The Best of British TV Coming in 2026, From ‘Lord of the Flies’ and ‘Half Man’ to ‘The Night Manager’ and ‘Pride and Prejudice’
SOURCE:Hollywood Reporter|BY:Lily Ford
Whether you're looking for a cosy period drama, high-stakes spy thriller, Agatha Christie tale or something more 'Derry Girls'-ish, the Brits have your TV cravings covered next year.
It’s been a cracking year for British television with Adolescence, Celebrity Traitors and Down Cemetery Road among some of the more buzzy shows to have hit our screens. That’s not all though, and with another year comes another batch of talented writers, directors and actors to bring to life both original stories and beloved classics.
The Hollywood Reporter has compiled a list of the most exciting U.K. programs coming, starting with those that have confirmed release dates. The Night Manager returns, Netflix‘s Pride and Prejudice debuts and Richard Gadd‘s Baby Reindeer follow-up is on its way. Another Industry installment is near, as is season two of A Thousand Blows and Derry Girls creator Lisa McGee’s next project. Take a look at what to expect from British telly in 2026.
Run Away
Netflix has teed up its next Harlan Coben adaptation for a New Year’s Day release. Run Away, with James Nesbitt, Ruth Jones, Minnie Driver and Alfred Enoch, follows an angst-ridden Simon who is determined to reunite the family when his eldest daughter, Paige, runs away. The eight-part series is one of 13 titles from best-selling author Coben produced for Netflix. It will feature eight hourlong episodes and, in keeping with previous Coben adaptations, is relocating the story of the novel from the U.S. to the U.K.
‘Run Away’ Courtesy of Netflix/Ben Blackall
Red Eye (Season 2)
Jing Lusi will reprise her role as Hana Li in ITV’s Red Eye, also back Jan. 1 and set to return to the world of high-stakes espionage. Richard Armitage will not be returning to his role as Nolan, but Line of Duty‘s Martin Compston takes his place as a new character, Clay Brady. The pair are forced to set aside past differences in order to solve a conspiracy after a murder occurs inside the U.S. Embassy.
The Night Manager (Season 2)
Jonathan Pine is back. Tom Hiddleston, Olivia Colman, Alistair Petrie and Noah Jupe will return to The Night Manager world as a new installment arrives nearly a decade after its predecessor. Hugh Laurie, who played villainous arms dealer Richard Roper in the first series, executive produces on the show, inspired by John le Carré’s work.
Creator-writer David Farr reinvents the thriller with Pine now living as Alex Goodwin, a low-level MI6 officer running a quiet surveillance unit in London. But one night a chance sighting of an old Roper mercenary prompts a call to action and leads him to a violent encounter with a new player: Colombian businessman Teddy Dos Santos (Diego Calva). On this perilous new journey, Pine meets Roxana Bolaños (Camila Morrone) a businesswoman who reluctantly helps him infiltrate Teddy’s Colombian arms operation. Once in Colombia, Pine is plunged deep into a deadly plot involving arms and the training of a guerrilla army. The show will be on the BBC for U.K. viewers from Jan. 1, and for international fans on Amazon Prime Video from Jan. 11.
A Thousand Blows (Season 2)
Stephen Graham is back as Sugar Goodson in Disney+ and Hulu‘s 1880s-set A Thousand Blows, arriving Jan. 9. Steven Knight’s story picks up a year later after the events of an explosive season one, as a broken Hezekiah Moscow (Malachi Kirby) and the estranged, self-destructive Sugar are approached by gang leader Mary Carr (Erin Doherty), who returns with a vengeance to reclaim her crown and assemble a new, riskier plan for the Forty Elephants.
Industry (Season 4)
The British-American series will air on the BBC in the U.K. and HBO in the U.S. in January, with Harpery (Myha’la) and Yasmin (Marisa Abela) navigating high-stakes finance after a new fintech disrupter shakes up London. “As Yasmin navigates her relationship with tech founder Sir Henry Muck (Kit Harington) and Harper is pulled into the orbit of enigmatic executive Whitney Halberstram (Max Minghella),” a plot synopsis reads, “their twisted friendship begins to warp and ignite under the pressure of money, power, and the desire to be on top.” Kiernan Shipka, Charlie Heaton and Toheeb Jimoh also star.
