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Hit Point is one of those shows in which you never fully know where you are. Is it a gangster drama? Maybe. An odd couple detective comedy? A little bit. Or, perhaps even a will-they, won't-they romance? There are elements of all three as the show sets out its stall in the first episode, which opens with a £10 million heist that leaves the police scratching their heads. Enter our detective double act, Leo (Nick Blood) and Bella (Saffron Hocking), a pair with an easygoing banter that's a pleasure to watch. He's weirdly fascinated by eggs, she seems to only be comfortable with transactional relationships. Would they make a good couple?

Ponder that as the series unfolds, introducing extra layers to its story as it goes. Hit Point comes from the pen of Howard Overman (Misfits) and moves with something of the style of a classic London gangster drama. The wider cast includes Downton's Brendan Coyle and quirky comic maestro Peter Serafinowicz playing it very straight indeed. The real draw, though, is the banter between Leo and Bella, written by Overman but brought very much to life by Blood and Hocking. If you remember Overman's hilarious police comedy Vexed, it has touches of that. (Six episodes)

Frank Skinner: 30 Years Of Dirt

Stand-up special with the veteran comic

Year: 2026

Certificate: 15

Frank Skinner's stand-up show is filmed at the Soho Theatre Walthamstow, which is a nice venue but has an old school feel - it's also shot in black and white which amplifies that impression, along with gags about the usual age of his audience. You can never pin Skinner down though, and the show isn't so much old as relaxed, a quality born of decades of doing stand-up and dealing with audiences. He's self-deprecating but utterly in charge, warm but cold and capable of taking a line in any direction except the one you expect.

It's a masterclass in comedy, with topics ranging from everything from his encounters with the royals to puns to parking in London to complaining how he never gets offered to do anything on TV anymore except documentaries - and this, of course. (48 minutes)

Elvis, The Colonel And The Mob

How the King Of Rock n Roll's manager was in hock to the Mob

Year: 2026

Certificate: 12

You've heard the rumours of Mafia connections that swirled around Marilyn Monroe and Frank Sinatra, but what about the King of Rock 'n' Roll himself? This two-parter suggests that Elvis's proximity to the Mob, if not any direct involvement, was inevitable given the stranglehold his shrewd but deeply controlling manager Colonel Tom Parker had over him.

Colonel Tom Parker has never had a very good press, and is described here as charming with an air of menace. As his manager, Parker took 50 percent of Presley's cash, a manager's usual cut was closer to 15 to 20 percent in fees and royalties. Parker was a gambler, reportedly losing $800k ($7.3 in today's money) in one sitting, and it was this that led him to Las Vegas, a city built and run by the Mob. When Elvis's famous Las Vegas residency began in 1969, Parker's gambling debts to the Mob were huge and as Presley came to understand how his contract was tied to his manager's debts, he feared it meant he would 'play this town until I die'.

Presley's paranoia was partly fuelled by the cocktail of drugs he was known to be taking, but the evidence presented in this two-parter also suggests that, thanks to the shady dealings of Parker, he had good reason to be fearful. (Two episodes)

Spy Next Door: The Anna Chapman Story

The story of the 'femme fatale' Russian spy

Year: 2026

Certificate: 12

Anna Chapman - or should that be Anna Vasilyevna Kushchenko - a Russian spy arrested in 2010, is the poster girl for modern spycraft, a 'femme fatale' who looked like she could seduce her way into anything, from nightclubs to influential confidences. You might know her face, but how well do you know her story?

This gripping two-parter paints a picture of Chapman through the men who knew her and dated her, and the agents who hunted her, but also describes the global political climate of the 2000s, in Europe and America, in which she operated.

In the first part, we hear how Chapman arrived in the UK as a student in 2001. During her stay, she met Alex Chapman at an underground rave in London, leading to a whirlwind romance and a subsequent marriage in Moscow that secured her British citizenship and a passport. She then found a job in the city and was soon hobnobbing with the super wealthy before moving to New York City on a mission to infiltrate the corridors of power. But little did she know that the FBI was on her tail... (Two episodes)

Savage Mountain

Norwegian mountaineer Kristin Harila's record-breaking attempt to climb 14 mountains

Year: 2026

Certificate: 15

There are 14 mountains that stand 8,000 metres tall in Nepal, Pakistan and Tibet. The record for climbing them all used to be seven years, until the Nepalese climber Nirmal 'Nims' Purja smashed it in 2019 - doing it in six months and six days.

