What to watch on ITVX, from A Spy Among Friends to Litvinenko to Riches

ITV is launching a brand new streaming platform called ITVX, which will replace ITV Hub.

Going live on December 8, ITVX is set to provide viewers with over 10,000 hours of free content in HD, and is promising a “new and improved product experience”.

But the most exciting part of ITVX is the number of new programmes coming to the streaming platform. From a Cold War spy thriller series starring Damian Lewis, to a British version of Succession, to a Stephen Fry-presented nature documentary, every series promises to be a real humdinger.

And fear not if you have some older ITV dramas that you have been meaning to get to - they will also be added to ITVX, where all of ITV’s channels will be available to livestream. As part of ITVX, there will be new themed channels and a news section too.

So whether you are looking for documentaries, cult classic films or a new series to get obsessed with, by the looks of it ITVX will have you well and truly covered.

Carolyn McCall, ITV’s Chief Executive said: “We’re really excited to launch ITVX, with more content available than ever before, and a whole range of exclusive commissions.”

With so much going on, here is our round-up of the best new series coming to ITVX next month.

December 8

A Spy Among Friends

Based on the best-selling book by Ben Macintyre, A Spy Among Friends details the fallout after MI6 agent Nicholas Elliott discovers his close friend Kim Philby has been working as a double agent for the Soviet Union. Based on the very famous true events, Damian Lewis is set to play Elliott and Guy Pearce will play Philby in this six-part Cold War drama. Anna Maxwell Martin (Motherland), Ade Edmondson (Bancroft) and Stephen Kunken (Jason Bourne) will also star.

Tell Me Everything

Tell Me Everything is a teen coming-of-age drama that is being billed as the new Skins. Set in the modern day, 16-year-old Jonny (Eden H Davies) struggles with mental health issues after experiencing a traumatising incident. And it seems he isn’t alone - his oldest friends, Louis and Neve and new friends Mei, Regan, Saj and Zia are all dealing with their own issues while exploring identity and sexuality and getting a handle on relationships, drink and drugs.

The Confessions of Frannie Langton

Based on The Costa Book Award-winning novel by Sara Collins, this series tells the story of maid Frannie Langton who is on trial in London in 1826 for murdering her bosses Mr and Mrs Benham. The allegations against her are condemnatory – but did the servant, who began her life on a plantation in Jamaica, really commit such heinous crimes? Langton, who is addicted to laudanum and who cannot remember matters clearly, tries to piece together what happened on the night of their deaths.

Karla-Simone Spence (Blue Story, Wannabe) is set to play Langton, Sophie Cookson (The Trial of Christine Keeler, Kingsman: The Secret Service) will play Marguerite Benham, Stephen Campbell Moore (War of The Worlds, The One) will play George Benham and Patrick Martins (Redemption, Blasts From The Past) will play Olaudah Cambridge.

Plebs: Soldiers of Rome

Plebs: Soldiers of Rome is about three lads living it up in Ancient Rome while trying to hold down jobs and relationships and attempting to climb the capital’s social ladder. After five series (which were released between 2013 to 2019) it’s now the grand feature-length finale. Described as halfway between The Inbetweeners and Up Pompeii, the award-winning comedy show stars Tom Rosenthal (Manhood), Ryan Sampson (Brassic), Tom Basden (The Wrong Mans) and Karl Theobald (Hang Ups).

December 15

Litvinenko

David Tennant stars as FSB defector Alexander Litvinenko in this upcoming four-part drama based on true events. Litvinenko was granted asylum in Britain in 2000 after accusing his superiors of organising the assassination of oligarch Boris Berezovsky. A vocal Putin critic, Litvinenko worked as a journalist and as a consultant for the British intelligence services before he was assassinated with radioactive Polonium-210 in 2006 (the killing played out like a real-life spy-thriller with Russian agents slipping the substance into his drink in the upmarket Knightsbridge Millennium hotel).

Written by George Kay, who created Netflix’s smash hit series Lupin, the show details the assassination through a series of interviews between a dying Litvinenko and two British police officers. Litvinenko is also set to focus on Litvinenko’s wife Marina (played by The Blacklist’s Margarita Levieva).

December 22

Riches

A British take on Succession written by Abby Ajayi (How To Get Away With Murder), this six-part series starring Jourdan Dunn, Deborah Ayorinde and Hugh Quarshie details the explosive drama that goes down between members of a super-wealthy London-based family when their father, self-made millionaire Stephen Richards (played by Quarshie), suffers from a stroke. The cast also includes Sarah Niles (Ted Lasso, I May Destroy You), Brendan Coyle (Downton Abbey, Requiem) and Hermione Norris (Cold Feet, Luther).

A Year on Planet Earth

There are few presenters who can match David Attenborough’s gravitas and dulcet BBC tones, but Stephen Fry is definitely one of them. Here the actor lends his voice to a landmark natural history documentary about Planet Earth. Described by ITV as “unfolding like a drama” the series will focus on nature in all its inter-connected forms – animals, landscapes, extreme weather events – as it changes with the seasons.

With wildlife documentarians, producer Tom Hugh-Jones (Tiny World, Planet Earth II) and BAFTA-award-winning Dr Martha Holmes (Blue Planet, Hostile Planet), onboard as part of the team, A Year on Planet Earth promises to be an aesthetic delight.

Without Sin

Line of Duty’s Vicky McClure stars in this psychological thriller about what happens when a mother confronts the man who was imprisoned for murdering her teenage daughter. Written by Frances Poletti (Charlie Says, Miss Todd) and also starring Medici star Johnny Harris, the four-part series sees the two This Is England ‘86 stars and good friends reunite on screen for the first time since their 2015 This Is England reunion.

December 28

Loaded in Paradise

Being billed as an “adrenaline-fuelled new game show”, Loaded in Paradise will see five “party-loving pairs” go to Greece to spend 50,000 euros. With inexplicable rules that include a chase across the Aegean Islands, going under the radar (how, or why, or what this means, even, isn’t clear), fresh daily cash injections, spending as much as possible, being in control and then reconvening at a luxury safe house every 48 hours, Loaded in Paradise is certainly set to be, as an ITV editor put it, “an exhilarating new reality format”.

Early 2023

Nolly

This three-part miniseries written by Russell T Davies is set to have Helena Bonham Carter starring as Noele Gordon, a darling of British TV who found fame in the British soap Crossroads. The biographical series is set to detail her shock sacking in 1981. The speculation at the time was that executives had fired Gordon, who was the most popular member of the cast, in an effort to drive down viewing numbers so they could put on another show.

Augustus Prew (Prison Break), Antonia Bernath (Downton Abbey) and Mark Gatiss (Operation Mincemeat) are also set to star as Crossroads co-stars Tony Adams, Jane Rossington and Larry Grayson.

ITVX launches on December 8