Autumn is Coming ...

... at last. It's been a long summer, with some pretty shoddy weather (if you're in the UK) and a mixed bag of televisual offerings. Some Silly Season telly - Partners in Crime (BBC1), which took some great Agatha Christie novels and turned them into rather idiotic spoofs; some ambitious drama that deserved better scheduling - Humans (C4), Witnesses (also C4, but made in France) - and not very much else in between. Much as my default is homegrown British drama, I found myself increasingly moving towards subscription channels, where I binged gloriously on Orange Is The New Black, American Horror Story and Nashville. All of which were just So Damn Good that British TV often seems far less interesting, adventurous or just plain fun by comparison.

However, British drama does its own inimitable thing and when it's good, it's fabulous. So I've been looking through the autumn schedules to see what there is to look forward to on terrestrial/free-to-air this year. There's new Doctor Who for those who still watch it - my kids and their friends have abandoned it because 'Peter Capaldi is too old' but I might give it a look, in the hope that some of the early Moffat magic might reappear. And Arya Stark (Maisie Williams) is in the new series, which is an incredibly clever casting move. Downton Abbey is back for its final (hooray!) season: I love it, I honestly do, but I think that's enough Grantham histrionics and below-stairs tomfoolery for now. I am, actually, only really watching it for Maggie Smith's one-liners, which are becoming more signposted and arch in their delivery as each series progresses. Still wonderful, but a little uncomfortable.

So what is new, fresh, exciting this autumn? ITV is reinventing Jekyll and Hyde, with a script by Charlie Higson. Here's the trailer:

It doesn't look as intriguing or as deliberately reworked at Moffat's Sherlock, but it could be fun. BBC2 has a new sitcom with a transgender theme - Boy Meets Girl - which previewers have compared to Gavin and Stacey in tone (it started last week but I haven't caught up with it yet). But what I'm most excited about is the prospect of not just one but TWO dramas featuring Ruth Evershed - in real life, Nicola Walker, but my girlcrush on Ruth persists - River on BBC1, and Unforgotten on ITV1. Both are crime dramas and have excellent pedigrees: top notch writers (Abi Morgan on River and Chris Lang on Unforgotten) and quality casts (Stellan Skarsgård and Eddie Marsan in River, while Unforgotten glories in a cast that brings together Sanjeev Bhaskar, Trevor Eve, Bernard Hill and Tom Courtenay). Really excited about both of these - who doesn't love a great crime drama? - and it will be interesting to see which one takes the laurels.

Unforgotten:

And, if you're a fan of Nordic Noir, The Bridge series 3 airs this autumn, sadly without Kim Bodnia's Martin but thankfully still led by Sofia Helin as the incredibly brilliant and fabulously crazy Saga Norén. Thank you, BBC4.

Aside from drama, autumn stalwarts The Great British Bake Off (BBC1) and The X-Factor remind us that autumn is here; the new Apprentice will start in October, and the celebrities are already hoofing it over on Strictly Come Dancing. But my favourite moment of autumn so far has been the return of Gogglebox - never change, Scarlett Moffatt.