Christmas is nearly over.
A New Year has landed.
New series of 'The Traitors' and 'The Night Manager' have already landed on BBC1.
But what are the shows Pomona will be keeping a close eye on in 2026?
THE FALL AND RISE OF REGGIE DINKINS
Tracy Morgan and Tina Fey are back working together but not on a reboot of '30 Rock'.
NBC has instead commissioned them to create this sitcom which lands this February and also features Daniel Radcliffe.
Morgan plays a disgraced former American Football star who tries to rehabilitate his public image by hiring Radcliffe's documentary filmmaker to follow him around.
Admittedly, this is one of those sitcoms that could really misfire but given the comic pedigree of Morgan, Radcliffe and Fey who is on executive producer duties, you'd like to think not.
Erika Alexander, Jalyn Hall, Bobby Moynihan and Precious Way round out the cast.
HOW TO GET TO HEAVEN FROM BELFAST
There has been a lot of buzz around Lisa McGee's first TV series since 'Derry Girls' ever since it was commissioned by Channel 4 in August 2023.
However seven months later, the hype around it went up a gear when Netflix announced it was taking over the reins, with 'Derry Girls' director Michael Lennox at the helm.
Roisin Gallagher, Sinead Keenan and Caoilfhionn Dunne star as three friends in their thirties - Saoirse, Robyn and Dara - who investigate the mysterious death of a schoolmate in this eight-part series which is due to land on the streaming service in February.
Emmet J Scanlan, Tom Basden, Michelle Farley, Ardal O'Hanlon and Josh Finan are also in the cast in a show shot in Belfast and the Antrim coast.
Can McGee match the success of her much lauded Channel 4 sitcom? Here's hoping.
SCRUBS
If you were a fan of the Bill Lawrence medical sitcom 'Scrubs,' which ran for nine seasons, news of its return in February will have put a spring in your step.
The Zach Braff led comedy initially ran on NBC in the US for seven seasons between 2002-8, before ABC picked it up for the remaining two.
However ABC has decided to revive it, with Braff's JD Dorian, Sarah Chalke's Elliot Reed and Donald Faison's Christopher Turk set to return to Sacred Heart hospital.
With British actor Jacob Dudman also due to join the cast, fans of 'Frasier' will, however, be reminding their 'Scrubs' counterparts that while a reboot may sound welcome, it can also tarnish the memory of the original by falling well below its standards.
MALCOLM IN THE MIDDLE: LIFE'S STILL UNFAIR
While we're talking about sitcom reboots, Frankie Muniz, Jane Kaczmarek and Bryan Cranston are set to return this year to their roles in a 'Malcolm In The Middle' sequel.
Twenty years after the original stopped airing, Muniz is now a grown up Malcolm who has forged a life away from his family with two daughters, Keeley Karsten's Leah and Kiana Madeira's Tristan.
However they are drawn back into their lives when Cranston's Harry and Kaczmarek's Lois invite them to a 40th Wedding Anniversary they are planning.
Scheduled to stream on Hulu and Disney+ with four episodes in April, it'll be interesting to see if there is the same nostalgia for it as other shows and if it can spark further episodes.
EUPHORIA, S3
It's been a long time coming but the HBO drama about troubled young adults is finally back on our screens this April.
Sam Levinson's show has spawned movie stars like Zendaya, Sydney Sweeney and Jacob Elordi but will focus on their characters' lives outside of college
Season Three begins with Zendaya's Rue in Mexico paying off a drug dealer and it is also rumoured to focus on the marriage of Elordi's toxic Nate to Sweeney's Cassie.
With Sharon Stone also joining the cast, Alexa Demie and Maude Apatow return in a drama whose characters lives are about to get even messier.
THE DRY, S3
After the disappointment of the second season of 'Bad Sisters' and in the continued absence of a third season of 'KIN,' a lot of hopes are resting on the return of another big Irish TV success of recent years, Nancy Harris' ITV and RTE co-production 'The Dry'.
For two series Harris has delivered a charming, yet acerbic comedy drama about a dysfunctional Dublin family fashioned around Roisin Gallagher's alcoholic Shiv Sheridan.
Treated as the family screw up, Shiv actually appeared the most sane member of a clan that included Pom Boyd's mum behaving badly Bernie Sheridan, her estranged husband Ciaran Hinds' Tom, Siobhan Cullen's upright sister Caroline and Adam John Richardson's feckless, gay brother Ant.
Harris has promised Series Three will dig deeper into the roots of the Sheridans' dysfunction, unearthing secrets and taking her characters in "new, unexpected directions".
If it is as good as the previous two seasons, we're in for a big treat.
BLUE LIGHTS, S4
Such is the high regard Declan Lawn and Adam Patterson's BAFTA winning BBC1 Belfast police drama is held that its fourth series was already commissioned as the second was airing.
Previous series have tackled the threat posed by dissident republicans, infighting in a loyalist community and the emergence of a drugs gang with international connections.
The conclusion of Series Three appeared to suggest all three elements could come together in the new series which is due to film in Belfast early this year.
With Sian Brooke, Martin McCann, Katherine Devlin, Nathan Braniff, Andi Osho and Joanne Crawford set to return, what will become of Frank Blake's Constable Shane Bradley after his traumatic stabbing and what about Dearbhaile McKinney's Aisling Byrne after her treatment for PTSD?
Expect to find out later this year.
Although the big question is: when is Martin McCann's Stevie Neil bringing out his own baking cookbook?
With World Cup fever due to seize Britain and other parts of the globe this summer, the BBC has rather wisely commissioned a four part drama based on James Graham's hit National Theatre play about the Gareth Southgate era.
