbing and philandering that’s full of cheeky laughs – but, away from the battlefield, and the bedrooms where illicit liaisons take place, various characters’ romantic feelings are the fuel for just a dash of properly rewarding drama. Jack Seale
- Where to watch in the UK: Disney+
- Where to watch in the US: Hulu
29. Small Prophets
Middle-aged Michael Sleep (Pearce Quigley) shows signs of giving up. His garden, like his beard, is overgrown, he eats unhealthily and he drives a clapped-out Ford Capri to work, where he’s just going through the motions. We learn that his partner Clea disappeared seven years previously, and life has been on hold ever since. There is magic to be found in the mundane, however, as you’d expect from the same fertile mind that gave us Detectorists.
Michael and DIY store colleague Kacey (Lauren Patel) bond over their dislike of boss Gordon, a joyless jobsworth played by show writer Mackenzie Crook. And, despite the fact that his father Brian (Michael Palin) is in a care home, theirs is a close relationship (going sweetly against the grain of spiky father-son pairings on TV). Brian even thinks he can help Michael get answers about Clea. By mysterious, alchemical means…
Although a portrait of loss and loneliness, Small Prophets is also about hope and friendship. It goes somewhere courageously different, but underlying its fantastical furniture is a deeply human story. It’s another winner from Crook. – Mark Braxton
- Where to watch in the UK: BBC iPlayer
- Where to watch in the US: N/A
30. How to Get to Heaven from Belfast
At first glance, Derry Girls creator Lisa McGee’s new series – which sees a group of school friends from Northern Ireland reuniting decades after their glory days – feels like familiar ground. In fact, you could almost map each of the three leads onto a grown-up Derry Girl. Screenwriter Saoirse (Roisin Gallagher) has more than a hint of the try-hard Erin, bolshy Robyn (Sinéad Keenan) recalls the ruthless Michelle, and even quiet Dara (Caoilfhionn Dunne) has some of the eccentricity of strange cousin Orla. There’s even a slightly useless English fella in the mix.
Similar (excellent) jokes and familiar faces (Keenan, Ardal O’Hanlon and Peter Campion) add to the sense of déjà vu. Still, there is one big difference – this is more mystery thriller than sitcom. Saoirse, Robyn and Dara are brought back together by a death, specifically the passing of their long-estranged fourth friend Greta (Natasha O’Keefe). They suspect foul play from her weird in-laws, but regular flashbacks of burning houses, strange symbols and acts of violence suggest this group might have some other old enemies looking for payback. It adds a touch of Bad Sisters-esque intrigue to McGee’s signature razor-sharp dialogue and gags. – Huw Fullerton
- Where to watch in the UK: Netflix
- Where to watch in the US: Netflix
31. The Night Agent season 3
A word-of-mouth hit for Netflix when it first launched, The Night Agent is still using the same sturdy thriller template in its third season. Once again, Peter Sutherland (Gabriel Basso) is the super-capable, unusually kind intelligence operative – think Jason Bourne, but with a much softer bedside manner – whose off-books investigations lead him to evidence of a conspiracy that goes right to the top.
We know the Oval Office is likely to be the centre of the illicit network Peter has to smash because storylines are carrying over from last year, but there’s a new cast of villains and plucky, reckless heroes to get to know, as a breathless chase through the streets of Istanbul heralds another grand cover-up where men with guns lurk around every corner and even the most trustworthy people might be compromised, but we are sure that steadfast, humble Peter will prevail in the end – in satisfying, if not particularly groundbreaking, fashion. – Jack Seale
- Where to watch in the UK: Netflix
- Where to watch in the US: Netflix
32. Cecil: The Lion and the Dentist
We all remember the story. When a dentist from Minnesota shot a celebrated African lion in 2015, it sparked a global outcry about trophy hunting. Amid the online fury, some suggested they’d rather see the dentist’s head on a wall. Cecil’s image, meanwhile, was projected on the Empire State Building.
This thoughtful and moving documentary revisits what seemed like a cut-and-dried case of first-world privilege, but keeps adding layers of nuance. You’re left with the feeling that our connection to nature – whether we hunt animals or merely take pictures – is equally shot to pieces.
Dr. Walter Palmer reportedly paid $50,000 for the chance to kill Cecil, who was lured outside the bounds of Zimbabwe’s Hwange nature reserve by an elephant carcass. Palmer used a bow and arrow to shoot from a hide in a nearby tree. “Cecil was delivered to him like a pizza,” says a local conservationist.
