Born to Kill is the first commission for female writing duo Tracey Malone (who also wrote BBC One's Rillington Place) and BIFA-nominated actress Kate Ashfield.

This series stars Romola Garai (who starred in Atonement and Suffragette) and Daniel Mays (Made in Dagenham) as the single parents of two out-of-control teens.

Channel 4's thriller is a look into the mind of Sam (played by Jack Rowan) who’s on the verge of acting out hidden psychopathic desires. The past comes back to haunt everyone and years of deceit escape from the woodwork.

The eight-part series, set in 1814, follows James Delaney (Hardy) as he returns home to London from Africa to inherit his father’s shipping empire. However, the darker motives for his return begin to unravel as old and new enemies emerge, family secrets are discovered and a quest for vengeance is revealed.

The drama series will take the slot of Saturday night post-watershed, an unconventional spot for a drama series on the channel as it has traditionally been pre-watershed family friendly series such as Doctor Who or Merlin in early evening slots.

The BBC has commissioned a further three series and three Christmas specials of the multi award-winning drama Call the Midwife.

The deal will take the show through to series nine and follow the nuns and midwives later into the 1960s. Each series will consist of eight hour long episodes.

Call the Midwife has been one of the most popular dramas on British television since it first arrived on screens in 2012, with an average of 10 million viewers per episode.

Few recent TV dramas have brightened up our screens as much as The Night Manager. One critic described the six-part adaptation of John le Carré’s 1993 novel as “the BBC’s glossiest, smartest, most indecently entertaining Sunday-night drama in ages”. Who could possibly disagree?

Titled Deutschland86, the second series picks up the story of Communist agent Martin Rauch who we last saw in East Germany, caught up in a betrayal plot amongst his superior officers.

Three years later, in 1986, Martin emerges as an exile in East Africa and is once again enlisted by his Aunt Lenora to fight in the Global Cold War. Set amongst true stories of terrorism in 1980s Western Europe, Deutschland86 journeys through events in Paris, Johannesburg, and Tripoli before returning to a divided Berlin where nationwide anxieties are coming to a head.

The first series, which started in late August and now has two episodes left to air, has averaged 7.7 million viewers so far, making it ITV’s highest rating drama this year.

In it, Jenna Coleman stars as the young queen and Tom Hughes as her cousin, and future husband, Albert.

Both have confirmed that they will reprise their roles in the next series. It is not yet known which cast members from series one will join them.

Daisy Goodwin, who wrote and executive produced the show, said: “Even though she reigned in the 19th Century, Victoria is a heroine for our times.”

Monday

Celebrity Home Secrets

ITV, 8pm

In this show, famous faces revisit their former homes to share memories and secrets from when they lived there.

This week we get an insight into the colourful life of Janet Street Porter as we look back at her various homes, including the ‘castle’ she built in the middle of London.

As if we don’t have enough drama in our lives right now, I have to welcome the fact that so much of the TV variety is being filmed here in North East England. 

I dropped in on the set for CBBC’s special-effects-laden thriller Wolfblood, at a disused office block in North Shields, and of ITV’s long-running whodunnit Vera, filmed at old shipping buildings on the River Tyne.  

When Anne Mensah left the BBC five years ago to become Sky’s drama head, the broadcaster’s Chief Executive, Jeremy Darroch, made one stipulation: “Whatever you do, don’t do the same. People can get the same for free.” 

Fearless is a contemporary thriller about Emma Blunt, a solicitor with a reputation for defending lost causes. Starring Peaky Blinders actor Helen McCrory in the lead role, the show is described as "in the crash zone where law and politics collide.”

"The so-called War on Terror has put serious stress on the ordinary workings of the law. National security justifies all sorts of police and state over-reach – and the great majority of us are prepared to accept this," said Harbinson, who was a soldier before turning his hand to writing TV dramas.