The Norwegian mountaineer Kristin Harila thought she could do it faster and, in 2022, she nearly did - until a Covid-related bureaucratic roadblock prevented her from ascending the last two. Harila had sold everything she had, including her apartment, to finance the expedition and had to move back to her family farm in Norway after it fell apart. It was a low point.

Some people would have left it at that but not Harila, and this documentary is the story of her attempt to smash the record in 2023. She's an inspirational figure - tough but vulnerable, telling her story with heart and insight, and it's impossible not to root for her, even (actually, especially) through the controversy that hit her attempt later on. If you don't have a head for heights, you may want to avert your eyes during the climbing footage. (100 minutes)

Groomed: The Truth Behind the Lie

Documentary exploring the reality of grooming in Barrow-in-Furness

Year: 2026

Certificate: 18

In 2020, Ellie Williams claimed that she had been the victim of an Asian grooming gang operating in the Cumbrian town of Barrow-in-Furness. Her allegations caused uproar, but they were ruled to be a lie - as a result, Ellie was sent to prison for perverting the court of justice for eight-and-a-half years.

Was there a wider truth behind what she said, though? And what is the situation in Barrow today? Ellie was let out after serving four years but can't talk to the media as a condition of her release, so doesn't take part into this questioning documentary. We do hear extensively from her mother, though, and that strand is part of a dig into the wider story of grooming in Barrow, which opens with a look at how Ellie's case unfolded.

Filmed over three years, it's a raw and urgent-feeling three-parter that digs behind the headlines to hear the harrowing experiences of people on the ground and features an impressive array of contributors. (Three episodes)

A Child Of My Own

The extraordinary story of a Mexican woman who went to prison for faking a pregnancy

Year: 2026

Certificate: 15

Watch now on Netflix

This feature-length documentary blends artful reconstruction with interviews to tell the extraordinary story of Alejandra Mendoza, a Mexican wife who desperately wanted to have a child. Feeling immense pressure from her in-laws and having suffered multiple miscarriages, Alejandra came up with a plan to fake her pregnancy by taking a baby from a hospital - a plan that would ultimately land her in prison.

The film tracking the whole sorry situation comes from Maite Alberdi - an Oscar nominee for her documentary The Mole Agent (a story about an investigation in a retirement home that inspired the Ted Danson comedy A Man On The Inside) - A Child Of My Own is similarly artful. It blurs the line between fact and fiction through its elaborate dramatisation of Alejandra's actions from her point of view for much of the first half of the film. That part of the proceedings is so well-acted it actually feels just like a movie, and does a great job of placing you inside Ale's perspective.

In the second half, the film becomes more of a documentary and gives us a deeper understanding of the impact of what Alejandra did on everyone else. (96 minutes)

Furious

Cat-and-mouse thriller about a female serial killer from the writer of Dying For Sex

Year: 2026

Certificate: 18

Watch now on Disney+

A female serial killer is taking out men one by one in this dark and edgy thriller, and new FBI Agent Alice Black (Emmy Rossum) seems to be the only one who can catch her. That's the premise of Furious, the title of which hints toward the righteous anger that drives the killer, and the shifting perspectives on justice it features along its eight-part length. Both lead actresses are terrific - Rossum rose to fame on the US version of Shameless and gives Alice a simmering depth, while Lola Petticrew (Trespasses, Say Nothing) is on awards-worthy form in the showier role as the killer she's tracking.

Writer Elizabeth Meriwether has a history of writing strong shows about very different women, from chirpy sitcom New Girl with Zooey Deschanel as a manic pixie figure, to the corporate fraud Elizabeth Holmes in The Dropout, to Dying For Sex, with Michelle Williams as a woman rediscovering life in the face of a cancer diagnosis. Furious feels like another intriguing entry in that ever-deepening on-screen CV.

