Autumn must-see TV - Your guide to the best dramas premiering this season

TV’s blockbuster season has finally arrived with a slate of brilliant shows lined up for the cosy autumn months. There will be the old favourites, including Strictly and I’m A Celeb, and returning series such as Trigger Point, Slow Horses and Stranger Things. But there are also enough brand new bingeable dramas to keep the biggest telly addict satisfied. Here, TV Columnist Sara Wallis outlines what you can expect from the best of them…

Frauds, ITV1/ITVX, October

Suranne Jones and Jodie Whittaker make a formidable on-screen duo in this gripping heist drama. They play skilled confidence tricksters who have been separated by a 10-year prison sentence. After the decade apart, Bert (Jones) and Sam (Whittaker) are back together and in Spain, and Bert wants to settle a score. Can she lure Sam out of retirement on the pretext of one final, multi-million-pound art heist?

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The Rumour, 5, September 10

This thriller stars Rachel Shenton as Joanna, a young mum in need of a new start. She moves with her little boy Alfie to the quiet town of Flinstead, but quickly becomes entangled in the lives of local mothers and the unsettling dynamics of the community. When she stumbles across an online rumour about a child killer living in the town, she uses it to win over mum at the school gate. That was her first mistake…

All’s Fair, Disney+, November

Starring Kim Kardashian, Glenn Close, Naomi Watts and Sarah Paulson, among other brilliant women, this drama about a team of female divorce lawyers has been highly-anticipated. The team of attorneys leave a male-dominated firm to open their own powerhouse practice. Fierce and emotionally complicated, the women navigate high-stakes breakups, scandalous secrets and shifting loyalties - both in the courtroom and within their own ranks.

Film Club, BBC Three, October

Sex Education break-out star Aimee Lou Wood has co-created and stars in this romcom, that also features Nabhaan Rizwan and Suranne Jones. Aimee plays Evie, who enjoys her weekly Friday night escape at Film Club, a chance to deck out her eccentric mum’s (Jones) garage and spend time with her best friend Noa (Rizwan). But everything changes when Noa announces he’s moving away - and they are forced to confront the nature of their relationship.

The Girlfriend, Prime Video, September 10

Robin Wright and Olivia Cooke turn up the tension in this psychological drama based on the novel by Michelle Frances. It follows Laura (Wright), a woman who seemingly has it all - a fabulous career, loving husband and precious son Daniel. But everything begins to unravel when Daniel brings home his new girlfriend Cherry (Cooke). Laura thinks Cherry is hiding something - or is Laura just being paranoid?

Death Of Bunny Munro, Sky Atlantic/NOW, Autumn

Matt Smith, once ‘The Doctor’, plays the lead in this series based on singer Nick Cave’s novel. Matt plays door-to-door beauty product salesman and self-professed lothario Bunny Munro, who finds himself saddled with a young son after his wife’s suicide. Together with nine-year-old Bunny Junior, he embarks on an epic and increasingly out-of-control road trip across England as both battle grief.

Murder Before Evensong, 5, October

Based on the best-selling books by Rev Richard Coles, this murder mystery drama is set to be a new cosy crime hit. Matthew Lewis, best known as Neville Longbottom in the Harry Potter films, stars as Canon Daniel Clement, who shares Champton rectory with his widowed - and extremely opinionated - mother Audrey, played by Amanda Redman. Expect community bickering and bizarre deaths as bodies pile up and tensions boil over.

Black Rabbit, Netflix, September 18

Hollywood stars Jude Law and Jason Bateman play brothers in this tense drama, set against the backdrop of New York City’s high-pressure nightlife scene. When Jake (Law), the charismatic owner of the hottest restaurant in New York, allows his troubled, former musician brother Vince (Bateman) to return to the family business, he opens the door to old traumas and new dangers that threaten to bring down everything they’ve built.

Death By Lightning, Netflix, November 6

Michael Shannon and Matthew Macfadyen star in this limited series about the incredible true story of James Garfield’s presidency. The stranger-than-fiction tale chronicles the extraordinary life and death of the 20th US president and his greatest admirer Charles Guiteau - the man who would come to kill him. An excellent cast also includes Nick Offerman, Bradley Whitford and Betty Gilpin.

Down Cemetery Road, Apple TV+, October 29

Adapted from Mick Herron’s novel, this thriller stars beloved British actors Emma Thompson and Ruth Wilson. When a house explodes in a quiet Oxford suburb and a girl disappears in the aftermath, neighbour Sarah Tucker (Wilson) becomes obsessed with finding her, enlisting the help of private investigator Zoë Boehm (Thompson). But they find themselves caught up in a complex conspiracy.

