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It's now the time of year when a quiet night in seems ever so tempting. Where better to find refuge from the long, dark nights than on your sofa? And, of course, the perfect way to make the most of such hibernation is by watching great television. Fortunately, our experts have uncovered the 19 best shows and films for you to consider. From a thriller starring Emma Thompson to the story of how mankind reached space, we have got all bases covered. So kick back, grab your TV remote and prepare for take-off. Down Cemetery Road Emma Thompson stars in a private-eye thriller based on Mick Herron's book Certificate: 15 Based on the Mick Herron book of the same name, Down Cemetery Road is a story about private eyes, rather than spies. One private eye in particular: old school gumshoe Joe Silverman (Adam Godley), a shambling but likeably romantic sort who works out of an office in Oxford. He's married to hard-bitten Zoe (Emma Thompson), who doesn't seem to like him very much, and into their lives one day comes Sarah (Ruth Wilson), who has a mystery on her hands. One night, Sarah was at a dinner party that was rocked by a neighbourhood gas explosion. That same night, a girl went missing and all Sarah's efforts to find her have been met with stonewalling. What on earth is going on? Unfolding across eight parts, Down Cemetery Road is an engagingly unconventional thriller that keeps its conspiracy thriller cards close to its chest, and Thompson is a lot of fun to watch as the edgy investigator - you can almost imagine her rocking up at Slough House where, you can be sure, she wouldn't take any of Jackson Lamb's nonsense... (Eight episodes) Aileen: Queen Of The Serial Killers Previously unseen interviews with female serial killer Aileen Wuornos form the core of this re-examination of her life Certificate: 15 A co-production between the BBC and NBC that re-examines the life of Aileen Wuornos, the serial killer who murdered seven men in central Florida between 1989 and 1990. She was executed in 2002, aged 46, and her story was fixed in the public imagination by Charlize Theron's Oscar-winning performance in the film Monster the year after, but who was the real Wuornos? Directed by Emily Turner (24 Hours In Police Custody), this feature-length documentary tries to get to the heart of that, using audio interviews with those who knew her and previously unseen interviews with the murderer herself while she was on death row, where she spent ten years before being executed. Female serial killers are rare, so the opportunity to understand her motivations and psychology makes the film intriguing from that point of view. Wuornos had a grim life, for sure - her father killed himself after raping a child, she'd been abandoned by her mother by the age of four and she later became a prostitute, but those three details aren't even all of it. She claimed that the men she murdered had either raped or tried to rape her while she was working the streets. (102 minutes) IT: Welcome To Derry Terrifying prequel series to Stephen King's clown story, set in small-town 1960s US Certificate: 18 Brace yourselves for this terrifying prequel series to Stephen King's clown story IT, which is set - as so many King tales are - in seemingly sleepy small-town Maine. The town of Derry is a superficially cheery place where fear runs deep, from the school to the police department to the hatred of anything 'other' that sits in the eyes of its residents as they walk the streets. Set mostly during the Cold War panic of the 1960s but also jumping around in time, Welcome To Derry gives us two plots to follow - first, the Stranger Things-style investigations by a number of troubled schoolchildren after one of their own goes missing, and second, the suspicious goings-on at the nearby US Air Force base, where African-American war veteran Major Hanlon (British actor Jovan Adepo) has just started a new job. How do those plots intertwine? You'll have to watch to find out. Mixing a steady drip of jump scares into a near constant sense of tension, Welcome To Derry is a detailed, weirdly cosy viewing experience that places you right in the middle of a world filled with fear. The young cast are varied and excellent, while Bill Skarsgard reprises his role as Pennywise the Clown from the two films and Madeleine Stowe has an intriguing role later on. (Eight episodes) Once Upon A Time In Space The gripping story of how mankind reached space, and where we're going next Certificate: 12 From the makers of Once Upon A Time In Northern Ireland and the Bafta-winning Once Upon A Time in Iraq this four-part series tells the human stories behind our quest to explore space. Like the