From the long-awaited return of Oasis to record-breaking temperatures and England’s triumph at the Women’s Euros, the summer of 2025 has certainly been a memorable one. But now it’s nearly over. And that can only mean one thing: darker evenings spent cosied up in front of the telly.
From September to November, there are a huge amount of shows arriving on the small screen, and it can be hard to narrow it all down to what’s worth watching.
So here are 20 highlights to look forward to over the next three months, including a new comedy from the creators of The Office and a dynasty drama that goes inside the family behind the Guinness empire.
The Paper
5 September on Sky
Twenty years after the US version of The Office arrived, charting the drab working lives of the Dunder Mifflin Paper Company’s oddball employees, the mockumentary crew are back, and this time they’re going inside an ailing Midwestern newspaper, The Truth Teller. Exec produced by The Office creators Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, and starring a cracking lineup of comic actors – from Domhnall Gleeson and Sabrina Impacciatore to Tim Key – the follow-up show is funny, painfully human, and (for this modern journalist) bleakly relatable viewing. While the mundane magic of the original Office series – both British and American – will always be hard to match, The Paper is a sweet and satisfying satire of modern work conventions. Ellie Harrison
Task
8 September on Sky
From the team behind Mare of Easttown, the most gripping drama of 2021, Task is a white-knuckle cat-and-mouse story about an FBI agent (Mark Ruffalo) on the hunt for a family man who’s committed a string of violent robberies (Ozark’s Tom Pelphrey). Ruffalo and Pelphrey are magnetic leads, rounded out by a strong supporting cast including Saltburn’s Alison Oliver and CODA’s Emilia Jones. Creator Brad Ingelsby has once again returned to his home state of Pennsylvania, setting the action in the working-class suburbs of Philadelphia, meaning there’ll be more authentic, earthy storytelling, and more head-spinning accents. EH
The Girlfriend
10 September on Prime Video
Robin Wright, so magnificent in Forrest Gump and House of Cards, leads the cast of this new psychological thriller based on Michelle Frances’s 2017 novel. Wright plays Laura, a woman whose seemingly perfect life begins to fall apart when her son Daniel (Laurie Davidson) brings home a new girlfriend, Cherry (Olivia Cooke). Laura quickly becomes convinced that Cherry is hiding a secret, but no one else seems to believe her, and the tension between the two women threatens to collapse the mother’s bond with her son. It looks stylish, twisty and, quite honestly, like nightmare viewing for anyone whose parents haven’t warmed to their partner. EH
Black Rabbit
18 September on Netflix
The premise for Jude Law and Jason Bateman’s new Netflix drama has shades of Succession and The Bear, which can surely only be a good thing. Law plays the socialite owner of one of New York’s most exclusive members’ clubs, whose rarefied world couldn’t be more different from the tumultuous existence of his chaotic brother (Bateman, sporting a seriously straggly hairdo). When he allows his sibling back into his life, he runs the risk of destroying the reputation he’s worked so hard to build. Bateman’s Ozark co-star Laura Linney is on directing duties for two episodes, with Gangs of London’s Sope Dirisu and Succession’s Dagmara Dominczyk (aka Waystar Royco’s PR boss Karolina) also starring. Katie Rosseinsky
Slow Horses season 5
24 September on Apple
Roddy Ho, possibly the most annoying character ever committed to screen, finds himself right at the centre of Slow Horses’ fifth outing. The tech whiz, played by Christopher Chung, finally manages to get himself a girlfriend – a feat so unlikely that it raises everyone’s suspicions. This enigmatic woman’s arrival on the scene coincides with a series of incidents that wreak havoc on London, and it’s down to Gary Oldman’s Jackson Lamb and his team of semi-capable agents to figure out how it all links together. Apple’s adaptation of Mick Herron’s novels might have started out as a thriller, but it’s now turned into comfort TV – we know we’ll get the fart jokes, the gritty shots of the capital, and Kristin Scott Thomas’s Diana Taverner sashaying around a beautiful office. It’s all warm and familiar by now. But that doesn’t make it any less exciting. EH
House of Guinness
25 September on Netflix
This lavish dynasty drama, which centres on the family behind the famous Irish stout, could hardly be arriving on screens at a better time. As autumn returns, so will Guinness as the drink of the season – pubs across the UK sold out of it last year, when videos of punters “splitting the G” were inescapable on our timelines. The show will be set in 19th-century Dublin and New York, and is brought to the screen by Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight, meaning fans can hope for something just as rich and filling as a pint of the good stuff. EH
