What to watch in March 2023: best new TV shows on BBC, Channel 4, Netflix, Disney+, Amazon Prime, Sky and more

New month, new television: with the start of March comes a whole host of new offerings to look out for. But it’s also just a little too much to keep up with, really - watching television would have to be a full time job if you wanted to get through it all (and even then you’d struggle, probably).

Here’s your guide to what’s on TV across March 2023, with a look at all the highlights across both terrestrial channels and the major streaming networks. Wondering what to keep an eye out for on BBC One? Considering an update to your Netflix queue? Debating whether some of those free trials are worth extending?

We’ve selected our top picks and the best of the rest to give you an idea of what to watch this month.

BBC

Top Picks

Wild Isles | Sunday 12 March, BBC One

Presented by Sir David Attenborough and filmed over three years, Wild Isles uses the very latest technology to capture dramatic new behaviour, from battling butterflies to hunting sea eagles and killer whales - revealing a previously unseen wild side of the British Isles. In the first episode, Attenborough considers birds.

Paul Whitehouse: Our Troubled Rivers | Sunday 5 March, BBC Two

Paul Whitehouse travels around England and Wales looking at the pressures affecting our rivers and waterways from water companies, intensive agriculture and growing population. Paul explores what is going on beneath the surface, why our rivers and waterways are in decline and what needs to be done to protect them.

Best of the Rest

Becoming Frida Kahlo | Friday 10 March, BBC Two

In a striking new three-part series, Becoming Frida Kahlo strips away the myths to reveal the real Frida - a passionate and brilliant artist living through extraordinary times.

ITVX & ITVX

Top Picks

The Bay S4 | Wednesday 8 March

When young mum of four Beth Metcalf dies in what seems to be a targeted attack, Morecambe’s MIU team are called to the scene. Jenn immediately realises this shattered family will need every support available to them, but as she and the team dig deeper into the case, they discover secrets and lies lurk beneath every surface.

Best of the Rest

Six Four | Thursday 30 March

A police detective is left reeling by the disappearance of his daughter – and thrown into a vast conspiracy when he notices the similarities between her disappearance and that of an infamous unsolved cold case. Kevin McKidd and Vinette Robinson star in this loose adaptation of Hideyo Yokoyama’s novel of the same name.

Channel 4

Top Picks

Kathy Burke: Growing Up | Wednesday 8 March

As she celebrates turning 58, Kathy naturally contemplates getting older and explores the lives and experiences of the old and the young. Should we fight or accept old age? And is it now easier or harder to be young in today’s world? To help her in this quest of discovery, she meets some ordinary people with extraordinary lives and views on being young today and getting older, as well as some famous faces, who share their experiences and insights, including showbiz pals Jennifer Saunders, Bill Bailey, Charlotte Church and TikTok sensation Francis Bourgeois.

Best of the Rest

George Michael: Outed | Monday 6 March

In 1998, in Los Angeles, George Michael was arrested for committing a lewd act in a public toilet. It could have been career ending, but it became a defining moment of gay liberation. George Michael: Outed tells the thrilling inside story of how George turned disaster into a PR coup in a landmark moment for queer politics.

Married At First Sight Australia | Monday 6 March, E4

Australia’s most adventurous singles put the search for love in the hands of relationship experts John Aiken, Mel Schilling, and Alessandra Rampolla.

Channel 5

Top Picks

The Black Death | Wednesday 8 March

Two-part documentary series charting the spread of a disease that changed Europe forever.

Sky & NOW TV

Top Picks

Succession S4 | Sunday 26 March

The sale of media conglomerate Waystar Royco to tech visionary Lukas Matsson moves ever closer. The prospect of this seismic sale provokes existential angst and familial division among the Roys as they anticipate what their lives will look like once the deal is completed. A power struggle ensues as the family weighs up a future where their cultural and political weight is severely curtailed. Jeremy Strong, Kieran Culkin, Sarah Snook, Alan Ruck, and Bryan Cox return for the final series of Succession.

Best of the Rest

Perry Mason S2 | Monday 6 March

Months after the Dodson case has come to an end, the scion of a powerful oil family is brutally murdered. When the DA goes to the city’s Hoovervilles to pinpoint the most obvious of suspects, Perry, Della, and Paul find themselves at the centre of a case that will uncover far reaching conspiracies and force them to reckon with what it truly means to be guilty. Legal drama noir with Matthew Rhys.

95th Academy Awards | Sunday 12 March/Monday 13 March

Jimmy Kimmel hosts as the best films – or, well, the ones that got nominated anyway – go head-to-head to see who will win the Oscars.

A Town Called Malice | Thursday 16 March

The Lord family is long past their criminal heyday – but that doesn’t meant they don’t feel nostalgic for it still. When young Gene Lord flees to the Costa del Sol to evade arrest, his family follow him in the hopes of establishing a new criminal empire in Spain. Jason Flemyng, Martha Plimpton, and Jack Rowan star in this 1980s-set crime drama from writer Nick Love (The Sweeney, The Firm).

