The 12 shows YOU CAN'T MISS this Autumn including Vanity Fair

Vanity Fair
(Image credit: ITV)

From thrillers to period drama and comedy to soap specials we look at the TV shows you should be watching this Autumn

Check out the 12 shows you don't want to miss this Autumn...

1 Vanity Fair ITV

ITV VANITY FAIR OLIVIA COOKE & TOM BATEMAN

A sumptuous, star-studded adaptation of William Makepeace Thackeray’s classic novel charts the changing fortunes of shrewd 19th century social climber Becky Sharp (Olivia Cooke). Michael Palin, Suranne Jones, Frances de la Tour and Martin Clunes co-star.

2 Butterfly ITV

This moving three-part drama explores the emotional issues of gender identity. It follows the challenges faced by separated parents Vicky (Anna Friel) and Stephen (Emmett J Scalan)  after their 11-year-old son Max (Callum Booth-Ford) decides he wanted to live his life as a girl.

3 The Cry BBC1

Cry

(Image credit: BBC/Synchronicity/Lachlan Moore)

Jenna Coleman leaves Queen Victoria’s crinolines behind her to star in this harrowing drama. She plays new mum Joanna who, with her husband Alistair (Ewen Leslie), takes their baby from Scotland to Australia to visit Alistair’s mother (Stella Gonet). But a tragic event occurs that scars Joanna forever…

4 Press ITV

Doctor Foster writer Mike Bartlett has penned this fast-paced drama about two newspapers — serious broadsheet The Herald, where principled Holly Evans (Charlotte Riley) is deputy news editor and  salacious tabloid, The Post, edited by unscrupulous Duncan Allen (Ben Chaplin) and owned by shady media mogul George Emmerson (David Suchet).

5 Strangers ITV

A powerful international thriller centres on Professor Jonah Mulray (John Simm) who learns that his wife Megan (Dervla Kirwan) has been killed in a car crash in Hong Kong. But a startling revelation leads him into a dark conspiracy and he and British Consulate worker Sally Porter (Emilia Fox) try to reach the truth.

6 Doctor Who BBC1

Doctor Who

(Image credit: BBC / BBC Studios)

It’s all change as Jodie Whittaker makes her exciting debut journey in the TARDIS, becoming the first woman to play the Doctor. The 13th incarnation of the Time Lord will be joined by three new companions Graham O'Brien (Bradley Walsh), Ryan Sinclair (Tosin Cole) and Yasmin Khan (Mandip Gill).

7 The Little Drummer Girl BBC1

John Le Carre’s twisty spy novel is brought to life in this epic drama, already been dubbed the next The Night Manager. Set in the late 1970s, against a backdrop of tension in the Middle East, it sees actress Charlie (Florence Pugh) become embroiled in the world of espionage when she meets an Israeli intelligence officer Becker (Alexander Skarsgard).

8 Mother’s Day BBC2

The aftermath of the 1993 IRA bomb that killed two young boys in Warrington is explored in a moving drama. While Wendy Parry (Anna Maxwell Martin) and her husband Colin (Daniel Mays) deal with the death of their 12-year-old son Tim in the attack, Dublin mother Susan McHugh (Vicky McClure) organises a momentous peace rally.

9 The Imitation Game ITV

This fun new comedy panel show, hosted by Alexander Armstrong, will really make an impression! Team captains Debra Stephenson and Rory Bremner are joined by the likes of Ronni Ancona, Jon Culshaw and Alistair McGowan to compete in impressions-based games.

10 Bodyguard BBC1

Bodyguard

(Image credit: BBC)

Line of Duty writer Jed Mercurio turns his attentions to the intricate world of politics in a compelling thriller. When war veteran David Budd (Richard Madden) is assigned as a Specialist Protection Officer to Home Secretary Julia Montague (Keeley Howes), could he become a threat to her safety himself?

11 Dark Heart ITV

Penned by Unforgotten’s Chris Lang, this tense crime drama centres on DI Will Wagstaffe (Tom Riley), aka Staffe, as he tries to crack a range of disturbing cases, beginning with the murder of suspected sex offenders. But Staffe’s life remains blighted by the unsolved murder of his parents. Can he ever get closure?

12 Emmerdale 1918 ITV

A century after the end of the First World War, some of Emmerdale’s best-loved  stars, including Natalie J Robb and Charlotte Bellamy, investigate the impact of the conflict by looking into the difficulties faced by those who lived in the real-life Yorkshire village of Esholt, on which Emmerdale is based, 100 years ago.

Caren Clark

Caren has been a journalist specializing in TV for almost two decades and is a Senior Features Writer for TV Times, TV & Satellite Week and What’s On TV magazines and she also writes for What to Watch.


Over the years, she has spent many a day in a muddy field or an on-set catering bus chatting to numerous stars on location including the likes of Olivia Colman, David Tennant, Suranne Jones, Jamie Dornan, Dame Judi Dench and Sir Derek Jacobi as well as Hollywood actors such as Glenn Close and Kiefer Sutherland.


Caren will happily sit down and watch any kind of telly (well, maybe not sci-fi!), but she particularly loves period dramas like Call the Midwife, Downton Abbey and The Crown and she’s also a big fan of juicy crime thrillers from Line of Duty to Poirot.


In her spare time, Caren enjoys going to the cinema and theatre or curling up with a good book.