Series to Watch: 2026

DQ highlights 20 new series expected to air in 2026, featuring nightmarish gnomes, the England men’s football team, the next series from Derry Girls creator Lisa McGee and Richard Gadd’s follow-up to Baby Reindeer.

Alice & Steve
From: UK
Original broadcaster: Disney+
Producer: Clerkenwell Films
Starring: Nicola Walker, Jemaine Clement, Yali Topol Margalith, Joel Fry, Tyrese Eaton-Dyce, Marcia Warren, Eilidh Fisher and Ebony Aboagye
Launch date: 2026
Lifelong best friends Alice (Walker) and Steve (Clement) see their world implode when middle-aged Steve starts dating Alice’s 26-year-old daughter Izzy (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.

Babies
From: UK
Original broadcaster: BBC
Producers: Snowed-In Productions, The Money Men Studios
Distributor: All3Media International
Starring: Siobhán Cullen, Paapa Essiedu, Charlotte Riley, Jack Bannon
Launch date: 2026
Described as a gripping, tender and urgent love story that explores the resilience of a couple navigating the heartbreak of pregnancy loss, Babies follows Lisa (Cullen) and Stephen (Essiedu), a couple in their 30s whose hope is tested as they endure multiple miscarriages. While confronting unimaginable grief, their bond shines through with humour, warmth, and unwavering love.
Read more here 

Dear England
From: UK
Original broadcaster: BBC
Producer: Left Bank Pictures
Distributor: Sony Pictures Television
Starring: Joseph Fiennes, Jodie Whittaker, Will Antenbring
Launch date: 2026
James Graham (Sherwood) adapts his own stage play about the England men’s football team. Taking over as the manager of the international team with the world’s worst record in penalty shootouts, Gareth Southgate knows he needs to open his mind and face up to years of hurt to take England back to the promised land. The country that gave the world football has delivered a painful pattern of loss. Why can’t the England team win at their own game?
Read more here

Gnomes
From: Australia
Original broadcasters: Stan (Australia), ZDFneo (Germany)
Producers: Total Fiction, Screen Invaders, Happy Accident, Network Movie
Distributor: Happy Accidents
Starring: Asa Butterfield, Megan Smart, Darren Gilshenan, Alison Whyte, Tegan Higginbotham, Matt Okine, Brett Tucker, Nicole Gulasekharam and Luke McGregor
Launch date: 2026
This comedy horror centres on Senior Sergeant Arnold Kipps (Butterfield), who is having the worst day of his life. His ex-partner and former flame Ellie McKay (Smart) has returned to Nompton to shut down his police station, just as an ancient evil is awakened by the Gnome Queen, who unleashes a bloodthirsty horde, plunging the town into chaos. Now, Arnold and Ellie must reunite to save Nompton from total destruction. With a ragtag team of misfit cops, rebellious teens and an overly ambitious mayor, they’ll take on a growing army of killer gnomes and try to stop the Gnome Queen’s rampage. Because these lawn ornaments aren’t just angry – they’re out for blood.

Gone
From: UK
Original broadcaster: ITV
Producers: New Pictures, Observatory Pictures
Distributor: All3Media International
Starring: Eve Myles, David Morrissey, Emma Appleton, Jennifer Macbeth, Arthur Hughes, Nicholas Nunn, Elliot Cowan, Billy Barrett, Rupert Evans, Jodie McNee, Oscar Batterham and Clare Higgins
Launch date: Early 2026
Set against the backdrop of a prestigious private school, a foreboding forest and the quiet sprawl of Bristol, this chilling mystery centres on local headmaster Michael Polly (Morrissey), who becomes the prime suspect in his wife Sarah’s disappearance. An upstanding member of the community, Michael Polly is inscrutable and likes order and precision in his working life. That is until he encounters super-bright, gutsy detective Annie Cassidy (Myles), and a compulsive game of cat and mouse begins as she chips away at his veneer in search of the truth. With tension in the air, yet Polly not displaying any emotion, Annie’s suspicions are heightened the more she investigates. Something in her gut tells her all is not what it seems. Could he be capable of murder? And if so, why?
Read more here 

