20 TV shows everyone will be talking about in 2026

If your New Year’s resolution is to watch less TV and go out more, then good luck, because the next 12 months look set to be filled with plenty of irresistible television.

Early in the year, to get things off to a cracking start, we’ve got a brand new Netflix comedy drama from Derry Girls creator Lisa McGee, How to Get to Heaven from Belfast, about three friends on an odyssey through Ireland and beyond, who are trying to piece together the truth of the past. Waiting for the Out, an adaptation of Andy West’s acclaimed memoir The Life Inside, also looks like an unmissable bit of drama that lifts the lid on the experience of prisoners. And there are returning favourites, from The Night Manager (back after a 10-year wait) to Industry, Hijack and Rivals.

Further ahead, there’s also Dolly Alderton’s adaptation of Pride & Prejudice for Netflix, starring Emma Corrin and Jack Lowden, which is sure to provoke strong opinions. Plus, Richard Gadd, of Baby Reindeer fame, has a new BBC show on the way called Half Man, which promises to delve into the meaning of modern masculinity.

Here are 20 picks that we can’t wait to watch over the coming year…

The Night Manager series 2

BBC One, 1 January

The sequel to the BBC’s slick, starry adaptation of the John le Carré novel has certainly been a long time coming: can you believe that a decade has elapsed since Tom Hiddleston’s turn as Jonathan Pine launched a thousand Bond rumours? As season two opens, Pine is living out a low-key London existence as a small-time MI6 officer, until a chance sighting of an old associate of his former foe Richard Roper draws him into the orbit of another shadowy figure, played by Babylon’s Diego Calva. Olivia Colman is back as spy boss Angela Burr, while Camila Morrone, Indira Varma and Hayley Squires are among the cast’s new additions. Katie Rosseinsky

Waiting for the Out

BBC One, 3 January

Andy West’s acclaimed memoir The Life Inside, about his years spent teaching philosophy in prisons, has been adapted for the screen by Dennis Kelly (Pulling, Utopia). Rising star Josh Finan leads the cast as Dan, who holds conversations with inmates about dominance, freedom, luck, hope, identity and many other topics. But Dan is also facing his own demons and grappling with the fact that many of the men in his family have ended up behind bars. The book made a splash on its release in 2022, thanks to how it lifted the lid on the cost of Britain’s stretched justice system and the lives of those within our prisons’ walls. With a primetime spot on BBC One, it’s sure to become a national talking point again. Ellie Harrison

Hijack season 2

Apple TV, 14 January

The first season of this Idris Elba thriller was such an unexpected delight when it landed on Apple TV back in 2023 – and so tense that I’d practically gnawed my nails clean off by the end of it. It centred around a flight that had been, you guessed it, hijacked, with Elba as professional negotiator Sam, the old-school action hero saving the day. Adding to the tension was the fact the drama was playing out in real-time, over a seven-hour journey from Dubai to Heathrow. Season two sees the action drop from the sky down to the underground, with the unflappable Sam on board a Berlin subway where hundreds of commuters have been taken hostage. Granted, Sam seems to have terrible luck with air and train travel, but he sure is watchable. EH

Industry series 4

BBC One, January

Mickey Down and Konrad Kay’s tale of hard-living City grads really hit its stride in its compulsive third season, so our expectations are sky-high for round four. The London branch of Pierpoint, the bank that Harper (Myha’la) and Yasmin (Marisa Abela) joined fresh out of university, is now effectively no more, but their frenemy relationship is as twisted as ever. Yasmin is dealing with the ramifications of saying yes to Sir Henry’s (Kit Harington) marriage proposal, while Harper is drawn in by an enigmatic fintech entrepreneur played by Max Minghella. Plus, the likes of Stranger Things star Charlie Heaton, Ted Lasso’s Toheeb Jimoh and Mad Men’s Kiernan Shipka are joining the already ace ensemble cast. KR

How to Get to Heaven from Belfast

Netflix, February

No one gets to the messy heart of female friendships like Derry Girls creator Lisa McGee. Her follow-up to the brilliant Channel 4 sitcom is set to introduce us to another tight-knit group of pals. TV writer Saoirse (Roísín Gallagher), glam mum Robyn (Sinéad Keenan) and carer Dara (Caoilfhionn Dunne) are well into their thirties, but they’re still as close as they were during their school days. The arrival of an unexpected email, informing them of the death of the long-estranged fourth member of their girl gang, starts them off on an adventure that will take them across Ireland and beyond. Think Derry Girls 20 years on. KR