It’s a sad tale, but the film keeps expanding the focus to show the hunters’ perspective, how local people live – and die – alongside lions, and the romantic illusions we have about a “wilderness” that is carefully staged. – David Butcher
- Where to watch in the UK: Channel 4
- Where to watch in the US: N/A
33. Falling
Although his showreel includes plenty of love stories, from This Is England’s Lol and Woody to Then Barbara Met Alan, Jack Thorne has only now written a piece with one at its heart. Not that Falling is a straightforward romance; far from it. Sister Anna (Keeley Hawes) is a nun living a contented life of seclusion and worship, with occasional forays into the community to sell the proceeds of the convent’s vegetable garden.
Father David (Paapa Essiedu) is an activist, interventionist priest whose charisma and empathy mask unresolved personal pain. An unbidden, perhaps unwanted spark between them upends their worlds and long nights of the soul loom.
Thorne is deeply respectful of faith but not afraid to challenge its limitations as Anna and David negotiate personal and professional difficulties – she must manage a postulant who has made an error of judgement, he must weigh up how to help a family whose patriarch is violent and controlling. The exceptional drama continues tomorrow, from a writer and actors at the top of their games. – Gabriel Tate
- Where to watch in the UK: Channel 4
- Where to watch in the US: N/A
34. The Boroughs
The Duffer Brothers mix some Thursday Murder Club-style charm with a dash of the horror they conjured for Stranger Things in this new supernatural drama. Life after retiring is anything but relaxing for Sam (Alfred Molina), who reluctantly moves into an idyllic retirement village after losing his wife. Soon, he starts noticing strange happenings about the place and, before too long, his golden years are being rudely interrupted by a deadly otherworldly threat. Typical.
“A lovable bunch of misfits” is how executive producers the Duffers have described the ragtag gang of seniors (Denis O’Hare, Bill Pullman, Alfre Woodard, Geena Davis and Clarke Peters) who join Sam. He’s armed with just a few tools from his days as an engineer, yet must face up to the monsters, all while convincing his daughter he’s not losing the plot. Despite a few ridiculous moments (including an homage to Thelma & Louise that’s laughably shoe-horned in), The Boroughs is a heartfelt series that poses a fair few questions about life, ageing and death – and asks just how far you’ll go for the ones you love. – Louise Griffin
- Where to watch in the UK: Netflix
- Where to watch in the US: Netflix
35. The Tony Blair Story
Right now, Sir Tony Blair’s reputation is at a low ebb. For many, he is still the slippery centrist who got us into the Iraq War, shifted Labour to the right, laid the ground for our current malaise, and has recently signed up to Donald Trump’s “Board of Peace”. His defenders are thin on the ground.
All of which makes it a good time for an in-depth look at the Blair backstory — his real achievements, and how history will judge him. Step forward Michael Waldman, who has previously brought a mischievous eye for detail to documentaries on Karl Lagerfeld and Boris Johnson’s time in the Foreign Office.
He includes great nuggets here, like the fact Blair’s grandparents were travelling performers, and he has never once bought Cherie flowers. But the core of the programme is its vivid sketch of the young Blair, the seeds of greatness germinating behind that giant grin. – David Butcher
- Where to watch in the UK: Channel 4
- Where to watch in the US: N/A
36. Dirty Business
“It helps when people lie,” says David Thewlis’s character, Ash, in this impactful three-parter. “It’s how you know they’ve got something to hide.” From Toxic Town to Mr Bates vs The Post Office, factual TV dramas have become one of our most potent tools for highlighting corporate malfeasance and giving voice to victims. Based on a decade-long investigation into England’s water companies, this latest one tells the stories of real people who believe their lives have been destroyed by sewage pollution.
Thewlis and Jason Watkins play the unlikely Oxfordshire duo – a former police detective and a biology professor – who notice that fish are dying in their local river and courageously launch their own campaign. What ensues is a belief-beggaring of failure, negligence and human tragedy – including an eight-year-old girl who died after contracting E coli from what her parents believe was illegally dumped human waste on a Devon beach.
The righteously angry narrative skilfully flits between timeframes and cases, between fictionalised scenes, newsreel and graphics. A shocking story powerfully told. – Michael Hogan
- Where to watch in the UK: Channel 4
- Where to watch in the US: N/A
37. The Dunblane Tapes
On 13th March 1996 at Dunblane Primary School, as Ann Pearston later stated to the Labour Party conference with chilling clarity, one pistol fired 105 bullets, killing 17 and injuring 14 in just three minutes. Will Stone’s deeply moving documentary spends just enough time on the massacre itself to establish beyond doubt the trauma it imprinted on the community. The focal point, though, is the Snowdrop Campaign launched by Pearston and others, including the grieving parents, to secure legislation banning all handguns before the return of snowdrops the following year.
