The best TV shows to tune into this autumn

The nights are drawing in, and autumn is on its way, so what better way to celebrate then settling down on the sofa with a glass of wine or tea in hand to watch the best of what’s on the box this season?

New BBC shows

World on Fire

Where: BBC1

When: September 29th, 9pm – 10pm

This seven-episode series is set in the summer of 1939, just at the start of the advent of WWII, and takes viewers through from ordinary life in Manchester to the beaches of Dunkirk as it puts the microscope on the first year of the war.

Translator Harry (Jonah Hauer-King) is working at the British Embassy in Warsaw and falls in love with Polish waitress Kasia (Zofia Wichlacz), just as German tanks roll into the city. Faced with impossible choices, the couple are not the only ones on the run as the Nazis take hold of Europe.

Also starring are Helen Hunt (as American journalist Nancy) and Julia Brown (as factory worker and singer Lois Bennett).

Dublin Murders

Where: BBC1

When: Autumn, date TBC

This gritty new thriller from writer and producer Sarah Phelps – best known for shows including the Witness for the Prosecution (2016), And Then There Were None (2015) and Great Expectations (2011) – adapts the first two of Tana French’s Dublin Murder Squad novels into a gripping eight-part series. Murder cops Rob Reilly (Killian Scott) and Cassie Maddox (Sarah Greene) are faced with the deaths of two women, in seemingly unrelated cases.

Giri/Haji

Where: BBC2

When: Autumn, date TBC

An eight-part BBC/Netflix co-production Giri/Haji (which translates as Duty/Shame) is set in both Tokyo and London and follows the lives of two estranged brothers.

When detective Kenzo’s (Takehiro Hira) younger brother Yuto (Yosuke Kubozuka) goes missing, he departs Tokyo for the capital in search of him – and works to unearth the truth about his brother’s life. Kelly Macdonald, Charlie Creed-Miles, Will Sharpe, Tony Pitts and U.S. actor Justin Long also star alongside an impressive roll call of Japanese actors.

New ITV shows

Doc Martin

When: Wednesday September 25th, 9pm-10pm

Martin Clunes returns as everyone’s favourite grumpy medic – Dr Martin Ellingham – for the ninth series of the hit show set in the stunning small Cornish fishing village of Port Isaac. Also returning are Caroline Catz (as Doc Martin’s wife, Louisa Ellingham) Dame Eileen Atkins (as Doc Martin’s Aunt Ruth), Ian McNeice (Bert Large), Joe Absolom (as Doc Martin’s son Al). The cast also includes John Marquez (as PC Joe Penhale), Jessica Ransom (as doctor’s receptionist Morwenna Newcross) and Selina Cadell (as pharmacist Mrs Tishell).

There are also guest appearances from Danny Huston (as Robert Brooke, a man who is shot by a farmer who thinks he is stealing eggs), Conleth Hill (as a GP who comes to assess Martin), Caroline Quentin (returning as vet Angela Sim) and Tom Conti (as Bernard Newton, an eminent surgeon who is also assessing the Doc).

And things don’t get off to a good start with Doc Martin coming under scrutiny from the General Medical Council (GMC), while it’s all change for his wife Caroline who has resigned from her role as headmistress at the local school to pursue a new career in child counselling.

New Channel 4 shows

The Accident

When: Expected October 2019

BAFTA-winning writer Jack Thorne (National Treasure, Kiri, Cast Offs) returns with a compelling four-part drama based around ‘left behind’ a Welsh community. While a large construction project initially offers a ray of hope, the community is devastated when a large collapse and explosion leaves many dead, including children. Sarah Lancashire plays Polly the wife of the local politician (Mark Lewis Jones) who championed the project. Their rebellious daughter Leona (Jade Croot) breaks into the site on the day of explosion and is left with a lifelong disability. Can Polly help hold this community together following the accident and face some harsh truths in the process?

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Also starring Side Babbett Knudsen, RTS-winner Joanna Scanlan, BAFTA Cymru Award-winner Eiry Thomas, Genevieve Barr and Shaun Parkes.

The End of the F***ing World S2

When: November 2019

This RTS Award-winning and BAFTA-nominated series is back for a second series, with the action picking up two years on from the finale of series 1. Series 1 saw two 17-year-old outsiders, James (Alex Lawther) and Alyssa (Jessica Barden), embark on a road trip to find her estranged father, who left home when she was just a child, ending with James being shot on a beach. As series 2 starts we’re still unsure of James’ fate, but the drama continues as new character of Bonnie, played by BIFA-winning Naomi Ackie, enters the mix bringing with her a troubled past and mysterious connection to Alyssa.

New shows on Netflix

The Politician

When: 27th September

This ten-episode comedy series is tipped to be one of 2019’s biggest TV hits. It follows the story of rich-kid Payton Hobart (Pitch Perfect star Ben Platt) and his humour-packed journey through the school political system in a bid to become Student Body President, and ultimately president of the United States.

The series’ star-studded cast also include Gwyneth Paltrow (as Payton’s mum Georgina Hobart), Jessica Lange (as Dusty Jackson), Zoe Deutch (as Infinity Jackson) and Lucy Boynton (as Astrid Sloan) with guest appearances from Bette Midler, Dylan McDermott and January Jones.

The Crown

When: November 17th

The much-anticipated third series of The Crown returns to Netflix with Olivia Colman as the Queen and Tobias Menzies now taking up the role of her husband Prince Philip. We’re now in the swinging sixties and Helena Bonham Carter as Princess Margaret slips in the frame as her marriage to Lord Snowdon comes under strain, in what is set to be a drama-packed decade. The relationship between Charles and Diana is also expected to be central to this series.

Jason Watkins (as Prime Minister Harold Wilson), Erin Doherty (as Princess Anne), Emma Corrin (as Lady Diana Spencer, later Princess Diana), Gillian Anderson (as Margaret Thatcher) are among the other stars to feature.