Myha’la in ‘Industry’ season four. Courtesy of HBO
Agatha Christie’s Seven Dials
Another Netflix adaptation set to air Jan. 15, this one focusing on the story by the acclaimed English author Agatha Christie. Her 1929 novel, adapted for the screen by Chris Chibnall, boasts Mia McKenna-Bruce, Helena Bonham Carter and Martin Freeman among its cast. The show is set in 1925 and, in true Christie fashion, sees a country house party prank turn deadly.
How to Get to Heaven From Belfast
Thankfully, Derry Girls creator Lisa McGee is back in the writer’s chair and has her hotly anticipated Netflix series How to Get to Heaven From Belfast on the way. Slated to arrive in February, the eight-part series follows three friends investigating the mysterious death of a former school mate. It stars Roisin Gallagher as Saoirse, Sinéad Keenan as Robyn and Caoilfhionn Dunne as Dana.
Set to release on Amazon Prime Video on March 4, the Guy Ritchie-directed Young Sherlock is adapted from Andrew Lane’s Young Sherlock Holmes book series, itself based on Arthur Conan Doyle’s character. Hero Fiennes Tiffin plays Sherlock and Dónal Finn his Moriarty, with Zine Tseng as Princess Gulun Shou’an. “As a 19-year-old at Oxford University, Sherlock Holmes is not yet the master detective he grows up to be,” a plot synopsis reads. “He is raw and unfiltered, and he lacks discipline. A murder at Oxford puts Holmes’s freedom at risk, and he sets out to solve his first murder mystery that leads him to a global-level conspiracy.”
‘Young Sherlock’ Amazon Prime Video
Alice and Steve
Nicola Walker, Disney+’s comedy series Alice and Steve boasts a great lead duo as her and Jemaine Clement team up for this six-part series about lifelong best friends who see their world implode when the middle-aged Steve starts dating Alice’s 26-year-old daughter, Izzy (Yali Topol Margalith). “Although both are no strangers to chaos and dubious decision-making, their once rock-solid friendship is turned upside down and tested to its limits — threatening their families, futures and everything in between,” a plot synopsis reads. It’ll be available on Disney+ in the U.K. and on Hulu in the U.S.
Dear England
Dear England is an upcoming BBC One television drama series based on the stage play of the same name by James Graham, with Joseph Fiennes playing the former England national soccer team manager Gareth Southgate. Jodie Whittaker and Jason Watkins join him in the fictionalized account of the struggles and successes of England’s soccer teams, which was a huge hit on the stage here in the U.K.
Half Man
All eyes will be on Richard Gadd’s next act in 2026 when his Netflix series Half Man airs. Following the enormous, award-winning success of Baby Reindeer, Gadd’s new six-episode program will explore the lives of two estranged brothers (played by Gadd and Jamie Bell) from the 1980s to the present day. It will air on BBC iPlayer, BBC One, and BBC Scotland in the U.K., as well as on HBO Max in the U.S.
Kill Jackie
The Catherine Zeta-Jones-starring Kill Jackie is expected to arrive on Amazon Prime Video this year. Adapted from the Nick Harkaway novel The Price You Pay under his pseudonym Aidan Truhen, it gender-swaps the main character. The Welsh actress plays a wealthy art dealer with a secret past, who discovers she’s the target of a lethal squad of hitmen known as The Seven Demons. Daniel Ings, Darci Shaw and Raff Law also star.
‘Kill Jackie’
Lord of the Flies
Adolescence writer Jack Thorne has an exciting adaptation ahead with the BBC’s Lord of the Flies, coming to our screens in 2026. The show, based on William Golding’s 1954 novel, tells the story of a group of young boys who find themselves stranded on a tropical island. Winston Sawyers plays Ralph, Lox Pratt is Jack, David McKenna stars as Piggy and Ike Talbut as Simon. Thomas Connor appears as Roger, Noah and Cassius Flemming as twins Sam and Eric, Cornelius Brandreth as Maurice and Tom Page-Turner as Bill — alongside an ensemble of more than 30 boys playing the desert island camp’s “biguns” and “littluns”.
