The top 20 TV shows coming this autumn
1. The Duchess (Netflix, September 11)
The acerbic Canadian comedian Katherine Ryan is finally given her own sitcom, in which “Katherine”, a single mother in London who bears a striking resemblance to Katherine Ryan, juggles parenting, a complicated love life and the urge for a second child. Think all of the characters in the brilliant BBC sitcom Motherland channelled into one person.
2. The Third Day (Sky Atlantic, September 15)
Autumn’s most intriguing prospect – a collaboration between writer Dennis Kelly (Utopia, Pulling) and internationally acclaimed immersive theatre company Punchdrunk. The six-part series stars Jude Law as a grieving father stranded on Osea Island, Essex, and caught up in a mysterious, Wicker Man-esque mystery. Midway through the series there will be a live event, on Osea, created by Punchdrunk (details TBC).
3. Ratched (Netflix, September 18)
An irresistible offer from the prolific Ryan Murphy (Glee, Feud, Hollywood) – the back story of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest’s ghastly Nurse Ratched, starring Sharon Stone, Cynthia Nixon and Sophie Okonedo. Sarah Paulson plays Mildred Ratched, a young nurse at a “revolutionary” psychiatric hospital in California.
4. Utopia (Amazon, September 25)
Gillian “Gone Girl” Flynn remakes Dennis Kelly’s cult Channel 4 drama from 2013–14, relocating the action to the US. The glorious, conspiracy-soaked plot involves the lurid storylines of a mythical graphic novel coming to life. A group of nerds must save the world from a deadly virus. But who is the real enemy? And where is Jessica Hyde? John Cusack stars.
5. David Attenborough: Life on Our Planet (in cinemas September 28; Netflix, date TBC)
A “new Attenborough” is generally something that would have us all rubbing our hands in unalloyed glee. However, this feature-length film from the great naturalist, which looks back on his 94 years on planet Earth, is a warning about humanity’s impact on the natural world – and what we need to do about it.
6. Des (ITV, September)
A gaunt David Tennant is chilling in this three-part drama which deals with the arrest and trial of serial killer Dennis “Des” Nilsen, who murdered at least 12 young men and boys in London between 1978 and 1983. The story is seen from three perspectives – Nilsen’s, and those of Detective Chief Inspector Peter Jay (Daniel Mays) and Nilsen’s biographer, Brian Masters (Jason Watkins), both of whom conducted multiple interviews with the murderer.
7. LIFE (BBC, September)
Mike Bartlett revisits the world of Doctor Foster as Anna (the neighbour played by Victoria Hamilton) relocates to Manchester. Now going by “Belle”, her story will intertwine with those of three others who live in her building, including Alison Steadman’s happily married septuagenarian. Suranne Jones, alas, is nowhere to be seen.
8. Honour (ITV, September)
Based on the real-life “honour killing” of the 20-year-old Banaz Mahmood, Honour stars Keeley Hawes as DCI Caroline Goode, the detective who brought the killers to justice and received the Queen’s Police Medal for her work.
9. The Truth Seekers (Amazon, October)
Simon Pegg and Nick Frost reunite for the first time since 2013’s The World’s End, in this comic sci-fi romp in which a bored broadband installer Gus (Frost) dabbles in amateur paranormal investigation and, naturally, uncovers a plot to wipe out the human race. Pegg co-stars as Gus’s suspiciously cheesy boss.
10. Brave New World (Sky One, October)
We could probably all do with a spot of Soma at the moment. Aldous Huxley’s dystopian novel – about a future society divided into strict social bands – is transformed into a sleek, sexy, decidedly Black Mirror-esque series, starring Jessica Brown Findlay, Harry Brown and, oddly, Demi Moore.
11. Spitting Image (BritBox, October)
Hold a chicken in the air, stick a deckchair up your nose – Spitting Image is back! We’ll find out if the grotesque rubber puppets still have satirical bite, but there’s no sniffing at their targets – Putin, Trump, the Sussexes, Kanye West, Johnson and Cummings, Prince Andrew. No shortage of potential material there…
12. Strictly Come Dancing (BBC, October 24)
Coronavirus cannot dim the glitterball. It will be a shorter series, with social distancing and no audience or live acts, and with Bruno Tonioli Zooming in his judging from Los Angeles – but autumn just wouldn’t be the same without it. Leeet’s dance!
13. The Undoing (Sky, October 26)
For sheer pedigree, no autumn drama can touch The Undoing – Nicole Kidman is a New York therapist whose perfect life is plunged into chaos when her husband (Hugh Grant) disappears. It’s based on a novel by Jean Hanff Korelitz, written by David E Kelley (Big Little Lies) and directed by Susanne Bier (The Night Manager). Unsurprisingly, it looks brilliant.
14. Small Axe (BBC, Autumn)
Oscar-winner Steve McQueen (12 Years a Slave) makes his small-screen debut with this scintillating anthology series. All five feature-length films are set in Sixties and Seventies London and tell stories of the first generation of West Indians to come to Britain. John Boyega and Letitia Wright are among an impressive ensemble.
15. The Shipman Files (BBC, Autumn)
A strong year for BBC documentaries – Once Upon a Time in Iraq, The Murdoch Dynasty – continues with this fascinating three-part series on Dr Harold Shipman, the Manchester GP thought to have murdered around 260 of his elderly patients.
16. Adult Material (Channel 4, Autumn)
Mary Whitehouse, look away. Lucy Kirkwood’s four-part drama has been delayed several times – once, if this is to be believed, because it was deemed “too raunchy” for 10pm. Blimey. Hayley Squires stars as a seasoned adult film star bearing witness to a rapidly changing industry. Rupert Everett, Joe Dempsie and Kerry Godliman co-star.
17. Roadkill (BBC, Autumn)
Hugh Laurie leads the cast of David Hare’s latest political thriller, as Peter Laurence, a Machiavellian politician who has eyes on No 10, but also a lot of powerful enemies. If that doesn’t sound tempting enough, Laurie is joined by Helen McCrory, Sidse Babett Knudsen and Patricia Hodge. Plus, it surely has to be better than Hare’s last TV outing, Collateral.
18. Out of Her Mind (BBC, Autumn)
As with Katherine Ryan (The Duchess), it has felt a matter of time before comedian Sara Pascoe had a sitcom to call her own. Don’t expect it to be conventional though, as we are promised eccentricity, animation and science. Quite the cast though – alongside Pascoe are Juliet Stevenson, Adrian Edmondson and Game of Thrones’s Jack Gleeson.
19. Us (BBC, Autumn)
David Nicholls adapts his own bestseller for this four-part drama, starring Tom Hollander and Saskia Reeves. They play Douglas and Connie Petersen, a married couple who embark on an ambitious tour of Europe with their son, despite Connie having announced that she isn’t sure she wants to be married to Douglas any more.
20. The Crown (Netflix, November 14)
Mountbatten, Thatcher, the Buckingham Palace break-in… Peter Morgan’s royal saga heads into the Eighties with all sorts of intrigue (Gillian Anderson plays Margaret Thatcher), but let’s face it, this series is going to be all about one person – Diana. Quite the role for newcomer Emma Corrin.
