Top 25 thrillers, dramas, comedies, and book adaptations on TV in 2022

If you are anything like us, then indulging in a box set binge or discovering a new TV show can help take the edge off things.

Right now, there is no dearth of excellent telly in the pipeline. Here we share our pick of the best new series – big-name dramas, thrillers, comedy and adaptations from great books – to look forward to over the coming months.

Killing Eve

Intelligence agent Eve Polastri and her shapeshifting adversary Villanelle return for a fourth and final series. The first two episodes will air on BBC America on February 27, with a UK air date hopefully not too far behind.

It’s difficult to imagine more perfect casting than Jodie Comer as glamorous, multilingual, Russian assassin and psychopath Villanelle, with Sandra Oh playing the doggedly brilliant MI6 agent tasked with bringing her to justice.

Sandra Oh and Jodie Comer in Killing Eve. Picture: BBC

Expect another erotically charged cat-and-mouse game packed with killer dialogue, artful assassinations and sartorial genius from the costume department.

Coming soon to BBC iPlayer

Borgen

Netflix is breathing fresh life into the hit Danish political drama Borgen, which wrapped in 2013 after three series. Sidse Babett Knudsen will reprise her role as Birgitte Nyborg, the first female Prime Minister of Denmark.

As Borgen returns, Nyborg is now foreign minister, while journalist Katrine Fonsmark (Birgitte Hjort Sorensen) also has a new job.

Sidse Babett Knudsen as Birgitte Nyborg in Borgen. Picture: Mike Kolloffel/DR

With the fourth series due to air on Danish network DR1 next month, UK fans will be counting down the days until it arrives on these shores. Coffee and pastries? Tak.

Coming soon to Netflix

Trigger Point

If you are itching for a new Jed Mercurio-produced drama to fill that Line of Duty-shaped hole in your life, then this might do the job. The ITV thriller even stars Vicky McClure in a high-pressure, high-stakes role as a frontline officer.

McClure and Adrian Lester play bomb disposal operatives, known as “Expos”, in the six-part series who face a race against time as a major city comes under siege with terrorism attacks unfolding across a summer.

Trigger Point begins on STV from January 23

Vicky McClure and Adrian Lester in ITV thriller Trigger Point. Picture: ITV

The Gilded Age

The latest historical drama from Downton Abbey creator Julian Fellowes takes us to late 19th-century New York during a period of great upheaval and economic change.

Meryl Streep’s daughter Louisa Jacobson will take on her first major TV role as Marian Brook, a young woman who leaves behind her rural upbringing and moves to the city following the death of her father to live with her “old money” aunts, played by Cynthia Nixon and Christine Baranski.

There she finds brewing conflicts between two wealthy families and the established rules of society ripe for toppling.

The Gilded Age begins on Sky Atlantic and NOW from January 25

The Gilded Age. Picture: HBO/Sky Atlantic

Inventing Anna

Con artist or audacious entrepreneur? That is the tantalising question posed by a new drama series based on the life of Anna Delvey, a young woman who rubbed shoulders with New York’s elite and managed to defraud banks, a private jet company, hotels and wealthy acquaintances.

Delvey – real name Anna Sorokin – was born in Moscow, before arriving in New York, via London and Paris, through an internship for a French fashion magazine. She created an alter ego as a billionaire heiress and charmed others into unwittingly funding her lavish lifestyle.

Inventing Anna is the brainchild of Shonda Rhimes, the TV powerhouse behind Grey’s Anatomy, Bridgerton and How To Get Away With Murder. Ozark’s Julia Garner plays Delvey, with Anna Chlumsky from Veep as a journalist investigating the story.

Inventing Anna is available to watch on Netflix from February 11

The Control Room

Iain De Caestecker and Joanna Vanderham lead the cast of a three-part thriller set in Glasgow. The Control Room centres on an emergency call handler for the Scottish Ambulance Service who receives a desperate plea from a woman who appears to know him.

Who is she and what is their shared connection? As the clock ticks, he must make a decision that could trigger cataclysmic consequences. De Caestecker, known for Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Roadkill, describes the plot as “one of the most exciting scripts I’ve ever read”.

