TV

Reasons to stay in: best TV this summer

By Helena Kealey on 31/7/2018

It's adiós to the villa of love for now, but Vanity Fair, Sharp Objects and Jack Ryan will be keeping us glued to the TV this summer.

Picnic at Hanging Rock, BBC Two

Starring Game of Thrones' Natalie Dormer (read our interview here) and featuring the kind of chic period outfits normally reserved for a big-budget film with Keira Knightley, the six-part miniseries Picnic at Hanging Rock follows three adolescent girls and their governess who suddenly disappear from their school.

WHEN

Available now

WHERE

BBC Two

Orange is the New Black season six, Netflix

Season six of the irreverent, outrageous and critically-acclaimed series from Emmy Award-winner Jenji Kohan returns, following Piper and her fellow diverse group of inmates serving time in a women's prison.

WHEN

Available now

WHERE

Netflix

Vanity Fair, ITV

Adapted by Gwyneth Hughes (Dark Angel) and starring Olivia Cooke (the 23-year-old star of Steven Spielberg’s Ready Player One), ITV brings us the brilliant adaptation of William Thackeray's Vanity Fair – the story of social climber Becky Sharp. We've seen early previews – believe us when we say you won't want to miss this.

WHEN

TBD

WHERE

ITV

Sharp Objects, Sky Atlantic

Out now on Sky Atlantic and NowTV, Sharp Objects is Amy Adam's startling TV debut. Adapted from Gilian Flynn's debut novel, it follows the story of a newspaper journalist who returns home to report on a series of murders and has the same nordic-noir feel of Top of the Lake (which has a very similar plot). Prepare to feel as though you've had the air kicked out of you.

WHEN

Available now

WHERE

Sky Atlantic

Richard Madden and Keeley Hawes star in Bodyguard, BBC

Bodyguard, BBC One

Richard Madden and Keeley Hawes star in the political drama created by Line of Duty's Jed Mercurio, in which one man (a bodyguard) is charged with protecting a woman with distasteful politics.

WHEN

1 August

WHERE

BBC One

GLOW season two, Netflix

Behold GLOW – the gorgeous ladies of wrestling – who are body-slamming their way back to Netflix in this funny and refreshing new series. From the creators of Orange is the New Black, GLOW is every bit as brilliant.

WHEN

Available now

WHERE

UK Netflix

Jack Ryan, Amazon Prime

Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan, or Jack Ryan is the hot new drama on Amazon Prime based on the novels by Tom Clancy. The ten party series stars John Krasinski (fresh from A Quiet Place) and he brings all the gentle comedy and luminosity usually missing from action films. (Yes, we saw early previews of this too.)

WHEN

31 August

WHERE

Amazon Prime

Keeping Faith is coming to BBC One

Proving that it isn't only the Scandinavians who know how to do noir, Keeping Faith had the highest audience tuning into a non-network drama for the BBC in over twenty years despite the show airing – alas – only on BBC Wales. Hurrah then, that the good old Beeb has brought it onto BBC One UK.

WHEN

Available now

WHERE

BBC One

This Is Us season two, Channel 4

Season one of this emotional and heart-wrenching (but also very funny) sitcom gave us a story about triplets, alcoholism, adoption, weight, race, fame and the struggle of parenthood. And now it's back.

WHEN

Available now

WHERE

Channel 4