two earlier series, it makes a big story deeply personal, revealing how individuals played their part in the space race and how it shaped their lives, and those of their families. It also places the key events firmly within their social history, exploring attitudes towards the female and African-American astronauts who were part of Nasa's shuttle programme (in episode one), the deep bond formed between American astronauts and Soviet cosmonauts (episode two), and the establishment of the international space station that followed (episode three), as well as the souring of that collaboration after the invasion of Ukraine (episode four). It's a fascinating, multifaceted look at mankind's final frontier as space exploration approaches a new age and more and more civilians (aka space tourists) make their way into orbit. (Four episodes) Art Detectives True Blood's Stephen Moyer stars as a British art sleuth A cosy British mystery that looks to be very much in the vein of The Chelsea Detective, at least at first glance, Art Detectives has something special going for it - Stephen Moyer as its star. A veteran lead actor with charm to burn (think of his Bill the vampire in True Blood), here Moyer is playing DI Mick Palmer, the only detective in the Heritage Crime Unit and, to be frank, a right art nerd. His tramp-like dad (Larry Lamb) was a forger who made a lot of bad choices and Mick does his best to ignore him, even when he's standing right in front him. His love interest is played by Sarah Alexander, and the pair have a delightful way of flirting over the most unsexy words imaginable. Palmer is brought into murder cases with strong art links, and combines a boyish enthusiasm for art with a forensic knowledge of its history and an eagle eye for the guilty. His partner in these cases is DC Shazia Malik (Virdee's Nina Singh), and she serves as a plain-speaking interpreter for his geekier moments. The mysteries they solve are solid enough, but it's Moyer you tune in for, as he steadily reveals more of the surprisingly multi-faceted Palmer. A second series has already been ordered. (Six episodes) Ballad Of A Small Player Colin Farrell stars in a stylishly messy film about a high-stakes gambler Certificate: 15 One of those films built around style and a wildly compelling central performance, Ballad Of A Small Player stars Colin Farrell as 'Lord Doyle', an Irishman on the run from his debts, playing the baccarat tables of the Chinese gambling capital of Macau. Based on a poetic and plot-light novel by Lawrence Osborne and directed by Edward Berger (Conclave), the film is full of vibrant neon cinematography, cracking music and oodles of energy from Farrell, so go in expecting that and you'll have a decent time. Go in expecting anything deeper and you may be disappointed - but then, that's part of the problem of adapting a novel like Osborne's. Tilda Swinton pops up in an eye-catching supporting role and the fact that they managed to film the thing in Macau itself is a massive boon, but, if you like your filmmaking to have a deeper point, then this is unlikely to scratch that itch. Berger picked up the Best Picture Oscar for Conclave earlier this year and one for Best International Film for All Quiet On The Western Front two years before that and, if this movie is likely to figure anywhere in the 2026 awards race, it'll be in the performance he's got from Farrell. (101 minutes) Amsterdam Empire Famke Janssen stars as a spurned wife in a Dutch tale of betrayal and changing fortunes Certificate: 15 You may not know it because she's been a Hollywood star for years, but Famke Janssen is Dutch. The GoldenEye and X-Men star gets to use her native language in Netflix's seven-part gangster drama, in which she plays Betty - an ex-pop singer and now the rejected wife of a drug-and-coffee shop kingpin who's found new love with a younger woman. Janssen is the best reason to tune into Amsterdam Empire, as her Betty veers between delighting in delivering the revenge of a woman spurned and contemplating the cost to her soul of doing so. There are several vicious and highly entertaining clashes along the way that wouldn't look out of place in Dallas or Dynasty and, ultimately, Betty's revenge sets off a chain of events that leads to her husband being shot. That isn't a spoiler because it happens in the first scene before we flash back to figure out why. It's a trick of TV drama that can be annoying but, in Amsterdam Empire, as long as Janssen's on screen at least, it's hard to mind. (Seven episodes) Trigger Point Line Of Duty's Vicky McClure stars in this explosive drama Year: 2022- Certificate: 15 This police drama stars Line Of Duty's Vicky McClure, and comes from the production company