There's a superb season of Autumn TV playing out for the rest of 2025. 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 Fall and run-up to Christmas.
It's the time of year where all channels give us their major output and Autumn 2025 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 2025, but please also look out for our August issues of our sister magazine titles TV Times, What's On TV and TV & Satellite Week for more on the upcoming TV shows. Take a look at our Autumn TV drama picks right here...
Riot Women (BBC One and BBC iPlayer)
The six-parter Riot Women is by Happy Valley and Gentleman Jack writer Sally Wainwright follows a group of spirited middle-aged Yorkshire women who form a punk-rock band for a local talent contest. As their musical endeavours give them all a new lease of life, a revelation comes to the fore causes huge trouble. Lorraine Ashbourne, Joanna Scanlan, Amelia Bullmore, Rosalie Craig and Tamsin Greig play the band members. Do also look out for veteran stars Anne Reid and Sue Johnston.
* We will update with the launch date on BBC1 as soon as we can.
I Fought The Law (ITV1 and ITVX)
Sheridan Smith stars in I Fought The Law, which is an emotional four-part drama based on the true story of Ann Ming, who campaigned to change the Double Jeopardy law, which had prevented someone from being tried twice for the same crime, following her daughter’s brutal murder. Julie, 22, had gone missing in November 1989 in Billingham, Cleveland, and her body was found hidden under the bath in her home.
Her murderer, William Dunlop, was wrongfully acquitted but, years later, confessed to the crime. Thanks to Ann’s tireless campaigning, the 800-year-old legislation was overturned and Dunlop was jailed for life. Daniel York Loh plays Anne’s late husband Charlie Ming.
* We will update with the launch date on ITV1 as soon as we can.
The Guest (BBC One and BBC iPlayer)
Torchwood and Keeping Faith star Eve Myles plays business owner Fran, who recruits Ria (Gabrielle Creevy) as a cleaner in four-part thriller The Guest. The duo become friends when Fran helps Ria to decide what she really wants from life, but things go wrong after Fran’s advice leads to a devastating incident and the women are drawn into a chilling plot. Emun Elliott and Sion Daniel Young co-star.
* We will update with the release date date on BBC1 as soon as we can.
Trespasses (Channel 4)
Set in 1975 against the turbulent backdrop of all the Troubles in Northern Ireland, this four-parter follows star-crossed lovers Cushla (Lola Petticrew), a spirited Catholic schoolteacher, and Michael (Tom Cullen), a controversial married barrister, as they embark on a passionate but dangerous liaison. Gillian Anderson plays Cushla’s eccentric mother, Gina.
* We will update with the launch date on Channel 4 as soon as we can.
The Forsytes (5)
Based on the classic Forsyte Saga novels by John Galsworthy, six-part period drama The Forsytes is set in the late Victorian era and follows the lives a well-to-do family of stockbrokers, as they wrestle with who’ll take over the family firm. Joshua Orpin plays Soames Forsyte and Millie Gibson is his dancer bride Irene (see pictured above), while Francesca Annis is matriarch Ann, alongside a strong supporting cast that includes Stephen Moyer, Tuppence Middleton, Eleanor Tomlinson and Jack Davenport.
* We will update with the 5 release date as soon as we can.
King & Conqueror (BBC One and BBCIplayer)
This epic eight-part period drama King & Conqueror follows the Norman conquest of Britain, one of the most decisive historical events in our history, after the infamous Battle of Hastings in 1066. Harold of Wessex (James Norton) and William of Normandy (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) began as allies but ended up bitter enemies as they fought for control of the British throne. Emily Beecham plays Edith Swan Neck, the wife of Harold while Clémence Poésy is William’s wife, Matilda. Eddie Marsan, Claire Holman, Juliet Stevenson, Joseph Mawle, Elliot Cowan and Jean-Marc Barr also star.
* We will update with the launch date on BBC1 as soon as we can.
The Death of Bunny Munro (Sky Atlantic and NOW)
The Death of Bunny Munro is a drama starring former Doctor Who star Matt Smith, which is based on Nick Cave's book about a father/son road trip. After the suicide of his wife Libby, sex addict and lothario Bunny finds himself the sole carer of his nine-year-old son Bunny Junior (Rafael Mathé), with very little idea of how to parent.
