We've selected seven TV programmes that really stand out of the summer TV schedules
Summer is usually a dead zone for quality TV, where repeats, retreads and reality TV clog the schedules alongside a few treats like Wimbledon. But summer 2017 is bucking the trend with a few shows that look unmissable, for very different reasons...
1. The Great British Bake Off, Channel 4 (August)
Will the new Bake Off team rise to the challenge? We’ll find out when Paul Hollywood, Sandi Toksvig, Noel Fielding and Prue Leith finally head off into the Bake Off tent. Paul Hollywood, the only original member from the Beeb team, assures fans that Noel and Sandi will be just as much fun as Mel and Sue. "I had tears rolling down my face because of how funny Noel and Sandi are," said Paul.
2. The Strike Series, BBC1 (late summer)
Tom Burke and Holiday Grainger star as Detective Cormoran Strike and sidekick Robin Ellacott in The Strike Series, based on J.K. Rowling’s best-selling crime novels written under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith. "I’m overjoyed to be immersing myself in the role of Cormoran Strike, who is as complex as he is larger than life," said The Musketeers star Tom.
3. Trust Me, BBC1 (August)
Broadchurch’s Jodie Whittaker stars in this modern day thriller set within the NHS. Jodie plays a nurse, who after being sacked for whistle-blowing, steals her best friend’s identity and starts a new life in Edinburgh. But how far will she go to keep her new identify a secret?
"It’s an incredibly challenging piece with a fantastic cast and crew. I haven’t played a role like this before," said Jodie.
4. Top of the Lake: China Girl, BBC2 (July)
Mad Men star Elisabeth Moss is joined by Nicole Kidman in the second series of this thoroughly startling thriller by The Piano director Jane Campion. New Zealand detective Robin Griffin (Moss) heads to Sydney where she finds her estranged daughter is being raised by Julia (Kidman). Meanwhile, a suitcase containing the body of a young girl washes up on Bondi Beach and Robin embarks on a quest to discover ‘China Girl’s’ identity...
5. Game of Thrones, Sky Atlantic (July)
We’re expecting epic battles on land and sea as the long-awaited seventh and penultimate season of the huge global hit returns. The focus this time is on fresh alliances, rocky reunions and collations of chaos as the great Game’s major players become closer than ever before.
6. Man In An Orange Shirt, BBC1 (July)
Two love stories, 60 years apart, chart the huge changes to gay lives from World War Two to the present day in this moving drama. In 1944, British Army Captain Michael Berryman (Oliver Jackson Cohen), who has a young fiancee Flora (Joanna Vanderham), finds himself falling for war artist Thomas March (James McArdle), as chaos reigns all around them in southern Italy. Meanwhile, in the modern day, an ageing Flora (Vanessa Redgrave), sees her grandson embark on a gay relationship in a more forgiving world.
7. Diana and I, BBC2 (late summer)
Tamsin Greig, Neil Morrissey and Tuppence Middleton are among the all-star cast in this one-off drama set across the week that followed Princess Diana’s tragic death on 31 August 1997. The drama traces the fictional stories of four lead characters during that tumultuous seven days, from that fateful Sunday to Diana’s funeral at Westminster Abbey.
