Best New British TV Shows Still To Come In 2025
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3 weeks ago
Your C&TH approved autumn/winter TV guide is here
The leaves are crunching beneath our sandals and the heady heat is being broken up by sporadic showers: autumn is almost here. And while we never want to wish the summer away, for TV fanatics, autumn is truly the best season. Come September, the gloom heralds a hot new slate of meaty dramas to sink our teeth into, from a menopausal punk band to a forbidden romance during The Troubles. Here’s what we will be watching this season.
Best British TV: Autumn/Winter 2025
Sheridan Smith as Ann Ming & Charlie York Lo as Charlie Ming in I Fought The Law. (© Hera Pictures/ITV)
I Fought The Law
From Joan and Until I Kill You to Mr Bates vs The Post Office, ITV has been leaning into real stories as of late, and autumn 2025 is no different. First on the roster is I Fought The Law, a four-part series led by Sheridan Smith detailing bereaved mother Ann Ming’s 15-year fight for her daughter’s justice. Find out exactly what to expect here. 31 August, ITV
Eve Myles as Fran & Gabrielle Creevy as Ria in The Guest. (© BBC/Quay Street Productions/Simon Ridgway)
The Guest
If you enjoyed Netflix’s Sirens earlier this year, think of The Guest as the British take on female power dynamics. Eve Myles is Fran, a wealthy business owner who hires a new cleaner in Ria (Gabrielle Creevy). The two quickly develop an intoxicating friendship – before something lifechanging makes them inextricable forever. Find out more here. 1 September, BBC
ANDREW LINCOLN as John and INDIRA VARMA as Fiona in Coldwater. (© ITV)
Coldwater
Best known for starring in US zombie drama The Walking Dead, Andrew Lincoln will return to British TV screens this September to star in Coldwater, a thriller straddling religion, masculinity and murder. Made up of six episodes and also starring Indira Varma, Eve Myles and Ewen Bremner in a complicated leading quartet living in a claustrophobic snowglobe of a Scottish town, Coldwater is set to be the talking point of the season. Find out more here. 14 September, ITV
Kristin Scott Thomas and Sir Gary Oldman in Slow Horses season 5, premiering 24 September 2025 on Apple TV+.
Slow Horses
Apple TV’s longest running original series returns for its fifth season this autumn, taking us back to Slough House and the drama among the Slow Horses. At the centre of this season’s investigation is delusional ‘sex god’ Roddy Ho (Christopher Chung) who gets honeytrapped, triggering a chain of events that almost brings down MI5. Here’s everything else we know. 24 September, Apple TV
Anthony Boyle as Arthur Guinness in House of Guinness. (© Netflix)
House Of Guinness
If you enjoyed Peaky Blinders or Succession (or both), you’re going to love Netflix’s new historic drama House of Guinness. Created by Peaky’s Steven Knight, House of Guinness opens in 19th century Dublin with the death of Benjamin Guinness, grandson of the chocolate-coloured pint’s founder Arthur Guinness. Four children – and possible heirs – survive him, but what will they do to his beloved company? Here’s everything we know so far. 25 September, Netflix
Bill Nighy & Sam Claflin in Harlan Coben’s Lazarus. (© Ben Blackall/Prime)
Lazarus
After two consecutive New Year’s Day drops, we are accustomed to bingeing Harlan Coben thrillers after Christmas – but this new offering from Prime Video will quench our thirst well ahead of time. Launching in October and starring Sam Claflin and Bill Nighy, Lazarus is not the Coben we are used to. Working with frequent collaborator Danny Brocklehurst, this six-part thriller is a ghost story, centring on a tortured forensic psychologist experiencing inexplicable visitations in the wake of his father’s death. Find out what to expect here. 22 October, Prime Video
Emma Thompson and Ruth Wilson in “Down Cemetery Road,” premiering 29 October 2025 on Apple TV+.