Joseph Fiennes reprises his stage role as Southgate who steered England to the World Cup semis in 2018, the final of the 2020 Euros, the quarter finals of the 2022 World Cup and the final of the 2024 Euros but never won the big silverware.
Jodie Whittaker plays Pippa Grange, the psychiatrist Southgate engaged to change the English team's mentality.
Other notable cast members to watch out for include Jason Watkins as former FA chief Greg Dyke, Daniel Ryan as Steve Holland, Will Atenbring as Harry Kane, Edem-Ita Duke as Marcus Rashford, Adam Hugill as Harry Maguire, Josh Barrow as Jordan Pickford, Bobby Schofield as Wayne Rooney and Alfie Middlemiss as Phil Foden.
Even if you're not an England fan, I'd still bet you'll be watching.
HALF MAN
Richard Gadd's follow up to his breakout Netflix hit 'Baby Reindeer' is a HBO and BBC co-produced show.
Also starring Jamie Bell, it's reported to be a violent tale about brothers set in Scotland.
Little is known other than publicity shots which reveal Gadd has hit the gym and bulked up significantly for his part.
Shot in Glasgow, the drama also features Stuart McQuarrie, Marianne McIvor, Tim Downie and Neve McIntosh and will air on BBC1 in the UK.
DOCTOR WHO
After a break from BBC1's 2025 Christmas schedules, the return of 'Dr Who' in 2026 will have fans of the sci-fi show revved up.
Why?
Because the final show of the Ncuti Gatwa era appeared to suggest Billie Piper could be the next Doctor.
Those who know their Doctor Who lore will remember Piper was Rose Tyler, the Doctor's assistant in the Christopher Eccleston and David Tenant eras.
Whether she is the new Doctor or not will be revealed with Russell T Davies overseeing the show but fans are also speculating about a David Tenant return.
You never know, we could also get a complete outsider.
TIP TOE
'Doctor Who' isn't the only skin Davies has in this year's game.
'Tip Toe' is his first Channel 4 drama since his hugely revered miniseries 'It's A Sin' aired in January 2021.
Starring Alan Cumming and David Morrissey, 'Tip Toe' centres on a bar owner in Manchester and his neighbour embroiled in a long standing feud.
With Denise Welch, Pooky Quesnel and Elizabeth Berrington also in the cast, expect quite a bit of buzz around Davies also returning to a drama about the city that spawned his breakthrough show 'Queer As Folk'.
THE STUDIO, S2
Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg's AppleTV sitcom about the movie industry returns after a strong debut season last year.
After its record haul of 14 Emmys, expect Rogen's Hollywood studio head Matt Remick to continue to flap around in a state of crisis in the new season.
Ike Barinholtz and Kathryn Hahn are also set to return in a series which will continue to poke fun at celebrities and Hollywood events.
Expect plenty of cameos too from famous actors willing to send themselves up.
SLOW HORSES, S6
With no date set for season six of that London based spy comedy drama yet, audiences will be wondering if the slight dip in form in series five was only temporary?
Gary Oldman returns as Mick Herron's cynical, hard drinking and slovenly anti hero Jackson Lamb and we can expect him to continue to wind up Kristin Scott Thomas's power hungry MI5 bigwig Diana Taverner.
With Taverner finally ascending to the top job, speculation is mounting that she will use her position to turn on Lamb's Slough House team of deadbeats who include Jack Lowden's River Cartwright, Christopher Chung's obnoxious IT wiz Roddy Ho, Aimee-Ffion Edwards' drug addict Shirley Dander, Tom Brooke's loner JK Coe and Saskia Reeves' administrator Catherine Standish.
With Will Smith leaving as the series showrunner and Hugo Weaving's monstrous rogue CIA agent Frank Harkness set to return, expect the new series to go in unexpected directions.
NUMBER TEN
Given its central role in the lives of millions of Britons, are we about to see a 'West Wing' style drama about a Prime Minister from another 'Doctor Who' writer Stephen Moffat?
Not quite because advance word has indicated Channel 4's production 'Number Ten' is intended as a comedy drama that has cast Rafe Spall as the Prime Minister.
Katherine Kelly, Jenna Coleman, Alex Macqueen and Patrick Baladi are all in the cast.
However the presence of Joe Wilkinson probably tells you that the show is more likely to land on the comedy end of the spectrum than the drama side.
But can the show strike a chord with audiences whose patience with politicians is already pretty thin?
LINE OF DUTY
When Jed Mercurio's cult police corruption drama last aired in 2021, there was a general consensus that the unmasking of Nigel Boyle's Ian Buckells as the mysterious figure H was a massive anti-climax.
Five years on, can the return of Vicky McClure's Kate Fleming, Martin Compston's Steve Arnott and Adrian Dunbar's beloved Ted Hastings rehabilitate the show?
And will it reveal Buckells was actually a distraction all along from the identity of the real H?
Expect a lot of excitement in Belfast this Spring as the cameras roll in the city on a seventh season.
The other question is: will BBC1 roll out this hugely anticipated show next Christmas, New Year's Day or wait until later next year to dominate the cultural conversation?
A big decision looms at the corporation.
TED LASSO, S4
Apple TV's first big breakthrough show returns but will it be as we previously have known it?
With Jason Sudeikis' Ned Flanders like American Football coach quitting his managerial role at the fictional English Premier League soccer club AFC Richmond at the end of Season Three to be near his son Henry, is there a way back for him?
Seemingly so, although it may not be as we might imagine.
Reports suggest Ted may actually take over a women's soccer team and with shoots taking place in Kansas City and Richmond speculation is rife as to where that squad will be.
What we do know is that Hannah Waddingham, Brendan Hunt, Juno Temple, Brett Goldstein and Jeremy Swift will figure in the fourth season.
But whether Nick Mohammed or Phil Dunster return, we'll need to wait and see.
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