Eight episodes may feel like a lot for a cat-and-mouse story but this is also a show that's really tangling with an issue - what women should do with righteous anger, what society expects of them, and the consequences of the difference between the two things. For anyone who's seen one too many TV dramas that open with the body of a dead blonde, Furious should certainly strike a chord. (Eight episodes)

House Of The Dragon (Series 3)

The third series opens with battles and dragons, and adds James Norton to the cast

Year: 2026

Certificate: 18

Watch now on HBO Max

The complaint with both House Of The Dragon and its mothership show, Game Of Thrones, has always been that they made us wait too long for the dragons. Too long for the battles. That's not a problem at the start of series three, in which action and dragons are very much at the forefront.

After a bit of scene-setting to remind us who everyone is in the fight between Alicent and Rhaenyra - if you don't remember, we recommend rewatching series two because it's complicated - the meat of the 72-minute opener is given over to battle, mostly on sea but also on the land and in the air, and with the promise of more to come.

There are consequences from of all this fighting, chiefly for the parent-child relationships in the higher echelons of Westeros. The Sea Snake is sailing into battle with his illegitimate son; Alicent is trying to keep her new king, also her son, out of danger through high-risk means; while Jacaerys attempts to make his will felt against his mother, Queen Rhaenyra. We won't spoil how any of it pans out but, suffice to say, it's a dramatic opener.

Meanwhile, a new power waits in the wings - a shiny new lord in the shape of James Norton as Ormund Hightower, leading a shiny army into the muck of the battle between Rhaenyra and Alicent. You'll have some calmer episodes after the first one to process it all. (Eight episodes)

Joe And David's Magical Sitcom Tour

Sitcom-related travelogue with Joe Wilkinson and David Earl

Year: 2026

Certificate: pg

For this very jolly and easy-to-watch comedy-themed travelogue, Joe Wilkinson and David Earl - who wrote sitcom The Cockfields together - take each other on a tour through the worlds of their favourite sitcoms.

The three shows are Porridge, Fawlty Towers and The Office, and the pair start with Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais's great prison comedy, a sitcom watched by a young Joe Wilkinson. It remained his favourite show as an adult, so much so that, apparently, he turned down the opportunity to audition for the lead when the reboot came along in 2016. There's a short glimpse into what that performance might have been like when he and David give the script a little read-through here, but Wilkinson still seems a bit reluctant to give it a proper go, which is a shame.

If you like hearing fresh insights on shows you thought you couldn't possibly hear more about, then this show will be a delight. And the way in which Joe and David seem so determined to surprise each other during their respective tours gives it a delightful edge. Don't miss the bit in the car with the pretend Ronnie Barker. (Three episodes)

Hamnet

Jessie Buckley is Oscar-winning in this portrait of Shakespearean grief

Year: 2025

Certificate: 12

William Shakespeare's wife Anne Hathaway has only a supporting role in the history books but she is the dominant figure in Hamnet, Chloé Zhao's deeply soulful, altogether intoxicating tearjerker about the loss of the couple's 11-year-old son, Hamnet.

The film, starring Irish actors Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal, is an adaptation of Maggie O'Farrell's acclaimed 2020 novel of the same name although Zhao has clearly put a lot of herself into the film.

As for the actors, Buckley's performance is a proper tour de force. It's hard to unleash so much visceral emotion without over-acting but she does so triumphantly and, though she will get the plaudits, Mescal matches her - especially in the moving finale.

Zhao's film has been received by some as emotionally manipulative but the prevailing mood is most definitely one of appreciation, and universally so for Buckley. Overall, the film was nominated for eight Oscars and 11 BAFTAs, the highest number of BAFTA nominations ever for a film directed by a woman. It took home the BAFTA for Outstanding British Film and Buckley, to no one's surprise, took the Leading Actress gong - a feat she repeated at the Oscars, becoming the first Irish woman to win in that category. (126 minutes)

Ann Droid

Diane Morgan and Sue Johnston team up for a quirky sitcom

Year: 2026

Certificate: 12

Watch now on BBC iPlayer

Mandy and Philomena Cunk comedian Diane Morgan stars as a humanoid care robot, assigned to help recently widowed Sue (Sue Johnston) live independently in this six-part sitcom. Written by Morgan and Sarah Kendall (who created the BAFTA-nominated Frayed), it offers a playful look at whether robotic droids might one day offer something resembling genuine companionship.

