TV FANS can get excited to curl up with some gripping new BBC dramas this autumn.
With a host of new dramas to look forward to, as well as the return of fan favourites, there is something for everyone.
ITV has already released a guide to the dramas it has coming up over the next few months, but the BBC can certainly give its rival a run for its money.
Moonflower Murders
The Crown’s Lesley Manville and Tim McMullan return in Moonflower Murders, the sequel to Magpie Murders, as editor turned amateur sleuth Susan Ryeland and world-famous fictional detective Atticus Pünd.
Susan has left publishing and is living in Crete with her long-time boyfriend, Andreas. But her idyll is disturbed by the shadow of a murder committed at a British country hotel eight years ago.
Alan Conway visited the hotel and wrote a novel based on what happened there.
Cecily Treherne, the young woman who helps run the hotel, read the book and believed the wrong man had been arrested.
Now she has disappeared. Can Susan uncover the secret hidden in the book and find Cecily before it is too late?
The Listeners
New drama The Listeners starring Rebecca Hall[/caption]
The new drama The Listeners – starring Rebecca Hall – centres around a popular English teacher, who begins to hear a low humming sound that no one else around her can hear.
This seemingly innocuous noise gradually upsets the balance of her life, increasing tension between herself and her husband, Paul, and daughter, Ashley.
But despite multiple doctors, no obvious source or medical cause can be found.
When she discovers that a student of hers, Kyle (Ollie West – Hamnet), can also hear the sound, the two strike up an unlikely and intimate friendship.
Finding themselves isolated from their families, friends and colleagues, they fall in with a disparate group of neighbours.
The group is led by a charismatic couple, Jo and Omar, who also claim they can hear The Hum – and who believe it could be a gift, heard only by a “chosen few.”
The Listeners explores the seduction of the wild and unknowable, the human search for the transcendent and the rise of conspiracy culture in the West.
Return to Paradise
Return to Paradise is a spin off from hit series Death in Paradise[/caption]
Return to Paradise is a new Australia-set spin-off from one of the UK’s most watched dramas, Death in Paradise.
The new addition heads Down Under to Australia and picks up the baton from Beyond Paradise, which became the franchise’s first spin off in 2023.
Set in the idyllic, beachside hamlet of Dolphin Cove, Return to Paradise is six gripping and fiendishly clever murder mysteries – all against the spectacular backdrop of the Australian coastal landscape.
Australian ex-pat Mackenzie Clarke is the seemingly golden girl of the London Metropolitan police force has built a reputation for being able to crack the most impossible of cases.
However, she’s suddenly forced to up sticks and move back to her childhood home of Dolphin Cove, a beautiful, coastal paradise and Mackenzie’s worst nightmare.
Having escaped her hometown at the earliest opportunity six years ago, Mack vowed she’d never come back, leaving a lot of unfinished business and unanswered questions.
On her return she’s still no fan of the town, and the people of Dolphin Cove are certainly no fans of hers. In fact everyone would prefer her not to be there, including Mackenzie herself.
But when a murder takes place in Dolphin Cove, Mack can’t help but put her inspired detective brilliance to good use and determines, despite her reservations, that she needs to make the best of it.
Plus she must tie up the loose ends with the man she left at the altar six years ago.
Shetland
Shetland is a Scottish detective television series filmed mainly on the isle of Shetland. The long-running drama delves into the dark side of one of the most beautiful places on earth.
Series nine sees Ashley Jensen and Alison O’Donnell reprise their roles as Detectives Ruth Calder and Alison ‘Tosh’ McIntosh.
A double missing person’s case blurs the lines between the personal and the professional, as Calder and Tosh are drawn into a missing persons investigation.
When Tosh’s friend, Annie Bett, goes missing she suspects something is seriously wrong. Ruth Calder has no time to recover from a life-threatening ordeal of her own, as together they set out in search of Annie and her young son, Noah.
They discover accountant Annie is estranged from her husband, Ian, and has been staying with mussel farmer John Harris and his two sons, Patrick and Fergus. Worryingly, there’s no sign of Annie there either.
