There's a spectacular season of Autumn TV in 2023. As always, this is the time of year for all channels to give us their major output so it's an important season for telly fans after the summer holidays are over and they focus on what great television is in store during the fall and the run-up to Christmas.
Autumn 2023 sees many wonderful new TV shows starting, all with top stars, but also returning favourites, brand new crime thrillers, period dramas and everything in between.
So here at What to Watch we're previewing the best dramas of the Autumn TV season 2023 right here...
The Long Shadow (ITV1 and ITVX)
Factual drama The Long Shadow examines the hunt for the Yorkshire Ripper through the eyes of the investigating police officers and the serial killer’s victims. The seven-part series is based on case files and Michael Bilton’s book Wicked Beyond Belief charting Peter Sutcliffe’s reign of terror in the late 1970s and early 1980s, which saw him target a string of women across the north of England while the police battled to identify him and bring him to justice.
David Morrissey plays DCS George Oldfield, while Toby Jones is DCS Dennis Hoban, Lee Ingleby is DCS Jim Hobson, Shaun Dooley is DCS Chris Gregg and Liz White is PS Meg Winterburn. Katherine Kelly portrays Emily Jackson, who Sutcliffe killed in 1976, while Daniel Mays plays her husband Sydney and Jill Halfpenny co-stars as Doreen Hill, whose daughter Jacqueline Jill (Daisy Waterstone) became the final Sutcliffe victim in 1980 before his eventual arrest and imprisonment. Other stars appearing in the drama include Stephen Tompkinson, Rob James-Collier, Charley Webb, Steven Waddington and Ruth Madeley , along with Alexa Davies, Chloe Harris and Michael McElhatton.
* The Long Shadow will start on ITV1 ion Monday September 25 at 9pm with subsequent episodes running weekly.
Fool Me Once (Netflix)
Michelle Keegan and Richard Armitage star in an eight-part, twist-laden thriller Fool Me Once, adapted from a Harlan Coben novel by Danny Brocklehurst. Former soldier Maya Stern (Keegan) is struggling to deal with the recent brutal murder of her husband, Joe Burkett (Armitage), when on the nanny-cam she uses to watch over her daughter, she suddenly spots Joe and is faced with the shocking reality that he might not be dead after all.
* We'll update on the exact 2023 release date when we hear.
Three Little Birds (ITV1 and ITVX)
Six-part period drama Three Little Birds penned by Sir Lenny Henry will arrive on ITV during Black History Month in October. In 1957, two sisters Leah and Chantrelle 9Rochelle Neil, Saffron Coomberand another woman Hosanna (Yazmin Belo) who leave their home in Jamaica to come to Britain, but the trio quickly realise that the ‘mother country’ is not what they had expected.
* We'll update on the exact October 2023 release date when we hear.
Time season 2 (BBC1)
Jimmy McGovern’s BAFTA-winning drama Time returns for a second series starring Bella Ramsey, Jodie Whittaker, Tamara Lawrence and Siobhan Finneran, who’s back as prison chaplain Marie-Louise. This time the drama takes place in a women’s jail, where new inmates Kelsey, Orla and Abi arrive on the same day and are immediately plunged into a world fraught with danger and violence. But as the trio navigate their new lives, they discover a surprising shared bond.
* Time series 2 launches on BBC1 Sunday October 29 at 9pm. It runs for three episodes.
The Woman In The Wall (BBC1)
The dark legacy of Ireland’s Magdalene Laundries is depicted in six-part drama The Woman In The Wall, starring Ruth Wilson as Lorna Brady, who wakes one morning to find a corpse in her home. At first Lorna panics she’s responsible for the murder herself, having suffered from extreme sleepwalking since being incarcerated aged 15 in one of Ireland’s an infamous institutions. Things take a turn when Lorna’s investigated for another, seemingly unrelated, crime. But are the two linked?
* The Woman In The Wall began on BBC1 on Sunday August 27.
The Tower II: Death Message (ITV1 and ITVX)
Gemma Whelan is back as DS Sarah Collins in this second season of crime drama The Tower. Once again Sarah’s forced to pair up with novice cop Lizzie Adama (Tahirah Sharif) under orders of their boss DI Kieran Shaw (Emmett J Scanlan) as they investigate a cold case involving the disappearance of a schoolgirl on the day of Princess Diana’s funeral in 1997. Meanwhile Sarah’s ex-partner DC Steve Bradshaw (Jimmy Akingbola) returns to stir up trouble. Expect plenty of twists in the case and their personal lives. Look out too for some top actors joining the cast, including Tamzin Outhwaite and Niamh Cusack.
