To kick off a brand new year, this week's best telly includes the launch of four big new dramas across BBC One, ITV and Channel 4, plus the return of The Masked Singer, The Apprentice and more!
Here are 9 TV shows you can't miss this week...
1. Doctor Who
New Year's Day at 7pm on BBC One
We haven't had long to wait since the thirteenth series of Doctor Who came to an end for a brand new episode and this New Year's special, Eve of the Daleks, is rather aptly set on New Year's Eve.
Aisling Bea plays Sarah, who's working again on New Year's Eve at Elf Storage and Adjani Salmon plays her only customer, Nick. Same old same old. Except this year, their countdown to midnight will be the strangest and deadliest they’ve ever known.
Why is an Executioner Dalek targeting these two people, in this place, on this night? Why are they having to live through the same moments again? Can the Doctor, Yaz and Dan save them and survive into the New Year?
1/1
2. The Masked Singer UK
New Year's Day at 7pm and Sunday 2nd January at 7.30pm on ITV
It's the feel-good guessing game that has everyone playing along at home and finally, The Masked Singer is back with 12 brand new celebrities hoping to join Queen Bee Nicola Roberts and Sausage Joss Stone in the exclusive Masked Singer winners’ club as Joel Dommett returns to host the most bonkers show on television.
Once again, the celebrities will be disguised in the show’s signature extraordinary costumes whilst taking to the stage to sing in disguise and stump the viewers at home as well as the panel which sees Mo Gilligan, Davina McCall. Rita Ora and Jonathan Ross all return.
Hoping to light up the room with their performance will be Chandelier, Bagpipes will be hoping to hit the high notes and Lionfish will be hoping to hear everyone roar at their performances. And is it a robot? Is it a bunny? No! It’s Robobunny!
Doughnuts looks like a sweet treat but will they run rings around everyone who tries to figure out who they are? Traffic Cone may be able to stop traffic, but can he stop the panel from guessing correctly? And hoping to bamboo-zle those who try to guess who’s behind the mask is Panda.
Elsewhere, Rockhopper will be making tweet music in a bid to peng-win, Mushroom will be hoping to go all the way and be crowned champignon, Poodle promises to deliver paw-some performances, Snow Leopard will be hoping to prove they're snow joke and Firework is sure to enter the competition with a bang!
1-2/8 Continues weekly
3. The Tourist
New Year's Day and Sunday 2nd January at 9pm on BBC One
Every year, BBC One like to kick off the new year with a big new drama and this time it's the turn of mystery-packed thriller The Tourist from Harry and Jack Williams which stars Jamie Dornan as a British man who finds himself in the glowing red heart of the Australian outback, being pursued by a vast tank truck trying to drive him off the road.
Later, when he wakes up in the hospital, hurt but somehow alive he realises he has no idea who he is. Local rookie cop Helen Chambers played Danielle Macdonald, is sent to check on The Man and as there are no immediate clues as to his identity she promises to help him find the answers.
With merciless figures from his past pursuing him, The Man’s search for answers propels him through the vast and unforgiving outback. Idiosyncratic characters including Luci Miller, played by Shalom Brune-Franklin, a waitress in a sleepy one-horse town, are drawn to this curious new arrival.
When somebody from his past contacts him out of the blue, The Man must race to find them before it’s too late.
1-2/6 Continues weekly. All episodes available at launch
4. Anne
Sunday 2nd to Wednesday 5th January at 9pm on ITV
Kicking off what promises to be a strong year for ITV drama is Anne, a four-part drama based on a true story, starring Maxine Peake as Anne Williams who on the 15th April 1989 said goodbye to her son Kevin as he headed off to Hillsborough for a football match, only to never see him alive again.
Fifteen-year-old Kevin Williams, played by Campbell Wallace, is a huge Liverpool FC fan and desperate to go to the semi-final against Nottingham Forest at Hillsborough stadium in Sheffield, begs his mum and step-dad Steve, played by Stephen Walters, to let him go.
They are uneasy about letting Kevin go to away games, but they see how badly he wants to go. They relent and on Saturday 15th April 1989 Kevin travels to the match with his friend Andy. When he doesn’t return home, and following reports of fatalities from the terrible overcrowding at the game, Anne and Steve drive to Sheffield to try to find him.
They are eventually led to a room full of polaroid's and asked to identify their son from among the faces of the dead. Traumatised and grief-stricken, they attend the inquest into Kevin’s death expecting answers. But the evidence they hear at the inquest throws up even more questions.
Anne and Steve’s confusion is reinforced by a visit from an Inspector the day after the inquest. He says he has come to clear up some details they may have heard the previous day, and explains how the witness evidence is at odds with the medical evidence.
After an overall verdict of accidental death for all 95 people who died at the match, Anne can’t let her anger and frustration rest. In the hope of finding other families like her who believe justice has not been done, she joins the Hillsborough Family Support Group.