The line-up also includes Sharon Rooney (My Mad Fat Diary, Finding Alice), Daniel Portman (Game of Thrones, Vigil), Taj Atwal (The Syndicate, Line of Duty) and Stuart Bowman (Bodyguard, Versailles).

Coming to BBC One later in 2022

Bridgerton

Smelling salts at the ready, I feel a swoon coming on. The arrival of series two of Bridgerton – the romantic period drama romp based on Julia Quinn’s bestselling novels – is only around the corner.

Another from the Shonda Rhimes stable, its debut offering became one of 2020’s most talked about shows as Daphne Bridgerton (Phoebe Dynevor) and Simon Basset, Duke of Hastings (Rege-Jean Page) embarked upon their Regency era courtship.

This time around, the focus will be on the budding relationship between Anthony Bridgerton (Jonathan Bailey) and his potential bride Kate Sharma (Simone Ashley).

Bridgerton series two is available to watch on Netflix from March 25

The Rig

Set on the fictional Kinloch Bravo platform in the North Sea, this six-part sci-fi thriller was made at Port of Leith in Edinburgh last year.

Created by Scottish writer David Macpherson and produced by Wild Mercury Productions as an Amazon Original series, the cast features Game of Thrones actor Iain Glen and Schitt’s Creek star Emily Hampshire, alongside Mark Bonnar from Guilt and Line of Duty’s Martin Compston.

Coming to Amazon Prime Video later in 2022

Martin Compston as Fulmer in six-part thriller The Rig. Picture: Amazon Prime Video

Derry Girls

Can we imagine a world without the bold Erin, rule-abiding Clare, mouthy Michelle, eccentric Orla and “wee English fella” James in it? Well, best start preparing yourself as the show’s creator Lisa McGee has confirmed that the third series of Derry Girls will be its swansong.

The hit comedy – set against a backdrop of the Troubles in Northern Ireland during the 1990s – has been the launch pad for a plethora of talent, with the cast popping up everywhere from Netflix period extravaganza Bridgerton (Nicola Coughlan) to Channel 4 drama Screw (Jamie-Lee O’Donnell).

Derry Girls will return for a final series. Picture: Channel 4

Here’s hoping that the straight-shooting and gloriously sarcastic Sister Michael – played with perfect aplomb by Siobhan McSweeney – gets her own spin-off series.

Coming to Channel 4 later in 2022

Lord of the Rings

First announced back in 2017, this is one of those TV shows that feels like it has been a long while in the making.

The debut series of Lord of the Rings will arrive this autumn. It will be set in an earlier period within JRR Tolkien’s gargantuan universe than Peter Jackson’s trilogy of films from the early noughties, with an ensemble cast that includes Morfydd Clark, Robert Aramayo and Sir Lenny Henry.

Last summer, Amazon Studios announced it would be moving production from New Zealand to the UK, with Scotland said to be the frontrunner to shoot series two. Skye, Dunskey Castle near Portpatrick, Scourie in Sutherland, Loch Lomond and Callander in Perthshire are reportedly among the locations scouted.

Coming to Amazon Prime Video on September 2

Traces

Laura Fraser and Martin Compston are among the cast of Traces, a crime thriller that focuses on the work of the fictional Scottish Institute of Forensic Science in Dundee.

Co-created and written by Val McDermid and Amelia Bullmore, the original series was shown on Alibi and then rerun on BBC One last year.

The suspense-filled drama follows three forensic professionals – Fraser, alongside Molly Windsor and Jennifer Spence – as they analyse crime scene evidence.

Traces returns to Alibi in February

This Is Going To Hurt

Based on Adam Kay’s blisteringly funny and poignantly heart-breaking bestselling memoir of the same name, This Is Going To Hurt charts his time working in the NHS.

The TV version stars Ben Whishaw, known for his roles in A Very English Scandal, Skyfall and Paddington, as a junior doctor enduring gruelling 97-hour weeks on a gynaecology and obstetrics ward – all while knowing the hospital parking meter is earning more than him.