Rivals series 2

Disney, early 2026

Let the champers flow, darling! Rivals, the adaptation of Jilly Cooper’s Eighties bonkbuster, is back – and we can expect plenty of gleeful quaffing, backstabbing, stripping and riding (in all senses of the word). The first season, set in the world of the TV elite in the Cotswolds, was a huge smash when it galloped onto the scene in 2024, and included a genuinely heartrending – and unexpected – love story between Katherine Parkinson and Danny Dyer that I’ve still not gotten over. In the finale, it seemed that David Tennant’s serpentine exec Lord Tony Baddingham had met a sorry end, but he will be back in the new season, along with Alex Hassell, Aidan Turner, Nafessa Williams and more. As for the fabulous and inimitable Cooper, the author died suddenly, after a fall in her home, while season two was in production, but the cast have said they want the show to be an ode to the writer and her joyous works. EH

Twenty Twenty Six

BBC One, 2026 TBC

He’s presided over the Olympic committee in Twenty Twelve and attempted to deal with BBC bureaucracy in W1A. Now Hugh Bonneville’s mild-mannered, perma-bemused Ian Fletcher is off to America for the World Cup, in another jaunty mockumentary series written and directed by John Morton. This time, Ian has another impressive but nebulous job title, joining the Twenty Twenty Six Oversight Team as its director of integrity in Miami. How will his “yes-erm-well-of-course-no” conversational style cut it among the straight-talking Americans? And can one-time bumbling BBC intern Will (Hugh Skinner) step up to the responsibilities of his new role as Ian’s PA? KR

The Beauty

Disney, 2026 TBC

Ryan Murphy’s most recent show, the legal drama All’s Fair, prompted some of the most staggeringly awful reviews in recent memory, including a clutch of zero-star ratings. But Murphy’s oeuvre has always been a bit, well, spotty, consistency-wise, so I’m still holding out hope for The Beauty, a thriller that sounds both high concept and high camp. When a bunch of international supermodels start dying gruesome deaths, two FBI agents, played by Evan Peters and Rebecca Hall, are put on the case and dispatched to Paris, where they are caught up in a billionaire’s high-stakes plot. As ever with Murphy, the list of guest stars is eclectic, with Bella Hadid, Isabella Rossellini and Nicola Peltz Beckham all making cameos. KR

Pride & Prejudice

Netflix, 2026 TBC

Every generation has their Pride and Prejudice. Gen X had the Nineties TV adaptation, featuring Colin Firth wading through a lake in a soggy white shirt. Millennials had Matthew Macfadyen, Keira Knightley and a dreamy Dario Marianelli score. And now Gen Z are set to get their very own Netflix version, with Emma Corrin as Elizabeth Bennet and Jack Lowden as Mr Darcy. Dolly Alderton is on script duties, and has promised that her take on Jane Austen’s classic will balance “both familiar and fresh ways of bringing this beloved book to life”. Oh, and Olivia Colman is playing Mrs Bennet, which feels like a role she was born for. KR

Lord of the Flies

BBC One, 2026 TBC

It’s the first time that William Golding’s classic novel has been adapted for television, and it feels like Lord of the Flies should be in safe hands with screenwriter Jack Thorne, the man behind this year’s most talked-about TV hit, Adolescence. He’s well placed, then, to tease out the bigger talking points about masculinity and the loss of innocence in this tale of a group of boys who become stranded on an island without adults, and find that the veneer of civilisation cracks very quickly indeed. Many of the young cast are total newcomers to acting, so watch out for the rising stars of the future. KR

Bait

Prime, 2026 TBC

Riz Ahmed is returning to television for the first time in nine years with a show he’s created about a struggling actor who suffers a major existential crisis. The series is being billed as a comedy, and follows Shah Latif (Ahmed) as he stands on the cusp of landing the biggest role of his career. Beyond that, and the fact it stars Man Like Mobeen’s Guz Khan, we don’t know much at all about this one, with details being kept under wraps. But it will certainly be intriguing to see Ahmed – so intense in The Night Of and Sound of Metal – back on the small screen. EH

I Am Helen

Channel 4, 2026 TBC

Dominic Savage’s semi-improvised anthology series, in which the Bafta-winning filmmaker works out a unique, female-led story with his leading actors, is back. This time, he has teamed up with Derry Girls and Bridgerton star Nicola Coughlan; given that previous I Am… instalments have featured the likes of Lesley Manville and Kate Winslet, it’s a casting choice that’s testament to Coughlan’s talent and star power. Plot details are yet to be revealed, but Coughlan will be starring alongside Gangs of London’s Joe Cole, and the story will play out over not one but two episodes for the first time in the series’ history. KR

