The best TV dramas to watch in 2024

Next year will be a starry one for the small screen. Jodie Foster leads the new series of True Detective; Donald Glover writes and stars in his own version of Brad Pitt/Angelina Jolie spy movie Mr and Mrs Smith and Julianne Moore plays a social-climbing mother in Sky Atlantic’s period piece Mary and George.

But it’s not just Hollywood stars who are taking over TV in 2024, as there are plenty of programmes from homegrown British talent to look forward to. Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight returns to Birmingham, though this time in the 80s, for his love letter to the city’s music scene The Town, while Keeley Hawes will play Jane Austen’s sister Cassandra in a new BBC drama which takes place in the years following the literary heroine’s death.

But the TV event of the year is set to be Apple TV+’s Masters of the Air – perhaps the most highly anticipated series of 2024. Starring Austin Butler and Barry Keoghan, and with Tom Hanks and Stephen Spielberg reuniting behind the camera, this partner series to the 2001 spectacular series Band of Brothers has a lot to live up to. I’m confident it’ll meet, if not exceed, expectations. Let’s hope I’m not eating my words in a few months’ time…

Truelove

Channel 4

Bafta nominee and Olivier winner Lindsay Duncan and The Wire’s Clarke Peters play Phil and Ken, childhood sweethearts who drifted apart over the years but who rekindle their flame at the wake of an old friend. As they and their wider group of old chums reflect on their lives, they also begin to reflect on their deaths and soon decide to help each other die exactly how they want to. Written by The End of the F***ing World creator Charlie Covell, Truelove promises to be heartwarming and funny while also (as all great television does) asking difficult questions about the nature of humanity. 3 January, 9pm

True Detective: Night Country

Sky Atlantic/Now

The anthology crime series swaps out season three leads Mahershala Ali and Stephen Dorff for Hollywood superstar Jodie Foster and Kali Reis (who happens to also be a professional boxer as well as an actor) as detectives Liz Danvers and Evangeline Navarro. Set in Ennis, Alaska, their case involves the disappearance of eight scientists last seen working at an Arctic research station. It’s a women’s world behind the camera as well as in front, as all six episodes have been written and directed by Mexican filmmaker Issa López. 15 January

Masters of the Air

Apple TV+

More than two decades after Second World War drama Band of Brothers came to HBO (if you’ve never watched, I can’t recommend it highly enough – it’s streaming on Now), executive producers Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg reunite to refocus their attention on the United States air force. Understandably, given the calibre of the talent in charge, there’s an impressive cast including Elvis’s Austin Butler, Saltburn’s Barry Keoghan, the new Doctor Ncuti Gatwa and Olivier-winning West End star Anthony Boyle. 24 January

After the Flood

ITV1

January is always a good time to get stuck into a new police procedural – it’s wet, cold, dark and no-one’s got any money left after Christmas. ITV1’s offering stars Sophie Rundle as PC Joanna Marshall, a copper investigating the death of an unidentified man who was found in the lift of an underground carpark following a flood. Not just a straightforward crime drama, After the Flood purports to examine the effects of the climate crisis on a sleepy English town as the flood pushes residents to do things they never normally would to in order to protect themselves. January

Mr and Mrs Smith

Prime Video

Phoebe Waller-Bridge was originally co-writer of this series reboot of the 2005 movie of the same name (yes, the one that Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie got together on). But creative differences caused her to depart, leaving Donald Glover (creator and writer of Atlanta, also known as rapper Childish Gambino) to find a new writing partner in Francesca Sloane. If you’re unfamiliar, the series follows a pair of married spies whose shared missions happen to coincide with huge milestones in their relationship. Soon, the pressure of being international secret agents begins to reveal cracks in their marriage. February

Fallout

Prime Video

Hoping to follow in the footsteps of 2023’s hugely popular zombie thriller The Last of Us – the only good video game adaptation, well, ever – Fallout is set in the same post-apocalyptic America as the video game franchise. Two decades after the Second World War, humans across the States live in underground bunkers following advancements in nuclear technology and weaponry. Rarely does anyone venture outside due to the high levels of radiation; that is until one young woman, Lucy (Ella Purnell, best known as Jackie in Yellowjackets), decides to leave behind the life of a so-called “Vault Dweller” and venture out into a dilapidated Los Angeles. 12 April

