PICKS OF THE MONTH: JANUARY 2025, WHAT TO WATCH IN THE NEW YEAR

What to watch this month.

GLADIATORS

BBC

Hosted by father and son duo Bradley and Barney Walsh, the show will see a new generation of superhuman Gladiators competing against a brave set of contenders in the ultimate test of speed and strength. They will take part in a series of brand-new games alongside classic challenges including fan-favourite The Eliminator.

MICHAEL McINTYRE'S BIG SHOW

BBC

Celebrities will start to get nervous as fan favourites Send to All and The Midnight Gameshow will return. If they snooze, they lose as sleepy celebs across the UK and beyond could be in for a rude awakening as Michael will be waking up more famous faces in the middle of the night to play the hilarious Midnight Gameshow.   There will also be more incredible audiences surprises including amazing performances from the Unexpected Star of the Show.

DANCING ON ICE

ITV

Hosted by Holly Willoughby and Stephen Mulhern, twelve celebrities preparing to embark on the ultimate challenge have been paired with skating professionals who will teach them to master this dangerous new skill in a bid to impress both the ice panel and viewers as they perform live every week. 

THE MASKED SINGER

ITV

The affable Joel Dommett returns as host, as the hit BAFTA award winning series that continues to grip the nation returns for its sixth series. A fresh batch of famous faces will don a line-up of extraordinary and elaborate costumes, in a bid to disguise their identities, as they sing in front of a studio audience and our celebrity judging panel.

ANT & DEC'S LIMITLESS WIN

ITV

Ant & Dec’s Limitless Win is back, and audiences can expect more drama, tension and wins than ever before. As the only show of its kind to offer a limitless cash jackpot, the format has previously seen big wins on the show such as contestants Katherine and Will from series 1 who walked away with a life-changing £500,000. 

THE TRAITORS

BBC

The return of the intense psychological game in which players must decide who they can trust. In each episode, the players work together to complete spectacular physical and mental missions. If they are successful, they add money to a prize pot, which is worth up to £120,000. But to win the prize pot, players must survive to the end of the game – they must avoid being ‘murdered’ or ‘banished’.

THE APPRENTICE

BBC

For the candidates who survive the first boardroom with Lord Sugar, an array of challenging tasks lie ahead. Across the series they will be creating a virtual popstar, turning a ton of potatoes and tomatoes into cash, designing and marketing Easter Eggs, jetting off to Turkey for a corporate hospitality challenge and taking on the classic discount buying task in historic Stratford-upon-Avon.

LOVE ISLAND

ITV

Everyone’s favourite villa is ready and waiting, packed with brand new sexy singles in the return of Love Island, hosted by Maya Jama. The first coupling up is on the way, and the big question is… who’s here for love? With a tasty £50k prize up for grabs, the game is well and truly on.   

CELEBRITY HUNTED

CHANNEL 4

The celebrities are tasked with going on the run across mainland UK while an elite team of Hunters try to track them down. They must evade capture for 14 days, while the Hunters throw all their resources at catching them. The Hunters are handpicked team of police and military personnel, are armed with the powers of the state – CCTV and ANPR cameras, helicopters, drones, dogs, media campaigns and the latest in cyber forensic technology.

CALL THE MIDWIFE

BBC

It's March 1970. The team support a pregnant teenage girl whose parents believe in an immaculate conception. Demonstrations cause havoc for the Nonnatus team, whilst Nancy’s relationship blossoms.

DOCTOR WHO

BBC

Ncuti Gatwa is back with a second series of adventures on BBC One and iPlayer. The Doctor meets new series companion Belinda Chandra (played by Varada Sethu).

SAS ROGUE HEROES

BBC

Paddy Mayne takes control of the SAS following David Stirling’s capture, and now attention must turn from the conflict in North Africa to mainland Europe. But GHQ have cast doubt over the future of the regiment, while the creation of a second unit and an influx of new arrivals make things even more difficult for the men. Can they prove that the SAS remain essential to the war, wherever it may lead them?