Sue is given Linda - a secondhand 'AnnDroid Z58/100 Basic Eldercare Robot' - by her son Michael (Motherland's Paul Ready), who is moving out of the house he's been sharing with his mother to try to fix his failing marriage. Linda is a socially inept early model, delivering a steady stream of misunderstandings and disorder, while an unexpected bond between human and bot steadily forms.

The opening episode takes a while to find its rhythm. Some early repeated jokes wear thin, and the mother-son dynamic initially feels more strained than amusing. Stick with it though, because once Linda arrives the comedy sharpens considerably as the dry humour and awkward exchanges that have defined Morgan's past work come to the fore, particularly through Linda's painfully literal observations.

Beneath the laughs, themes of grief, loneliness and embracing life at an older age give the series emotional grounding. Despite its slower start, Morgan's robotic delivery paired with the sharply observed writing makes Ann Droid an odd, charming and ultimately rewarding treat. (Six episodes)

MasterChef Australia

The warm Aussie version of the cooking contest, co-judged by Jean-Christophe Novelli

Year: 2009-

Certificate: 12

Watch now on U (UKTV)

Watch now on Prime Video

When the Aussie version of this culinary contest began way back in 2009, we didn't know what to expect - but it was a true delight. Back then, MasterChef Australia was hosted and judged by larger-than-life food critic Matt Preston and chefs Gary Mehigan and George Calombaris, a trio who seemed to forge genuine bonds with the contestants. By the time the final came around you really cared about who was going to win because they so clearly did, too.

Matt, Gary and George left the show after a decade, and were replaced by series four winner Andy Allen, food critic Melissa Leong and chef Jock Zonfrillo. They were a good enough replacement and the show went on for four more series, until Zonfrillo's sudden, shocking death in 2023. Leong left and Allen was joined by another ex-contender - popular first series runner-up Poh Ling Yeow - along with chef Jean-Christophe Novelli and food critic Sofia Levin.

That brings us up to date on a show which, while quite a viewing commitment, remains a warm and highly entertaining one 17 series down the track. There aren't many cooking contests that can say the same and the calibre of guests it regularly attracts (Gordon Ramsay, Nigella Lawson, Jamie Oliver and local legend Curtis Stone to name but four, all of whom are treated like gods by the contenders) are testament to that.

If you're looking for an alternative to the UK original, then it's more than worth a try. The latest 18th series will be found on U and, later in the run, features Meghan Markle as a guest judge. (18 series)

Ted Lasso (Series 4)

The football comedy returns after a three-year gap, with Ted coaching the Richmond women's side

Year: 2026

Certificate: 15

Watch now on Apple TV

In 2023, we all thought Ted Lasso had finished for good. But it's hard to say goodbye to success and, three years later, the Apple comedy returns for a fourth series, although as it begins Ted doesn't look like he's going back to football anytime soon. The upbeat American is working at a Midwest supermarket so he can spend more time with his son, but the call of the soccer ball will always be strong for coach Lasso - and it isn't long before he's back in Blighty and coaching the Richmond women's side.

Series four is all about the challenges of making women's football work in a world that values the men's game so much more highly. In other words it's an underdog story, which is exactly what the show was at the start. Jason Sudeikis, Hannah Waddingham, Juno Temple and Brett Goldstein all return as Ted, Rebecca, Keeley and sweary old Roy Kent, while cast additions include Tanya Reynolds (Sex Education) as assistant coach Alice.

If you like the original you'll enjoy this, too, although there's a bit of scene-setting to get out of the way before the story really starts. Look out for some real-world women's football references as it goes on - they were careful to consult actual players, such as Lioness Leah Williamson, so the show could reflect real themes and issues in the women's game today. (Ten episodes)

The Five-Star Weekend

Jennifer Garner stars in a drama about women finding their true selves on Nantucket

Year: 2026

Certificate: 15