Best female-led dramas storming 2019

The Crown season 3, Netflix

Claire Foy has handed her crown to Olivia Colman, and we can’t wait to see her in action – especially after seeing her as Queen Anne in The Favourite.

Season 3 will be set in the ’70s, seeing the introduction of Camilla Parker-Bowles (played by Call the Midwife actor Emerald Fennell) as well as the breaking marriage between Princess Margaret (Helena Bonham Carter) and Lord Snowdon (Ben Daniels).

Expectations are high after Foy’s Emmy-winning performance, but we’re certain Colman can match it.

Big Little Lies season 2, Sky Atlantic

In season 2 of Big Little Lies, Meryl Street will be joining a massive ensemble of female talent including Nicole Kidman, Reese Witherspoon, Shailene Woodley, and Laura Dern.

Following the events of season 1, Celeste’s (Kidman) mother-in-law Mary (Streep) comes to Monterey – to do what is unclear, but in a tiny trailer she says ‘I want to know what happened that night’. She might be conducting an investigation of her own...

Killing Eve season 2, BBC

Killing Eve seemed to come out of nowhere. Writer/creator Phoebe Waller-Bridge was previously known for her cult tragi-comedy series Fleabag, but who could’ve known she’d make the most colourful crime thriller of 2018?

Killing Eve season 2 will be released in the US in April, hopefully followed soon afterwards in the UK. Very few details have been revealed, but we suspect that Villanelle (Jodie Comer) isn’t happy about how things ended between her and Eve (Sandra Oh)…

Fleabag series 2, BBC

If you can’t wait for your Waller-Bridge fix, series 2 of Fleabag is coming to BBC Three in February.

It picks up a year after the events of series 1, where she got drunk and publicly mocked Godmother's 'sexhibition'. Fleabag and her sister Claire (Sian Clifford) are reunited by a weird accident, and hope to heal over old wounds. And with the introduction of a priest (Andrew Scott), she will be doing her own battle with the Almighty.

So, it looks like we’re in for a new, emotional, and hilarious experience.

Pure, Channel 4

Based on the real experiences of author Rose Cartwright, Pure follows Marnie (Charly Clive) who has an increasingly intrusive form of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder: nicknamed ‘Pure O’. With this condition comes the most graphic sexual thoughts that deeply affect her day-to-day life.

When she can’t stand it anymore, she hops on a coach to London and meets people with similar sexual psychologies – finding a place to belong.

Read our review of episode one

Adult Material, Channel 4

Sheridan Smith has delighted our TV screens for 20 years, and shows no signs of stopping. Shortly following her role as a cleaner/insider trader in ITV's Cleaning Up, Smith is starring in a new Channel 4 drama set in the British porn industry.

Penned by Skins writer Lucy Kirkwood, Adult Material follows porn star and mother-of-three Jolene (Smith). She looks after 19 year old Amy as she enters the industry, but this relationship ends up complicating her entire lifestyle.

Years & Years, BBC One

With all that’s happening in politics right now, it’s only inevitable for it to be reflected in our culture – particularly on television (let’s not forget that 2019 kicked off with Brexit: The Uncivil War…) Now, Doctor Who writer Russell T Davies is crafting another story set within these politically tumultuous times.

Emma Thompson plays Vivienne Rock, a celebrity-turned-politician whose controversial views divide the nation. Years & Years tracks her rise to power, and its effect on her family.

Traitors, Channel 4

Keeley Hawes is spread across 2019 in dramas like Summer of Rockets and The Durrells, but perhaps Traitors is the most exciting.

Resuming her string of espionage thrillers (seen last year in Bodyguard and Mrs Wilson), this new Channel 4 drama is set in 1945 and follows Feef (Emma Appleton) as she is seduced by a rogue American spy. He suspects there’s a Russian spy in the British government, and encourages Feef to wheedle them out.

Cheat, ITV

Written by newcomer Gaby Hull, Cheat stars Katherine Kelly (The Night Manager) and Molly Windsor (Three Girls) in a completely atypical student-teacher relationship.

What starts out as academic deception spirals into a warped progress of events that threatens to destroy them both. We know very little else, but we can’t wait to know more.

Gentleman Jack, BBC One

Anna Lister was a landowner and fervent diary-keeper in the 19^th century, writing four million words over three decades… in code. She was a lesbian and didn’t want to be found out, using coded messages created from algebra and the Greek alphabet to disguise her descriptions of various love affairs.

Now, her story comes to life in a new period drama from the BBC – following Lister’s return to Halifax in West Yorkshire and her determination to renovate her ancestral home Shibden Hall. Suranne Jones (Doctor Foster) stars as Lister and Sophie Rundell (Peaky Blinders) plays her would-be bride Ann Walker, a wealthy heiress.