25 Great Dramas for 2025
From Victorian grifters and Anglo Saxon monarchs to a Puzzle Lady and Dope Girls, these are the series not to be missed this year
Disney+
- Gareth McLean
A Thousand Blows
21 February – Disney+
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Disney+
Having wowed audiences everywhere with the violent delights of early 20th-century Birmingham, Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight now turns his attentions to the violent delights of late Victorian London. As per that drama — why fix what ain’t broken? — there is also a gang involved: the infamous and very real all-female crime syndicate, the Forty Elephants, led by Erin Doherty (The Crown) as Mary Carr. The drama also stars the Bafta-winning Malachi Kirby (Small Axe) as Hezakiah Moscow, whose journey from fresh-faced immigrant to bloody, bruised and battered street fighter brings him up against Sugar Goodson, played by Stephen Graham. You can watch the trailer here.
Miss Austen
February – BBC1
In 1843, 25 years after the death of her sister Jane, Cassandra Austen destroyed some two thirds of the author’s letters. No one knows why but, given the remaining third form the basis for much of our understanding of Jane Austen’s life, it was an extreme act, arguably of cultural vandalism. Based on the novel by Gill Hornby and starring Keeley Hawes as Cassandra, Miss Austen imaginatively explores what Cassandra’s motives might have been.
Out There
Coming soon – ITV1
After hanging up his stethoscope as Doc Martin, Martin Clunes returns to play Nathan, a farmer whose family and livelihood are threatened by county lines drug-dealing. This compelling and gritty drama plays out as it does in rural reality with urban gangs expanding their operations away from cities, and recruiting, exploiting and coercing children to deal drugs.
Brian and Maggie
Coming soon – C4
Channel 4
Before journalist Walden and PM Thatcher sat down to this interview in 1989, they were friendly, if not actually friends. After it, they never spoke again, with their encounter seen as the beginning of the
end for her premiership. Written by James Graham (Sherwood) and directed by Stephen Frears (The Queen), it stars Steve Coogan and Harriet Walter.
Bergerac
February – U&Drama
U
Jim Bergerac returns with Damien Molony stepping into the shoes of the Jersey detective. His father-in-law, Charlie, is now a woman, played by Zoe Wanamaker, but Bergerac still drinks too much and his dress sense is still appalling.
Toxic Town
February – Netflix
Starring Jodie Whittaker, Robert Carlyle and Rory Kinnear, Toxic Town dramatises the ordeal of the mothers who proved a link between the decommissioning of a steelworks in Corby, Northants, and a cluster of foetal abnormalities.
Small Town Big Story
February – Sky Atlantic
Telling stories about telling stories is as old as The Canterbury Tales. Now, we have TV about making TV, from Chris O’Dowd. It tells of the collision between a community in Ireland and the Hollywood movie-making machine that rolls into town.
The Au Pair
Later this year – C5
Sally Bretton plays working mum Zoe who hires au pair Sandrine to ease her domestic burden when her father moves in next door. But Sandrine is younger and prettier than Zoe. How many red flags does Zoe need, eh?
Protection
Later this year – ITV1
Siobhan Finneran stars as a witness protection police officer who fears she has inadventently compromised her unit and the safety of a witness, while Katherine Kelly is the detective investigating the breach.
Adolescence
Later this year – Netflix
Netflix
A family’s world is turned upside down when 13-year-old Jamie Miller is arrested for the murder of a girl at his school. Starring Stephen Graham and Ashley Walters, each episode of this crime drama is shot in real-time in one continuous shot.
Puzzle Lady
Later this year – C5
Phyllis Logan stars as crossword compiler and amateur detective Cora Felton. Murder. She Wordled, anyone? Her first case concerns a crossword clue pinned to a corpse. One down, as it were…
Department Q
Later this year – Netflix
Starring Matthew Goode, and Kelly Macdonald, this drama focuses on Goode’s Carl Morck, a disgraced, detective who is assigned to a cold case following an attack that left a police officer dead and Morck’s partner paralysed.
