September

Bad Bridesmaid

Eventually, there will surely be a reality TV show in which commissioning executives have to guess which of the reality TV shows being pitched to them is actually a satirical send-up of the genre. Meanwhile, we have this second-tier ITV offering in which a hen weekend or wedding party has been infiltrated by an actor playing an “over the top” character who the bride insists is a long lost-friend or family member. Only the bride and the imposter know what is going on until the end, when the mayhem is explained, although, writing this, it seems increasingly probable that ITV has slipped in a fake press release to test us. Mark Lawson ITV2, 11 September

Boardwalk Empire

A series that never quite gained the foothold that many expected it to, Boardwalk Empire is about to come to an end. If the trailer is any indication, this final series will see the various gangsters and reprobates of the prohibition era attempting to legitimise themselves as businessmen. The fact that the trailer is soundtracked by all kinds of nightmarish horrorcore screeching suggests that this might not be as easy as it sounds. “No one goes quietly,” it promises. Well, duh. SH Sky Atlantic, 13 September

Cilla

Two years after writer Jeff Pope and actor Sheridan Smith collaborated on a drama about the Great Train Robbery – bringing her an acting trophy from Bafta for her portrayal of robber’s wife Charmaine Biggs and him a mini-series nomination – the same team turn to a more lovable aspect of 1960s culture in this Cilla Black life story. Expect pitch-perfect impersonation from Smith but, given that Black has been consulted, few biographical surprise-surprises. ML ITV, 15 September

The Leftovers

Damon Lindeloff is clearly going through something. After his finale to Lost was received to almost universal dismay, he has chosen this adaptation of Tom Perrotta’s desperately bleak novel as his next TV project. Three years ago, 2% of the world’s population vanished. The survivors, wracked with misery and guilt, struggle to find meaning in their disappearance. It’s a crushing watch, and answers might be even less forthcoming than in Lost. No polar bears here, it is safe to guess. SH Sky Atlantic, 16 September

The Last Ship

If The Leftovers’ grim band of survivor guilt isn’t your cup of tea, you can always try The Last Ship. Once again, millions of people around the world have died, but this time the remaining few are on a boat. Their job? To stay afloat until people stop dying. Their secondary job? To swish around ridiculously and spout badly-formed nonsense at every turn. That’s right, The Last Ship is executive-produced by Michael Bay. That man ruins everything. Stuart Heritage Sky1, 12 September

Downton Abbey

There’s no stopping the Emmy-nominated period drama juggernaut. The story of the Grantham family has reached 1924, and, according to Mrs Hughes, “Downton is catching up with the times we live in.” “That is exactly what I’m afraid of,” replies Carson, suggesting yet more resistance to impending modernity – which, of course, means plenty of opportunity for baffled zingers from the Dowager Countess. Richard E Grant and Anna Chancellor join the cast, with Grant playing a guest of the Granthams and Chancellor the mischievous Lady Anstruther. Let’s hope all this action leaves less time for the endlessly dreary saga of Lady Mary’s suitors. Rebecca Nicholson ITV, 21 September

Transparent

Amazon’s streaming service has yet to produce original content on a level with Netflix smashes such as House of Cards or Orange is the New Black, but Transparent is its first serious contender. The series, which tells the story of Jeffrey Tambor’s Mort and his transition towards becoming Moira, has an indie-movie aesthetic and a wry, gentle touch. Tambor’s children are self-involved, sexually confused and in the middle of various life crises, with Girls star Gaby Hoffman particularly impressive as listless youngest daughter Ali. RN Amazon Prime, 26 September

Marvellous

Television’s current obsession with whodunnits means that there are few experiments with dramatic form of the sort attempted by the late Dennis Potter in Pennies from Heaven and The Singing Detective. So it’s encouraging to hear Peter Bowker (Occupation, Eric and Ernie) talking up the strangeness of his latest script. He describes Marvellous as “part biopic, part musical, part fantasy”. Toby Jones plays Neil Baldwin, a real-life figure who overcame learning difficulties to achieve success in the worlds of sport, religion, entertainment and academia. ML BBC2

Glue

Those keen to write off all homegrown E4 dramas as witless Skins knock-offs would do well to check out Glue. This eight-part murder mystery, set in an ignored corner of the countryside where local youths have been driven reckless by boredom, is written by Jack Thorne of This is England ’86 fame. SH E4