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Mitchell and Webb Are Not Helping
September on Channel 4
Peep Show odd couple David Mitchell and Robert Webb return to their sketch comedy roots with this new series. Billed as a “funny and sweary” return to the format, 15 years after That Mitchell and Webb Look wrapped up, Not Helping will see the duo supported by a new generation of comedy stars, including Kiell Smith-Bynoe, Lara Ricote, Stevie Martin, and Krystal Evans. As with all sketch series, including Mitchell and Webb’s past endeavours, this is likely going to be hit and miss – but if their back catalogue is anything to go by, the hits might be both hilarious and enduring. Louis Chilton
Nobody Wants This season 2
23 October on Netflix
This odd couple romcom, which follows Kristen Bell’s agnostic podcaster Joanne and Adam Brody’s rabbi Noah as they navigate a cross-cultural relationship, was one of the biggest word-of-mouth hits of 2024. Now it’s back for a second season, which picks up after Joanne admitted that she wasn’t ready to convert to Judaism (a major obstacle for the couple, given Noah’s dreams of becoming chief rabbi one day). Will the pressure prove too much for the pair? And will their meddling but ultimately well-meaning siblings Morgan (Justine Lupe) and Sasha (Timothy Simons) ever cut them some slack? This time around, Brody’s real-life partner Leighton Meester (aka Gossip Girl’s queen bee Blair Waldorf) is joining the cast as Joanne’s school nemesis, who’s now a mummy blogger. KR
Down Cemetery Road
29 October on Apple TV+
Slow Horses, with its alternately gripping and hilarious John le Carré meets The Thick of It feel, has become one of Apple TV’s biggest success stories since its debut in 2022. It’s no surprise, then, that the streamer has also snapped up the rights to author Mick Herron’s Oxford-set detective series, centring around private investigator Zoë Boehm. Emma Thompson will take the lead role in this adaptation, with Ruth Wilson joining her as a woman who becomes fixated on the case of her neighbours’ missing daughter. The pair end up entangled in a tangled conspiracy – and if there’s anyone we can trust to give powerhouse performances, it’s these two. KR
Riot Women
October on BBC One
Does anyone write funny, fierce women as well as Sally Wainwright? In this area, the Happy Valley and Gentleman Jack writer is hard to beat, and she’s back with a new Yorkshire-set drama starring Joanna Scanlan, Lorraine Ashbourne and Tamsin Greig as part of a group of menopausal women who form a punk-rock band. Already, this is on the way to my dream dinner party lineup, but the idea of these actors letting loose on the electric guitar is even more intriguing. Expect the show to be a tribute to the power of friendship and music, and the resilience of women who won’t let age or expectation stop them from being heard. EH
The Celebrity Traitors
October on BBC One
When news of a celebrity edition of The Traitors broke, the faithful fandom was divided. Would a starry version of the best reality show to emerge in the 2020s manage to preserve the essence of what makes the competition so great (ie, loveable grandmas teaming up with twentysomething lads to take down a shifty estate agent from Macclesfield)? And would the producers manage to sign up some actual, proper celebs? We’ll only be able to answer that first question when the new series airs this autumn, but as for the lineup? It’s packed with recognisable faces and big personalities, from Stephen Fry to Alan Carr to Charlotte Church. KR
How Are You? It’s Alan (Partridge)
October on BBC One
A-ha! Norfolk’s most notorious fictional celebrity returns for a new six-part series. How Are You? (originally produced under the hilariously crap title And Did Those Feet… With Alan Partridge) sees blustering broadcaster Partridge (Steve Coogan) attempt to reintegrate himself into British life after a stint working in Saudi Arabia. Coogan’s abject lack of preciousness about the Partridge character has been an absolute blessing over the past three decades; even if any one outing falls a little flat, the specific comic genius of the character makes each return more than justified. How Are You? follows up his One Show spoof This Time with a premise that gets back to exactly what makes AP such a preposterous British icon. LC
The Iris Affair
October on Sky Atlantic
Tom Hollander is always a joy to watch, whether he’s camping it up as an evil expat in The White Lotus or giving a cringingly note-perfect performance as the desperate Mr Collins in Pride & Prejudice. Now, he’s at the centre of a new chase thriller from Luther creator Neil Cross. He plays a charismatic entrepreneur who hires Niamh Algar (The Virtues), an enigmatic puzzle master, to break into a top-secret piece of technology. But when she runs off with the goods, he’s forced to race across Sardinia and Rome in pursuit. Thrilling and scenic. A perfect bit of autumn escapism. EH
