2023 was a great year for British TV (and for TV in general), but it looks like 2024 is already shaping up well.
Not only do we have new seasons of Heartstopper, We Are Lady Parts and Bridgerton to look forward to, but there are also new royal dramas in the form of Mary & George and The Regime. Plus, there’s an adaptation of Holly Jackson’s wildly popular book A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder and a brand new show from Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight.
‘The Traitors’ UK is just as fun as ‘Succession’. If you’re not watching it, you’re missing out.
Without further ado, here are the British TV shows we’re most excited about in 2024 — and if you’re outside the UK, you might need a VPN to see some of them before they hit Hulu, Max et al.
1. The Tourist, Season 2
Credit: BBC/Two Brothers/Steffan Hill
The Tourist‘s first outing was an entertaining mix of dark comedy, thriller and Memento-style mystery in the Australian outback, following a man (Jamie Dornan) who wakes up with amnesia after a car accident and has to race to discover who he is — all while people are (you guessed it!) trying to kill him. The six-episode BBC miniseries made for a twisty adventure with plenty of surprises, so it’ll be interesting to see where Harry and Jack Williams’ show goes next as the main characters travel to Ireland to discover Dornan’s character’s roots.
Starring: Jamie Dornan, Danielle Macdonald, Olwen Fouéré, Diarmaid Murtagh, Nessa Matthews, Mark McKenna, Francis Magee, and Conor MacNeill.
How to watch: The Tourist is currently streaming on BBC iPlayer in the UK.
2. Doctor Who
Credit: Alistair Heap/Bad Wolf/BBC Studios
A new series of Doctor Who always brings with it fresh excitement, but it’s probably fair to say that Ncuti Gatwa’s upcoming season — following on the heels of a popular Christmas special — has to be one of the most highly-anticipated in a while. As Mashable’s Chris Taylor pointed out, rather than being known as Season 14, the upcoming series will be Season 1 — a fresh start.
“This is New, New Who, then: A very Gen Z reboot,” Taylor wrote. “As older fans cope with exploded brains and (potentially) seething anger, the Doctor merrily shape-shifts once more, changing what we thought knew yet again. And the show proves it has the chops to last another 60 years. Because it always takes us where we need to go.”
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Starring: Ncuti Gatwa, Millie Gibson, Yasmin Finney, Bonnie Langford, Jinkx Monsoon, Jonathan Groff, Indira Varma, Lenny Rush, Michelle Greenidge, Angela Wynter, Anita Dobson, Jemma Redgrave, Alexander Devrient, and Aneurin Barnard.
How to watch: The new season of Doctor Who will be streaming on BBC iPlayer in May 2024.
3. A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder
Credit: BBC/Moonage Pictures/Joss Barratt
Based on the first novel in Holly Jackson’s wildly popular YA thriller series, A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder follows teenage student Pip (Wednesday star Emma Myers) as she digs into a five-year-old murder case — and tries to prove that the person blamed wasn’t actually the one responsible. This crime mystery is likely to get a lot of attention from the book’s huge fanbase alone.
Starring: Emma Myers, Zain Iqbal, Yali Topol Margalith, Asha Banks, Jude Collie, Raiko Gohara, Anna Maxwell Martin, Gary Beadle, Mathew Baynton, Henry Ashton, Mitu Panicucci, India Lillie Davies, Rahul Pattni, Orla Hill, Ephraim O.P. Sampson, Carla Woodcock, Yasmin Al-Khudhairi, Jessica Webber, Matthew Khan, Georgia Aaron, Adam Astill, Jackson Bews, Oliver Wickham, Annabel Mullion, and Adam Astill.
How to watch: A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder will be streaming on BBC iPlayer in the UK, release date TBC.
4. Heartstopper, Season 3
Credit: Netflix / Samuel Dore
Netflix’s adaptation of Alice Oseman’s beloved graphic novel Heartstopper will return for a third season this year, reuniting you with Charlie and Nick and their delightful gang of pals. They decided to make it official at the end of Season 1 and dabbled with saying “love” out loud in Season 2. Meanwhile, Tao and Elle finally figured out their feelings, Isaac found a name for his own sexuality, while Darcy’s turbulent home life boiled over. Filming has wrapped for Season 3, with the first episode titled “Love.” As far as characters go, the toxic Ben (Sebastian Croft) won’t be back, but Oseman announced graphic novel character Michael Holden (Darragh Hand) will join the story. Can’t bloody wait. — Shannon Connellan, UK Editor
Starring: Kit Connor, Joe Locke, Yasmin Finney, William Gao, Corinna Brown, Kizzy Edgell, Tobie Donovan, Jenny Walser, and Rhea Norwood.
