Outbreak (ITV1, Sept 3) Marking the 70th anniversary of the beginning of the second world war, this landmark series uses archive material to describe, hour by hour, the day of September 3, 1939, when Britain declared itself at war with Germany.
Small Island (BBC1, Sept) Andrea Levy’s award-winning novel is adapted in two parts. Starring Naomie Harris, David Oyelowo and Benedict Cumberbatch, it’s about prejudice and empire, racism and love in post-war London.
Miranda (BBC2, Oct) Stand-up success and great sitcom-writing rarely go together, but Miranda Hart’s semi-autobiographical material — posh girl from boarding school struggles to cope with body image, misanthropy and trouser presses — makes the perfect transition. It’s like French and Saunders in the early days.
Saatchi’s Art Stars (BBC2, Oct) From the many artists who submitted their work for consideration, six will be chosen by four judges, including Tracey Emin. The budding Damien Hirsts will then be followed as they are given specific projects to do. Enigmatic to the last, Charles Saatchi does not appear; his input is all off screen.
Emma (BBC1, Oct) If the adapter Sandy Welch can bring some of the mastery to Jane Austen’s comic novel that she brought to Dickens’s Our Mutual Friend, this four-parter will be a treat. Romola Garai plays the famously meddling, matchmaking Emma, whom, Austen said, nobody would like but herself.
Wuthering Heights (ITV1, Aug 30) Tom Hardy hopes to define Heathcliff for a new generation in a two-part adaptation of Emily Brontë’s haunting gothic love story. It is faithfully retold by Peter Bowker, albeit with a different emphasis in the ending. Will the newcomer Charlotte Riley make her name as Cathy?
Defying Gravity (BBC2, Oct) Pitched as “sex and secrets in space”, and set in the near future, this is a 13-part thriller about eight astronauts whose six-year mission turns out to be very different from what they first thought. A co-production between the BBC and the Americans behind Desperate Housewives, it stars Ron Livingston and Peter Howitt, who also co-directs.
Life (BBC1, Oct) A landmark series devoted to extreme animal behaviour, this 10-parter boasts many television firsts, including a pack of giant Humboldt squids in a night-time hunt for sardines, and unexpected, temperamental stars such as the sarcastic fringehead (weird by name, weird by nature). David Attenborough narrates.
Criminal Justice (BBC1, Nov) Like Peter Moffat’s first series, which gripped from the opening frame, this five-part thriller looks at every section of the criminal justice system from one person’s point of view (a woman with depression, played by Maxine Peake).
Joanna Lumley: Catwoman (ITV1, Sept 6) ITV sends the vegetarian animal-lover all over the world to try to understand people’s fondness for cats. En route, she discovers that they have been tortured, used as therapy and, from tabbies to cheetahs, kept as pets.
BEST OF THE REST
BBC1 has high hopes of Wounded (Sept) being the documentary of the season, if not the year. It follows the recovery of two soldiers who have been appallingly injured in Afghanistan. From HBO comes In Treatment, with Gabriel Byrne, which premieres on Sky Arts 1. Byrne won a Golden Globe for his role as a troubled shrink whose character is revealed in his counselling sessions. Closer to home, The Queen (Channel 4, Nov) promises to be a ground-breaking docudrama about pivotal moments in the life of Elizabeth II. Five actresses, including Emilia Fox, play Her Majesty.
