Autumn TV preview 2024: the best dramas coming soon

There's a wonderful season of Autumn TV playing out for the rest of 2024. It's an important time for telly fans after the summer holidays are over and they focus on what great television is in store during the Autumn and the run-up to Christmas .

This is the time of year for all channels to give us their major output and Autumn 2024 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 2024. Take a look right here...

Sherwood season 2 (BBC One and BBC iPlayer)

The turmoil in Nottinghamshire's ex-coal mining community continues into this second series of Sherwood with more violence plus organised crime blighting lives. Caught up in the middle are the Sparrow family — mum Daphne (Lorraine Ashbourne, see pictured above), dad Mickey (Philip Jackson) and sons Ronan and Rory (Bill, Jones, Perry Fitzpatrick).

David Morrissey is back as retired detective Ian St Clair and Lesley Manville again plays Julie Jackson. New cast includes Monica Dolan as tough local mum Ann Branson, plus David Harewood and Sharlene Whyte as brother and sister Dennis and Pam. Robert Lindsay also stars as a controversial local businessman with big ambitions.

Joan (ITV1 and ITVX)

Game of Thrones star Sophie Turner plays the infamous real-life criminal mastermind Joan Hannington. The period drama series Joan shows how she battled adversity to bring up her four-year-daughter as a single mum and went from being a petty offender to becoming a notorious and daring jewel thief, who was known in 1980s London as "The Godmother". Frank Dillane plays her antiques dealer criminal accomplice, Bosie.

Nightsleeper (BBC One and BBC iPlayer)

A sleeper train from Glasgow to London is hijacked in the tense thriller series Nightsleeper . Alexandra Roach plays Abby Aysgarth from the UK’s cyber security centre who jumps into action when the UK railway network comes under attack from a sinister group. Meanwhile off-duty cop Joe Roag (Joe Cole) is on board and teams up with Abby from afar to save the lives of the passengers on board.

Rivals (Disney Plus)

Jilly Cooper's much-loved 1980s "bonkbuster" novel Rivals follows an eccentric, power-hungry "country set" and the rivalry between ex-Olympic horse rider and Tory MP Rupert Campbell-Black (David Tennant) and media mogul Lord Tony Baddingham (Alex Hassell). In the eight-part series Rivals , both are battling for supremacy in the world of independent television in 1986. Danny Dyer and Lisa McGrillis play a local couple, Freddie and Valerie Jones, while Aidan Turner, Katherine Parkinson and Claire Rushbrook also star as other outrageous characters. There’s plenty of backstabbing and steamy affairs as all fight tooth and nail to get ahead!

All Creatures Great and Small season 5 (Channel 5)

Yorkshire vets James Herriot ( Nicholas Ralph ), Siegfried Farnon ( Samuel West ) and Tristan Farnon (Callum Woodhouse) return for a fifth season of All Creatures Great and Small which picks up during 1940s wartime. James and his wife, Helen ( Rachel Shenton ), are navigating parenthood with their young son James, while Tristan is back in the fold after his time spent serving in the Royal Army Veterinary Corps. Anna Madeley, James Anthony-Rose and Patricia Hodge also reprise their roles as Mrs Hall, Richard Carmody and Mrs Pumphrey.

The Day of The Jackal (Sky Atlantic)

Eddie Redmayne stars as top assassin The Jackal from Frederick Forsyth’s famous novel . This thriller series gives a modern twist to the story which was originally set in the 1960s and turned into a hit 1973 film starring Edward Fox. This version of The Day of The Jackal digs deeper into the psyche of the infamous killer for hire as The Jackal traverses the world, playing a high-stakes game of cat-and-mouse with those desperate to capture him, including tenacious law enforcement agent Bianca (Lashana Lynch).

Kaos (Netflix)

Jurassic World star Jeff Goldblum heads up the dark comedy Kaos which reimagines the lives of the Greek gods. He plays a modern version of Zeus, while David Thewlis is Zeus’ brother Hades, who is fast losing control over the underworld. They join several gods who are all taking advantage of a lazy life but their reign may well be challenged by four mortals, each of whom could be destined to bring Zeus down. Janet McTeer, Nabhaan Rizwan and Cliff Curtis also star.

Showtrial season 2 (BBC One and BBC iPlayer)

Showtrial is back for a second season , this time focussing on a brand-new case. Three years after the first season, the focus has now turned to a hotly-contested criminal trial involving the death of high-profile climate activist Marcus Calderwood (Barney Fishwick). He’s left for dead in a violent hit-and-run but in his dying moments he reveals his killer is a serving policeman. It’s then up to cocky police officer Justin Mitchell (Michael Socha), defence solicitor Sam Malik (Adeel Akhtar) and CPS lawyer Leila Hassoun-Kenny (Nathalie Armin) to uncover the truth. Tom Padley and Joe Dempsie play detectives.

The Listeners (BBC One and BBC iPlayer)

A strange sound that can only be heard by a few people is at the heart of Jordan Tannahill’s adaptation of his own novel . In The Listeners , teacher Claire (Rebecca Hall) and her student Kyle (Ollie West) pick up a humming noise, trouble brews as they become connected to an off-beat group who believe that hearing ‘The Hum’ could be a special gift.

Mr Loverman (BBC One and BBC iPlayer)

Eight-part drama Mr Loverman sees Lennie James headline this adaptation of Bernardine Evaristo’s novel as charming Antiguan-born Londoner Barrington Walker, whose wife Carmel (Doctor Who’s Sharon D Clarke) suspects he is having an affair with another woman. But Barrington is actually involved in a heartfelt long-term romance with his best friend Morris (His Dark Materials’ Ariyon Bakare).  Death in Paradise’s Tahj Miles co-stars.

Playing Nice (ITV1 and ITVX)

James Norton, Niamh Algar, James McArdle and Jessica Brown Findlay star in Playing Nice , a Cornish-set thriller about two sets of parents who are thrown into turmoil when they find out that their toddler sons were accidentally switched at birth. But, as they try to reach an agonising compromise about what the future should hold for their families, events take an even more shocking turn…