With Sunday evening’s draw signalling another slice of summer gone, at least the week ahead brings one shining beacon of light: a fresh slate of TV listings!
With a whole host of new shows landing across every streamer, the HELLO! TV team is on hand to cut through the noise and highlight what’s truly worth your time.
From gritty crime thrillers to sweeping romantic period dramas, we’ve sifted through it all to handpick the best shows, so you can skip the endless scrolling and dive straight into the good stuff.
So, as someone who watches TV for a living, these are the seven shows I’ll be bingeing this week…
© ITVRidley Season Two
It wouldn’t be a HELLO! roundup without a detective drama pick, and this week’s promises to be a corker.
Line of Duty star Adrian Dunbar reprises his role as retired detective turned police consultant Alex Ridley.
The second season follows Ridley as he teams up with DI Carol Farman (Bronagh Waugh) to tackle a whole host of new mysteries and crimes that have taken place on the gloomy yet atmospheric moors of the UK.
“Ridley must face formidable challenges as he works tirelessly to solve the most intricate and perplexing cases,” reads the official synopsis.
As someone lucky enough to have watched a sneak-peak of the upcoming series, I can assure you it has all the grit, tension and plot twists expected from an Adrian Dunbar police procedural. It’s the ultimate Sunday-night cosy crime watch.
HELLO!’s Acting TV Editor Nicky Morris added: “For viewers missing Vera, ITV’s Brenda Blethyn-starring detective series, which ended earlier this year, this one is for you.”
Ridley returns to ITV1 and ITVX on Sunday 10 August.
© © Buccaneer (In Flight) Ltd/ Peter MarleyIn Flight
Over on Channel 4, the hotly anticipated crime thriller In Flight, which stars Happy Valley‘s Katherine Kelly, awaits.
The six-part show is set to follow flight attendant Jo, whose life is upturned when she’s blackmailed into smuggling drugs after her son is imprisoned in Bulgaria for a murder he says he did not commit.
The synopsis continues: “As Jo becomes ensnared in the murky underworld of corruption and hired killers, she is forced to carry out their orders while desperately trying to find a way out.”
With a slate of behind-the-scenes creatives who have worked on projects such as Slow Horses, Whitstable Pearl and The Crow Girl, it’s safe to say we’re in safe hands with this one.
In Flight airs on Channel 4 on Tuesday 12 August at 9pm.
© Courtesy of NetflixrLove is Blind: UK
For those feeling the Love Island-shaped hole in their evenings, fear not. Netflix is returning with one of its most-loved reality shows: Love is Blind: UK.
The spinoff of the hit US series brings singles from across the UK and Ireland together to hunt for love – all from the comfort of their pods, where their appearances remain a mystery.
Forming connections based solely on personality and conversation, the hopeful singles will choose someone to marry without ever meeting them face-to-face.
The official synopsis continues: “Over several weeks, the newly engaged couples will move in together, plan their wedding and find out if their physical connection matches their strong emotional bond developed in the Pods.
“When their wedding day arrives, will real-world realities and external factors push them apart, or will they marry the person they fell blindly in love with?”
Love is Blind: UK will start on Wednesday 13 August and will be released over the course of three weeks.
© Bruno Ilusorio / NetflixIn the Mud
If you can’t get enough of crime dramas, Netflix has another one coming this week – and this time, it stars five female leads.
The Argentine crime-drama is a spinoff of Sebastián Ortega’s El marginal, and sees five completely different women bonded by fate on their way to a strict Argentinian prison.
Through surviving the incident as a group, the women bind together by using their various skills brought from their previous lives to fight against the prison regime and corrupt forces that control their daily reality.
The synopsis continues: “The motivations and goals of their previous lives are replaced by daily survival, while they try to maintain connections with the outside world.
“Contact with family, loved ones and unresolved matters are the only things that fuel the hope of regaining their lost freedom.”
If you were a fan of Orange is the New Black, this one could be for you.
In the Mud hits Netflix on Thursday 14 August.
© Disney+Alien: Earth
If it’s a sci-fi horror you’re after, eight-part series Alien: Earth could be your next must-watch.
Set two years after the original Alien film in 2120, Disney+’s new series follows Wendy (Sydney Chandler), the first hybrid (a person with their human consciousness transferred into their robot body), who investigates a spaceship that crash-lands on Earth.
Along with a team of soldiers looking for signs of life, Wendy makes a discovery that puts them face-to-face with the planet’s biggest threat, xenomorphs, and exposes the power dynamics at play for control over Earth.
From the creator of the Fargo series, Noah Hawley, and with Ridley Scott as an executive producer, the series is set to continue the iconic Alien franchise.
© Getty ImagesVJ Day 80: The Nation’s Tribute
In a special commemoration marking its 80-year anniversary, VJ Day 80 will pay tribute to the last remaining VJ Day veterans live from the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire at a Royal British Legion’s event.
The official synopsis reads: “Staged at the foot of the iconic Armed Forces Memorial, the commemoration features personal testimonies and poignant reflections from veterans, who remember leaving home for a far-off country and an unknown enemy, and being part of a ‘forgotten army’.”
The hour-and-a-half special will also feature a national two-minute silence.
VJ Day 80: The Nation’s Tribute will air on BBC One on Friday 15 August at 11.30.
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