Coldwater, ITV1/ITVX, September 14

Andrew Lincoln plays John, a repressed and depressed man who is shocked to find himself in middle age, secretly raging at his life as a stay-at-home dad. When his failure to intervene in a violent confrontation in a playground brings his identity crisis to a head, he ups and moves his family to the Scottish rural idyll of Coldwater, but his pent-up rage rears its ugly head. Also stars Eve Myles and Indira Varma.

The Savant, Apple TV+, September 26

Jessica Chastain stars in this high-stakes thriller as an undercover investigator known as The Savant. She infiltrates online hate groups in an effort to stop domestic extremists before they act. By day she is Jodi, your average suburban mum. By night, she’s uncovering the darkest corners of the internet. But when she finds evidence of a planned mass attack, the pressure is on and her family is in danger.

House Of Guinness, Netflix, September 25

Inspired by the Guinness family, one of Europe's most famous and enduring dynasties, this epis story is set in 19th-century Dublin and New York. The story begins immediately after the death of Sir Benjamin Guinness, the man responsible for the extraordinary success of the Guinness brewery, and the far-reaching impact of his will on the fate of his four adult children. Stars James Norton, Anthony Boyle and Dervla Kirwan.

Lazarus, Prime Video, October 22

Based on an original story idea and written by the New York Times best-selling author Harlan Coben and BAFTA-winner Danny Brocklehurst, Lazarus follows a man (Sam Claflin) who returns home after his father's (Bill Nighy) suicide and begins to have disturbing experiences that can't be explained. He quickly becomes entangled in a series of cold-case murders as he grapples with the mystery of his father's death and his sister's murder 25 years ago.

The Forsytes, 5, Autumn

This sweeping period drama, a reimagining of John Galsworthy’s novel series, stars Francesca Annis as the formidable Forsyte matriarch Ann. Stephen Moyer plays her eldest son, head of the stockbroking firm Forsyte & Co, while Danny Griffin is her bohemian son, married to status-driven Frances, played by Tuppence Middleton. Also stars Eleanor Tomlinson and Jack Davenport. Expect upper-class arguing about family, tradition and love.

Nine Bodies In A Mexican Morgue, BBC1/BBC iPlayer, Autumn

The gripping six-parter, based on the Anthony Horowitz mystery thriller, is about a plane carrying a small group of passengers, crew and pilot that crashes in the Mexican jungle. All the bodies are recovered and placed in a morgue…but it turns out that only one of them died in the crash. The other passengers were murdered afterwards, each one in a unique way. But by whom? And why? Stars Eric McCormack (Will & Grace), along with David Ajala, Lydia Wilson and Siobhán McSweeney.

The Beast In Me, Netflix, November 13

Since the tragic death of her young son, acclaimed author Aggie Wiggs (Claire Danes) has receded from public life, unable to write. But she finds an unlikely subject for a new book when the house next door is bought by Nile Jarvis (Matthew Rhys), a formidable real estate mogul who was once the prime suspect in his wife’s disappearance. Both horrified and fascinated by this man, Aggie finds herself compulsively hunting for the deadly truth.

Riot Women, BBC1/BBC iPlayer, October

Five women come together to create a makeshift punk-rock band and discover they have a lot to say in this riotous drama from award-winning Happy Valley writer Sally Wainwright. Set and filmed in Hebden Bridge, West Yorkshire, it stars Rosalie Craig, Lorraine Ashbourne, Joanna Scanlan, Amelia Bullmore and Tamsin Greig as the women who juggle demanding jobs, grown-up kids and disastrous relationships as they use the band as a catalyst for change.

Amadeus, Sky/NOW, Autumn

Reimagined from Peter Shaffer’s stage play, this drama is set within the musical hub of bustling Vienna at the end of the 18th century. Amadeus (Will Sharpe) is aged 25 and arrives in the city determined to carve out his own path. He finds an unlikely ally in a young singer who will become his wife, Constanze Weber Mozart (Gabrielle Creevy). But her connections to the court composer Antonio Salieri (Paul Bettany) bring about a tense collision course.

The Iris Affair, Sky/NOW, Autumn

When enigmatic genius Iris Nixon (Niamh Algar) cracks a string of complex online puzzles, she’s led to a piazza in Florence where she meets charismatic entrepreneur Cameron Beck (Tom Hollander). He invites her to come and work for him to unlock a powerful and top-secret piece of technology. Her curiosity piqued, she accepts. But when Iris discovers its dangerous potential, she steals the journal containing the device’s activation sequence - and vanishes.

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