Half Man
From: UK
Original broadcasters: BBC (UK), HBO (US, Latin America, Europe)
Producer: Mam Tor Productions
Distributor: Banijay Rights
Starring: Richard Gadd, Jamie Bell, Neve McIntosh, Marianne McIvor, Charlie De Melo, Bilal Hasna, Julie Cullen, Amy Manson, Philippine Velge, Stuart McQuarrie, Piers Ewart, Scot Greenan, Charlotte Blackwood and Calum Manchip
Launch date: 2026
Following a surprise reunion after years of estrangement, a meeting between brothers Ruben (Gadd) and Niall (Bell) leads to an explosion of violence that catapults us back through their lives over the course of the series. The show explores the highs and lows of the pair’s relationship, from meeting them as troubled teenagers to witnessing their falling out as adults – with all the good, bad, terrible, funny, angry and challenging moments along the way. The series will capture the wild energy of a changing city – a changing world, even – and plumb the depths of what it means to be a man.
Read more here

Harvest
From: Denmark
Original broadcaster: DR
Producer: DR Drama
Distributor: DR Sales
Starring: Katrine Greis-Rosenthal, Elliott Crosset Hove, Lars Brygmann, Charlotte Fich, Simon Bennebjerg and Joachim Fjelstrup
Launch date: Q4 2026
On his 65th birthday, Gorm, patriarch of the family farm Feldumgaard, shocks everyone by naming his youngest daughter Astrid as his successor – bypassing eldest son Erik, who has long expected to take over. The announcement tears the family apart: Erik is furious, their brother Thomas is pushed by his pregnant wife Hanna to claim the farm for himself, and Astrid is left fighting to prove she belongs at the helm. As Astrid takes on the challenge, old wounds and new betrayals surface. A resentful nephew sabotages the grain, internal family rivalries deepen, and Astrid rekindles ties with her childhood love Jens – all while navigating the pressures of modernising the farm. When a public confrontation at the Midsummer celebration and a shocking scare involving two missing children force the family into the spotlight, Astrid realises the cost of leadership is higher than she ever imagined.

How to Get to Heaven from Belfast
From: Northern Ireland
Original broadcaster: Netflix
Producer: Hat Trick Productions
Starring: Roísín Gallagher, Sinéad Keenan and Caoilfhionn Dunne
Launch date: February 2026
This comedy drama from Derry Girls creator Lisa McGee centres on clever, chaotic TV writer Saoirse; glamorous, stressed-out mother-of-three Robyn; and dependable, inhibited carer Dara, who have been a tight-knit group since school. Now in their late 30s, but still as close as ever, they are about to embark on the most thrilling adventure of their lives. When an email informs them of the death of the estranged fourth member of their childhood gang, a series of eerie events at her wake sets them on a dark, dangerous and hilarious odyssey through Ireland and beyond as each tries to piece together the truth about the past.

La Casa de los Espíritus (The House of the Spirits)
From: Chile
Original broadcaster: Prime Video
Producers: FilmNation, Fabula
Starring: Alfonso Herrera, Nicole Wallace, Dolores Fonzi, Fernanda Castillo, Aline Kupenheim, Maribel Verdú, Pablo Macaya, Antonia Zegers, Amparo Noguera, Catalina Saavedra, Nicolás Francella and Pedro Fontaine
Launch date: 2026
An eight-episode series based on Isabel Allende’s book and executive produced by Eva Longoria, The House of the Spirits tells the epic tale of a proud and passionate family, secret loves and bloody revolution. The Trueba family’s passions, struggles and secrets span a century of violent social change, culminating in a crisis that hurls its tyrannical patriarch and his beloved granddaughter towards opposite sides of the fence.
Watch sneak peek 

Maya
From: UK
Original broadcaster: Channel 4
Producer: Two Brothers Pictures
Distributor: All3Media International
Starring: Daisy Haggard, Bella Ramsay, Harriet Walter, Tom Courtenay, Josie Walker, Stuart Bowman, Kiran Sonia Sawar, Ben Chaplin, Raphel Famotibe and Tobias Menzies
Launch date: 2026
Haggard (Boat Story, Back to Life) plays determined and devoted single mum Anna, who is forced into a witness-protection programme to escape a life-threatening danger. With her headstrong teenage daughter Maya (Bella Ramsey) in tow, they leave their London lives and Anna’s parents, Nancy (Walter) and George (Courtenay), behind, taking on new identities and relocating to a small rural town in Scotland. Aided by detective Debs (Josie Walker) and witness-protection officers Tony (Bowman) and Karen (Sawar), they try to adjust to their new reality, but the trauma of their past continues to haunt them in the form of two hitmen, Benji (Chaplin) and Ted (Famotibe), who are intent on tracking them down. As the walls close in, it becomes clear that a dangerous and calculating figure from their past, the seemingly charming Bobby (Menzies) is still a looming and very present threat.
Read more here