Stranger Things season 5
26 November on Netflix
It’s very nearly time to say goodbye to Netflix’s monster hit. But before we bid farewell to our plucky teenage heroes (OK, most of the young cast are in their twenties now) and their fellow Hawkins inhabitants, Stranger Things round five promises a clutch of practically feature-length episodes. Maya Hawke, aka Robin, has teased that the final season consists of “basically eight movies”. The gang is gearing up for one last showdown with the villainous Vecna, who seems to have vanished without a trace, while Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) must retreat into hiding to shake off a government search. Here’s hoping we might finally get answers to some of the show’s lingering mysteries. Oh, and Terminator star Linda Hamilton has an as-yet-undisclosed role. KR
Trespasses
November on Channel 4
Louise Kennedy’s debut novel earned a coveted spot on the Women’s Prize shortlist back in 2023; now this forbidden love story is getting the small-screen treatment courtesy of Channel 4. Set against the backdrop of the Troubles in Seventies Belfast, Trespasses stars Lola Petticrew as Cushla, a young Catholic woman who embarks on an affair with an older barrister, Michael (Tom Cullen), a controversial figure who’s known for defending IRA suspects. He also happens to be married. And the fact that he’s a Protestant only adds another dimension of disaster to their illicit relationship. If that hasn’t convinced you to watch, surely the fact that Gillian Anderson plays Cushla’s mother will win you over. KR
Frauds
Autumn on ITV
The idea of British telly stalwarts Suranne Jones and Jodie Whittaker co-leading an ITV heist thriller sounds like suitably silly and addictive autumn viewing. In this new drama, co-created by Jones, they play fraudster duo Bert and Sam, who reunite in Spain after a decade apart for, you guessed it, one last job. The catch? Their toxic friendship could destroy them both before they actually manage to pull off the multimillion-pound art heist. Judging by first-look photos of the show, with the pair driving a battered old car and sporting shaggy haircuts, it’s one for fans of Thelma and Louise. EH
The Death of Bunny Munro
Autumn on Sky Atlantic
Adapted from the 2009 novel by musician and writer Nick Cave, The Death of Bunny Munroe is a darkly comic father-and-son parable, following the exploits of door-to-door salesman Bunny Munro (Matt Smith). He and his nine-year-old son, Bunny Jr (Rafael Mathé) – both reeling from the death by suicide of his wife Libby (Sarah Greene) – take a trip around Sussex, with Bunny Sr in the throes of a libidinous crash-out. Added to the mix is the presence of a serial killer, stalking the same streets they’re travelling around. Developed by Sky, this morbid, genre-bending six-parter certainly has one of the year’s more intriguing premises – though it’s unlikely to be for the faint-hearted. LC
All Her Fault
Autumn on Sky Atlantic
Like The Missing and Adolescence before it, this drama might actually prove too difficult for parents to watch. Adapted from the bestselling novel by Andrea Mara, it opens with a mother, Marissa (Sarah Snook), arriving to collect her young son Milo from his first playdate, but the woman who answers the door isn’t someone she recognises. Milo isn’t there and the woman has never heard of him. Dun dun dunnnn! It certainly sounds gripping, and it’s exciting to see Snook sink her teeth into a lead role, a couple of years after the end of Succession, which is sure to be emotionally raw and very far away from the world of Shiv Roy. EH
Film Club
Autumn on BBC One
Undoubtedly, 2025 has been Aimee Lou Wood’s year. Fresh from the White Lotus role that got everyone talking, she’ll star in Film Club, the BBC comedy that she’s co-written with fellow actor Ralph Davis. She plays Evie, a young woman who relies on her weekly film club meet-up with her best friend Noa (Nabhaan Rizwaan) to escape from the humdrum of everyday life. But when Noa drops the bombshell that he’s about to move away to pursue his dream job, the pair are forced to confront the fact that their feelings for one another might not be purely platonic. It sounds like the sort of funny, heartfelt fare that Wood excels in, plus she’ll be joined by Suranne Jones as her eccentric mum. KR
All’s Fair
Autumn on Disney
Think of All’s Fair as the glossier, high camp American cousin of The Split. Ryan Murphy’s latest series follows a bunch of impeccably dressed, immaculately coiffed divorce lawyers at an all-female legal firm that happens to boast a super-rich clientele. Naomi Watts, Glenn Close, Niecy Nash-Betts and, erm, Kim Kardashian (fresh from her role in Murphy’s American Horror Story) will don their best girlboss attire to play the lawyers. Expect luxuriantly shiny bob hair cuts and lines like “Get mad, get hot, get revenge”. Frankly, the fact that Murphy has used “Cell Block Tango” from Chicago to soundtrack the trailer tells us everything we need to know. KR
