British television drama is heading into one of its most crowded periods for many a year. Some massive shows are returning after long breaks, while other commissions have star-studded casts. The next 15 months of drama across the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, and major streaming platforms looks tantalising.
The headline is the return of Line of Duty, which is the BBC police thriller that has been off the screens since 2021. Netflix has also revealed a number of interesting dramas during this summer’s Edinburgh TV Festival, featuring talent like Barry Keoghan, Kate Winslet, and Anya Taylor-Joy.
UK drama fans have never been more spoilt for choice, with many people marking their calendars for the steady stream of releases over the next 15 months or so.
The Return of Line of Duty
Line of Duty is surely the most anticipated comeback of a British drama show ever. The BBC only confirmed late in 2025 that the anti-corruption thriller would be returning for a 7th series, totalling 6 episodes in total.
Martin Compston, Vicky McClure and Adrian Dunbar are all back as Arnott, Fleming and Hastings. The show has reached some enormous numbers in the past. The sixth series finale had 17 million viewers over a 28-day period, and the run’s episodes averaged out at 16 million, which made it the biggest drama in the UK market since 2018.
Filming for the new series largely took place in Belfast during the spring and summer, with post-production now well underway. The plan is for the BBC to broadcast the show in 2027.
There is a big structural twist to the new series. AC-12 has been disbanded and rebranded as the Inspectorate of Police Standards, and Robert Carlyle joins as the latest guest lead. Mercurio joked that corruption was supposed to have ended while the show was off air, so he had been “forced to use my imagination”. No date has been set, but the series has historically launched in spring.
Other Notable BBC Mentions
Before Line of Duty releases, there’s the matter of a Christmas Day Doctor Who special, which is the first episode since Ncuti Gatwa’s Doctor regenerated, and the first made without Disney+, which ended its co-production deal after two seasons. The BBC has insisted the Time Lord is going nowhere and says plans for a full series will follow.
The Shelby family is also returning to screens, with BBC and Netflix jointly ordering two six-part series of Peaky Blinders. They will jump to the 1950s and follow a new generation of the family in post-war Birmingham. There hasn’t been confirmation of an air date as of yet.
New Faces and Famous Names
There’s also a raft of new commissions on their way, with many of the biggest names being announced by Netflix in late August at the Edinburgh TV Festival.
Kate Winslet and Maxine Peake star as two sisters on the run after an act of revenge goes badly wrong in The Unheard, a five-part limited series written by Jack Thorne, the co-creator of Adolescence. It is due to start filming in 2027.
Anya Taylor-Joy will be leading an eight-part adaptation of Bella Mackie’s bestselling novel How to Kill Your Family, playing the spurned daughter of a billionaire played by Clive Owen, who sets about killing off her relatives one by one.
Roald Dahl is also making a reappearance on the screen, this time strictly for adults. Fool Me Once writer Danny Brocklehurst is turning some of Dahl’s darker short stories into a six-part series, with a cast that includes Imelda Staunton, Nicola Coughlan, Dominic West and Toby Jones.
The Top Boy universe is also getting a look in, with Barry Keoghan reprising his role as Jonny in a five-part prequel called Jonny Boy. Jasmine Jobson gets her own six-part series as Jaq, from writer Ryan Calais Cameron. Both are set to shoot in 2027.
ITV’s director of drama Polly Hill has commissioned Jeff Pope, who wrote Mr Bates vs the Post Office, to dramatise the impact of social media on children.
The series follows campaigner Ellen Roome, whose 14-year-old son Jools died in 2022, and her fight to access his social media data. Roome is consulting on the scripts. The project is a sign that the public-interest factual drama, which made Mr Bates a national event, remains one of the terrestrial channels’ strongest cards.
Where the Money Will Come From
There’s the small matter of how these shows are all going to be financed. Figures from the British Film Institute show that UK spend on high-end TV shows that began filming in the first half of 2026 fell 19% to £1.7 billion, compared to £2.1 billion in the same period the year before.
The number of shows stayed at 82, which suggests that there is more of a trimming of the budgets than cutting shows completely.
The majority of the money still comes from overseas. Inward investment, mainly from US studios and streaming companies, accounted for 78% of the total. The 317 domestic UK productions accounted for about 20% of the spend.
The number of partnerships is on the rise, with international co-production rising by over 40% in the first six months of 2026. Peaky Blinders is a BBC and Netflix co-commission, with the broadcaster taking UK rights and the streamer the rest of the world. Line of Duty is made with support from Northern Ireland Screen and distributed internationally by ITV Studios.
The upcoming schedule tells a clear story of how studios know that familiar names are worth investing in. This includes the 7th series of Line of Duty, a new generation of Shelbys, a Top Boy prequel, and a Doctor Who Christmas special. Then the smattering of star-led adaptations aim to reach a global audience.
Viewers will have a crowded 2027 schedule to get through, beginning with the Doctor Who special on Christmas Day, which will break up the eating, drinking, and relaxing by playing board games and slot casino games online.
The industry will continue looking to see if the partnerships that are paying for these shows will last long enough to pay for the next generation and not just reviving older ones.