What, in retrospect, feels like an inevitability proved anything but, as a noisy and well-funded pro-gun lobby capitalised on a conservative government nervously facing the prospect of electoral wipeout. While the raw grief of the parents is still apparent in powerfully effective home videos, but they also recall their perseverance with no little pride. Who knows how many lives they may have saved? – Gabriel Tate
- Where to watch in the UK: Channel 4
- Where to watch in the US: N/A
38. Scrubs
It’s a good 20 years since the heyday of Scrubs, an American medical sitcom that won a committed army of fans – who still enthusiastically share clips and discuss favourite episodes online to this day – with its mix of regular comedy smarts, imaginative interludes and good old-fashioned schmaltz. So for the revival, the main characters can’t just pick up where they left off: the new version is about people who are definitely older, if not much wiser. Now JD (Zach Braff) is an experienced enough doctor to mentor a new crop of juniors, just as he was once trained by the impossibly eccentric Dr Cox (John C McGinley) – but Dr Cox is still there, messing with JD’s mind as before. Also rejoining is Donald Faison as JD’s best pal Turk, with the two of them now trying to rekindle their best-pal shenanigans despite some of their antics being the province of much younger men. Plus there are returns for Sarah Chalke as Elliot and Judy Reyes as Carla. Jack Seale
- Where to watch in the UK: Disney+
- Where to watch in the US: Hulu
39. Paradise season 2
An Emmy nomination hints that the post-apocalyptic intrigue on offer here is a cut above average, and that’s largely thanks to a strong lead performance from Sterling K Brown as Presidential security detail Xavier Collins. At the start of season one, the twist was that a city that seemed normal was in fact a vast underground bunker, constructed by the government as a shelter to be used after a catastrophic event. Since then we’ve learned what that event was, and who was responsible for the assassination that pitched Collins into a maelstrom of violence and suspicion. But in season two, the show has a new frontier to explore: Collins is going back to the surface to see if his wife – or indeed, anyone – is alive. – Jack Seale
- Where to watch in the UK: Disney+
- Where to watch in the US: Hulu
40. Young Sherlock
17 years after Guy Ritchie first tried his hand at grittier Sherlock Holmes movies starring Robert Downey Jr and Jude Law, the director’s back behind the camera for this new TV series – but this Holmes isn’t yet the famed detective we all know. Instead, the pre-Baker street Sherlock (played by Hero Fiennes Tiffin) is a bit of a wastrel, regularly in and out of prison. Eventually, big brother Mycroft (Max Irons) snaps and gets him a job as a servant at Oxford University, where Sherlock stumbles on a conspiracy and makes a new pal – a brilliant undergraduate named James Moriarty.
This series has all the hallmarks of a Guy Ritchie production – action, fistfights, deadpan gags – and plenty of deductions and red herrings to satisfy the mystery fans. There’s also a neat family connection, with Sherlock’s dad Silas played by Fiennes Tiffin’s real uncle Joseph Fiennes (his other uncle is Ralph Fiennes – quite a dynasty). It’s just a shame that relative newcomer Fiennes Tiffin seems more stilted than savvy as Sherlock, especially in contrast to the sharp, funny performance by Donal Finn as future nemesis Moriarty. – Huw Fullerton
- Where to watch in the UK: Prime Video
- Where to watch in the US: Prime Video
41. Vladimir
Campus comedies have their own brand of waspish mischief, as exemplified by a sharp miniseries made by Sharon Horgan’s production company and based on the hit novel by Julia May Jonas. Rachel Weisz is an unnamed literature professor at a liberal arts college who has always been the coolest teacher in her workplace, thanks to a cult novel she once wrote – but as middle age approaches she feels her academic and womanly powers waning. Step forward hot young colleague Vladimir (Leo Woodall), on whom all the professor’s fantasies are about to be unleashed. As sexy chaos reigns, Weisz’s constant breaking of the fourth wall means we’re as guilty as she is. – Jack Seale
- Where to watch in the UK: Netflix
- Where to watch in the US: Netflix
42. The Capture season 3
The third series of the compelling surveillance thriller that taps into our anxieties about the world of deep fake manipulation, takes our fears up to stratospheric levels. How can we ever believe what we’re seeing? And how scary is it that terrorists always seem to be one step ahead with technology?
Fortunately, former detective now acting head of counter terrorism Rachel Carey (Holliday Grainger) with the support of the charismatic Home Secretary and rising star Isaac Turner (Paapa Essiedu) is launching a smarter surveillance system capable of catching live deep fakes in action. A heart-stopping situation at Heathrow airport demonstrates that it’s working. Except then it all goes horribly, shockingly wrong.
A top-notch cast including Ron Perlman, Indira Varma, Andrew Buchan, Lia Williams and Hugh Quarshie keep up the tension through the dizzying twists and turns. Even if you don’t usually subscribe to conspiracy theories, it seems safer to trust nobody and suspect everybody while your jaw will drop to the floor on more than one occasion. It’s alarming, very alarming indeed. – Jane Rackham
- Where to watch in the UK: BBC iPlayer
- Where to watch in the US: N/A, seasons 1-2 on Peacock
43. A Woman of Substance
Poverty, passion and power: Barbara Taylor Bradford’s rags to riches saga has it all so was a major success when it was published in 1979. The 1985 TV version (starring Jenny Seagrove and Deborah Kerr) was watched by over 13 million people.