Calder follows Tosh’s instincts and looks for Annie at the home she shared with Ian. There, they discover Professor Euan Rossi who claims to have been Annie’s Oxford University tutor many years ago.
Suspicions are stirred when Tosh and Calder learn Rossi travelled all the way to Shetland after Annie left him a distressed voicemail the night she vanished.
Meanwhile, at the station, Calder delves deeper into another case involving a deadly argument between two brothers.
When a bloodied person turns up at a remote garage, nothing can prepare the team for what lies ahead.
BBC crime dramas
The BBC is reopening case files on an all-star line-up of crime dramas this summer.
Here’s a refresher on the popular programmes which span six decades.
- Campion: Aired from 1989 to 1990, this detective drama series was adapted from novels by Margery Allingham and stars Peter Davison.
- Dalziel And Pascoe: A gritty detective drama series about a mismatched pair of policemen, based on the award-winning books by Reginald Hill. Aired from 1996 to 2007.
- Death In Paradise: A misanthropic detective inspector is assigned to a Caribbean island against his will. Premiered in 2011 and is still on air to this day.
- Happy Valley: Created by Sally Wainwright, this northern noir follows Sarah Lancashire as Sgt Catherine Cawood – tough, defiant and facing her traumatic past.
- Hinterland: Welsh drama starring Richard Harrington. Brooding DCI Tom Mathias uncovers secrets – and links to his troubled past amid mountainous terrain and close-knit villages. Aired from 2013 to 2016.
- Inspector Lynley Mysteries: Based on the novels of Elizabeth George, this drama series is about upper-crust DI Thomas Lynley and working class DS Barbara Havers. Aired from 2001 to 2007.
- Jonathan Creek: Starring comedian Alan Davies, this comedy-drama series follows a inventor of magic tricks who is often called in to solve puzzling murders. Aired from 1997 to 2016.
- Law & Order: Originally broadcast in 1978, this four-part drama series is about the British judicial system. Stars include Peter Dean and Derek Martin.
- Life On Mars: Beguiling science-fiction police drama following a Manchester policeman who travels back to 1973 following a car accident. Stars John Simm and Philip Glenister. Aired from 2006 to 2007.
- Line Of Duty: Created by Jed Mercurio, this drama follows the investigations of AC-12, a controversial police anticorruption unit. Stars Martin Compston, Vicky McClure and Adrian Dunbar, aired from 2012 to 2021.
- Luther: Crime drama series starring Idris Elba as DCI John Luther. Aired from 2010 to 2019, with a follow-up film released in 2023.
- New Tricks: Warm-hearted drama following an eccentric group of old-fashioned detectives. Starring Dennis Waterman, Amanda Redman, Alun Armstrong and James Bolam. Aired from 2003 to 2015.
- Sherlock: Benedict Cumberbatch stars a modern day Sherlock Holmes, teaming up with Martin Freeman‘s war veteran Dr Watson to solve impossible crimes. Aired from 2010 to 2017.
- Shetland: Detective drama starring Douglas Henshall, Ashley Jensen and Alison O’Donnell, showcasing the dark side of one of the most beautiful places on earth. Premiered in 2013 and is still on air to this day.
- The Cops: Set in the fictional northern town of Stanton, this acclaimed, provocative police drama stars Katy Cavanagh, Rob Dixon and John Henshaw. Aired from 1998 to 2001.
- Waking The Dead: With a cast including Trevor Eve, Sue Johnston and Wil Johnson, this series follows a cold case team who unearths sleeping secrets, but sometimes the past is best left buried. Aired from 2000 to 2011.
- Wallander: Starring Sir Kenneth Branagh, Kurt Wallander is unable to unsee the dark crimes he’s tasked to investigate while Wallander’s job comes at a cost to his family and relationships. Aired from 2008 to 2016.
Shetland series nine begins on Wednesday, November 6 at 9pm on BBC One. The other dramas launch dates will be confirmed in due course.
