What to watch in September 2022: best TV shows on Netflix, Disney+, Amazon Prime Video, Sky, BBC and Channel 4

New month, new television: with the start of September comes a whole host of new offerings to look out for.

Here’s your guide to what’s on TV across September 2022, with a look at all the highlights across both terrestrial channels and the major streaming networks.

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

BBC One

Top Picks

Frozen Planet II | BBC One, Sunday 11 September

David Attenborough returns for a new edition of Frozen Planet, eleven years since the first. It’s a guided tour through the icy tundras of both the North and South poles, featuring a new song by Camila Cabello and Hans Zimmer. (Yes, really.)

Am I Being Unreasonable? | BBC One, Friday 16 September

New comedy from real-life best friends Daisy May Cooper (This Country, The Witchfinder) and Selin Hizli (Land Girls). Nic (Cooper) is grieving a loss that she can’t share with anyone and is unfulfilled in her marriage – but when Jen (Hizli) arrives in town her life is lit up with laughter, and her dark secret starts to bubble up. Twisted comedy thriller about obsessive friendship, maternal paranoia, and a dead cat

Best of the Rest

Bloodlands Series 2 | September, n.d.

The Jed Mercurio-produced police thriller with James Nesbitt returns. The body of an accountant is found on the shores of Strangford Lough: the accountant is woven into the tapestry of Tom’s tumultuous past, and now Tom must find out who the killer is and where the accountant had been hiding his gold all of these years.

Strictly Come Dancing | BBC One, September

Strictly Come Dancing returns for its launch show, ahead of the series beginning in earnest later in September. (Strictly is particularly likely to be delayed by the Queen’s death, with the launch show planned for the anticipated date of her funeral, and a general air of caution at the BBC more broadly.) Dancers this year include comedian Ellie Taylor, Paralympian Ellie Simmonds, and various other celebrity contestants not called Ellie.

BBC Two

Top Picks

Stuck | BBC Two, Thursday 8 September

Dan and Carla are at a crossroads. Dan has been recently made redundant, while Carla is wondering whether this is all she can expect from life. Add their age gap to the mix, and the re-emergence onto the scene of Carla’s ex-girlfriend Maya, and it’s no wonder that they’re feeling stuck. Dylan Moran (Black Books) writes and stars alongside Morgana Robinson (Taskmaster, Newark Newark).

Best of the Rest

Richard Osman’s House of Games | BBC Two, Monday 5 September

The tea-time quiz show hosted by Richard Osman returns for a new run of episodes. Fun fact: Osman met his now wife, Ingrid Oliver (Defending the Guilty, Doctor Who), when she was a competitor on the show.

The Boys from Brazil: Rise of the Bolsonaros | BBC Two, Monday 5 September

A documentary series charting Jair Bolsonaro’s journey to power, as well as documenting the wider political influence of the rest of his family.

BBC Three

Top Picks

Wreck | BBC Three, September

Comedy-slash-thriller-slash-horror-slash-slasher set aboard a cruise ship. 20 year-old new recruit Jamie infiltrates the 3,000-strong crew in a desperate race to find his missing sister who disappeared on the ships last journey. Thaddea Graham (Doctor Who, Sex Education), Oscar Kennedy (Ladhood), and Jack Rowan (Noughts + Crosses) star.

Best of the Rest

Ladhood Series 3 | BBC Three, Monday 5 September

The popular sitcom returns for a new series. After failing miserably in a mock university-entrance interview, Liam realises he needs to demonstrate some initiative if he’s to have any chance of succeeding at the real thing.

ITV

Top Picks

Doc Martin | Wednesday 7 September

The final series of the popular drama about a grumpy country doctor. Fun fact: Doc Martin is actually a spinoff from a romcom, where Martin Clunes played the main character’s best friend.

Karen Pirie | September, n.d.

An adaptation of the Val McDermid novel The Distant Echo, the first in a series of novels about detective Karen Pirie. Lauren Lyle (Outlander) stars and Emer Kenny (Harlots, Save Me) writes in this crime drama about a Scottish detective taking on an unsolved cold case.

Professor T Series 2 | Friday 16 September

Ben Miller (Primeval, Bridgerton) and Frances de la Tour (Rising Damp, Cold Lazarus) return for the second series of this Cambridge-set crime drama about an intensely agoraphobic criminology professor.

Best of the Rest

The Masked Dancer | Saturday 3 September

Everyone’s favourite fever dream of a talent show returns for Series 2. Don’t tell anyone, but I’m actually the dancer inside the Onomatopoeia costume. (Remind me to come back and edit this out if it turns out to be someone ghoulish and awful, like Alistair Campbell or such.)