PLAYING NICE

ITV

Set against a sweeping Cornish landscape, two couples discover that their toddlers were switched at birth in a hospital mix-up and face a horrifying dilemma: do they keep the sons they have raised and loved or reclaim their biological child? Living a waking nightmare, Pete (James Norton) and Maddie (Niamh Algar) are jettisoned into the world of the other couple Miles (James McArdle) and Lucy (Jessica Brown Findlay).

OUT THERE

ITV

County lines drug-dealing and an escalating and insidious crime wave sweeping the British countryside are the subject of this drama starring Martin Clunes as a farmer confronted with dark forces seeping into his rural community.

The drama will depict the stealthy and surreptitious invasion of the land our farmer cherishes with devastating consequences as his livelihood, homestead and family life are threatened by local county lines drugs dealers who are essentially urban gangs using the British countryside as a field of operations and moving drugs and money between their inner-city hubs and provincial areas.

GRANTCHESTER

ITV

1961 - life is good for Will and Geordie (Robson Green). The families are always together, from Sunday lunches to planning summer holidays - with honorary grandparents Mrs C and Jack and adopted uncles Daniel and Leonard, it’s one big happy family! However, when Will is approached with a life-changing offer, can he leave Grantchester and Geordie behind?

PATIENCE

CHANNEL 4

Patience Evans (Ella Maisy Purvis) works in the criminal records department of Yorkshire Police, cataloguing and filing the evidence produced during major cases. A young autistic woman, she craves routine and order, relishing the solitude and structure her job provides but she yearns for more. A brilliant, self-taught criminologist, Patience has an instinctive eye for crime scenes and a passion for problem-solving.

SILENT WITNESS

BBC ONE

The new series opens with a disturbing mystery, when the death of an elderly woman found in a cave has the team asking what drives a person to murder someone so vulnerable. We also get an introduction to the two dynamic new team members.

DRAGONS' DEN

BBC ONE

Brace yourselves, entrepreneurs! Fitness guru Joe Wicks and beauty mogul Trinny Woodall join Series 22 of Dragons’ Den as Guest Dragons, with Emma Grede returning after her successful stint last series. Dragons’ Den had more than 58 million hours viewed across the last series. The programme remains a top 10 title across BBC Entertainment in the last 12 months, with a growing audience showing viewing figures up on series 20.

PICTIONARY

ITV1

Based on Mattel’s popular board game of quick-fire sketches and hilarious guesses, Pictionary will follow the same rules as the familiar at-home game and will see two teams battle against each other. In the classic sketching and guessing game Mel will be joined by two celebrity team captains who will lead their teams of contestants.

LINGO

ITV1

Lingo is back! The hit word-game hosted by Adil Ray where the simplest of words can win members of the public thousands of pounds. In each show, three pairs of contestants go head-to-head in a battle of words. Using their powers of deduction, they must correctly and quickly work out the words that appear in the Lingo grids and Puzzlewords.

JUNIOR BAKE OFF

CHANNEL 4

Forty of the country’s best junior bakers, aged 9 – 15 will enter the Bake Off tent where their cake-making, biscuit baking, bread and pastry making skills will be tested to the limit. In each of the ten heats, the junior bakers face two challenges, the Technical Bake and the Showstopper with only four making it through to the grand final.

THE GREAT POTTERY THROWDOWN

CHANNEL 4

The series follows 12 passionate, home potters as they strive to create their most intricate and imaginative work, before their pieces are judged by the expert judging duo and a variety of well-known faces and experts from the world of pottery.

THE GOOD SHIP MURDER

CHANNEL 5

Jack Grayling has traded his old life on the force for a new adventure on the high seas, where he dazzles audiences as a charming cruise ship singer. But when murders disturb the tranquility of the ship, Jack’s detective instincts kick back in.