of Jed Mercurio, that show's creator. It introduces us to some new police lingo as Explosives Officer - 'Expo' - Lana 'Wash' Washington and her colleagues race to defuse explosive situations all around London, and it proved a massive hit with audiences. Now in its third series (with a fourth on the way), not all of Lana's colleagues have stayed the distance in a show that consistently ratchets up the wire-cutting, nail-biting tension. In each series there's a different bomb-based peril, laced with elements of a police procedural so that you follow a complex investigation alongside all the high-stress, high-stakes action. McClure is a charismatic lead, all but carrying the show on her own, especially by series three, which finds the team racing around trying to catch a bomber urging his booby-trapped victims to 'confess or die', and we are also invested in her personally as she struggles to deal with the pressures of her inordinately high-pressure job. (Three series) Tessa Thompson stars in Nia DaCosta's sexy modern take on Ibsen's love triangle tragedy Certificate: 18 Ibsen's plays are known for being brilliant but depressing. Writer-director Nia DaCosta tries to get around the latter issue by injecting the doomed love triangle Hedda Gabler (now simply 'Hedda') with a stylish, nasty and sexy energy that places it somewhere between The Great Gatsby and Saltburn. There are other substantial changes to the original. The money-loving Hedda (Tessa Thompson) now lives in upper-class 20th-century Britain, not 19th-century Norway, and the lover who returns to threaten her marriage of convenience to desperate-to-please George (Tom Bateman) is a woman, not a man. Step forward Eileen, played by the excellent Nina Hoss (Tár), a once-boozy older woman who is now in a clear-headed relationship with the kind Thea (Imogen Poots). Will Hedda stand for her ex being happy with someone else while her own voracious needs go unmet? Will she heck - and a festival of manipulation ensues, with Thompson clearly having an awful lot of fun as the woman pulling all the strings. Hoss, too, is on scene-stealing form as Eileen, in a story that's much more about women than Ibsen's original was. Do keep an ear out for the line 'Come on Eileen' in a film that can feel like it's set permanently at 11, which will be too much for some but great fun for others. (107 minutes) The Good Life: Inside Out Dame Penelope Keith hosts a fun retrospective on the great sitcom Queen Elizabeth II didn't make a habit of making her TV favourites clear but she made an exception for The Good Life, the classic suburban sitcom that's being celebrated by one of its stars, Dame Penelope Keith, in this thoroughly enjoyable one-off to mark 50 years since the show began. Dame Penelope steps back onto the set of the show where she played the wonderfully prim Margo Leadbetter, and there are archive interviews with her co-stars - Richard Briers and Felicity Kendal, who played the make-do-and-mend Goods, and Paul Eddington, who was Margo's husband Jerry. The show was built around Richard Briers' character Tom, who decided to quit work and turn self-sufficient on his 40th birthday. Briers then saw Keith and Kendal on stage in Alan Ayckbourn's The Norman Conquests, and they seemed like a shoo-in. And as for Jerry? Peter Bowles was the first choice but he turned it down, so Paul Eddington - then a familiar figure in the theatre - stepped in. Those are the basics and there are plenty of reminiscences from Keith here to fill in the behind-the-scenes stories, including how she nixed the idea of a Leadbetter-centered spin-off, and her recollection of the final episode they staged as a Royal Command Performance for the Queen in 1978. It's a shame that more of the cast aren't around to talk about it - Eddington died in 1995 and Briers in 2013 - but it's a lovely salute all the same. (65 minutes) The Witcher Henry Cavill and Liam Hemsworth star in a monster-slaying fantasy drama Year: 2019- Certificate: 15 Sweepingly romantic, gorily gritty and with a neat line in wry humour, The Witcher is one of the best fantasy dramas this side of Game Of Thrones. Superman's Henry Cavill proved he's not just a man of steel by bringing Geralt of Rivia, the world-weary monster slayer of the title, to battered, heroic life and he's been a pleasure to watch for three highly enjoyable series, then departed amid rumours that he disliked the way the series was veering away from the books. Either that, or he wanted to pursue other projects. Whatever the truth of it all, Liam Hemsworth is a solid replacement under the white wig of Geralt for a fourth series (with a fifth on the way), which also adds The Matrix's Laurence Fishburne to the cast as Regis, a