Nightsleeper

BBC One

I’ve always wanted to go on the sleeper train between England and Scotland, but reading the plot of this brand-new thriller has me questioning whether it’s really a good idea. Set on an overnight train from Glasgow to London and told in real time, Nightsleeper kicks off when a hacker takes control of the vehicle and threatens to crash it with hundreds of passengers on board. It falls to two strangers (played by No Offence’s Alexandra Roach and Gangs of London’s Joe Cole) – one on the train, one not – to put a stop to the murderous plot. I hope the edge of your sofa is comfortable. TBC

The Town

BBC One

Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight still hasn’t given up on the world of Tommy Shelby, with several spin-offs (including a Polly prequel) in the works at Netflix. But his latest series The Town, while still set in his beloved West Midlands, isn’t about gangsters. Instead, it follows four young people as they embark on the creation of a band against the backdrop of 80s Birmingham, a time of violence that fostered an explosive music scene. TV mainstays like Michelle Dockery and Nicholas Pinnock prop up a cast mostly made up of fresh British talent, including Levi Brown, Jordan Bolger, Ben Rose and Eve Austin. You’ll want to remember those names. TBC

Breathtaking

ITV1

The devastating echoes of the Covid-19 years are still being felt in the NHS, and this Jed Mercurio-produced three-part drama lifts the lid on the high emotions and trauma that doctors faced throughout the worst of the pandemic. Joanne Froggatt plays Abbey, a character inspired by Rachel Clarke’s visceral 2021 memoir of her time as a palliative care doctor over the past five years. Expect a difficult, emotionally charged and perhaps even angry series that pulls no punches when it comes to being honest about the difficulties doctors, nurses and caregivers faced when presented with the deadly coronavirus disease. TBC

Rivals

Disney+

Jilly Cooper fans will know what to expect of this forthcoming adaptation of her 1988 novel: high camp, endless scandal and lots of shagging. David Tennant will play Lord Tony Baddingham, controller of a television channel and all-round selfish bastard, whose rivalry with loveable scoundrel and Tory MP Rupert Campbell-Black (Alex Hassell) upends the stereotypically upper-class English county of Rutshire. Katherine Parkinson, Lisa McGrillis, Aidan Turner, Emily Atack and Danny Dyer also star, and apparently there’s so much sex across the eight episodes that two intimacy coaches were needed on set. TBC

The Way

BBC One

Two writing powerhouses James Graham (Sherwood, Quiz) and Adam Kay (This Is Going to Hurt), and Welsh acting royalty Michael Sheen (Good Omens, Staged), have joined forces to create this drama about the Driscolls, a family who flee their small Welsh industrial village following a civil uprising. Described as “ambitious and powerful” by the BBC, The Way will also be darkly funny and tap into the social and political chaos of today’s world. Luke Evans leads an impressive (and mostly Welsh) cast that includes Callum Scott-Howells, Steffan Rhodri, Mali Harries, Sophie Melville and, of course, Sheen himself. TBC

Mary and George

Sky Atlantic

Julianne Moore is one of the best actors of her generation (if you haven’t seen the incredible May, December yet, seek it out on Now), and I’m excited to see her take on the role of Mary Villiers, a social-climbing mother who encouraged her son, George (Nicholas Galitzine, Red, White and Royal Blue), to seduce King James VI of Scotland and I of England (Tony Curran). She might have been an elitist status-seeker, but it’s hard not to be impressed by Mary’s tenacity. An audacious historical story of scheming, sex and bribery, Mary and George is sure to satiate the appetites of those missing the anachronistic rebellion of The Great. TBC

Miss Austen

BBC One

Surprisingly, this new period drama isn’t about Jane, the most famous Austen in history. Rather, it follows Cassandra Austen (played by none other than Keeley Hawes), Jane’s older sister, who is most famous for burning her author sister’s letters. Miss Austen starts in 1830, a couple of years after Jane’s death, when Cassandra discovers a crop of letters that could destroy her late sister’s legacy. As she reads, we’re treated to flashbacks of their sisterly love story as they navigate the infatuations, family feuds and dashed hopes that inspired Jane’s novels. TBC

Passenger

ITV1

Five years since former Met Police detective Riya Ajunwa (Wunmi Mosaku, Loki, Damilola, Our Loved Boy) moved to the quiet northern English village of Chadder Vale, she’s been itching to stick her investigative teeth into a big crime. She gets her wish when a local girl is abducted from her car one night, only to reappear safe and sound the next day. Soon, increasingly disturbing crimes start to haunt Chadder Vale and Riya’s investigations reveal that the perpetrator may not be altogether human – or even of this world. TBC