Code of Silence
Later this year – ITV1
Rose Ayling-Ellis, plays Alison, a deaf canteen worker whose skill as a lip-reader sees her enlisted by the police to help monitor a criminal gang. As she becomes central to the investigation, Alison also starts falling for one of the suspects.
Towards Zero
Coming soon – BBC1
BBC
This Agatha Christie adaptation ticks all the boxes marked ‘isolated location’, ‘disgruntled servants’, ‘underestimated detective’ and ‘impossible murder’.
A Cruel Love: the Ruth Ellis Story
Spring – ITV1
Silverprint Pictures for ITV
It is testament to Miranda Richardson’s performance in 1985’s Dance with a Stranger that no one until now has attempted to retell the story of the last woman to be hanged in Britain. But now Lucy Boynton takes on the role of Ruth Ellis.
King and Conqueror
Later this year – BBC1
BBC
There’s a point in this epic about the Battle of Hastings where viewers may want to avert their eyes. Advice which, if proffered to King Harold in 1066, would have seen “and all that” pan out differently. It stars James Norton as Harold and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau as the Duke of Normandy.
Virdee
February – BBC1
BBC
Estranged from his Sikh family for marrying a Muslim, Detective Harry Virdee (Staz Nair) has the obligatory chaotic personal life required to be a brilliant cop. So it isn’t long until the universe delivers that other must-have: a serial killer to track down.
Get Millie Black
Later this year – C4
HBO
Former Scotland Yard detective Millie (Tamara Lawrance) returns home to Jamaica, gets involved in a missing person case and is soon uncovering truths she’s unwilling to face. Booker Prize-winning Marlon James’s screenwriting debut.
The Death of Bunny Munro
Later this year – Sky Atlantic
SKY
The story of Bunny Munro begins with his wife’s suicide. The salesman and lothario, (Matt Smith) is saddled with his nine-year-old son — with only the vaguest idea of how to parent him. It’s based on the novel by musician Nick Cave.
Atomic
Later this year – Sky Atlantic
Alfie Allen and Shazad Latif play odd couple Max and Mohammed, whose fates collide in the Libyan desert, in a series about the global threat of nuclear weapons.
Dope Girls
February – BBC1
BBC/Bad Wolf/Sony Pictures Television/Kevin Baker
Such was the toll of the First World War on the adult male population that women took over the running of Soho’s clubs, drugs and rackets. Amid the greed and grief, stories unfold — like that of would-be criminal queenpin Kate (Julianne Nicholson).
Fear
Later this year – Amazon Prime Video
A three-part psychological thriller that would be right at home on ITV in the 1990s. Martin Compston and Anjli Mohindra are a London couple whose lives take a grim turn when they move to Glasgow. And they are surprised by this, why?
Prime Target
22 January – Apple TV+
Apple
Even before he finds himself at the heart of a conspiracy to prevent his research reaching fruition, brilliant maths postgrad Edward Brooks — played by Leo Woodall — would have told you that it all comes down to numbers in the end.
Outrageous
Later this year – U&Drama
UKTV
Ranging as they did from fascist to communist, dutiful to decadent, romantic to cynic, the Mitford sisters seem made for TV. Given a drama about them would be glamorous, racy, witty and period, you wonder why it’s taken so long.
Bookish
Later this year – U&Alibi
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Cosy in its crimes and warm in its tone, Bookish is written by and stars Mark Gatiss as Gabriel Book, a bookshop owner who solves crimes in postwar Britain with the help of his wife, played by Polly Walker.
Authors
Gareth McLean
Gareth McLean has been writing about television for nearly 30 years. As a critic, he's reviewed thousands of programmes. As a feature writer, he's interviewed hundreds of people, from Liza Minnelli to Jimmy Savile. He has also written for TV.
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