National Television Awards 2022 | Thursday 15 September

Joel Dommett presents the (self-styled) biggest awards night in British television. Which of your favourites will take home a trophy to gather dust on the mantlepiece?

Channel 4

Top Picks

The Great British Bake Off | Tuesday 13 September

You know the drill. But do you know your bread from your cakes? Probably, that’s a fairly entry level distinction to make. Paul Hollywood, Prue Leith, Noel Fielding, and Matt Lucas all return.

Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared | September

The surreal 2011 webseries returns for new episodes on All4, with a Channel 4 broadcast following later in the month. Seemingly a children’s cartoon, the bright colours and shapes are quickly juxtaposed with darker themes and exaggerated violence.

Best of the Rest

Rick and Morty Series 6 | Sunday 4 September, E4

The animated sci-fi comedy from Dan Harmon and Justin Roiland returns. UK viewers will be able to watch the series on E4 at a 4am simulcast with the US Adult Swim broadcast, or catch the series later on in the day on All4.

Channel 5

Top Picks

All Creatures Great and Small Series 3 | Thursday 15 September

Everyone’s favourite Yorkshire vet James Herriot (Nicolas Ralph) returns for a third series, adapting further stories from the original novels. It’s 1939, and World War II is starting to loom on the horizon – and so is a possible new strain of bovine tuberculosis. A fourth series – and two Christmas specials – are already confirmed to be in development.

Dave

Top Picks

Question Team Series 2 | Monday 12 September

Richard Ayoade hosts the quiz show where comedians create their own questions. Guests this year include Sue Perkins, Jonathan Ross, Desiree Burch, Dane Baptiste and Stephen Mangan amongst others. (Stephen Mangan will also be guest presenting Pointless this month, a temporary replacement for Richard Osman.)

Sky & NOW TV

Top Picks

Bloods S2b | Thursday 1 September

New episodes of the brilliant paramedic sitcom with Samson Kayo and Jane Horrocks. After a patient refused treatment on New Year’s Eve, he fell into a coma – and now Maleek and Wendy are under investigation. Lucy Punch, Julian Barrett, Katherine Kelly, and Aasiya Shah also star.

This England | Wednesday 21 September

A five-part dramatization of the early days of the novel coronavirus pandemic, from Boris Johnson’s election win in 2019 through to his own hospitalisation during the first lockdown. Kenneth Branagh stars as the former Prime Minister, with Michael Winterbottom writing all five episodes.

Best of the Rest

Never Mind the Buzzcocks | September, n.d.

Greg Davies, Daisy May Cooper, and Jamali Maddox return alongside Noel Fielding for new episodes of the musical panel show.

Brassic Series 4 | Wednesday 7 September

Vinnie and the gang are returning for another series of Sky’s biggest original comedy. Whether it’s heisting horses, borrowing beehives, swindling snakes or embezzling weddings, there’s no deal too dodgy for ne’er-do-well Vinnie and his motley crew. Joe Gilgun and Michelle Keegan star.

Fantasy Football League | Thursday 29 September

Matt Lucas and Ellis James host in a revival of the Skinner and Baddiel format from the 90s. (Hopefully not reviving the casual racism that saw Baddiel don blackface and a pineapple to mock player Jason Lee, still yet to apologise decades later.)

Netflix

Top Picks

Cobra Kai Season 5 | Friday 9 September

Karate Kid sequel. Following the shocking results of the All Valley Tournament, Season 5 finds Terry Silver expanding the Cobra Kai empire and trying to make his "No Mercy" style of karate the only game in town. With Kreese behind bars and Johnny Lawrence setting karate aside to focus on repairing the damage he’s caused, Daniel LaRusso must call on an old friend for help.

Best of the Rest

Entergalactic | Friday 30 September

Kenya Barris of Black-ish and musician Kid Cudi team up for an animated musical romance. A young artist named Jabari attempts to balance love and success. Finding the latter brings Jabari a step closer to the former, when moving into his dream apartment introduces him to his new neighbour, photographer it-girl Meadow.

Amazon Prime Video

Top Picks

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power | Friday 2 September

An eight-part fantasy epic delving into Tolkien’s Middle Earth appendices to craft a prequel to The Lord of the Rings. Expect to see young versions of Elrond (Hugo Weaving in Peter Jackson’s trilogy, here Robert Aramayo) and Galadriel (Cate Blanchett in Peter Jackson’s trilogy, here Morfydd Clark). Lenny Henry also stars.

The Grand Tour: A Scandi Flick | Friday 16 September

Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond, and James May return for a new travelogue special. If you’re one of the five people in the country who don’t know who Jeremy Clarkson is, you can read our biography of him here – did you know that his parents first became wealthy selling illegal Paddington Bear merchandise?

