Page 1058 - Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Coverage Book 2023-24

Louisa Harland in Renegade Nell. Photograph: Robert Viglasky/Disney

It’s shaping up to be another outstanding year of television. Fresh from bringing Happy
Valley to its stunning conclusion, writer Sally Wainwright’s next creation is the eight-
part Renegade Nell (Disney+, spring). Expect a star-making turn from Louisa Harland
(Orla from Derry Girls) as 18th-century fugitive Nell Jackson. Framed for murder and
on the run with her sisters, she turns to highway robbery to survive.

Another promising period piece is Masters of the Air (Apple TV+, 26 January) from
executive producers Tom Hanks, Steven Spielberg and the people who brought us Band
of Brothers. This nine-part airborne epic follows the US Army Air Force’s 100th bomb
group, “the bloody 100th”, during the second world war. Barry Keoghan, Ncuti Gatwa,
Callum Turner, Austin Butler and Raff “son of Jude” Law are among an ensemble cast
teeming with talent.

Also inspired by a true story is courtly psychodrama series Mary & George (Sky
Atlantic/Now, March). Julianne Moore stars as icily ambitious Mary Villiers, Countess
of Buckingham, who moulded her handsome son George to seduce King James I and
become his influential lover. More recent history is brought to musical life in This
Town (BBC One, March), a passion project of Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight, set
in the 1980s Midlands ska scene.

We’ll get a double dose of playwright James Graham, who not only returns
to Sherwood (BBC One, date to be confirmed) but has also co-created politically
charged drama The Way (BBC One, February) with actor Michael Sheen and film-
maker Adam Curtis.