As the pair embark on a road trip across southern England, Bunny Junior starts to unravel as a result of his grief. Both are dealing with their grief in very different ways. While older Bunny tries to bed every woman he can, Bunny Junior spends his time talking to his mother’s ghost and trying to distract himself from the fact his dad is a chaotic mess. As Bunny Junior starts to spiral, Bunny realises he must do something to rescue his son from his own outdated notions of what it is to be a man.
* We will update with the Sky Atlantic launch date as soon as we can.
Cold Water (ITV1 and ITVX)
Cold Water sees Andrew Lincoln play John, a stay-at-home dad struggling to cope when a violent incident in a playground leaves him so troubled that he and wife Fiona (Indira Varma) decide to move their family to the (fictional) titular Scottish village to start over. But things get even more complicated in this six-part thriller when John bonds with charismatic neighbour Tommy (Ewen Bremner) who is hiding some very dark secrets…
* We will update with the start date on ITV as soon as we can.
Murder Before Evensong (5)
Murder Before Evensong is based on the debut novel Murder Before Evensong by the Reverend Richard Coles and is a six-part whodunnit series. Harry Potter star Matthew Lewis plays crime-solving cleric Canon Daniel Clement, while Amanda Redman as his nonsense mother, Audrey.
* We will update with the launch date on 5 as soon as we can.
The Woman in Cabin 10 (Netflix)
Based on the bestseller The Woman in Cabin 10 by Ruth Ware this one-off thriller follows a journalist, played by Keira Knightley (above), who is given the travel assignment of a lifetime when she's asked to cover the maiden voyage of a luxury cruise liner, which then sets sail. Then, late one night, she witnesses a passenger tossed overboard and tries to raise the alarm. However, she is told she must have dreamed it because all passengers are safe and accounted for.
Yet despite no one believing her, she continues to search for the truth, even if it means putting her own life in danger. Other stars include Hollywood star Guy Pearce, Ted Lasso’s Hannah Waddingham, Ajala, Gitte Witt, Art Malik, Daniel Ings, David Morrissey, Christopher Rygh, Paul Kaye, Kaya Scodelario, Lisa Loven Kongsli, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, John Macmillan, Pippa Bennett-Warner and Ayọ̀ Owóyẹmi-Peters.
* The launch date on Netflix for The Woman In Cabin 10 is October 10, 2025.
Down Cemetery Road (Apple TV Plus)
Adapted from the 2003 novel Down Cemetery Road by Mick Herron, who is also the author of Slow Horses, this eight-episode thriller stars Ruth Wilson as Sarah Tucker, who asks private eye Zoë Boehm (Dame Emma Thompson) to help find a child she suspects has vanished in Oxford, UK, but a complex conspiracy unfolds.
* Down Cemetery Road launches on Apple TV Plus on October 29 2025.
Atomic (Sky Atlantic)
Atomic is an intense five-part thriller stars Alfie Allen as drug-smuggler Max and mysterious Mohammed (Shazad Latif) who find themselves flung together and caught up in a sinister terrorist plot to steal uranium to build an atomic weapon. The pair must decide whether to save themselves or save humanity and must also avoid CIA agent Cassie Elliot (played by Samira Wiley) who is hot on their heels.
The Thursday Murder Club (Netflix)
The movie adaptation of Richard Osman’s 2020 novel The Thursday Murder Club boasts a killer cast as four pensioners-turned-amateur sleuths create cosy chaos in their retirement village. Ex-spy Elizabeth (Dame Helen Mirren), former union activist Ron (Pierce Brosnan), retired psychiatrist Ibrahim (Sir Ben Kingsley) and ex-nurse Joyce (Celia Imrie) meet weekly to discuss cold cases. But when a murder occurs on their doorstep, the quirky quartet becomes embroiled in a real whodunnit. David Tennant, Richard E. Grant, Jonathan Pryce, Naomi Ackie and Tom Ellis star, while Harry Potter’s Chris Columbus directs. ‘It’s a dream to see this book in such incredible hands,’ says Osman. ‘What a cast! I’m pinching myself.’
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