If you always find yourself four episodes behind hype TV shows and racing to catch up with everyone else, Sky Showcase HD (CH 109) has you covered in 2024 with a bunch of fantastic Sky Exclusive series that will keep you on the front foot of this year’s must-see TV.

It all kicks off this January with the latest season of the multi-award-winning and critically acclaimed True Detective, this time starring Jodie Foster and Kali Reis. True Detective: Night Country begins on Monday 15 January at 9pm on Sky Showcase HD (CH 109), continuing every Monday at 9pm until the finale on Monday 19 February.

If you can’t wait till 9pm, it will be available a few hours beforehand in On Demand – and there it’ll be available in shiny Ultra HD. What’s more, seasons 1-3 of True Detective are also available now in HD in On Demand, in case you want to blitz through the previous series while you wait for the next episode to drop.

It’s non-stop fun on Sky Showcase in 2024. If you don’t currently get Sky Showcase as part of your Virgin TV package, upgrade now to watch these fantastic new shows – with more Sky Originals and Sky Exclusives coming to the channel throughout the years. Here are just some of the highlights on the channel in the coming months to keep you entertained…

True Detective: Night Country

Mondays from 15 January, 9pm, Sky Showcase HD (CH 109). Also available in UHD in On Demand

If you’ve ever watched Christopher Nolan’s 2002 thriller Insomnia, you’ll know how chilling the backdrop of Alaska can be. It’s a landscape that can mess with your mind. But where Nolan’s film had days in which the sun didn’t set, Night Country places itself amid long sunless winter days, when a group of men operating a research station vanish seemingly without a trace.

Two detectives – Liz Danvers (Jodie Foster) and Evangeline Navarro (Kali Reis) – arrive on the scene to solve the increasingly mysterious case. But the pair have a fraught past. As they confront their own darkness, what truths that lie dormant under the unending ice will be brought to the surface? British stars Christopher Eccleston (Come Home) and Fiona Shaw (Killing Eve) are also in the superb cast.

Mary & George

Coming soon to Sky Showcase HD (CH 109)

An all-star cast including Academy Award and BAFTA winner Julianne Moore (Still Alice), Nicholas Galitzine (Red, White & Royal Blue) and Tony Curran (Mary Queen Of Scots) lead this historical psychodrama based on an outrageous true story from the pages of Benjamin Woolley’s non-fiction book The King’s Assassin. Moore plays Mary, the Countess of Buckingham, who decides that she will mould her son George (Galitzine) to seduce King James I (Curran).

If George succeeds, it means they become richer, more titled and more influential than this country has ever seen. Looking at Galitzine’s cheekbones – which could cut through diamonds – it seems like Mary is onto a winner. A royal honeytrap like no other.

The Regime

Coming soon to Sky Showcase HD (CH 109)

The last time Kate Winslet starred in an HBO drama, it was called Mare Of Easttown, was one of the best TV shows of 2021 and won every award in sight. So there’s a fair amount of hype and expectation around The Regime, the new HBO drama coming to Sky Showcase in which Winslet stars, this time as the chancellor of a fictional European autocracy whose regime is crumbling.

But the hype goes further still: it also stars Hugh Grant, Andrea Riseborough and Martha Plimpton, it’s written by The Menu and Succession’s Will Tracy, and it’s directed by legendary British director Stephen Frears (The Queen, Philomena, A Very English Scandal). From the looks of the (very sweary) teaser trailer, this black comedy should be on everyone’s watchlist.