* The Tower 2: Death Message starred on ITV1 on Monday August 28. All episodes are now available on ITVX.
The Following Events Are Based On A Pack of Lies (BBC1)
The Following Events Are Based On A Pack of Lies focuses on two women, Cheryl and Alice, who lead very different lives. Cheryl (Marianne Jean-Baptiste) is a best-selling fantasy fiction author who, after the death of her partner, lives alone with her poodle. Alice (Rebekah Staton) is a formidable PA, mum and Madonna obsessive. They are total strangers, but both find themselves tangled up in the life of Rob (Alistair Petrie) who claims to be a celebrated ecopreneur. This leads to an unexpected friendship between the women who are both determined to take down the predatory swindler. Can they carry out the ultimate con?
* The Following Events Are Based On A Pack of Lies started on BBC1 on Tuesday August 29 at 9pm. All episodes are available now on BBCiPlayer.
Mary & George (Sky Atlantic)
Lavish costume drama Mary & George details the extraordinary lives of ambitious Mary Villiers (Oscar-winner Julianne Moore) and her charismatic son George (Nicholas Galitzine) as they climb through the ranks of 17th-century English society to the court of King James I (Tony Curran).
* We'll update on the exact release date when we hear.
Wilderness (Prime Video)
Jenna Coleman and Oliver Jackson-Cohen play glamorous British couple Liv and Will in Wilderness, a twisted psychological thriller about love, betrayal and vengeance. When Liv learns Will’s been having an affair, it rocks their seemingly solid marriage and turns their dream holiday to America’s stunning National Parks into a living nightmare. As they embark on their trip of a lifetime, Will desperately tries to make amends, unaware that Liv’s plotting her revenge…
* Wilderness launched on Prime Video on Friday September 15 2023.
Breathtaking (ITV1 and ITVX)
Former Corrie and Downtown Abbey star Joanne Froggat plays consultant Dr Abbey Henderson, who finds herself in the eye of the COVID-19 storm when the pandemic hit the world in 2020. "When I first read the scripts for Breathtaking they moved me to tears," says Joanne. "I felt passionately that I had to be a part of telling this story."
* We'll update on the exact release date when we hear.
The Burning Girls (Paramount Plus)
After the loss of her husband and a tragedy that occurred in her old parish, the Reverend Jack Brooks (Samantha Morton) and her daughter Flo (Ruby Stokes) move to a new village. But their new life soon turns into a nightmare in the haunting six-part thriller The Burning Girls.
* The Burning Girls launches on Paramount Plus on Thursday October 19 2023.
The Inheritance (Channel 5)
Robert James-Collier, Gaynor Faye and Jemima Rooper play three siblings who discover after the death of their father Dennis, played by Larry Lamb, that they have been written out of his will. Devastated yet determined, in The Inheritance they embark on a dangerous quest to discover whether Dennis was murdered. Samantha Bond plays their mother Susan, while Kevin Whately, Kevin Harvey and Pauline McLynn also star.
* The Inheritance began on Channel 5 on Monday September 4.
Loki season 2 (Disney+)
Series two of the hit Marvel series Loki finds time-hopping Loki (Tom Hiddleston) and his trusted friend Mobius (Owen Wilson) travelling across the multiverse to deal with the chaos created by Sylvie – one of Loki’s variants – who decided to kill He Who Remains at the end of season one. This time, the pair also face the threat of Kang the Conqueror (Jonathan Majors) and encounter OB, a ‘timeslipping’ expert played by Oscar-winner Ke Huy Quan, who makes his Marvel debut.
* Loki season 2 starts on Disney Plus on Friday October 6 2023.
The Crown season 6 (Netflix)
The sixth and final 10-episode series of The Crown begins in 1997 and portrays the aftermath of the tragic death of Princess Diana (Elizabeth Debicki). Meanwhile, the deaths of Princess Margaret and the Queen Mother are also depicted, as well as the early relationship between student sweethearts Prince William (Ed McVey) and Kate Middleton (Meg Bellamy). Imelda Staunton and Jonathan Pryce return as Queen Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh.
