15 dramas for 2015: new Broadchurch, Wolf Hall, JK Rowling's The Casual Vacancy

What will you be watching in the new year? Here's our pick of the best new and returning shows...

By Radio Times staff

31 December 2014 

Wolf Hall (January, BBC2)

Former Homeland star Damian Lewis and Shakespearean actor Mark Rylance take top billing in this lavish six-part adaptation of Hilary Mantel’s Booker Prize-winning novels, Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies. The tale of Tudor intrigue features Lewis in the role of Henry VIII, who will stop at nothing to produce a male heir, while Rylance plays the king’s devious adviser, Thomas Cromwell, plotting to reshape England in his master’s image.

Mantel, who was involved in script development but had no role in production, has given the show the thumbs up. “My expectations were high and have been exceeded,” she says. “The spirit of the books has been extraordinarily well preserved.” Claire Foy will play the ambitious but ill-fated Anne Boleyn, while Jonathan Pryce has been cast as Cardinal Wolsey.

Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell (Spring, BBC1)

This offbeat fantasy drama, based on the Susanna Clarke novel, imagines a magical re-awakening in 19th-century England. The title roles are taken by Eddie Marsan, who plays reclusive wizard Mr Norrell, while Bertie Carvel, last seen in Channel 4’s Babylon and BBC2's The Wrong Mans, plays magical hopeful Jonathan Strange.

Arthur and George (Spring, ITV)

Martin Clunes stars as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in this three-part adaptation of Julian Barnes’s novel about a series of true events in the Sherlock Holmes creator’s life. Conan Doyle has lost his wife and finds new purpose in pursuing a notorious miscarriage of justice.

The Musketeers (Friday, 9.00pm, BBC1)

The swashbuckling adaptation of Alexandre Dumas' classic returns without original series villain Peter Capaldi (he's off doing some other show, we forget the name), but the Cardinal's evil plans are still causing havoc in this new run. Marc Warren picks up the nasty baton as new baddie the Comte de Rochefort, who has an agenda even more ghastly than his predecessor. Tom Burke, Howard Charles, Luke Pasqualino and Santiago Cabrera all return as the titular gun-wranglers, who have to protect the King and France from these new dangers.

The Casual Vacancy (February, BBC1)

JK Rowling is reunited with Dumbledore actor Michael Gambon in this BBC adaptation of the Harry Potter author’s first book for adults. At first glance, Pagford is a tranquil English town, but undercurrents of social tension, in part due to a local council election, bubble beneath its genteel façade. Gambon leads the cast of the three-part mini-series, in the role of adulterous delicatessen owner Howard Mollison, while Julia McKenzie, Keeley Hawes and Rory Kinnear also appear.

Read about the rest at the source