What to binge over the longer nights ahead.

Since watching the World Cup doesn’t technically count as bingeing, you can slip into the serious business of autumn television without the nagging feeling that this is all you’ve been up to this summer. Which is good, because TV is about to get seriously gripping again. The warm weather months have been particularly arid in terms of small-screen drama, but it turns out those wily TV schedulers have been hoarding all the best stuff until the rain returns, and the thought of being cosily couch-bound and square eyed holds huge appeal. So get yourself settled – with the seven new dramas we’ve listed below coming this autumn, there’ll be plenty to feast your peepers upon.

If you’re missing the deep existential angst that an episode of Black Mirror induces, allow us to introduce your new favourite near-future nightmare scenario. Maniac is about what happens when two strangers – played by Ms Emma Stone and Mr Jonah Hill – get entangled in a big pharma experiment designed to crack the mysteries of the mind. Things, however, do not go to plan for the boffins behind the experiment – played by Mr Justin Theroux and Ms Sally Field – who botch the work, letting the human guinea pigs go rogue in what Ms Stone’s character describes as “multi-reality brain magic shit”. With direction from True Detective’s Mr Cary Joji Fukunaga, this will be a trip.

**Streams on Netflix from 21 September

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Not to be confused with the 1990s Whitney Houston movie, Bodyguard is about the personal and political dynamics between a police protection officer – played by Game Of Thrones’ Mr Richard Madden – and the hawkish Home Secretary (Line Of Duty alumni Ms Keeley Hawes) he is assigned to. He’s a war veteran; she’s got her eye on No 10 and – in a moment where the terrorism threat rises to severe – is ready to harness public fears to bag a promotion. The showrunner here, Mr Jed Mercurio, is the guy responsible for Line Of Duty, so the whole thing is a brainy, action packed knockout from start to end.

_**Sundays 9.00pm, BBC One and iPlayer

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The Romanovs were Russia’s last royal family, who were shot, bayoneted and clubbed to death after the 1917 revolution. The Romanoffs (erroneous spelling deliberate) is a slightly jauntier tale, about people who believe themselves to be the monarchy’s descendants. It’s a simple, absurd premise and since this is Mr Matthew Weiner’s first project since Mad Men, we can also rest assured it is not merely a show about blue-blood fantasists. Certainly, from its international locations (seven countries across three continents) and cast (Mad Men’s Mr John Slattery and Ms Christina Hendricks star, alongside French acting royalty Ms Isabelle Huppert), The Romanoffs looks as though it will more than live up to expectations.

**Streams on Amazon from Friday 12 October

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The British spy genre gets a spiky kick up the behind in this deliciously subversive take on the cat and mouse narrative. Fleabag creator Ms Phoebe Waller Bridge laces this BBC x HBO eight-part series with her trademark brand of dark comedy, and bored MI5 agent Eve Polastri – played by an excellent, sardonic Ms Sandra Oh of Grey’s Anatomy fame – gives chase to the mad, bad and terribly intriguing Russian assassin Villanelle (Doctor Foster’s Ms Jodie Comer). Adapting from Mr Luke Jennings’ novels, Ms Waller Bridge showcases a taste for grisly action, lesbian intrigue and a welcome dollop of great British daftness. Wickedly good stuff.

_**Starts this autumn on BBC One

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It seems the BBC has the lion’s share of the best new drama on the box this autumn. On top of the aforementioned Bodyguard, there’s also Press – Mr Mike Bartlett’s intertwining tale of tabloid versus broadsheet newspaper culture – and the British airing of Mr Danny Boyle’s Trust, the mini-series based on the Getty family kidnapping in the 1970s. But Black Earth Rising is likely to be the meatiest watch; a political thriller that sees a young girl rescued from the Rwandan genocide, and who, years later as an adult, gets drawn back to the African continent and into a web of international war crimes. It features breakout star and Chewing Gum creator Ms Michaela Coel in the lead, with the ever-reliable Mr John Goodman in support.

_**Starts Monday 10 September at 9pm on BBC Two and iPlayer

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Close your dating apps for 30 minutes and watch someone else do all the swiping. That’s the draw of The Bisexual, Channel 4’s new six-part comedy centred on Leila, a New Yorker in London, who breaks up with her girlfriend of 10 years to try dating both sexes. It’s from triple threat Ms Desiree Akhavan who – fresh from a win at Sundance for her feature film The Miseducation Of Cameron Post – writes, directs and stars in The Bisexual (Ms Akhavan is clearly not a woman who whiles away her life on Bumble). Starring as protagonist Leila, the character dips her toes into issues of sex, gender, identity and – perhaps even most stressful of all – the London rental market.

_**Starts on C4 this autumn

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After the success of Stranger Things, Netflix has done the logical thing and teamed up with Mr Steven Spielberg’s Amblin TV for its next spookfest. It helps that the roll call behind the scenes of The Haunting Of Hill House is frighteningly good. A reimagining of Ms Shirley Jackson’s canonical horror story about a family forced to reenter the haunted house they grew up in, this new 10-part series is from fright master Mr Mike Flanagan, who made you bolt upright watching Hush and Oculus. Look, it’s totally fine to get your mates round to watch this one.

_**Streams on Netflix from Friday 12 October

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