BBC DRAMA HIGHLIGHTS FOR 2024, NEW AND RETURNING TITLES REVEALED
The BBC have revealed its slate of dramas for 2024, including the return of The Tourist, all-new Doctor Who, plus new dramas This Town, Lost Boys And Fairies and Nightsleeper.
THE TOURIST
As Elliot and Helen are dragged into a longstanding family feud, series two introduces a raft of new characters including Detective Ruairi Slater (Conor MacNeill), Niamh Cassidy (Olwen Fouéré) and the McDonnell family – Donal (Diarmaid Murtaghr), Orla (Nessa Matthews), Fergal (Mark McKenna), and Frank (Francis Magee). Full of shocking plot twists and the same off-beat comedy that made series one a success, The Tourist is set to return with even more quirky characters and intense action.
THIS TOWN
Both a high octane thriller and a family saga, This Town opens in 1981 at a moment of huge social tensions and unrest. Against this backdrop, it tells the story of a group of young people fighting to choose their own paths in life, and each in need of the second chance that music offers.
THE WAY
An ambitious, powerful and surprising new drama, The Way (3x60’) taps into the social and political chaos of today’s world by imagining a civil uprising which begins in a small industrial town. Meet the Driscolls - an ordinary family, in an extraordinary story of life, death and survival. Caught in a chain of events and power struggles that ripple out unleashing civil unrest, they are forced to escape the country they’ve always called home and the certainties of their old lives.
WATERLOO ROAD
The new series will continue to explore real-life topics affecting teens, families and school staff today, all with Waterloo Road’s trademark mix of sharp writing, warmth and wit. With a group of long-term school refusers arriving at Waterloo Road, the balance of peace and harmony once again rests on thin ice. Will Headteacher Kim Campbell (Angela Griffin) and her team have what it takes to stop the school from sinking?
SILENT WITNESS
Nikki and Jack investigate a murder bearing all the hallmarks of a notorious serial killer. When Nikki meets Charles Beck, the pathologist who conducted the original post-mortems, she discovers his wife was the suspected fifth victim of the serial killer, but nobody believes him when he claims he knows where to find her body.
CALL THE MIDWIFE
Sister Julienne and Shelagh are thrilled that the new midwifery training scheme is underway, which includes pupil midwives Rosalind Clifford, Joyce Highland, Kathy Downes and Norelle Morris. Once introduced to the routines of a home delivery, Rosalind and Joyce unpack their belongings and settle into Nonnatus House.
DOCTOR WHO
Brand new eight-episode series starring Ncuti Gatwa as The Doctor and Millie Gibson as Ruby Sunday. Further episodes will be revealed in due course.
SHERWOOD
The series set in the present day introduces two new families that find themselves entangled with the Sparrows, entering a complex web of local gangs, old rivalries, revenge, and betrayal. Whilst a newly appointed Sheriff of Nottingham, is passionately fighting local government and influential business leaders, to save the community from the prospect of a proposed new mine for the area.
BLUE LIGHTS
Among those set to reprise their roles in the second series are Siân Brooke, Martin McCann, Katherine Devlin, Nathan Braniff, Joanne Crawford, Andi Osho, and Hannah McClean. Series one follows three new PSNI probationary recruits as they navigate their way through their first few months in a uniquely dangerous place to be a response police officer.
NIGHTSLEEPER
A real-time thriller set on a sleeper train travelling from Glasgow to London, while a government agency desperately tries to intervene in the rapidly-escalating events onboard. Can two people who’ve never met, one on the train and one not, work together to save the lives of its disparate group of passengers as the Heart of Britain service hurtles towards what might quite literally be its final destination?
LOST BOYS AND FAIRIES
The series tells the tender, glittering story of singer and artiste-extraordinaire Gabriel, his partner Andy and their journey to adoption. Cardiff-born actor Sion Daniel Young and star of stage and screen Fra Fee appear in lead roles as Gabriel and Andy, respectively. Lost Boys & Fairies is created and written by Welsh writer Daf James.
THE RESPONDER
Series two joins Chris Carson six months later. Chris is attempting to rebuild his life, and his relationships, desperate to avoid the corruption that nearly sucked him under. He is trying to be a better police officer, a better man, and most importantly, a better father to his daughter Tilly. All whilst still dealing with the relentless trauma of being a night response officer. Chris wants a day job.
SHOWTRIAL
When the high-profile climate activist Marcus Calderwood is left for dead in a violent hit and run, he uses his dying moments to identify his killer - a serving policeman. But who is this unnamed ‘Officer X’? What does his own history reveal about the nature of trauma and revenge, and was Marcus’s death a careless accident or cold-blooded murder?
THE JETTY
In the four-part series, for BBC One and BBC iPlayer, a fire tears through a holiday home in a scenic Lancashire lake town. Detective Ember Manning must work out how it connects to a podcast journalist investigating a missing persons cold case and an illicit ‘love’ triangle between a man in his twenties and two underage girls.
Transmission details for each programme will be confirmed in due course.