How to watch: Heartstopper Season 3 will be streaming on Netflix, date TBC.
5. We Are Lady Parts, Season 2
Credit: Channel 4
It’s been a while since Nida Manzoor’s comedy about an all-female Muslim punk bad made a splash with its first season, but fans will be pleased to hear that it won’t be long before Saira (Sarah Kameela Impey), Ayesha (Juliette Motamed), Bisma (Faith Omole), Momtaz (Lucie Shorthouse) and Amina (Anjana Vasan) are back on our screens.
“The main critique for We Are Lady Parts remains that it is too short,” wrote Mashable’s Proma Khosla about Season 1. “I want eight episodes, or 10, or 50. Finishing the first season feels a lot like performing a stage gig; you won’t remember every detail but you’ll remember the feeling, a rush of joy and adrenaline that you were grateful to share with this motley, magnificent crew.”
Starring: Sarah Kameela Impey, Juliette Motamed, Faith Omole, Lucie Shorthouse, and Anjana Vasan.
How to watch: We Are Lady Parts will be streaming on Channel 4 in the UK, then likely streaming on Peacock in the U.S.
6. This Town
Credit: BBC / Banijay Rights, Kudos / Robert Viglasky
Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight is back with a new show set around Birmingham, UK — a six-part mini-series that trades 1900s gangs for the early 1980s music scene while keeping the tension, violence and family drama that made Knight’s earlier show such a hit. We don’t have too much more info to go on at this stage, but the story will apparently follow the formation of a band “against a backdrop of violence.” Sounds ominous.
Starring: Levi Brown, Jordan Bolger, Ben Rose, Eve Austin, Geraldine James, Peter McDonald, Freya Parks, Shyvonne Ahmmad, John Heffernan, Stefan Asante-Boateng, Séainín Brennan, George Somner, and Brendan Gibson.
How to watch: This Town is available on BBC iPlayer from spring 2024.
7. Queenie
Credit: Channel 4
Candice Carty-Williams has already had a big 2023 with her awesome BBC series Champion, but this year has even more on the horizon. The author has adapted her popular 2020 debut novel Queenie as a buzzy series with Onyx Collective and Channel 4, with Dionne Brown in the lead as the eponymous protagonist. With Carty-Williams at the helm as showrunner and executive producer, the series revolves around Queenie, a 25-year-old Jamaican-British journalist who’s going through a break-up, navigating the mess of modern dating, and figuring out how to keep her job together, all while connecting with her family and incredibly tight group of friends.
Starring: Dionne Brown, Jon Pointing, Samuel Adewunmi, Bellah, Sally Phillips, Tilly Keeper, Elisha Applebaum, Mim Shaikh, Llewella Gideon, Michelle Greenidge, Cristale De’Abreu, Joseph Marcell, Joseph Ollman, Melissa Johns, and Laura Whitmore.
How to watch: Queenie will premiere in 2024 on Channel 4 in the UK and Ireland and will stream on Hulu in the U.S., Star+ in Latin America, and Disney+ in all other territories.
8. The Responder, Season 2
Credit: BBC/Dancing Ledge
The corrupt antics of Liverpool cop Chris Carson (a gritty Martin Freeman) in The Responder‘s first outing made our list of the best British TV shows of 2022, so we’re looking forward to seeing where Tony Schumacher’s police thriller goes next. Alongside Freeman, Adelayo Adedayo also returns as fellow officer Rachel Hargreaves, this time separate from Carson and trying to rebuild her life after the grim events of Season 1.
Starring: Martin Freeman, Adelayo Adedayo, Warren Brown, MyAnna Buring, Emily Fairn, Josh Finan, Philip S McGuinness, Faye McKeever, Mark Womack, Adam Nagaitis, Bernard Hill, and Ian Puleston-Davies.
How to watch: The Responder will be streaming on BBC iPlayer in the UK, date TBC.
9. The Gentlemen
Credit: Christopher Rafael/Netflix
Fans of Snatch, Lock, Stock and indeed the 2019 movie The Gentlemen will want to keep an eye out for writer/director Guy Ritchie’s new series, which takes that movie as its starting point and weaves a new tale of weed empires and the criminal underworld. The eight-episode spin-off follows Eddie Horniman (The White Lotus Season 2’s Theo James), who realises his newly-inherited family estate is actually embroiled in a drug ring run by British gangsters. As this is a Guy Ritchie show it’s probably safe to expect black comedy and explosive violence.
Starring: Theo James, Kaya Scodelario, Daniel Ings, Joely Richardson, Giancarlo Esposito, Peter Serafinowicz, and Vinnie Jones.
How to watch: The Gentlemen is streaming on Netflix from March 2024.
