We’ve made it, folks. The four-day Easter weekend is here.
Many of us will be using that extended time off to get out into the world and cram as much as possible into their social calendar.
But if you’d rather use that time to catch up on some much-needed R&R at home, we salute you.
If that sounds appealing, the four-day break might seem like a great opportunity to catch up on the best telly of 2026 that you’ve been too busy to check out until now.
With that in mind, here are 17 of the year’s best TV offerings if you’re looking for something to binge during your downtime…
After an extended break, fans finally made a return visit to the ’Ton earlier this year, for a new love story with Luke Thompson’s Benedict Bridgerton at its heart.
Fans loved seeing the Cinderella story between Benedict and Yerin Ha’s Sophie Baek playing out (even if there were a few uncomfortable bumps in the road), while the slow developments between his sister Francesca and intriguing newcomer Michaela Stirling set things up nicely for the period drama’s upcoming game-changing fifth season.
Alright, this isn’t strictly a new show for 2026, but it wasn’t until this year that UK viewers were finally able to stream The Pitt for themselves, after the medical drama’s huge success over the last year.
Excitingly, once you’ve seen the gripping story play out in real time over the course of a 15-hour shift, season two is already underway, with new episodes of Noah Wyle’s award-winning series dropping weekly for those who’ve already binged its first outing.
Like The Pitt, Heated Rivalry gained a frenzied following when it premiered across the pond in 2025, with fans on this side of the Atlantic finally getting their chance to see what all the fuss is about back in January.
The romantic sports drama about two closeted hockey players carrying out a passionate love affair behind closed doors has already become the most talked-about show in the world (thanks in no small part to its much-revered sex scenes), making household names of its stars Connor Storrie and Hudson Williams, not to mention inspiring a thousand memes in the process.
Stream it on: Sky, Now and HBO Max
Rivalries – albeit of a very different nature – don’t come much more heated than the back-stabbing antics in Claudia Winkleman’s castle.
Every year, we wonder how The Traitors is going to best what came before it, and after Alan Carr’s antics in the show’s inaugural celebrity run, the bar was high.
Still, thanks to some jaw-dropping twists, tense tests of loyalty and, it has to be said, some cinematically blazing rows, season four of the Bafta-winning reality show had us gripped all over again.
If, for some reason, you were too busy in January to commit to it properly at the time, enough time has finally passed for you to jump into the latest season without inevitably having it spoiled for you.
Stream it on: BBC iPlayer
And speaking of dramatic twists – Netflix’s His & Hers had all the usual hallmarks of a streaming thriller, culminating in a genuinely batshit ending that will no doubt still be held up as one of 2026’s most unexpected twists when we’re counting down the year’s biggest TV moments in December.
Starring Tessa Thompson and Jon Bernthal, the limited series focussed on a former TV news anchor who pulls herself out of retirement when she discovers she has a connection to an intriguing murder case.
Between Emerald Fennell’s Wuthering Heights and Dolly Alderton’s upcoming spin on Pride & Prejudice, it’s safe to say that 2026 is a big year for period dramas and adaptations of classic works of English literature.
For those Austen-heads who can’t wait for Netflix’s spin on the Regency author’s most famous work, the BBC recently unveiled The Other Bennet Sister, which takes a look at the events of Pride & Prejudice from the perspective of one of its most overlooked characters, before focussing solely on Mary’s own personal journey away from her family and sisters.
The series is currently mid-way through, with two more instalments expected on Sunday, ahead of the grand finale on 12 April.
Stream it on: BBC iPlayer
While House Of The Dragon largely gave Game Of Thrones fans what they were missing when it premiered in 2022, the franchise’s latest spin-off took a completely different approach altogether.
A Knight Of The Seven Kingdoms takes a decidedly more irreverent and tongue-in-cheek approach, focussing more on humour and the relationships between its characters than the bloodshed and drama that have become synonymous with the Game Of Thrones universe.
Stream it on: Sky, Now and HBO Max
As the title suggested, Netflix’s latest must-see documentary gave everyone who was hooked on Top Model back in the day a “reality check” about what actually went into the show that had the whole world talking at its peak.
In addition to former contestants sharing their highs and lows, Reality Check was also notable in that it featured an on-camera interview with Tyra Banks about her time at the helm of the show, for the first time since it became re-examined and scrutinised in the 2020s.
The acclaimed drama about the inner workings of London’s financial sector continues to go from strength to strength, with its latest run of episodes continuing to garner critical acclaim.
