Autumn TV preview: all the unmissable drama coming soon

A round-up of the biggest British drama coming to the small screen over the next few months, including Victoria, Dark Angel, The Missing and Poldark

Anna Bates from Downton Abbey as a Victorian serial killer who sent members of her own family to their graves?

It seems a big leap, but that's Joanne Froggatt's new venture in ITV drama Dark Angel, based on real-life killer Mary Ann Cotton.

It's just part of an amazing line-up of new drama series coming this autumn. From returning delights like Cold Feet and Poldark to new ventures Victoria and In The Dark, these are the shows that will stop complaints about the nights drawing in...

Patrick McLennan is a London-based journalist and documentary maker who has worked as a writer, sub-editor, digital editor and TV producer in the UK and New Zealand. His CV includes spells as a news producer at the BBC and TVNZ, as well as web editor for Time Inc UK. He has produced TV news and entertainment features on personalities as diverse as Nick Cave, Tom Hardy, Clive James, Jodie Marsh and Kevin Bacon and he co-produced and directed The Ponds, which has screened in UK cinemas, BBC Four and is currently available on Netflix.

An entertainment writer with a diverse taste in TV and film, he lists Seinfeld, The Sopranos, The Chase, The Thick of It and Detectorists among his favourite shows, but steers well clear of most sci-fi.