10. One Day
Credit: Teddy Cavendish/Netflix
Looking for some romance to tide you over this coming Valentine’s Day? One Day, based on David Nicholls’s novel of the same name, is here to fill that void. (You may remember the 2011 movie adaptation with Anne Hathaway and Jim Sturgess.) The series takes us through a decades-long love story between students Emma and Dexter, who meet for the very first time the night of their graduation from university. Even though they go their separate ways, the next years find them reconnecting in unexpected places, with each episode cataloging what they’re doing on the same date each year. Could this be 2024’s Normal People?*
Starring: Ambika Mod, Leo Woodall, Essie Davis, Tim McInnerny, Amber Grappy, Jonny Weldon, Eleanor Tomlinson, Joely Richardson, and Toby Stephens.
How to watch: One Day is streaming on Netflix from Feb. 8.
11. Bridgerton, Season 3
Credit: Laurence Cendrowicz/Netflix
Dearest gentle readers, it’s high time we reunite with the Bridgerton family, wouldn’t you agree? After the swoon-worthy story of Queen Charlotte and King George, Netflix’s juggernaut Bridgerton returns to its roots for a third season, this time focusing on the romance between Penelope Featherington (who is secretly gossip maven Lady Whistledown) and Colin Bridgerton. For the first time in Bridgerton history, Netflix will release the series in two parts — so be sure to time your binge viewing accordingly!*
Starring: Nicola Coughlan, Luke Newton, Claudia Jessie, Luke Thompson, Golda Rosheuvel, Adjoa Andoh, Ruth Gemmell, Lorraine Ashbourne, Hannah Dodd, Simone Ashley, Jonathan Bailey, Harriet Cains, Bessie Carter, Jessica Madsen, Florence Hunt, Martins Imhangbe, Will Tilston, Polly Walker, and Julie Andrews.
How to watch: The first four episodes of Bridgerton Season 3 premiere May 16 on Netflix, and the last four on June 13.
12. Mary & George
Credit: Sky
Royal court-based treachery is always fun, isn’t it? Sounding like a fusion of Game of Thrones and The Crown, Mary & George stars Julianne Moore as real-life historical figure Mary Villers, who teamed up with her own son George (Nicholas Galitzine) to scheme her way up the ranks of nobility. As with many historical dramas we may need to take this one’s accuracy with a pinch of salt, but it certainly looks like an entertaining, Bridgerton-style romp.
Starring: Julianne Moore, Nicholas Galitzine, Tony Curran, Nicola Walker, Niamh Algar, Trine Dyrholm, Sean Gilder, Adrian Rawlins, Mark O’Halloran, Laurie Davidson, Samuel Blenkin, Jacob McCarthy, Tom Victor, Alice Grant, Amelia Gething, Mirren Mack, Rina Mahoney, and Simon Russell Beale.
How to watch: Mary & George premiere’s on Sky and NOW TV in March 2024, and Starz in the U.S.
13. The Regime
Credit: Miya Mizuno/HBO
Loved the Kate Winslet-led HBO limited series Mare of Easttown? Then brace yourself for The Regime, another Kate Winslet-led HBO limited series — albeit one with a very different vibe. A political satire through and through, the show charts the unraveling of a modern European regime over the course of one year. The chancellor of said regime? None other than Winslet, who spends The Regime‘s first teaser alternating between delivering ice-cold threats to foreign dignitaries and having a breakdown in the woods.*
Starring: Kate Winslet, Matthias Schoenaerts, Guillaume Gallienne, Andrea Riseborough, Martha Plimpton, Hugh Grant, Danny Webb, David Bamber, Henry Goodman, Stanley Townsend, Louie Mynett, Rory Keenan, Karl Markovics, and Pippa Haywood.
How to watch: The Regime is streaming March 3 at 9 p.m. ET on HBO and Max in the U.S., and will stream on on Sky Atlantic and NOW in 2024, dates TBC.
14. How to Get to Heaven From Belfast
If you’ve seen the awesome Derry Girls, you’ll know that any new show from Lisa McGee is a cause for celebration. How to Get to Heaven From Belfast follows three old school friends, now in their thirties, who get pulled into a strange mystery after attending the wake of a childhood classmate. Described in the press release as “Not so much a ‘whodunit’ as a ‘what the hell happened,'” this one sounds like it’ll be as much of a thriller as a comedy. We don’t yet know anything about the cast or when it’ll be on, but we’re keeping this one firmly on our radars.
Starring: Yet to be announced.
How to watch: How to Get to Heaven From Belfast is streaming on Channel 4 in 2024, exact date TBC.
*This blurb has appeared on a previous Mashable list.