Ben Whishaw in upcoming BBC drama This Is Going To Hurt adapted from Adam Kay’s memoir. Picture: Anika Molnar/BBC

Created, written and executive-produced by Kay himself, the cast of the seven-part series includes Dame Harriet Walter and Alex Jennings.

Coming to BBC One in early 2022

Peaky Blinders

It has been a long and anxious wait for Peaky Blinders fans after the fifth series ended on a cliffhanger back in 2019. The much-loved period crime drama, starring Cillian Murphy as Tommy Shelby, is teeing up for its final outing, with a mixture of old and new faces among the cast.

Line of Duty and Boardwalk Empire actor Stephen Graham is joining the series, with Tom Hardy reprising his role as indomitable gangster Alfie Solomons and Anya Taylor-Joy back as Gina Gray.

Cillian Murphy as Tommy Shelby in Peaky Blinders. Picture: BBC

This latest run will be bittersweet for many viewers following the death of Helen McCrory, who played Polly Gray in the first five series of Peaky Blinders, last April from cancer.

Peaky Blinders is coming to BBC One and BBC iPlayer in early 2022

Inside Man

Is 2022 the year of David Tennant? He will certainly be on our screens a fair bit over the coming months. Inside Man sees the actor team up with former Doctor Who showrunner Steven Moffat for an intriguing-sounding BBC drama series.

The four-part thriller – which also stars Lydia West, Stanley Tucci and Dolly Wells – follows a US prisoner on death row, a vicar in a sleepy English town and a maths teacher trapped in a cellar, as they unexpectedly find their paths crossing.

Coming to BBC One later in 2022

David Tennant stars in Steven Moffat’s new thriller Inside Man. Picture: BBC

Litvinenko

This four-part ITV drama will see David Tennant play the role of Alexander Litvinenko, the former Russian Federal Security Services and KGB officer, whose death from polonium-210 poisoning in November 2006 sent shockwaves around the world.

Written by acclaimed screenwriter George Kay, whose past projects include Lupin and Criminal, the series is billed as shining a spotlight on the “stamina, hard work and bravery” of the Scotland Yard officers who worked for 10 years on the case.

Coming to STV later in 2022

Queenie

The razor-sharp novel Queenie by Candice Carty-Williams will make the leap to the small screen in this much-anticipated Channel 4 adaptation about the life and loves of Queenie Jenkins, a 25-year-old British-Jamaican woman living in an increasingly gentrified south London.

It promises a darkly comic and candid take on all facets of modern life: heartbreak, bad dates, terrible sex, race, identity, culture, politics, friendships, family dynamics and community.

Coming to Channel 4 later in 2022

I Hate Suzie

Billie Piper will be back as Suzie Pickles, the former teenage pop star and TV actress who finds herself at the heart of a tabloid and internet storm after her mobile phone is hacked and compromising photographs leaked.

As the second series picks up, our anti-heroine has gone through her version of the stages of grief – shock, denial, fear, shame, bargaining, guilt, anger and acceptance – ready to face a new chapter.

Piper co-created comedy drama I Hate Suzie with Succession writer Lucy Prebble after their previous collaborations on Secret Diary of a Call Girl and The Effect.

Coming to Sky Atlantic and NOW later in 2022

Billie Piper stars in I Hate Suzie. Picture: Sky

Conversations With Friends

The adaptation of Sally Rooney’s Normal People was one of the biggest TV smashes of 2020 and expectations are similarly high for this new 12-part series based on the Irish author’s critically acclaimed novel Conversations With Friends.

Its twisting storyline centres on Dublin college students Frances and Bobbi, and the strange, off-kilter connection they forge with a married couple, Melissa and Nick. It stars newcomer Alison Oliver in her TV debut, alongside Sasha Lane, Joe Alwyn and Jemima Kirke.

Coming soon to BBC Three

House of the Dragon

Ever since Game of Thrones ended on what some felt was a bum note, there has been much feverish anticipation surrounding this prequel.

