Mike Ward s TV blog - New Year 04

Sherlock, Celebrity Big Brother, The Bletchley Circle, Dancing On Ice, Silent Witness, Stargazing, David Blaine: Real Or Magic, The Voice UK, Outnumbered, Splash!

Yes, I know what you're going to ask. You're going to ask why I'm just listing random names of television programmes. Fair question, I suppose. Any idiot can do that.

The reason, quite simply, is that all those shows turn up within the first few weeks of 2014. And the fact they're so diverse (I doubt there are many viewers who either love or hate all ten) is a neat reminder of how brilliantly, healthily varied British TV continues to be.

Built into our menu this coming year, of course, we also have three of the world's top sporting events the Winter Olympics, football's World Cup and the Commonwealth Games, all free to air. More on those in a moment.

Big dramas, it's fair to say, remain a huge draw, and along with the return of many favourites (Mr Selfridge, Inspector George Gently, Death In Paradise, DCI Banks and Call The Midwife are all back within the first few weeks of the year), there are some intriguing new shows in the pipeline.

Take BBC1's The Musketeers, writer Adrian Hodges' take on the Alexander Dumas classic. An action packed 10-parter centred on an elite group of soldiers D'Artagnan (Luke Pasqualino), Athos (Tom Burke), Aramis (Santiago Cabrera) and Porthos (Howard Charles) it also stars Peter Capaldi (who'll be back to do his Doctor Who thing later in the year, of course) and Hugo Speer.

Then there's ITV's six-parter Grantchester, set in early-50s Cambridgeshire and centred on a clergyman who turns detective, investigating the suspicious death of one of his parishioners. That, plus The Lost Honour, based on the true story of retired schoolmaster Christopher Jefferies, arrested when his tenant Joanna Yeates was found murdered on Christmas Day, 2010.

Also, John Simm, Rosie Cavaliero, Craig Parkinson and Adrian Edmondson feature in ITV's high-octane thriller Prey. the story of a copper on the run, desperate to clear his name.

Channel 4's New Worlds, meanwhile, is an historical drama set in the 17th century (a follow-up to 2008 drama The Devil's Whore), with Eve Best and Jamie Dornan among the cast. There'll also be a second series of Channel 4's critically acclaimed The Mill.

Channel 5's Suspects, coming up in February, is a bold new improvised crime drama, with Fay Ripley, Damien Molony and Clare-Hope Ashitey. And other top dramas coming up on 5 include the return of Iain Glen in Jack Taylor, plus Betrayal, about an affair between two people on opposite sides of a murder investigation, starring Stuart Townsend, Henry Thomas, James Cromwell and Hannah Ware.

ITV has also lined up the two-part thriller Undeniable, starring Claire Goose and Peter Firth about a woman who recognises her mother's murderer, 23 years after the crime and The Great Fire Of London, a new four-parter by Tom Bradby.

And BBC1 has The Ark, a First World War drama set in a field hospital, with Suranne Jones, Oona Chaplin and Hermione Norris. That, plus Jamaica Inn, with Jessica Brown Findlay and Matthew McNulty, a three-part adaptation of Daphne du Maurier's 19th century Cornish gothic romance.

On the same side, Jonathan Strange And Mr Norrell, with Charlotte Riley, Marc Warren, Paul Kaye and Eddie Marsan, is set during the Napoleonic Wars, in an England where magic once existed and is about to return.

There's also The Casual Vacancy, a BBC1 adaptation of JK Rowling's first novel for adults, and From There to Here, a family saga set in 1996, about a man whose life is rocked to the core on the day an IRA bomb explodes in Manchester city centre (that one stars Philip Glenister, Bernard Hill, Steven Mackintosh, Saskia Reeves, Liz White, Daniel Rigby and Morven Christie).

We'll also be seeing BBC1's The Game, a gripping Cold War drama set in the 1970s.

The centenary of the outbreak of the First World War will naturally be marked by a plethora of programmes, including 37 Days, a BBC2 factual drama with Ian McDiarmid, Sinead Cusack, Tim Pigott-Smith, Bill Paterson and Kenneth Cranham. It reveals the complex, behind-closed-doors story of what triggered the conflict. There's also a new Tony Jordan drama, The Great War.

Bill Nighy returns to BBC2 as MI5 spy Johnny Worricker in the second and third parts of David Hare's Worricker Trilogy Turks & Caicos and Salting The Battlefield.

And on an altogether lighter note, BBC2 also has Tubby And Enid a one-off musical with Imelda Staunton and Michael Ball, adapted from Victoria Wood's stage play That Day We Sang plus Stan and Ollie, a 90-minute film about legendary comic duo Laurel and Hardy.

Away from drama, Channel 4's latest celebrity challenge is The Jump, hosted by Davina McCall, where a dozen famous names attempt some of the most challenging winter sports. Olympic legend Sir Steve Redgrave is among the line-up for that. Others include Tara Palmer-Tomkinson, Darren Gough, Anthea Turner, Nicky Clarke and Melinda Messenger.

Channel 4 has also a feast of top comedy lined up, including a third series of the excellent Friday Night Dinner.

Channel 5, meanwhile, has lined up its love season a series of themed programmes which include Age Gap Love, Holiday Love Rats and Henry & Anne: The Lovers Who Changed History.

It also has Autopsy: The Last Hours Of , a series of powerful documentaries revealing the medical truth behind the sudden deaths of several major names, including Michael Jackson and Whitney Houston.

As for returning series, some of the most popular shows coming back to our screens include Inspector George Gently, Silk, Endeavour, Rev, Line Of Duty, Atlantis, Law & Order: UK, The Village, Episodes and Shetland).

Even now, I've really just skimmed

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