2015 is fast approaching, but what’s in store to keep our screens flickering and our minds off the drudgery of everyday life?
Poldark
The Beeb’s Poldark series in the mid 1970’s is one of the corporations most popular dramas ever, having been sold to over 40 countries.
Will BBC One’s new eight-part adaptation, featuring Being Human‘s Aidan Turner as the dashing 18th century hero Captain Ross Poldark, be as popular?
Red Dwarf
New episodes of sci-fi sitcom Red Dwarf are expected to air in late 2015, following Dave’s revival of the show for a tenth season in 2012.
Danny John-Jules, who plays Cat, recently revealed: “All I can say is that [writer] Doug Naylor is slaving away writing scripts and we’ve got lunch next week … I have the glorious privilege to know that that’s the last thing that I ever have to worry about with Red Dwarf – the scripts. I’m quite confident that whatever comes off that pen will be quite funny.”
The Refugees
Perhaps jealous that Channel 4 have French undead drama The Returned, the BBC have joined forces with Spain’s AtresMedia to co-produce The Refugees, a sci-fi drama about a rural community faced with millions of refugees from the future seeking shelter in the present.
What would UKIP think? #topical. It stars a largely Spanish cast and features Natalia Tena, best known to Harry Potter and Game of Thrones fans. Keep an eye out for this – it sounds promising.
The Returned
Filming on a second eight-part season of bonkers French supernatural thriller The Returned began in October and will continue until next March. The new episodes will air on Channel 4 in the UK shortly after Season 2 premieres France.
A US remake is also on its way, shot in British Columbia, Canada and executive produced by Carlton Cuse (Bates Motel, Lost) and Raelle Tucker (True Blood).
Ripper Street
The period crime drama’s third season is currently premiering on Amazon Prime Instant Video, but the eight new episodes arrive for the rest of us on BBC One in early 2015.
Matthew Macfadyen, Jerome Flynn, Adam Rothenberg and MyAnna Buring are all back, with Sherlock‘s Molly (actress Louise Brealey) joining the team. Flynn has revealed that there will be “many great stories and twists and turns for all the characters”.
Sherlock
It’s impossible to talk about this without ending most sentences with a question mark, so wrapped up in mystery is the Christmas special.
Will Moriarty be in it? Will we learn more about the third Holmes brother? Will it all be in period costume as Sue Vertue’s tweet teased? Its title hasn’t even been revealed, but perhaps it’ll be a play on the festive Holmes story ‘The Blue Carbuncle’. A vehicular heist-gone-wrong in ‘The Blue Car Bungle’ perhaps?
Right now all we know is that writer Mark Gatiss promises “tragedy as well as adventure”, because what’s Christmas without tragedy?
SPECTRE
007’s most challenging mission may be living up to high audience expectations after Skyfall. So far it all bodes well: Sam Mendes is back to direct Daniel Craig’s bulldog Bond alongside returning cast members Ben Whishaw (The Hour) as Q, Ralph Fiennes (Harry Potter) as M, Naomie Harris (Accused) as Eve Moneypenny and Rory Kinnear (Penny Dreadful) as Bill Tanner.
Sherlock‘s Andrew Scott joins the MI6 crew as a mysterious new character, with Monica Bellucci and Léa Seydoux on Bond girl duties. As rumoured, Christoph Waltz and Guardians of the Galaxy star David Bautista will be battling 007 as the villainous Oberhauser (yeah, we’re betting that’s a pseudonym) and his henchman, Mr Hinx.
Shake or stir it anyway you want; all the ingredients for espionage excellence are here.
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