1-4/4 Continues nightly
5. Four Lives
Monday 3rd to Wednesday 5th January at 9pm on BBC One
Announced back in February 2019, under the original title The Barking Murders, Four Lives is finally being aired on BBC One and tells the story of four men killed by Stephen Port and their families and friends who worked tirelessly to find out what happened to them.
From Jeff Pope and Neil McKay, the team behind The Moorside and Appropriate Adult. this new three-part drama promises to go beneath the headlines to shed new light on this story by telling it from the point of view of the families and friends of the four young men - Anthony Walgate, Gabriel Kovari, Daniel Whitworth and Jack Taylor.
Four Lives focuses on the fight to uncover the truth about what had happened to their lost sons, brothers and loved ones in the face of a now widely condemned police investigation and stars Stephen Merchant as Stephen Port and Sheridan Smith as Sarah Sak, the mother of Anthony Walgate, one of Port's victims.
1-3/3 Continues nightly. All episodes available at launch
6. Toast of Tinseltown
Tuesday 4th January at 10pm on BBC Two
Having started out on Channel 4 with three brilliant and successful series, Toast of London is moving over to BBC Two just in time for eccentric actor Steven Toast's move to Hollywood, in this brand new series, Toast of Tinseltown.
Matt Berry returns as actor, voice-over artist, and legend of the London theatrical scene Toast who is becoming increasingly angry and everyone is noticing, even old nemesis Ray Purchase. With Toast in such a state, he has no chance of landing the big movie audition.
Toast, who is becoming increasingly angry and everyone is noticing, even Ray Purchase. With Toast in such a state, he has no chance of landing the big movie audition.
After a successful visit to an anger management centre, Toast is a new man and sets about apologising to all the people he’s been rude to.
However, when he reveals the extent of his wrongdoing to Purchase, the pair come face to face at the Colonial Club. And after a final, very violent, confrontation, he decides to head off for a new life in the US of A, where he has been promised a ‘leading role’ in a major Hollywood franchise movie.
1/6 Continues weekly
7. Mandy
Wednesday 5th January at 10pm and 10.15pm on BBC Two
After a brilliant Christmas special, Mandy is back with six beautifully bizarre stories as once again, Mandy, played by Diane Morgan, attempts to find fulfilment via a series of short-lived jobs in the modern gig economy.
Along the way she becomes a stately home tour guide, appears on a genuinely out-of-this-world reality show, and accepts the most unappealing job in the sewage industry, none of which brings her any closer to her ultimate dream of breading Doberman pinchers.
1-2/6 Continues weekly
8. The Apprentice
Thursday 6th January at 9pm on BBC One
After just over two years away from our screens, The Apprentice returns for its 16th series and Lord Sugar is readier than ever to invest. But before he can decide who will be his next business partner, the latest set of candidates must prove their worth in a number of ambitious challenges.
Over 12 weeks, the 16 hopefuls will be whittled down until only one remains, all whilst under the watchful eyes of Baroness Karren Brady and the winner of series 1, Tim Campbell who is stepping in for Claude Littner while he recovers from a cycling accident.
To prove he means business, Lord Sugar summons the aspiring entrepreneurs to his boardroom where he kicks off proceedings with a task like no other! Thrown in at the deep end, the candidates set sail from Portsmouth on board a luxury cruise ship. Their task is to come up with marketing campaigns for a new cruise liner, including creating a brand and a television advert.
One team’s approach to design is far from plain sailing, while on the other team, discord during the advert filming leads to choppy waters. Later, both teams attempt to cruise into the lead when pitching their ad campaigns to industry experts, but they end up with that sinking feeling.
Back on dry land and in the boardroom, Lord Sugar is on the lookout for answers. It’s man or woman overboard for one candidate when they’re the first to be told, You’re Fired!
1/12 Continues weekly
9. Screw
Thursday 6th January at 9pm on Channel 4
Prison dramas have always proved popular, whether that's Orange Is the New Black, Wentworth, Prison Break and of course, Bad Girls to name just four, and now Channel 4 are kicking 2022 off with a new one, Screw from Rob Williams.
Starring Nina Sosanya, Jamie-Lee O'Donnell, Laura Checkley, Stephen Wight, Ron Donachie and Faraz Ayub, Screw shows prison as you've never seen it before: through the embattled, inspiring characters who work there.
The diverse team of officers in charge at Long Marsh men's prison each have their own unique take on the job. Darkly comic, refreshingly absurd, and violently shocking, their stories powerfully reveal that there's more to life in prison than we know.
Nina Sosanya plays Leigh Henry, a career prison officer who lives for her job but has lost faith in the system, so circumvents the rules, doing whatever's necessary to help the prisoners in her care. But Leigh's position at Long Marsh is under threat, which doesn't bear thinking about, especially as she appears to be secretly living on the wing.
The arrival of Rose Gill, played by Jamie-Lee O'Donnell, a mouthy young probationer fresh out of training, only adds to the pressure on Leigh, who writes Rose off as a liability. So begins a dramatic, high-stakes battle between the two officers. Are either of these women who they say they are? And can both of them survive?
1/6 Continues weekly. All episodes available at launch