* We'll update on the exact release date when we hear but we believe it will be in November 2023.
Boiling Point (BBC1)
Stephen Graham is back as troubled chef Andy in Boiling Point four-part drama that follows on from the acclaimed Netflix film about life behind the scenes at a mega-busy top restaurant. It picks up with Andy recovering from a heart attack and his former sous chef Carly (Vinette Robinson) battling to keep her new London restaurant running.
* Boiling Point begins on BBC1 on Sunday October 1 at 9pm.
Doctor Who (BBC1)
We last saw the Doctor in a state of confusion after regenerating back into the form of the Tenth Doctor (David Tennant) – and now David’s Time Lord and Catherine Tate’s Donna Bible are returning for three specials of Doctor Who to celebrate the sci-fi show’s 60th anniversary in November. Details of the plot remain a closely-guarded secret, including what enemies the Doctor may face, but confirmed guest stars for the episodes include Ruth Madeley, Neil Patrick Harris, and Heartstopper’s Yasmin Finney.
* These Doctor Who episodes will be shown in November around the 60th anniversary. We'll update on the exact dates when we hear.
Culprits (Disney Plus)
Gemma Arterton, Nathan Stewart-Jarrett, Kirby Howell-Baptiste, Niamh Algar and Eddie Izzard lead the cast of the eight-part crime comedy caper Culprits. After a big heist, members of an elite gang of criminals are killed off one by one by a mystery serial killer. So the big question is, who's is bumping them off and why? Is there a traitor among them or is it an enemy from outside the heist gang?
* We'll update on the exact release date when we hear.
The Lovers (Sky Atlantic)
Offbeat comedy drama The Lovers follows the fortunes of a star-crossed couple: potty-mouthed Belfast supermarket worker Janet (Roisin Gallagher) and London-based political broadcaster Seamus (Johnny Flynn). When Seamus suddenly finds himself in Janet’s garden, sparks fly between the pair and they embark on an affair. Even though they’re from wildly different backgrounds, have they each found their soulmate?
* The Lovers launched on Sky Atlantic & NOW on Thursday September 7.
Fellow Travelers (Paramount Plus)
Two very different men meet in the dark days of 1950s Washington DC, at the height of the Communist witch-hunt, in this epic love story which is also a political thriller. In Fellow Travelers, Hawkins Fuller (The Normal Heart’s Matt Bomer) and Tim Laughlin (Bridgerton’s Jonathan Bailey) start a volatile romance that spans the Vietnam War protests of the 1960s, the drug-fuelled disco hedonism of the 1970s and the AIDS crisis of the 1980s.
* Fellow Travelers launches in the US on October 27 and in the UK on October 28.
All Creatures Great and Small season 4 (Channel 5)
The residents of Skeldale House, including James and Helen Herriot (Nicholas Ralph and Rachel Shenton) welcome us back to Darrowby for a fourth, seven-part series (including a Christmas special) of the hit vet drama All Creatures Great and Small, picking up the action in 1940 as Winston Churchill takes office and Europe is under serious threat.
* All Creatures Great and Small launches on Channel 5 on Thursday October 5 at 9pm.
Napoleon (Apple TV Plus)
Oscar winner Joaquin Phoenix reunites with Gladiator director Ridley Scott as he takes on the title role of Napoleon in this epic historical movie that depicts the legendary emperor’s rise to power in the aftermath of the French revolution, and his volatile relationship with Empress Josephine (The Crown’s Vanessa Kirby). The Serpent’s Tahar Rahim stars as a French politician and Shetland’s Catherine Walker plays doomed queen Marie Antoinette.
* Napoleon will be in cinemas from Wednesday November 22 2023 then arrive on Apple TV+ shortly after.
The Killing Kind (Paramount Plus)
The unsettling connection between a lawyer and her former client is at the centre of this torrid six-part thriller The Killing Kind. After barrister Ingrid Lewis (Emma Appleton) successfully defends John Webster (Colin Morgan) on a charge of harassing a former girlfriend, a relationship develops between them – only for it to take a horrific turn when he tries to stop her from leaving him. Then a tragedy occurs and John returns claiming Ingrid is in danger…
* The Killing Kind arrived on Paramount Plus on Thursday September 7.