24 Hours in Police Custody

Viewers may have to get used to watching images in which large parts of the screen are pixillated to conceal identity as this observational series is filmed at a Luton police station during initial interrogations of those arrested. People released without charge may exercise their own right to privacy, while lawyers may demand it for those who are sent deeper into the judicial system but, as long as they get enough usable footage, the series hopes to benefit from remote and fixed cameras in order to give “unprecedented” images of a cop shop in operation. ML Channel 4

October

Grantchester

With the exception of the Agatha Christie shows, British detective dramas have generally had contemporary settings. But the success of Inspector George Gently, Father Brown and The Suspicions of Mr Whicher has encouraged period policing, and ITV has put a lot of money and publicity into these adaptations of James Runcie’s mysteries, set in 1950s Cambridgeshire and featuring cleric-sleuth Canon Sidney Chambers (James Norton). As Runcie is the son of an archbishop of Canterbury, the Radio Times should be spared letters about the cassocks and hassocks being wrong for the period. ML ITV.

Genesis: Together and Apart

Promising to bring together all the original members of the band Genesis – Tony Banks, Phil Collins, Peter Gabriel, Steve Hackett and Mike Rutherford – for the first time since 1975, this feature-length documentary boasts footage from the 1960s to the 1990s and seems set to treat the group with a musicological seriousness that it has been denied because of the critical mocking of Collins’s soft-pop solo career. Observers of the dynamics between members of disbanded bands will be fascinated by the language and body language of the “reunion” sequences. ML BBC2.

Grayson Perry: Who Are You? Photograph: Adam Scourfield/Channel 4

Grayson Perry: Who Are You?

Steve McQueen is currently the only person to have won both the Turner prize and a Bafta, but Grayson Perry is increasing his chances with a growing portfolio for Channel 4. This variation on the chat-show format sees Perry discuss the history of the captured face – from framed portrait to selfie – while making his own image of sitters, including former minister Chris Huhne, who is said to have gone to the artist’s studio almost directly from prison. ML Channel 4.

The Knick

Although The Knick is a self-consciously important drama about a troubled, white, male antihero that’s being broadcast in an age with far too many self-consciously important dramas about troubled, white, male anti-heroes, it has pedigree. It stars Clive Owen, it’s directed by Steven Soderbergh and it’s set in a New York hospital in 1900 – great news for lovers of unhygienic gore. SH Sky Atlantic.

Gotham

Now that the trend for TV remakes of existing movies has not turned out to be the monumental car-crash it should have been, everyone’s at it – and Channel 5 has got the rights to one of the most anticipated. Gotham is set in a pre-Batman city, beginning with detective James Gordon’s investigation into the murder of Bruce Wayne’s parents. We’re promised expansive storytelling, origin stories for several Batman villains and – best of all – the Joker is apparently hiding in plain sight throughout. SH Channel 5.

Peaky Blinders

Steven Knight is a writer with an unusual knack for coming up with quirky ideas that go improbably big: he created Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? and wrote the cult movie Dirty Pretty Things. Knight again exceeded expectations in 2013 with Peaky Blinders, an idiosyncratic gangster drama set in Birmingham in 1919, which, through its title, introduced to common knowledge the legend of a gang who secreted razor blades in the peaks of their caps. In this second season, Knight moves the action to London (the gang having concluded that all possible money has been made in Brum), introduces new characters – one played by Tom Hardy – and promises a more “dangerous” tone. ML BBC2.

Scrotal Recall

With Peep Show and Friday Night Dinner, Channel 4 has a strong history in the comedy of sexual and social embarrassment, and, based on the title and premise alone, there will be high hopes for this latest filth-com. Folk-rock singer Johnny Flynn plays Dylan Witter, a man diagnosed with chlamydia who must contact a different former sexual partner in each episode to inform them of the possible souvenir of him that they possess. ML

Channel 4.

Toast of London

Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Fans of Matt Berry saying the word “yes” in a loud voice will be heartened to discover that the sitcom that harnesses his powers more potently than anything since The IT Crowd is returning for a second series. A full-throated, over-enunciated riot – and they’ll probably try to get everyone they know to watch it, just to make sure there’s also a series three. SH Channel 4.