Mint
From: UK
Original broadcaster: BBC
Producers: House Productions, Fearless Minds
Distributor: BBC Studios
Starring: Emma Laird, Ben Coyle-Larner, Sam Riley, Laura Fraser, Lewis Gribben and Lindsay Duncan
Launch date: 2026
The first TV series from writer and director Charlotte Regan, Mint is a darkly comic and unconventional drama about the life of a crime family. Laird and Coyle-Larner (aka musician Loyle Carner) play leads Shannon and Arran in a story about soaring romance, crushing heartbreak and what love might feel like when everyone outside of your family is terrified of you.
Read more here

Portobello
From: Italy
Original broadcaster: HBO Max
Producers: Our Films and Kavac Film, coproduced with Arte France and in collaboration with The Apartment
Starring: Fabrizio Gifuni, Lino Musella, Romana Maggiora Vergano, Barbora Bobulova, Alessandro Preziosi and Fausto Russo Alesi
Launch date: February 20
An epic true story of media frenzy, justice gone astray and one man’s fight to reclaim his dignity. The subject? Italian TV host Enzo Tortora, who was wrongfully accused of having mafia ties in the 1980s.
Read more here

Prisoner
From: UK
Original broadcaster: Sky
Producers: Binocular, Sky Studios
Distributor: NBCUniversal Global TV Distribution
Starring: Izuka Hoyle, Tahar Rahim, Eddie Marsan, Catherine McCormack, Leonie Benesch, Finn Bennett, Sam Troughton, Laurie Davidson, Ken Nwosu, Brían F O’Byrne and Youssef Kerkour
Launch date: 2026
Amber (Hoyle), a principled young prison transport officer, is tasked with escorting Tibor (Rahim), a trained killer and high-value inmate, to court to testify against his elite crime syndicate. When their convoy is brutally ambushed, she’s forced to put her life in his hands. As the sole survivors, handcuffed and on the run, they must race to reach their destination alive and on time. Along the way, their uneasy alliance is tested as the syndicate closes in. Trust becomes a weapon and their shackled survival a moral dilemma, forcing Amber to confront how far she’ll go to protect what matters most.
Read more here

Scarpetta
From: US
Original broadcaster: Prime Video
Producers: Amazon MGM Studios, Blumhouse Television, Blossom Films, Comet Pictures, and P&S Projects
Starring: Nicole Kidman, Jamie Lee Curtis, Bobby Cannavale, Simon Baker, Ariana DeBose, Rosy McEwen, Jake Cannavale and Hunter Parrish
Launch date: March 11, 2026
Based on Patricia Cornwell’s Kay Scarpetta book series, this chilling crime thriller unfolds across two timelines, exploring Kay Scarpetta (Kidman)’s journey from her beginnings as a chief medical examiner in the late 90s and her present-day return to her hometown, where she resumes her former position while investigating a grisly murder. As Scarpetta pursues justice, she must navigate complicated relationships, including the fraught dynamic with her sister Dorothy (Curtis), confront long-held professional and personal grudges, and face secrets that threaten to unravel everything she’s built.

Secret Service
From: UK
Original broadcaster: ITV
Producer: Potboiler Productions
Distributor: All3Media International
Starring: Gemma Arterton, Rafe Spall, Mark Stanley, Alex Kingston, Roger Allam, Amaka Okafor and Khalid Abdalla
Launch date: Early 2026
Based on the novel by Tom Bradby, this series stars Arterton as Kate Henderson, a woman who appears to have an ordinary life, married to Stuart (Rafe Spall) with two teenage children. However, she’s also a senior MI6 officer and the head of the Russia Desk at the Secret Intelligence Service. When her undercover operations reveal alarming evidence that a high-ranking UK politician may be a Russian asset, Kate finds herself in a desperate race to uncover their identity. As a brutal murder thrusts her team into the spotlight and the battle to become the next prime minister begins, Kate must work her way through the dangerous world of espionage while trying to hold her family together and protect her reputation.
Read more here

