Stop scrolling! 15 “unmissable” TV dramas to watch on Netflix, the BBC and ITV this bank holiday

Whether you’re planning a weekend away or you’re embracing the opportunity to recharge your batteries at home this bank holiday, there are plenty of brilliant TV dramas to indulge in along the way. In fact, you might be questioning your plans altogether by the time you’ve finished reading this article.

From Paramount+'s compelling new psychological drama, Little Disasters, to the long-awaited return of Nicole Kidman's Nine Perfect Strangers, we’ve rounded up 10 unmissable shows that are worth your attention this bank holiday. So sit back, relax and get ready to binge our pick of the very best...

Nine Perfect Strangers

Four years after Nicole Kidman’s twisty-turny wellness drama arrived on our screens, it’s finally back for a second series. Despite a not-so-hopeful series 1 ending for retreat founder Masha (Kidman), it seems she’s successfully found her way out of her rather messy predicament (no spoilers!) and is now running a retreat in the Austrian Alps. Cue the arrival of nine new strangers (Henry Golding and Christine Baranski are among them) who are about to put their sanity in Masha’s hands. Good luck to them is all we can say! Available to watch on Prime Video.

Sirens

If, like us, you find there’s something strangely satisfying about watching rich people behaving badly, you’ll love Netflix’s latest offering. The female-driven dark comedy takes place over the course of a weekend at a luxury beach estate. Devon (Meghann Fahy) is suspicious of her sister Simone’s (Milly Alcock) strange relationship with her new employer – so suspicious in fact that she decides to track her down. Cue an "explosive" weekend with the filthy rich. Available to watch on Netflix.

Malpractice

The first series of ITV’s brilliant cat and mouse thriller was watched by 6.7 million people and sold to more than 70 countries – and the second gripping instalment is arriving just in time for the bank holiday weekend! While series 1 was set in a hospital's busy A&E department, the drama moves to the psychiatric unit of a different hospital where on-call registrar Dr James Ford (Victoria’s Tom Hughes) finds himself caught between an anxious new mother’s postnatal check-up and the sectioning of a psychotic patient. Things take a truly tragic turn and Dr Ford finds himself fighting for his career. Tune in for a powerful watch. Available to watch on ITV and ITVX.

The Handmaid’s Tale

After two longer than long years, The Handmaid’s Tale is back for its sixth and final (weep!) series. The last instalment ended with June (Elisabeth Moss) and Serena (Yvonne Strahovski) on a train of Gilead refugees hoping to make it to Vancouver and, eventually, Hawaii. Now, with Gilead rapidly crumbling and Serena questioning her path forward and wanting to raise her son in peace, we’re undoubtedly in for a showstopping last hurrah. Available to watch on Prime Video.

The Four Seasons

Is there anything Tina Fey can’t do? The actor, comedian and writer has turned Alan Alda’s 1981 rom-com into a series fit for a 2025 audience. Fey’s version follows three apparently settled middle-aged couples - Kate (Tina Fey) and Jack (Will Forte), Nick (Steve Carell) and Anne (Kerri Kenney-Silver), and Danny (Colman Domingo) and Claude (Marco Calvani) - through a year of upheaval. When one couple divorces, their decades-long group friendship is put to the test. Available to watch on Netflix.

Reunion

If you’re yet to tune into the BBC’s thrilling new revenge drama, Reunion, now’s the time to do so. The four-part series introduces us to deaf convict Daniel Brennan (Matthew Gurney) who's been released from prison and is determined to right his wrongs, while unravelling the truth behind the events that led him there. The series also introduces us to Bad Sisters' Anne-Marie Duff, who plays Christine, a woman desperate to get to the bottom of what Daniel did, as well as her protective boyfriend Stephen (Eddie Marsan) and daughter Miri (Rose Ayling-Ellis). It’s a brilliantly layered story and if you’re looking for truly outstanding performances, you’ll find plenty of them here. Available to watch on BBC iPlayer.

The Last Anniversary

She’s the woman who gave us Big Little Lies and now another of Liane Moriarty’s genius novels is coming to the BBC. Adapted from Moriarty’s 2005 book of the same name, the drama will whisk us off to Scribbly Gum Island – a place of many buried secrets…but not for long. When Sophie Honeywell (Teresa Palmer) inherits a home on the island, the layers of a unique family tree are slowly, but surely, exposed. Miranda Richardson also stars. The first episode will be available to watchon Saturday 24th May at 9pm on BBC One, with the second episode following straight afterwards at 9.50pm.