David McKenna as Piggy in ‘Lord of the Flies.’ BBC/Eleven
Pride and Prejudice
A monumental bit of casting for Dolly Alderton’s Jane Austen adaptation: Emma Corrin, Jack Lowden, Olivia Colman, Rufus Sewell, Daryl McCormack, Louis Partridge, Fiona Shaw, Freya Mavor, Rhea Norwood and a whole host of top talent are starring in Pride and Prejudice at Netflix. The six-part reboot of the fan-favorite novel is expected to be arriving next year and we are all on tenterhooks.
Prodigies
Apple TV’s Will Sharpe and Ayo Edebiri are coupling up in Prodigies, written and directed by Sharpe of The White Lotus and A Real Pain fame. The seven-part series also boasts The Bear Edebiri as an executive producer. “Didi (Edebiri) and Ren (Sharpe) are two ex-child prodigies who have been together since they were children,” a plot synopsis reads. “Now in their early 30s, they are starting to question whether their very ordinary existence is living up to the extraordinary promise of their childhood. Inevitably, they find themselves asking the same questions of their relationship. As individual hopes and needs feed into and conflict with their shared lives, the series challenges the fallacy at the heart of romantic storytelling — that the tale is over when the heroes get together. In life, surely, that is just the beginning?”
The Lady
ITV’s The Lady is a partly fictionalized drama based on a true story, with rising star Mia McKenna-Bruce playing former royal dresser Jane Andrews. She rose from humble beginnings to work with Sarah Mountbatten-Windsor, formerly the Duchess of York, priot to Andrews’ being convicted of the murder of her boyfriend Thomas Cressman in 2001. Game of Thrones alum Natalie Dormer plays the royal family member. The show will be on BritBox in the U.S.
The Other Bennet Sister
A BBC-BritBox team-up with Ella Bruccoleri, Ruth Jones, Richard E. Grant, Indira Varma, Laurie Dvidson and Richard Coyle, the period drama television series is an adaptation of the novel of the same name by Janice Hadlow, based on characters created by Jane Austen, of course. Bruccoleri plays the titular Mary Bennet, as it follows the events of Pride and Prejudice from her point of view before the story departs from there to follow Mary as she travels to London and the Lake District.
The Split Up
BBC legal drama The Split Up is arriving next year. Set in the world of Manchester’s high-net-worth divorce circuit, the series focuses on the Kishan family, a powerhouse British South Asian law firm whose success, secrets and loyalties are about to be tested. Jameela Jamil will guest star, with story and characters by Ursula Rani Sarma (Smother, Delicious). The show is based on the smash hit The Split with Nicola Walker, Stephen Mangan and Annabel Scholey.
Tip Toe
Alan Cumming joins forces with the great showrunner Russell T. Davies on his next big project: Tip Toe, following a long-running feud between two neighbors in Manchester, England. The Channel 4 series also stars David Morrissey. He and Cumming play Leo and Clive, who have no qualms with one another after a decade next door to each other. “But just as life should be settling down, the world around them is growing more tense,” reads an official synopsis. “Words become weapons, opinions become radicalised, and gradually, two neighbours become deadly enemies.” You might remember Davies also created Channel 4’s It’s A Sin.
War
Dominic West and Sienna Miller lead an upcoming legal thriller from George Kay, creator of Hijack and Lupin. In War, West stars as tech titan Morgan Henderson and Miller as his estranged wife, international film star wife Carla Duval. Set in the elite world of London law, the series has been greenlit with a two-season commitment from Sky (U.K.) and HBO (U.S.). The show debuts with a “scandalous divorce case that sends shockwaves through boardrooms, bedrooms, and courtrooms alike.”
