Squid Game gets real and Sex Education comes to a bittersweet end: autumn 2023’s top TV

The return of Frasier! An explosive doc about the heyday of the 90s supermodels! Wagatha Christie! Brace for loads of incredible television

Ruth Wilson and Peaky Blinders/Bad Sisters’s Daryl McCormack lead this gothic thriller centred on the Magdalene Laundries, set in a fictional Irish village. McCormack plays a detective who is tailing Wilson – a woman who has sleepwalked since she was incarcerated at a convent as a teenager, and who wakes to find a corpse in her house. BBC, 27 August

Apple’s adaptation of Victor LaValle’s 2017 novel has the potential to be thrilling and horrifying in equal measure. This story of a man trying to find his wife after a shocking, unthinkably terrible event has a truly charismatic presence in the lead role – Atlanta’s ever-excellent LaKeith Stanfield. Apple TV+, 8 September

Brace yourself for explosive insights in this four-part documentary featuring interviews with Linda Evangelista, Cindy Crawford, Naomi Campbell and Christy Turlington, about how their impossibly glamorous lives became synonymous with the era of the supermodel and dominated fashion for a decade. Apple TV+, 20 September

The hugely anticipated fourth and final season of Laurie Nunn’s hit teen comedy sees the students now at Cavendish sixth-form college. There’s a new popular crowd, nicknamed “the coven”, plus a rival sex therapist for Otis – the enigmatic O (played by Thaddea Graham). Expect a bittersweet end. Netflix, 21 September

Otto Baxter is a 35-year-old performer with Down syndrome who, over six years, wrote and directed a “foul-mouthed, autobiographical comedy-horror musical” set in Victorian London. This fascinating documentary follows his journey, and will be followed by a broadcast of the end result, his short film The Puppet Asylum. Sky Documentaries, 23 September

The drama that created a new template for UK TV finally comes to an end this autumn. How will its uncompromising thrills conclude? Will Sully (Kano) survive? Will Dushane (Ashley Walters)? Details are being kept firmly under lock and key, but expect a finale to match this show’s customary ambition. Netflix, September

Brie Larson stars in this empowering period piece about a brilliant chemist denied her dues in the sexist 1950s, who then sticks it to all the men by fronting a hit cooking show in her lab coat and trousers. A must for fans of Julia and The Marvelous Mrs Maisel … even if part of it is narrated by a dog. Apple TV+, 23 October

Based on the Pulitzer prize-winning novel, this sweeping second world war drama follows a blind girl trying to find her father through radio signals, and forming an unexpected friendship with a young Nazi recruit. Adapted by Stranger Things producer Shawn Levy and Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight, the cast boasts Mark Ruffalo and Hugh Laurie. Netflix, 2 November

Television’s latest venture into the Marvel Cinematic Universe focuses on the titular Echo (Alaqua Cox) – a hero on a journey to come to terms with her Native American roots. It also stars the excellent Chaske Spencer, whose stunning turn in The English earned him a Bafta nomination. Expect great things. Disney+, 29 November

While a second season of Squid Game is still being pieced together, Netflix hopes the public appetite can be sated with this reality show knockout game. Will people die? No. Will it be as good? We’re up for finding out. Netflix, November

For the second time in 20 years, Russell T Davies is saving Doctor Who. After the showrunner Chris Chibnall nudged the show closer to the wilderness, Davies has returned with new scripts, more money and everyone’s favourite Doctor, David Tennant – until a festive special, when Ncuti Gatwa takes over as the Time Lord’s 15th incarnation. BBC, November

This eagerly awaited, Boston-set sitcom reboot has caused a stir with its casting choices – Niles and Daphne: out! Nicholas Lyndhurst: inexplicably in! But if it retains just a little of that old Frasier magic, it should be very special. Paramount+

Following the Bafta-winning first season starring Sean Bean, this new series by Jimmy McGovern enters a women’s prison. Siobhan Finneran reprises her role as prison chaplain Marie-Louise, with the new inmates portrayed by an impressive cast including Bella Ramsey, Jodie Whittaker and Tamara Lawrence. Expect emotional heft and devastating performances. BBC

Lenny Henry’s long-awaited Windrush drama, inspired by his mother’s 1950s journey to Britain by boat, finally comes to our screens. Co-written with Russell T Davies, the six-parter follows three women who made the same journey – Rochelle Neil as Leah, Yazmin Belo as Hosanna and Saffron Coomber as Chantrelle – and explores the “brick wall of patriarchy, racism and sexism” they faced. ITV1

Washington DC, 1953. A lifelong, illicit love affair between two men starts in the shadow of the McCarthy witch-hunt for “sexual perverts”. Written by Ron Nyswaner, who also penned Philadephia, this is sure to be a heart-wrenching interrogation of sex, fidelity and Catholic guilt. Paramount+

Since its disappointing second season, this landmark crime drama has been quietly getting back on form. This latest outing stars Jodie Foster, an arctic setting and the promise that it will plunge us into dark investigations and murky pasts. Sky Atlantic

Probably the biggest global phenomenon to have emerged from the Premier League gets the Netflix documentary treatment. This series – directed by Oscar winners Fisher Stevens and John Battsek – will trace David Beckham’s progression from promising schoolboy to international superstar – as well as lifting the lid on his little-discussed OCD. Netflix

Last year’s Boiling Point movie was an exercise in stress; a one-shot panic attack starring Stephen Graham as a wildly overwhelmed chef. Now the movie has spawned a series, also starring Graham and Vinette Robinson. Will it be as relentlessly panicky? Let’s hope not, for the sake of our nervous systems. BBC

This fictionalised adaptation of DJ Target’s memoir about growing up as part of the scene that created grime, has been written by Theresa Ikoko of Rocks fame. Expect a love letter to early 2000s London, and the television soundtrack of the year. BBC

Coleen Rooney tells the story of her epic court case in a documentary whose rights sparked a multimillion-pound bidding war. The three-parter will “take viewers from the circumstances that led to her infamous Instagram post that ‘broke the internet’ all the way to Coleen being a successful defendant.” Prepare to feast on all the juicy details. Disney+

This article was amended on 22 August 2023. Three Little Birds will be airing on ITV1, rather than on the BBC. And the title of the Disney+ show is Coleen Rooney: The Real Wagatha Story, not “Wagatha Christie” as an earlier version said.