Here the magnificent Brenda Blethyn plays the fabulously wealthy Emma Harte who has dedicated her whole life to revenge (while also becoming a global business tycoon) and Jessica Reynolds is young Emma, a lowly yet resourceful kitchen maid working at the Fairley family’s grand Yorkshire mansion in the early 1900s.
The opening episode concentrates mainly on the relentless hardship, cruelty and misery young Emma endures. No wonder she’s taken in by the sweet words of young Edwin (Ewan Horrocks) who persuades her “we are the same” while we at home are indignantly screaming “no you’re not!” at the screen.
Among the familiar faces in this enjoyable adaptation are Will Mellor, Emmet J Scanlan, Lenny Rush and Leanne Best. – Jane Rackham
- Where to watch in the UK: Channel 4
- Where to watch in the US: N/A
44. Louis Theroux: Inside the Manosphere
Marginal cultures may have once been his bread and butter, but as Louis Theroux highlights here, the fringe is no longer fringe. And such is the speed of change online that those whose noxious views you’d hope would be of niche interest are now galvanising millions. Such is the situation in the so-called manosphere where misogyny is being rebranded as salvation for the purpose – so Theroux suspects – of making money for a handful of savvy male influencers.
To test this theory, he makes the acquaintance of such now-globally recognised names as HStikkytokky (real name: Harrison Sullivan), Myron Gaines and Justin Waller to probe both their business models and psychologies. What he finds are guys with often troubled backstories, whose trauma has now morphed into anti-feminist messaging. But the image of wealth and power they project is, as we discover, illusory and out of reach for most followers. – David Brown
- Where to watch in the UK: Netflix
- Where to watch in the US: Netflix
45. The Other Bennet Sister
Pride and Prejudice as seen through the bespectacled eyes of Mary (Ella Bruccoleri), the bookish Bennet sibling who, in Jane Austen’s novel, is all piety and heavy notes on the pianoforte.
In comparison to the spirited Elizabeth (Poppy Gilbert) and shining Jane (Maddie Close), Mary is socially awkward and is described here by her overbearing mother (Ruth Jones) as both clumsy and ungainly. Her expected role at balls is not to dance reels, but to fetch drinks, the priority for Mrs B to marry off her daughters who dazzle rather than pay any attention to the one who appears austere.
But in this vibrant adaptation of Janice Hadlow’s bestseller, a light is shone on this sidelined family member, as we witness the emotional toll of being socially eclipsed. Mary’s reaction to being left on the margins is to bury herself in education. But already we sense that studying may not be a ladder out of loneliness so much as a bunker within it. – David Brown
- Where to watch in the UK: BBC iPlayer
- Where to watch in the US: Britbox from 6 May
46. Storyville: Portrait of a Confused Father
Prepare to be floored by this elegiac film about a father-son bond that is abruptly torn apart. Norwegian documentary maker Gunnar Hall Jensen films his son Jonathan obsessively over 20 years, watching him grow from a baby to a boy – and then to a handsome young man with a “wild flow of energy” and a short temper.
That in itself could make a compelling film, but from the start there’s something else – that Jonathan will die before his time, though we don’t know how. As the story goes on, we see the emotional distance between father and son grow. Then things take a darker turn as Jonathan rebels, runs away to Brazil and is “swallowed up by a digital reality with twisted rules for how a man should succeed in the world”. In the end it’s a riveting watch and a deep, sad film about fatherhood, restlessness and failure. – David Butcher
- Where to watch in the UK: BBC iPlayer
- Where to watch in the US: N/A
47. LOL: Last One Laughing UK season 2
The “straight face” Olympics returns, with a whole new cast of comics (plus series one champion Bob Mortimer) locked in a room together and banned from laughing or even cracking a smile. It’s clearly torture for Alan Carr, who could barely get through an episode of Celebrity Traitors without dissolving into giggles and here looks like he’s on the cusp of collapse every time he’s onscreen.
David Mitchell, meanwhile, seems professionally embarrassed by having to be so rude to his peers by not reacting to their material. “It’s like lots of delicious food that we just look at and throw away,” he sighs at one point, after another great comedy routine plays to dead silence. Still, when someone does break in the second of these first three episodes, it’s genuinely spectacular – I don’t think I’ve ever heard a laugh like it. The crew must have been torn between calling a doctor or an exorcist. – Huw Fullerton
- Where to watch in the UK: Prime Video
- Where to watch in the US: Prime Video
Check out more of our Drama coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what’s on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