Best of the Rest

A Private Affair | Friday 16 September

In the late 1940s in Galicia, a daring young upper-class woman with the soul of a policeman, sets out to hunt down the serial killer who has been stalking the city for months. All eight episodes are available at once.

Jungle | Friday 30 September

Jungle follows the connected lives of several strangers, each facing their own struggle, viewed through the prism of UK rap and drill music, and giving a perspective on an often unseen world. Frequently misunderstood, it’s a world where one law governs everything: only the strongest will survive. As the strangers’ worlds begin to unravel around them, they come to the realisation that every action, no matter how small, has a consequence.

Disney+

Top Picks

Wedding Season | Thursday 8 September

Katie and Stefan fall for each other at a wedding – despite Katie already having a fiancé. Two months later at Katie’s wedding, her new husband and his entire family are murdered. The police think Stefan did it. Stefan thinks Katie did it. And no one knows for sure what the truth is…

Andor | Wednesday 21 September

Political thriller set in the Star Wars universe, with Diego Luna reprising his role from 2016’s Rogue One. Kyle Soller, Forest Whittaker, and Fiona Shaw also star. Tony Gilroy writes, with Doctor Who and Black Mirror’s Toby Haynes amongst the series directors.

Best of the Rest

The Old Man | Wednesday 28 September

Jeff Bridges stars in this action thriller about a former CIA assassin drawn out of retirement. Amy Brenneman (The Leftovers), Alia Shawkat (Arrested Development), and Jon Lithgow (Dexter) also star in this adaptation of Thomas Perry’s novel. A second series has been confirmed.

The Kardashians Series 2 | Thursday 22 September

You know who they are, you know how this works.

Apple TV+

Top Picks

Sidney | Friday 23 September

A feature-length documentary honouring the legendary Sidney Poitier and his legacy as an iconic actor, filmmaker and activist at the centre of Hollywood and the Civil Rights Movement. Featuring candid interviews with Denzel Washington, Halle Berry, Robert Redford, Lenny Kravitz, Barbra Streisand, Spike Lee

Best of the Rest

The Greatest Beer Run Ever | Friday 30 September

Zac Efron stars in this Vietnam war comedy in which a US civilian decides to support the war effort by delivering beer to his friends at the front.

Paramount+

Top Picks

American Gigolo | Saturday 10 September

A new adaptation of the 1980 Paul Schrader film, with Jon Bernthal now starring in the role previously played by Richard Gere. 15 years after being wrongly arrested for murder, Julian Kaye struggles to find his footing in the modern-day Los Angeles sex industry. He’s trying to find the truth about the frame that sent him to prison all those years ago, and also hoping to reconnect with his one true love Michelle.

Minx | Wednesday 14 September

Ophelia Lovibond (Elementary) and Jake Johnson (New Girl) star in this comedy about the one of the first feminist magazines in the US… which could only get funding to publish if also included porn. Loosely inspired by the true story of the first women’s erotic magazine.

Best of the Rest

Son of a Critch | Wednesday 7 September

Canadian family sitcom based on the early life of comedian Mark Critch (best known for This Hour Has 22 Minutes, essentially Canada’s equivalent to The Daily Show).

10 Mistakes: 9/11 | Monday 5 September

A new documentary looking at the lead up to 9/11.

Savage River | Thursday 22 September

Miki Anderson returns to her hometown in rural Australia after ten years in prison. She only wants to return to normal life – but when a murder is committed, the townspeople suspect her, and Miki must solve the crime to clear her name. Katherine Langsford (Thirteen Reasons Why) stars.

Peacock via Sky

Top Picks

Vampire Academy | Friday 16 September

In a world of privilege and glamour, two young women’s friendship transcends their strikingly different classes as they prepare to complete their education and enter vampire society -- one as a powerful royal, the other a half-vampire guardian. Based on YA novels by Richelle Mead, and starring Daniel Nieves (Every Witch Way).

And keep an eye out for…

Airing in the US this month – but without UK release dates yet – are the sixth series of The Good Fight and The Handmaid’s Tale. It’s also the final series of The Good Fight, and I know I’m going to miss it a great deal.

There’s also a new series of Abbott Elementary arriving on Wednesday 21 September, which will likely end up on Disney+ in the coming months.

You might also be interested in the new Quantum Leap revival, which is not being treated as a reboot but instead as a sixth series of the original, twenty years since it ended. Raymond Lee (Kevin Can F*** Himself) stars as Dr Ben Seong, with Ernie Hudson (Ghostbusters) playing Herbert "Magic" Williams, a character who first appeared in an episode of Quantum Leap season 3.