Netflix

Top Picks

Luther: The Fallen Sun | Friday 10 March

A gruesome serial killer is terrorizing London while brilliant but disgraced detective John Luther (Idris Elba) sits behind bars. Haunted by his failure to capture the cyber psychopath who now taunts him, Luther decides to break out of prison to finish the job by any means necessary. The follow up to the hit BBC One crime drama, picking up where the fifth series ended.

Best of the Rest

Shadow and Bone S2 | Thursday 16 March

Alina Starkov is on the run. A beacon of hope to some and a suspected traitor to others, she’s determined to bring down the Shadow Fold and save Ravka from ruin – but General Kirigan has returned to finish what he started. Based on Leigh Bardugo’s worldwide bestselling Grishaverse novels.

Amazon Prime Video

Top Picks

Daisy Jones & The Six | Friday 3 March

In the 1970s, Daisy Jones and The Six was the biggest band in the world. Then, after a sold-out show at Chicago’s Soldier Field, they suddenly called it quits. Now, decades later, the band members finally agree to reveal the truth. Riley Keough and Sam Claflin star in this adaptation of Taylor Jenkins Reid’s Fleetwood Mac inspired novel.

Best of the Rest

Swarm | Friday 17 March

Dre is obsessed with a pop star – but what lies beneath her fandom? Dominique Fishback and Damson Idris star in Donald Glover’s new Beyonce inspired drama.

The Power | Friday 30 March

Suddenly, and without warning, all teenage girls in the world develop the power to electrocute people at will. Soon, they realise they can awaken the power in older women, and eventually every woman in the world can do it – and then everything changes. Toni Collette stars in this adaptation of Naomi Alderman’s award-winning novel.

Disney+

Top Picks

Abbott Elementary Series 2 | Wednesday 1 March

Parks and Recreation-style workplace sitcom following the passionate teachers in an underfunded Philadelphia public school. Quinta Brunson, Tyler James Williams, and Sheryl Lee Ralph star. The first ten episodes of Series 2 will arrive at once, with further episodes arriving on Disney+ UK later in the year.

Best of the Rest

The Mandalorian Series 3 | Wednesday 1 March

Disney’s flagship Star Wars drama continues. Picking up after the events of The Book of Boba Fett, Din Djarin has been reunited with Baby Yoda and is now seeking redemption for breaking the code of Mandalore.

Up Here | Friday 24 March

A musical romcom set in 1990s New York, following one ordinary couple who fall in love – and gradually realise the greatest obstacle to finding happiness might be themselves. Mae Whitman (Arrested Development) and Carlos Valdes (The Flash) star.

Apple TV+

Top Picks

Ted Lasso S3 | Wednesday 15 March

The newly-promoted AFC Richmond faces ridicule as media predictions widely peg them as last in the Premier League, while Nate, now hailed as the ‘wonder kid,’ has gone to work for Rupert at West Ham United. Things seem to be falling apart both on and off the pitch, but Team Lasso is set to give it their best shot anyway.

Best of the Rest

Extrapolations | Friday 17 March

Anthology drama from Scott Z Burns about the impact climate change will have on the planet over the next few decades. Meryl Streep, Kit Harington, Daveed Diggs, Edward Norton, Matthew Rhys, Gemma Chan, David Schwimmer, Keri Russell, Marion Cotillard, Forest Whitaker, Murray Bartlett, Indira Varma, and Tobey Maguire star amongst many others.

Tetris | Friday 31 March

Entrepreneur Henk Rogers discovers TETRIS in 1988, and then risks everything by traveling to the Soviet Union, where he joins forces with inventor Alexey Pajitnov to sell the game to the masses. Taron Egerton and Nikita Efremov star in this drama based on a true story.

Paramount+

Top Picks

Yellowjackets S2 | Monday 27 March

Yellowjackets unfolds across two timelines. The first, in the late 1990s, follows a group of teenage girls, crash landed in the wilderness and trying to survive; the second, in the present day, traces the impact that trauma has on them even now. But what secrets are they still keeping? Was everything on the island what it seemed – and what did they really do to survive?

Best of the Rest

School Spirits | Friday 10 March

Teenager Maddie Nears (Peyton List) is stuck in the afterlife, haunting her school – until she decides to investigate her own disappearance and death.

Rabbit Hole | Monday 27 March

John Weir is a corporate spy adept at deception. When a mysterious world-controlling power frames him for murder, Weir stands up against this power – and suddenly finds himself fighting for democracy itself. Keifer Sutherland (24), Rob Yang (Succession), and Charles Dance (Game of Thrones) star.

And keep an eye out for…

Fans of Better Call Saul will probably be interested in Bob Odenkirk’s new AMC drama Lucky Hank, which starts in the US on Sunday 19 March, but doesnt yet have a UK release date or distributor.