mysterious barber-surgeon. (Four series) Companion (2025 film) Sophie Thatcher plays an all-too-perfect girlfriend in a horror comedy set in the near future Certificate: 15 A slow creeping horror set in the near future, Companion stars Sophie Thatcher as Iris, the meek and all-too-perfect girlfriend of grinning cheeseball Josh (Jack Quaid), who apparently met her in a classic supermarket meet-cute that looks like it's been lifted right out of a romcom. Iris turns out to be meek and all-too-perfect because she's been programmed that way and, as you watch how she's treated by all around her on a weekend away at a cabin with Josh and his friends, you'll start to wish that she was able to stick up for herself. What happens if that involves murder, though? Rupert Friend is among the co-stars in a film that takes the world as it is and gives it dark, cynical push, before letting the plot accelerate away into a gleefully twisty rampage of comedy and horror that has just enough depth so it never feels like empty calories. (97 minutes) Robson Green: World's Most Amazing Walks Breathtakingly beautiful rambles with the Grantchester star Certificate: pg You might have already seen the Grantchester actor and keen rambler Robson Green sharing the wonders of the North East of England in his Weekend Escapes for the BBC. He's at it again in this eight-part series, but after episode one on home turf he ventures further afield. Packing his waterproofs and Kendal Mint Cake in his rucksack, Robson rambles the length of Hadrian's Wall for an especially poignant opener in which he stops off at the sight of the Sycamore Gap, the legendary tree felled in an infamous act of vandalism in 2023. The whole route is rich with action-packed history, as well as stunning, more serene sights and that theme, of stimulating adventure combined with restorative reflection, continues at Robson's other destinations. These include gastronomic delights along the banks of the Danube in Austria, an emotional tour of the D-Day landings sites in Normandy, and engineering marvels on the Great Glen Way through the heart of the Scottish Highlands. If you're not yet convinced of the healing power of walking though such stunning landscapes, you soon will be. (Eight episodes) Return To Paradise Australian spin-off from the cosy crime drama Death In Paradise There's already been a British spin-off from Death In Paradise - Beyond Paradise - and here's an Australian one. Anna Samson plays DI Mackenzie 'Mack' Clarke, an Aussie-born London cop who returns Down Under to help the local police solve crimes. She leaves the Met police with a cloud hanging over her head and she's not best pleased to be back in her least favourite place - her home town of Dolphin Cove. The feeling is mutual, though, as the locals aren't thrilled to see her back either. And that's a large part of the fun of this series. Mackenzie may have a superior sleuthing brain but she also has a habit of rubbing people up the wrong way - mainly due to the fact that she jilted her fiancé on their wedding day, which hasn't gone down well in this tight-knit community. The formula is pretty much as you would expect, with Mackenzie's colleagues bearing a striking resemblance to their counterparts in Saint-Marie, just with Aussie accents. Lloyd Griffith is useless Detective Colin Cartwright, Tai Hara is hunky pathologist - and Mackenzie's ex - Glenn Strong, Celia Ireland is kooky receptionist Reggie Rocco, and Aaron L McGrath is nice but dim Constable Felix Wilkinson. But it turns out this motley crew have a keen eye for crime-solving... while Mack has unfinished business with her former fiance Glenn (Tai Hara). It's all very enjoyable stuff. (Two series) Daisy May & Charlie Cooper's NightWatch The comedy siblings from This Country go ghost-hunting Certificate: 12 This Country comedy siblings Daisy May & Charlie Cooper reunite for this ghost hunting series, staying overnight in some of Britain's spookiest buildings. In the first episode, they head to a former prison in Gloucester, an eerie enough place even without the prospect of an encounter with spirits hanged at the prison's gallows. It's in the cells for those condemned convicts that the siblings spend the night, unpacking their copious creature comforts like they're staying in a Travelodge. Their banter is a mix of gentle ribbing and childhood nostalgia which makes this more of a sweet and silly rather than scary watch. Indeed, the scariest thing in episode one is Daisy's desire to do a fake tan in the middle of the night. You get the distinct impression they're not taking the ghost hunting all that seriously. (Six episodes) The Roots Of Evil Gothic thriller mystery from Germany Certificate: 15 