Down Cemetery Road
A new detective drama is coming to Apple TV this autumn – penned by the same man who brought us Slow Horses. Mick Herron has published four novels centred on private detective Zöe Boehm, and Down Cemetery Road will bring the first, published in 2003, to the small screen for the first time. Starring Emma Thompson and Ruth Wilson, Down Cemetery Road opens with a house exploding in a sleepy Oxford suburb and a girl going missing. Worried neighbour Sarah (Wilson) becomes obsessed with finding the girl, and enlists the help of Boehm (Thompson) to crack the case. Here’s everything we know so far. 29 October, Apple TV
Kitty Eckersley (ROSALIE CRAIG), Jess Burchill (LORRAINE ASHBOURNE), Beth Thornton (JOANNA SCANLAN), Yvonne Vaux (AMELIA BULLMORE), Holly Gaskell (TAMSIN GREIG) in Riot Women. (© BBC/Drama Republic Ltd.)
Riot Women
Sally Wainwright has given us some of the best dramas of the last few decades, including Unforgiven (2009), Last Tango in Halifax (2012–20) and Happy Valley (2014–23). That’s why we’re so excited about Riot Women, which whisks us off to Hebden Bridge where five menopausal women escape their daily strife by forming a punk rock band. Here’s an idea of what to expect. TBC October, BBC
Tom Hollander as Cameron and Niamh Algar as Iris in The Iris Affair. (© Sky)
The Iris Affair
If you enjoyed The Day of the Jackal, make sure you don’t miss The Iris Affair, Sky’s latest country-hopping espionage drama. Niamh Algar is the titular Iris, an enigmatic genius who loves solving puzzles. When she cracks a particularly knotty string of problems, she is led to tech entrepreneur Cameron Beck (Tom Hollander) who offers her a job. But when Iris grows suspicious of Cameron’s intentions, she steals his secret device and vanishes, thus commencing a cat-and-mouse chase across the continent. Here’s everything else we know. TBC, Sky
Lola Petticrew as Cushla Lavery & Tom Cullen as Michael Agnew in Trespasses. (Channel 4)
Trespasses
There’s nothing more salacious than a forbidden romance – but how about one between a Catholic teacher and an older protestant barrister in 1970s Belfast? This is the set-up of Trespasses, starring Lola Petticrew, Tom Cullen and Gillian Anderson. Set to launch before the end of the year, earlier this year Cullen described filming the four-part drama as ‘one of the most challenging and rewarding experiences of my life’. Here’s exactly what to expect. TBC, Channel 4
DAVID TENNANT as Nick Davies & TOBY JONES as Alan Rusdridger in The Hack. (ITV)
The Hack
After the whopping success of Adolescence earlier this year, you won’t want to miss Jack Thorne’s next television project – and it’s another punt at ITV’s recent focus on real stories (think Mr Bates vs The Post Office, Joan and more). Led by David Tennant as tenacious journalist Nick Davies, everyone from Toby Jones, Robert Carlisle and Steve Pemberton will star in The Hack, with the latter portraying none other than media mogul Rupert Murdoch. Find out more here. TBC, ITV
Leonard & Hungry Paul
Based on Rónán Hessian’s 2019 debut novel of the same name, this Irish board game comedy is set to be the most wholesome autumn TV drop. Starring Alex Lawther and Laurie Kynaston as two board gaming friends thrown into a tailspin by changing life, it is narrated by none other than Julia Roberts. Count us intrigued. Here are all the details. TBC, BBC
Rafael Mathe as Bunny Junior & Matt Smith as Bunny Munro in The Death of Bunny Monroe. (© Sky UK)
The Death Of Bunny Munro
Doctor Who alum brings musician Nick Cave’s sophomore novel to life on Sky this season in the titular role of The Death of Bunny Munro. But the series opens with a different death: that of Bunny’s wife, the mother of his son Bunny Jr. Grieving but resistant, lothario Bunny sets out to drown his sorrows on a blow-out road trip, bringing his young son along for the ride. Find out more here. TBC, Sky
