New season TV drama

Features

Merlin - Saturdays, BBC1

Lined up to fill the Doctor Who/Robin Hood slot, this 13-part romp through young Merlin's adventures comes complete with computer trickery by the Mill, the team responsible for most of Doctor Who's special effects.

Merlin is played by newcomer Colin Morgan, whom Doctor Who experts will remember playing Jethro in the episode Midnight.

"It's beautifully made, full of magic and castles and swordfights," says Richard Wilson, who plays Merlin's mentor Gauis. "It's television for the whole family, so we felt a huge responsibility to get it right."

Lost in Austen

While mulling over her dissatisfaction with London life, Amanda Price (Jemima Rooper) makes a strange discovery in her bathroom - Elizabeth Bennet! Yes, her out of Pride and Prejudice. Via a door-shaped portal, Amanda swaps places with Lizzie, arriving at Longbourn at the start of one of literature's greatest love stories.

"The [1995] BBC adaptation is still so highly revered, and there has been a lot of Austen around," says producer Kate McKerrell. "So we were trying to think of a way of retelling the story on modern television, but giving it that fresh twist."

Gemma Arterton in Tess of the d'Urbervilles

Tess of the d'Urbervilles

In Lost in Austen, Gemma Arterton plays a 19th-century heroine who is transported to a modern-day setting, but here - in the BBC's first ever Thomas Hardy mini-series - she's in period costume from the off as the beautiful, spirited and tragic Tess.

The fine supporting cast also includes Ruth Jones (Gavin and Stacey) in a rare dramatic role as Tess's mother, and period drama veteran Anna Massey as Mrs d'Urberville.

"Reading the book, it felt as if this adaptation could be a different kind of period drama to the ones we are used to - big, passionate, violent, romantic, sexual," says screenwriter David Nicholls. "I thought it would be great to capture that on screen."

Little Dorrit - Wednesdays, Thursdays, BBC1

Andrew Davies has been dabbling in Dickens again. Following the success of Bleak House, the unlucky tale of William Dorrit and his loving, long-suffering daughter Amy (played by newcomer Claire Foy) comes in 15 instalments with a similarly impressive cast list.

"On one level," says Davies, "it's a love story where the lovers take an awful long time to realise they're in love. On another, it's a complicated mystery, concerning guilty secrets. And on yet another, it's a comedy, full of the most wonderful, colourful characters."

The Devil's Whore (Channel 4)

Writer Peter Flannery (Our Friends in the North) has spent a decade creating this English Civil War drama. Dominic West - The Wire's Jimmy McNulty, who was actually born in Sheffield - stars as Oliver Cromwell, with John Simm as Edward Sexby, Cromwell's one-time friend turned traitor. Look out for Peter Capaldi strutting his stuff as King Charles I.

Says Capaldi, "Charles is surprisingly similar to The Thick of It's Malcolm Tucker, except he swears less and can cut off your head if he's angry."

Survivors (BBC1)

Anyone the wrong side of 40 might remember the first TV adaptation (in 1975) of Terry 'Doctor Who' Nation's novel about a deadly virus that wipes out 99.9% of the world's population. The cult sci-fi classic has been re-imagined by the co-creator of Primeval, Adrian Hodges. Starring Julie Graham, Max Beesley and Freema Agyeman.

"It's a bit like The Day of the Triffids, a bit like Lost," explains Beesley. "It's weird, but it sets you thinking."

Wallander (BBC1)

Kenneth Branagh plays bestselling novelist Henning Mankell's dedicated, but quick-tempered, Swedish detective Kurt Wallander, in three film-length adaptations.

Also…

Sunshine! is a dark BBC1 comedy from Craig Cash, starring Steve Coogan, Bernard Hill and Caroline Aherne. Britannia High is Fame meets High School Musical on ITV1. And The Last Van Helsing sees Philip Glenister in a modern vampire tale.

**

Now take a look at the new season documentaries

Advertiser link