Based on George RR Martin’s 2018 novel Fire & Blood, the 10-part series is set more than two centuries prior to Game of Thrones and centres on the Targaryen family. The cast includes Matt Smith, Paddy Considine, Olivia Cooke, Emma D’Arcy and Graham McTavish.

House of the Dragon. Picture: HBO/Sky Atlantic

Filming for House of the Dragon began last summer using locations across North Devon and Cornwall, the province of Caceres in Spain and Portugal’s Castle of Monsanto, as well as Croatia, Iceland and Morocco. It is expected to premiere sometime this year.

Coming to Sky Atlantic and NOW later in 2022

Stranger Things

It has been almost three years since we saw one of the show’s most-beloved characters hurtled into oblivion when the gate to the Upside Down – a dark, alternate dimension where terrifying monsters called the Demogorgon roam – was slammed shut.

The fourth series of Stranger Things picks up the action in 1986 with cast regulars Millie Bobby Brown, Finn Wolfhard, Gaten Matarazzo, Caleb McLaughlin, Noah Schnapp and Sadie Sink, as well as Winona Ryder and David Harbour, all set to return.

Stranger Things series 4 is coming to Netflix this summer

Stranger Things. Picture: Netflix

Outlander

Droughtlander will soon be over. The sixth series of the historical drama series Outlander, starring Sam Heughan and Caitriona Balfe, is scheduled to hit our screens very soon.

There are a few housekeeping notes. The latest instalment, filmed in Scotland, will have a shortened run of eight episodes, due to the knock-on effects of the pandemic, but the show’s makers have promised “an extended season 7 with 16 episodes” to redress the balance.

Outlander also has a new home, having recently made the move from Amazon Prime Video to subscription streaming service Starzplay. All five previous series can be viewed via the on-demand platform.

Outlander series six is coming to Starzplay on March 6

Karen Pirie

Glasgow-born actor Lauren Lyle will play the lead in Karen Pirie, the much-awaited ITV adaptation of Val McDermid’s novels about a young Scottish police detective tackling cold case investigations.

Filmed in St Andrews, the gritty three-part crime drama follows the eponymous Pirie as she reopens a cold case murder investigation. It is based on McDermid’s novel The Distant Echo and has been adapted for television by Harlots writer Emer Kenny.

Coming to STV later in 2022

Better Call Saul

As the Breaking Bad prequel prepares to bow out in 2022 with a sixth and final series, it is fair to say the story arc and the metamorphosis of earnest lawyer and erstwhile con artist Jimmy McGill into greedy criminal defence attorney Saul Goodman has been a masterpiece.

Bob Odenkirk in Better Call Saul. Picture: Netflix

The stellar cast is led by Bob Odenkirk as Jimmy/Saul, with Rhea Seehorn playing fellow legal eagle Kim Wexler and Jonathan Banks as Mike Ehrmantraut, a former police officer with a fading moral compass. With the end drawing near, we have a feeling things will get bumpy. Buckle up.

Coming to Netflix later in 2022

Anansi Boys

Based on Neil Gaiman’s novel of the same name, Anansi Boys tells the story of Charlie Nancy, a young man who, after the death of his estranged father, makes the startling discovery that his dad was an incarnation of the West African trickster god Anansi.

Amazon Studios has a bit of a hot crush on Scotland with this one of several big-name series to be shot here, based at First Stage Studios in Leith. Delroy Lindo, who starred in Spike Lee’s Da 5 Bloods, will play Mr Nancy aka Anansi.

Coming to Amazon Prime Video later in 2022

Good Omens

Speaking of Neil Gaiman, the second series of fantasy comedy Good Omens, is currently in production. It is another telly gem being shot in Scotland – based out of studio space at the Pyramids Business Park in Bathgate – starring the ever-busy David Tennant and Michael Sheen.

While the debut series written by Gaiman was based on his and Terry Pratchett’s 1990 novel, the new run will move beyond the original source material as it chronicles the unlikely friendship between angel/rare book dealer Aziraphale (Sheen) and fast-living demon Crowley (Tennant).

Coming to Amazon Prime Video later in 2022