Death Valley

Motherland director Simon Hynd’s new BBC crime drama, Death Valley, brings a new detective duo to town in the form of Timothy Spall and Gwyneth Keyworth. The new six-part series will see Spall star as the "amateur" half of the couple - his character, John Chapel, has spent years starring in the crime series Caesar – only he’s never actually solved a real crime. Fortunately, his “other half" DS Janie Mallowan (Keyworth) has. And while their partnership is unlikely, it seems it might just be a match made in crime-solving heaven… Premiering on Sunday 25^th May 2025 on BBC Two, BBC One Wales and BBC iPlayer.

Little Disasters

We’ve had our eye on this new psychological thriller from Paramount+ for quite some time due to its compelling storyline. Diane Kruger plays a mother, Jess, who’s pushed to the brink after she takes her baby daughter to the hospital with a head injury. Her friend, Liz (Jo Joyner) is the A&E doctor on shift but, when Jess can't explain how her daughter became injured, Liz is faced with an excruciating decision about whether to call social services. Too good to miss. Available to watch on Paramount+.

The Feud

Picture the worst neighbourhood dispute you can think of and it probably still doesn’t come close to the one in Channel 5’s domestic thriller. Emma (Jill Halfpenny) and John Barnett (Rupert Penry-Jones) are the happy couple at the centre of the series, living an idyllic life on Shelbury Drive. That is, until they decide to add a kitchen extension to their house. It sounds too minor to have any real consequence, but when the show begins, we’re immediately told that a tragedy has taken place (a prospective buyer asks if this was the house where that couple were killed) – before we cut back to a month earlier to find out what actually happened. Available to watch on Channel 5.

The Stolen Girl

Another one for Happy Valley fans, the story of Nicola Shindler's (Happy Valley producer) tense new psychological thriller plays on every parent's worst nightmare. What starts out as Elisa’s (Denise Gough) daughter Lucia’s first sleepover turns into a terrifying abduction - only as we get deeper into the series, it seems Elisa and her daughter’s life together wasn’t quite as “perfect” as it may have seemed. The series is adapted from Alex Dahl's bestselling 2020 novel Playdate by Catherine Moulton and boasts a brilliant cast, which includes stars of Netflix's One Day and ITV's Too Close. Available to watch on Disney+.

Safe Harbor

If you’re a fan of either Ozark, The Split or Happy Valley, this one’s for you. Created by Ozark’s Mark Williams and starring The Split’s Damien Molony and Happy Valley’s Charlie Murphy, the thrilling crime drama follows Tobias (Alfie Allen) and Marco (Martijn Lakemeier), two friends who are determined to make a name for themselves - and some money - through hacking for a pair of mafia siblings. If only entering the tech billionaires club was quite that simple… Available to watch on ITVX.

Bordertown

The second series of this Finnish crime drama recently arrived on Channel 4 and it’s well worth a watch. The series leads us to top murder investigator Detective Kari Sorjonen, who moves from Finland to the small town of Lappeenranta on the border with Russia. His plan? To work less and spend more time with his family. But it’s not long before the bodies start piling up and, of course, it’s up to Kari to investigate. A compelling series you won't want to turn off. Available to watch on Channel 4.

The Glass Dome

Scandi thriller fans will love Netflix’s latest offering, which is based on a story by author Camilla Läckberg. The drama follows criminologist Lejla (Léonie Vincent) who, as a child, was held captive by an unknown kidnapper. As an adult, she returns to the Swedish village she grew up in and is horrified when another young girl - her friend’s daughter, no less – disappears. As she joins to search to find her, she must also confront the haunting trauma of her own childhood abduction. Get ready to be gripped! Available to watch on Netflix.

Sløborn

We should start this one with a warning: if you’re not a fan of apocalyptic thrillers, this may not be one for you – but it’s seriously good viewing if you are (or at least willing to give it a try). Following its success abroad, the German-Danish drama made its debut in the UK on Channel 4 in 2023 and, conveniently for the Easter holidays, the third series is available to stream from Friday 18th April (you can catch up on the first two, too). Slightly dangerously close to home, the series depicts a global pandemic as a dangerous virus – pigeon flu, to be precise - infects a small community living on the island of Sløborn. Needless to say, the consequences are devastating for both the people and the planet and they're left with the question of how much of the "lost" world they should bring back and how much they should leave behind. Available to watch on Channel 4.