Small Prophets
From: UK
Original broadcaster: BBC
Producers: Treasure Trove Productions, Blue House Productions
Distributor: Sphere Abacus
Starring: Pearce Quigley, Lauren Patel, Michael Palin, Mackenzie Crook, Sophie Willan and Jon Pointing
Launch date: Early 2026
Crook writes and directs this comedy about eccentric Michael Sleep (Quigley), whose darling partner Clea disappeared seven years ago. Since then, he has lived a very ordinary life. He eats Shreddies, works in a DIY store, visits his dad Brian (Palin) and hopes for Clea to return. One day, Brian shares an old recipe involving rainwater, horse manure and more than a little alchemy. With recipe in hand, Sleep sets out (albeit with some scepticism) to create Homunculi – magical prophesying spirits that can predict the future. Sleep gets help from young colleague Kacey (Patel), an unlikely friendship that blossoms partly, but not wholly, through their mutual dislike of store manager Gordon (Crook). Their friendship adds to the frustration and intrigue of his nosy neighbours (Willan and Pointing), who are obsessed with trying to find out what the hell is going on in the garden shed.
Read more here 

Still Breathing
From: Norway
Original broadcaster: NRK
Producer: Rubicon
Distributor: DR Sales
Other broadcasters: ZDF (Germany), NPO (Netherlands), VRT (Belgium), SVT (Sweden), DR (Denmark), YLE (Finland) and RÚV (Iceland)
Launch date: May 2026
A “raw and gripping” portrayal of young doctors navigating a system pushed to the brink in one of the world’s wealthiest nations, Still Breathing centres on four young interns – Petra, Joakim, Ashan and Kissy – as they are thrown into the world of emergency medicine. Idealistic and ambitious, they quickly face the harsh realities of long shifts, impossible choices and life-or-death decisions.

Tills Döden Skiljer Oss (Till Death Do Us Part)
From: Sweden
Original broadcaster: TV4
Producers: Harmonica Films, SF Studios
Distributor: Dynamic Television
Starring: Aliette Opheim, Filip Berg
Launch date: Autumn 2026
Malin (Opheim)’s world is turned upside down when her husband Tobias (Berg) is suspected of murder. Convinced of his innocence, she takes on his defence as his lawyer. But as secrets begin to surface and long-held truths are exposed as lies, Malin is faced with a terrifying question: what if he’s guilty?
Read more here

Tip Toe
From: UK
Original broadcaster: Channel 4
Producer: Quay Street Productions
Distributor: ITV Studios
Starring: Alan Cumming, David Morrissey, Pooky Quesnel, Jackson Connor, Joseph Evans, Elizabeth Berrington, Iz Hesketh, Shakeel Kimotho, Luyanda Unati Lewis-Nyawo, Paul Rhys, Charlie Condou and Denise Welch
Launch date: 2026
Written by Russell T Davies, this five-part series stars Cumming as Leo: vivid, funny and dynamic, and the owner of a bar called Spit & Polish in Manchester’s Gay Village. Morrissey is Clive, Leo’s unsmiling and troubled neighbour. Leo and Clive have lived next door to each other in Manchester for almost 15 years. But just as life should be settling down, the world around them is growing more tense. Words become weapons, opinions become radicalised and, gradually, two neighbours become deadly enemies in a tense suburban thriller that challenges everything we consider to be safe.
Read more here

Under Salt Marsh
From: UK
Original broadcaster: Sky
Producers: Little Door Productions, Sky Studios
Distributor: NBCUniversal Global TV Distribution
Starring: Kelly Reilly and Rafe Spall
Launch date: 2026
Set in the fictional Welsh town of Morfa Halen, this six-part series opens as a once-in-a-generation storm rolls in from the sea. Former detective turned teacher Jackie Ellis (Reilly) makes a shocking discovery that reopens the wounds of a three-year-old cold case that cost her both her career and her family’s trust. Forced to reunite with her estranged police partner Eric Bull (Spall), Jackie is drawn back into an investigation that will shake Morfa Halen to its core. Together, they must confront a community haunted by secrets and fractured by grief, before the incoming storm washes away the evidence forever.
Watch trailer 
Read more here

tagged in: Alice & Steve, Babies, Dear England, Gnomes, Gone, Half Man, Harvest, How To Get To Heaven From Belfast, La Casa de los Espíritus, Maya, Mint, Portobello, Prisoner, Scarpetta, Secret Service, Small Prophets, Still Breathing, The House of the Spirits, Till Death Do Us Part, Tills Döden Skiljer Oss, Tip Toe, Under Salt Marsh