Half Man

BBC One, 2026 TBC

How do you follow Baby Reindeer? Richard Gadd’s Netflix drama, inspired by his own experience of being stalked, became one of the platform’s biggest ever shows in 2024, and made headlines – for reasons variously very good and very wince-inducing – for months after its release. Now, Gadd is back and starring in a new drama with Jamie Bell, which follows estranged “brothers” Ruben and Niall (the BBC press release had brothers in quote marks, make of that what you will). The Glasgow-set show will explore the ups and downs of their relationship, and promises to “plumb the depths of what it means to be a man”. A true conversation-starter then, but possibly with its heart a little less close to home. EH

Legends

Netflix, 2026 TBC

An enviable cast populate this Netflix crime thriller, with Tom Burke, Steve Coogan, Hayley Squires, Charlotte Ritchie and more whizzing back to the Nineties for a true-life story about undercover Customs workers infiltrating Britain’s most dangerous drug gangs. It’s a fascinating tale, about ordinary men and women put through some fairly basic training and sent off to build new identities and work as, well, actual spies. It comes from the mind of Neil Forsyth, creator of Eighties-set Brink’s-Mat robbery drama The Gold, so I’ll bet that, like that show, it will feel authentically retro – and be a proper, edge-of-the-seat caper. EH

The Lady

ITV, 2026 TBC

How to Have Sex’s Mia McKenna-Bruce is set to lead this real-life royal saga as Jane Andrews, the former dresser to the Duchess of York who went on to be convicted for murder. Answering an advert in a high society magazine changes the working-class Jane’s life, prompting her to secure a role in Sarah Ferguson’s inner circle. But when she is dropped by the Duchess, she falls for a charismatic businessman (Ed Speleers), and the affair soon takes a much darker turn. Game of Thrones star Natalie Dormer plays Ferguson (and recently made headlines when she revealed she’d donated her salary to charities supporting children and sexual abuse victims, after emails sent from Ferguson to Jeffrey Epstein were leaked). KR

Dear England

BBC, 2026 TBC

After a wildly successful run at the National Theatre, the ever-prolific James Graham is adapting his take on Gareth Southgate’s tenure as England manager for the small screen. Joseph Fiennes, who starred in the original play, is once again donning his waistcoat to play Southgate (the likeness is utterly uncanny in the photos that have been released so far) and is joined by Jodie Whittaker as sports psychologist Pippa Grange, plus a sprawling ensemble cast playing the squad. It’s perfectly timed for a World Cup year – could it be the dose of sporting optimism we need? KR

Believe Me

ITV, 2026 TBC

This hard-hitting drama will tell the story of three victims of one of the most prolific sex attackers in British history, “black cab rapist” John Worboys. Aimée-Ffion Edwards (Slow Horses), Miriam Petche (Industry) and Aasiya Shah (Raised by Wolves) play the women Worboys drugged and assaulted in his taxi, with Des’s Daniel Mays taking on the role of Worboys. It is the latest in a string of true-crime series from screenwriter Jeff Pope, who was also attached to acclaimed dramas Little Boy Blue and Appropriate Adult, and is set to focus on how dehumanising the process of reporting the crimes were for the women, and how the police’s lack of belief in them only traumatised them further. EH

Mint

BBC One, 2026 TBC

British hip-hop star Loyle Carner will make his acting debut in Mint, the new darkly comic drama from Charlotte Regan, who made the sublimely strange, shimmering Harris Dickinson indie Scrapper. Carner – credited here under an alias as Ben Coyle-Larner – plays Arran, a young man who arrives in the life of Shannon (Emma Laird), the daughter of a powerful crime family. The series poses the question: what might love feel like when everyone else outside of your family is afraid of you? EH

Tip Toe

Channel 4, 2026 TBC

From Russell T Davies and the team behind his dramas It’s a Sin and Queer as Folk, Tip Toe looks at two suburban neighbours who become “deadly enemies” thanks to the way that prejudices against the LGBTQ+ community are creeping back into society. Alan Cumming and David Morrissey lead the cast, as two men who have lived side by side in harmony in Manchester for almost 15 years, before everything starts to fall apart. Davies is a master when it comes to wave-making television, so we can expect this to be a real water-cooler show that will make us reflect on how, in many respects, the world is going backwards. EH

Maya

Channel 4, 2026 TBC

This psychological thriller has one of the dreamiest British cast lists of the year, with Bella Ramsey, Daisy Haggard, Harriet Walter, and Tobias Menzies all on the line-up. From the mind of writer and actor Haggard (who also co-wrote the brilliant black comedy Back to Life), it follows a single mum (Haggard) and her teenage daughter (Ramsey) who relocate from London to a small rural town in Scotland after they are forced into a witness protection programme. If it’s anything like Haggard’s other work, we can expect it to be warm, witty and unapologetically weird. EH