Marisa Abela and Kit Harington continue to win praise for their performances, with the finale taking a dramatic and deeply unsettling turn, echoing timely events from the real world, ahead of the show’s final outing in 2027.
Stream it on: BBC iPlayer
While the fast pace and dramatic events of shows like Industry make for gripping viewing, Netflix was trying something very different with its nature documentary The Dinosaurs.
Almost ASMR-esque in its slower approach (complete with narration from the unmistakable Morgan Freeman) the four-part companion series to Life On Our Planet throws it back a million or 60 years to when dinosaurs roamed the earth.
The Dinosaurs proved to be a hit with both critics and viewers due to its compelling storytelling and impressive CGI rendering of our reptilian predecessors.
If you love nothing more than a cosy night in with a nature documentary and a cup of something warm then trust us when we say this is essential viewing.
Similarly, Netflix’s second season of The Boyfriend makes for the best kind of cosy viewing.
If you think you’re done with dating shows, trust us when we say that The Boyfriend is tearing up the reality rule book for the better, ditching the dramatic reveals, shocking twists and often-unpleasant backstabbing and rowing for something much more gentler in nature.
The reality show introduces us to a host of LGBTQ+ Japanese men who move into a house together and are tasked with running a coffee van as a group, with the hopes that the bonds that form between them could be the beginnings of lasting romance.
With no obvious producer interference and some genuinely lovely casting choices, this less extreme take on dating shows feels like an antidote to the likes of Married At First Sight, Too Hot To Handle and even Love Island, that have become the norm on the TV landscape over the last decade.
Harlan Coben adaptations on Netflix have become as much a part of the New Year as malfunctioning party poppers and Jools Holland’s Hootenanny in recent history – and the new offering for 2026 was Run Away.
While it didn’t quite cut through in the same way as Fool Me Once or The Stranger have in the past, it still ticked all the boxes you’d hope for from a Coben mystery, from its central premise about someone’s past coming to haunt them to its predominantly British cast, which included the likes of Minnie Driver, Ingrid Oliver, Alfred Enoch, James Nesbitt and Gavin & Stacey’s Ruth Jones.
One for any horror fanatics out there, Netflix made another attempt at mixing screaming and streaming in 2026, with the result being the unsettling series Something Very Bad Is Going To Happen.
The show introduces us to a young couple on the verge of their wedding day, who – as the title suggests – have their whole world turned upside down as things for them slowly start falling apart at the seams.
We’re keeping the nature of the “something very bad” under wraps because this show really is best approached with no knowledge of what’s to come – but be warned that this is definitely not one for the faint of heart.
The most recent addition to our list is Him & Her and Marriage creator Stefan Golaszewski’s latest modern-day kitchen sink drama.
Described as “hard-hitting”, “intense” and “bittersweet” by critics, Babies stars Paapa Essiedu and Siobhán Cullen as a young couple trying to get on with their lives while grappling with fertility issues and pregnancy loss.
Obviously, due to its subject matter, this drama could be triggering and upsetting for many, but it’s worth saying that the show also manages to weave in humour to counterbalance its darker moments.
Stream it on: BBC iPlayer
In How To Get To Heaven From Belfast, the action centres around a group of grown-up former school friends who are yanked back into their past following the sudden death of an old classmate with whom they were once close.
As you’d expect in a mystery series like this one, all is not as it seems, and as the central trio try to piece together exactly what their old pal found herself caught up in, skeletons from years gone by refuse to stay unburied.
True to form, though, the show works as well as a comedy as it does a drama, with the chemistry of its main cast being the show’s driving force as much as the slow unravelling of its key mystery.
Last One Laughing earned a cult following when it premiered last year – and with its second iteration, it’s broken through in a big way.
People trying not to laugh at increasingly hilarious and ridiculous situations is always going to make for compulsive viewing, but when you throw in a stellar cast that includes man of the moment Alan Carr, cult fave Diane Morgan and the show’s reigning champion Bob Mortimer, you’ve got the stuff of TV gold.
Stream it on: Amazon Prime Video
Netflix kept fans waiting the better part of three years for the second instalment of One Piece, but their patience was rewarded with a new set of adventures earning season two that coveted 100% score on Rotten Tomatoes.
Adapted from the hugely popular anime and manga series, the latest run of the live-action One Piece featured even more of what fans loved about the original season and dialled it up to eleven – making us even more excited for what’s coming next for the franchise.
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