This dark German thriller is set in the 1990s in a newly unified Germany, where a ritualistic murder opens old wounds for the newly formed police partnership assigned to the investigation. East German inspector Ulrike 'Uli' Bandow (Henriette Confurius) and Koray Larrsen (Fahri Yardim), newly arrived from Hamburg in the west, first meet over the remains of a young girl, found posed and mutilated in dense woodland. The fictional town where the series is set is heavy with sinister characters, from an odious gang of neo-Nazi tough-nuts to a creepily superstitious family. Add to that a childhood trauma stalking Uli, and Larssen's own dark secrets, plus bleak suggestions of child abuse and ritual sacrifice, and there's enough here to keep you up at night. It's well done, though, if you like your thrillers on the Gothic and atmospheric side. (Six episodes) Ray Donovan US crime drama about a Hollywood fixer who can't fix his own life Year: 2013-2020 Certificate: 15 This US noir series isn't one to watch if you like good guys. Ray, played with low-key leading man energy by Liev Schreiber, is a professional fixer, a man who makes the problems of the rich and famous go away - and doesn't think twice about breaking the law to do it. The catch? He can't fix his own mess of a life. Ray does bad things, but he's by no means the baddest of the bad. That title is enthusiastically owned by his dad, Mickey (a Golden Globe-winning Jon Voight), who's done untold psychological damage to Ray and his brothers, including Terry (played by Brit Eddie Marsan), and continues to do his worst throughout the show's run. Set in a murky Los Angeles, before switching to New York from series six, and framed by deeply dysfunctional family dynamics, this has the feel of gangster epics like The Sopranos. The fixer plots, while fun, are really a distraction from what the show is all about: the Donovan clan and its legacy of trauma and hurt. The reason this violent, morally complex show became such compelling viewing is in no small part to the cast. Schreiber is moodily spellbinding, Voight a gravelly menace, and Marsan delivers on the more emotional end of his range as a former boxer with Parkinson's. There's always plenty going on so it's never a drag, and there's a thrilling list of big names on the supporting and guest cast, including Susan Sarandon, Elliott Gould, Rosanna Arquette and Ian McShane. (Seven series) Mary At 90: A Lifetime Of Cooking Join Dame Mary for a celebration of 60 years of cooking Certificate: pg You might be wondering what's her secret? How 90-year-old Mary Berry looks not just healthy but positively spritely. As she announces at the start of this new series, she's spent her life doing what she loves, and that's surely the key. She will be hanging out with friends old and new (Tom Allen, Gabby Logan, Jamie Oliver), giving them each a masterclass in new and classic dishes, but the real draw is listening to her reminisce - about how her love of food began as a ten-year-old Girl Guide, for example - and sharing archive clips of her in action over the years. We can all marvel at home times of changed, at how ingredients once unheard of (chickpeas, turmeric) are now so commonplace in our kitchens and be thankful that Mary's wonderful recipes are now at our fingertips - before the internet was invented, viewers would have to write in with a stamped-addressed-envelope and wait for the postman to delivery them! (Six episodes) Behind Bars: Sex, Bribes And Murder Hard-hitting investigation into the lawlessness of England's prisons Certificate: 15 Prisoners and prison guards should not be having sex, prisoners shouldn't be smoking weed in their cells, and none of this should be filmed on a prisoner's mobile phone. But after a video shot inside a cell went viral in 2024, it was clear all those things took place at HMP Wandsworth. In his latest investigation, Mobeen Azhar is interested not so much in the video itself but the circumstances that made it happen, or even possible. The knives were out for the woman in the video, Linda de Sousa Abreu, who was charged and convicted of misconduct in public office, and condemnation went way beyond her obvious lawbreaking. But is there more to her story? Was she corrupted or coerced? Mobeen uncovers the suggestion of widespread corruption throughout the prison system and while he doesn't find it easy to get people to come forward, many of those who do agree to talk offer compelling evidence not just of corruption, but of a prison system at breaking point, and a growing number of fatalities, from drug-related deaths in prison. It culminates in the cold-blooded murder of a prison officer and father of two in an act of retaliation. (Two episodes)