Trollied

Sky1’s big attempt at a mainstream sitcom is now in its fourth series. This is partly down to solid writing, but it’s mainly because Trollied has an ensemble large enough to absorb cast changes. Jane Horrocks and Mark Addy have gone, and in their place come Stephen Tompkinson and Miriam Margoyles. It’s hard to fight the sensation that Trollied is basically Waterloo Road with a deli counter, but it’s likely to deliver regardless. SH Sky1.

Babylon: back for a full series. Channel 4 Photograph: Channel 4

Babylon

When it aired as a one-off in February, Danny Boyle’s comedy-drama Babylon looked like the sort of thing that deserved to come back as a series, and now here it is. The joy of Babylon is watching the various strands of the Metropolitan Police yank and bristle against each other as they attempt to stay on top of constantly evolving events. A police procedural that is much more than the sum of its parts – The Thick of It with truncheons, basically. SH Channel 4.

The Great Fire

Tom Bradby, currently best known as an ITN reporter and a close friend of Prince William, dramatises a key event of the reign of King Charles II in this four-parter about the great fire of London of 1666. This historical disaster movie – a sort of period version of old ITV hit London’s Burning – will benefit from digital technology’s ability to create and destroy a convincing 17th-century city but, given Bradby’s background as a journalist and thriller writer, may also suggest metaphors for the current terrorist threat to the city. ML ITV.

Zawe Ashton stars in Cut for Channel 4. Photograph: Richard Saker

Cut

After playing one of TV’s most vivid characters – the cool/cruel student Vod in Fresh Meat – Zawe Ashton had earned the chance of a leading role in this highly anticipated six-parter by promising dramatist DC Moore. The recession-sensitive plot has Ashton as one of a group of civil servants unwillingly relocated from London to Northampton as part of government cuts who are finding that money and love are no easier in the provinces. ML Channel 4.

Bad Robots

Shows involving pranks and hidden cameras (Candid Camera, Beadle’s About, Trigger Happy TV, Fool Britannia) frequently become fixtures in the schedules. This latest version adapts the concept to the increasingly interactive technology employed in supermarket checkouts, “intelligent” road signs and websites. Users discover that devices are suddenly answering back or misbehaving before the revelation that a jokey ghost has been placed in the machine. ML E4.

November

The Missing

As shown by the huge and continuing media coverage of the Madeleine McCann case, the sudden disappearance of the young is a story with universal resonance, which is perhaps why so many successful crime dramas (Broadchurch, Top of the Lake, Happy Valley) involve a lost child. So initial interest is guaranteed for this six-parter in which James Nesbitt plays a father obsessively returning to the place in France where his child vanished and finding that the local police chief also believes that the case can be solved. Talented young writers Jack Williams and Harry Williams (Full English and Roman’s Empire) intriguingly switch to TV drama’s most popular form. ML BBC1, 15 November.

Atlantis

The first series of Atlantis was an odd little curio; basically Life on Mars, but with Atlantis instead of the 1970s and jokes about Mark Addy farting instead of any discernible tension. Perhaps in this new series we’ll find out why Jason was sent to Atlantis, or why he suddenly has superpowers, or whether or not he has a personality of any kind. If not, at least we’ll always have those fart jokes. Addy’s probably the best in the business at delivering them. SH BBC1

Len Goodman struts his stuff in the Strictly Come Dancing launch episode. Photograph: Guy Levy/BBC/PA

Dancing Cheek to Cheek: An Intimate History of Dance

Generally, successful presenters or shows move towards the lower-numbered BBC channels (from 4 to 2 or 3 to 1), but Len Goodman’s temporary transfer from BBC1 (where he is chief judge on Strictly Come Dancing) to BBC4 is effectively a promotion as it invites him to show a more serious side than the soundbite analysis on the pro-am hoofing franchise. Goodman joins historian and BBC4 regular Lucy Worsley to co-host a story of dance that seems cleverly calculated to make effective use of the movie and sound archives. ML BBC4.

Black Mirror Christmas Special

EastEnders has had a clear run when it comes to depressing the living crap out of everyone at Christmas. But now Charlie Brooker has decided to throw his hat into the ring, with a festive edition of his dark technodrama Black Mirror. Given previous episodes, we probably shouldn’t rule out the possibility of seeing a perpetually screaming robot Santa who eats babies. SH Channel 4.