For decades, American viewers who wanted to experience the top-notch dramas and comedies of the BBC had to turn to PBS. And while the Public Broadcast System is still home to several British dramas, BBC has expanded its own reach in the streaming era including partnerships with Netflix, Disney+, and even CBS. The BBC also has its own streaming service, BritBox, which provides a home for original shows that might not otherwise make it to these shores.
Since the new year has arrived, it’s time to take a look ahead at what’s coming to the British Broadcasting Corporation in our list of the 10 most anticipated BBC shows of 2025. Almost everything you see below either has a streaming service lined up, or will very likely have one settled later this year.
10. This City is Ours
Release date: N/A
Game of Thrones‘ Sean Bean is set to headline This City is Ours, an eight-part crime drama created by Stephen Butchard (The Last Kingdom). Bean will play Ronnie Phelan, the leader of a drug-running gang in Liverpool, while James Nelson-Joyce co-headlines as one of Ronnie’s most-trusted associates, Michael Kavanagh. Michael is starting to rethink his future after falling in love with Diana (Hannah Onslow).
Unfortunately for Michael, his place in the organization comes under attack when a drug shipment goes missing, and Ronnie’s son, Jamie Phelan (Jack McMullen), decides to speed up his inheritance by claiming his father’s criminal empire and leaving Michael out in the cold.
9. Lockerbie
Release date: N/A
Lockerbie is a separate project from Peacock’s recently premiered Lockerbie: A Search for Truth, although some of the subject matter does overlap. Suits‘ Patrick J. Adams is one of the primary cast members alongside Connor Swindells, Phyllis Logan, Merritt Wever, Peter Mullan, Eddie Marsan, and Lauren Lyle.
The miniseries will follow the two concurrent investigations by the American and British governments into the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, which exploded over Lockerbie in Scotland and killed 11 people on the ground as well as 259 on the plane itself. This story will also explore the impact this attack had on family members in both countries, as well as the ongoing search for answers that reaches as far as 2022.
8. Death Valley
Release date: N/A
British television has so many murder mystery drama shows that they get to have mystery comedies too. Death Valley falls into the latter category. Timothy Spall stars as John Chapel, a retired actor who is a legend for starring in his own detective TV series, Caesar. When John’s neighbor is murdered, he inserts himself into the investigation, much to the surprise of Welsh detective sergeant Janie Mallowan (Gwyneth Keyworth).
Once John gets a taste of being a real detective, he doesn’t want to slip back to retirement. So he’ll be helping Janie solve other mysteries in the Welsh countryside, whether she wants his to or not.
7. Towards Zero
Release date: N/A
It just wouldn’t be the BBC without a fresh Agatha Christie adaptation. Towards Zero is based on the late mystery novelist’s 1944 book, and it takes place in England during the 1930s. Anjelica Huston plays Lady Camilla Tressilian, an elderly and bedridden woman who invites her friends and extended family to a holiday with her.
Among the attendees is Lady Camilla’s former ward turned professional tennis player, Neville Strange (Oliver Jackson-Cohen). Neville already introduced discord for the event by inviting both his ex-wife, Audrey Strange (Ella Lily Hyland), and his new wife, Kay Elliott-Strange (Mimi Keene). But when two of the party members are murdered, Neville finds himself among the chief suspects, even though he’s far from the only one with motive.
6. Nine Bodies in a Mexican Morgue
Release date: N/A
Nine Bodies in a Mexican Morgue essentially starts at the end of the story with exactly what the title promises. Over the course of the series, viewers will learn that the nine bodies in question belong to the only survivors of a plane crash in the Mexican jungle.
Kevin (Eric McCormack), Zack (David Ajala), Sonja (Lydia Wilson), Carlos (Peter Gadiot), Lisa (Siobhán McSweeney), Revueltas (Oscar Foronda), Travis (Ólafur Darri Ólafsson), Dan (Adam Long), and Amy (Jan Le) may be strangers to each other, but they’ve experienced a miracle. Unfortunately, that miracle seems dubious since the survivors are being murdered one-by-one as they struggle to find rescue or a way out of the jungle. Is a killer among them, or is there someone else with them in the jungle? And will anyone live to tell the tale?
5. Dope Girls
Release date: N/A
Dope Girls takes place in the aftermath of World War I in Soho, and the women who thrived during the war don’t want to be thrust back into their old subservient roles. An older single mother named Kate Galloway (Julianne Nicholson) definitely doesn’t want to go back, because she’s established herself as the owner of the hottest underground nightclub where the drinks and drugs flow like water.
Billie Cassidy (Umi Myers) is one of the dancers in Kate’s club, and it becomes a life-changing experience for her. Meanwhile, the police have trained Violet Davie (Eliza Scanlen) to be one of the first female officers on the force, and it’s her job to infiltrate the nightclub and retrieve evidence of Kate’s crimes.
4. The War Between the Land and the Sea
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Despite its unwieldy name, The War Between the Land and the Sea is actually a spinoff from Doctor Who that brings back several actors from the Whoniverse, including Jemma Redgrave as Kate Lethbridge-Stewart, Ruth Madeley as Shirley Anne Bingham, and Colin McFarlane as General Austin Pierce; whom he previously portrayed in another spinoff called Torchwood. Russell Tovey and Gugu Mbatha-Raw both appeared in Doctor Who as well, but they will be playing new characters in this series.
In this series, the Doctor’s old enemies, the Sea Devils, return and launch a war against the surface world. And with no help from the Doctor in sight, Kate and her team will have to find a way to end the war before humanity pays the ultimate price.
3. Doctor Who
Release date: N/A
Speaking of Doctor Who, the new season presents an unusual mystery for the Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa). His unlikely companion is a young woman named Belinda Chandra (Varada Sethu) who desperately wants to get back to her home on Earth. But no matter what the Doctor tries, his TARDIS can’t seem to make the trip through time and space to put Belinda where she belongs.
Who or what could be powerful enough to prevent the Doctor from coming back to his favorite planet in the universe? Before we get that answer, it looks like Ruby Sunday (Millie Gibson) and UNIT have their own problems to deal with back on Earth.
2. Lord of the Flies
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His Dark Materials‘ Jack Thorne is adapting a new version of William Golding’s Lord of the Flies with a largely unknown cast. The story follows a group of boys who survive a plane crash on a remote tropical island. At first, the boys attempt to be civilized and hope for rescue. But over time, some of the kids give into their most savage instincts and become far more dangerous to themselves than the island or anything that lives there.
Legendary movie music composer Hans Zimmer is writing the theme for this series, and co-writing the rest of the music with Kara Talve.
1. King & Conqueror
Release date: N/A
Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (Game of Thrones) is going from the fictional kingdom of Westeros to the very real struggle for the throne of England in the 11th century in the upcoming drama series King & Conqueror. CBS and BBC co-produced this historical epic, which means it’s likely to be one of the few British original series to be broadcast on American network television.
Coster-Waldau plays William, the Duke of Normandy, and initially an ally of Harold Godwinson (James Norton), the Earl of Wessex. Although neither William nor Harold had designs on the throne, the latter is named king when his predecessor, King Edward (Eddie Marsan), dies. William believes his claim on the throne is stronger and he declares war on Harold to take it. By the time this show comes to an end, you’ll see why Coster-Waldau’s character was known as William the Conqueror.
