Merry Christmas & Happy New Year To All The Geektowners

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As we head towards the end of the year, and people focus on the festivities for the next couple of weeks, things at Geektown will be moving at a more relaxed pace too. We will still be updating the UK TV Air Date page as new premiere information comes in, but the regular posts will be less frequent until the new year.

I want to take this opportunity to say a huge THANK YOU to everyone who visited the site this year and reached out to us, along with those who shared or reposted on social media, and all the regulars who contribute to the Geektown community in the comments section. Bringing us information you spot, or asking questions about the TV you love, helps so much and plays a crucial role in making this job so fun, and such an enjoyable place to be. For that, I am eternally grateful!

TV Highlights from 2024

2024 has been another stellar year in TV in drama, comedy, and entertainment generally. There has been such a wide range of brilliant new and returning shows, both homegrown and from around the world, across all broadcasters and streaming services.

In terms of new shows, Apple in particular has been outstanding, kicking off the year with ‘Criminal Record‘ and ‘Masters Of The Air‘, followed by Colin Farrell in the genre and mind-bending ‘Sugar‘, sci-fi drama ‘Dark Matter‘, dramedy ‘Bad Monkey‘, and limited series ‘Disclaimer‘. Not to mention all their returning series such as ‘Silo‘, ‘Bad Sisters‘, and the outstanding ‘Slow Horses‘.

On the BBC, we saw Ncuti Gatwa take on his first full series in ‘Doctor Who‘, whilst David Mitchell won everyone over with his crime-solving puzzler ‘Ludwig‘. They also brought us Steven Knight’s excellent music drama ‘This Town‘, the comedy ‘Daddy Issues‘, and ‘Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light‘. Plus all the returning favourites such as ‘The Traitors‘, ‘Sherwood‘, and ‘The Outlaws‘, or imports such as ‘Good Girl’s Guide To Murder‘, the US version of ‘Ghosts‘, and ‘Interview With The Vampire‘.

On the other broadcasters, Sky had a smash hit with ‘Day Of The Jackal‘, and Ella Purnell’s ‘Sweetpea‘, along with airing an outstanding performance from an unrecognisable Colin Farrell in ‘The Penguin‘. ITV brought us the hilarious Liverpool comedy ‘G’wed‘ and drama with ‘Red Eye‘, plus new seasons of ‘Trigger Point‘ and ‘Changing Ends‘. There were also a multitude of returning beloved crime dramas from ‘Grantchester‘ and ‘Vera‘, to ‘Professor T‘ and ‘Grace‘. Channel 4 brought us more ‘Big Boys‘, ‘The Last Leg‘, and ‘Taskmaster‘, whilst Channel 5 returned with more ‘All Creatures Great and Small‘, and introduced police drama ‘Ellis‘.

Disney+ UK aired the spectacular ‘Shogun‘, the wonderfully fun ‘Rivals‘, introduced Tudor murder mystery with ‘Shardlake‘, saw Kathryn Hahn return in ‘Agatha All Along‘, and put the fun back into Star Wars with ‘Skeleton Crew‘. Not forgetting the introduction of ‘Tracker‘, a second season of the extraordinary ‘Extraordinary‘, and new seasons of favourite returning shows such as ‘NCIS‘,  ‘9-1-1‘, and ‘Only Murders In The Building‘.

Across the other streamers, whilst Netflix does get marked down for cancelling a number of excellent shows, most notably ‘KAOS‘ and ‘Dead Boy Detectives‘, they did retain some big hits, such as ‘Black Doves‘, ‘3 Body Problem‘ and ‘A Man On The Inside‘, along with the return of the hugely fun series such as ‘The Lincoln Lawyer‘, ‘Outer Banks‘, and ‘The Diplomat‘. Prime Video was a solid mix of new and returning series with ‘Mr. and Mrs. Smith‘, ‘Cross‘, and ‘Fallout‘ joining ‘The Boys‘, ‘Clarkson’s Farm‘, ‘Rings of Power‘, and ‘The Devil’s Hour‘. And Paramount+ might have seen the end of ‘Star Trek: Discovery‘ and ‘Star Trek: Lower Decks‘, but they saw the return of Dexter in ‘Original Sin‘, and the continuation of Taylor Sheridan’s domination with more ‘Yellowstone‘, ‘Mayor Of Kingstown‘, and new series ‘Landman‘.

2024 has been such a packed year for quality TV, and whilst this is nowhere near a full list of all the excellent shows in the last 12 months, it’ll hopefully give you some ideas of things to binge through this Christmas if you missed them when they first aired.

The Geektown Awards

There are, of course, so many more TV shows which have been outstanding this year I can’t mention them all. However, if you would like to let us know which TV shows you’ve enjoyed (along with film and video games) in 2024, The Geektown Awards are still going to be open until Boxing Day, so there’s still time to enter and win either the HUGE main prize or the runner-up prize! So GO AND VOTE!

You Are Loved And Not Alone

While I hope you’re all looking forward to a joyful holiday season, we know that Christmas can be a challenging time for some. With everything happening in the world, it’s completely normal and understandable if you feel like you’re struggling, especially at this time of year. If you find yourself needing support, please remember this: you are loved, and you are not alone. Before you do anything, please, reach out to someone. That could be a friend, a family member, or one of the incredible organizations like The Samaritans, Off The Record, MIND, or many other places that are there to listen and support you. Please reach out to someone if you are having a difficult time. You are not alone.

Thank You To All

As some of you may or may not know, Geektown is not a big corporate entity. It is run by me, alongside a few dedicated geeks, who help bring you the latest news, air date info, and the Geektown Radio podcast, so I just wanted to give a big thank you to all the people working with me to make that possible. They include:

• Matt and Robert from Entertainment Talk, who also make a whole host of brilliant podcasts, some of which I co-host, and produce a wide range of great content! It has been a pleasure to work with you both, and I look forward to doing more next year.
• Geektown Radio podcast co-host Darryl from Hollywood North News, who brings you all the news from those shows which you love that are filmed in Canada.
• And Geektown Radio podcast co-host and our “film reviewer” Gray. It’s a pleasure doing the shows with you and chatting about TV, gaming, and film.

I’d also like to express my gratitude to everyone who provided us with fantastic interviews and opportunities throughout the year. A special shout-out goes to the amazing press teams at Sky, BBC, ITV, Disney, UKTV, Channel 4, Channel 5, Netflix, Paramount+, Lionsgate, Roku, and Amazon, as well as the PR teams behind various events. And a special thank you to MCM Comic-Con, who put on some brilliant shows this year and I’m excited about covering even more events in 2025.

Additionally, a huge thank you to all the PR agencies that provided me with the chance to chat with actors and stars of TV and film, and a special thanks to all the PR companies who bring us lots of interesting behind-the-scenes people to chat with, such as composers, game developers, production designers, cinematographer, costume designers, stunt people and makeup artists. It’s always a pleasure to hear stories about how these, games, shows and films are created, and I look forward to talking with many more next year.

Lastly, I wanted to say thank you again to all the people who have joined our little community here at Geektown this year. Whether it’s coming and commenting on the UK TV Air Dates and US TV Premiere Dates pages, downloading the podcast, or signing up to the Never Miss System, we’re glad to have you here and hope to see you again in 2025.

Wishing all the Geektowners a truly wonderful Christmas and a great new year!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays,

Dave – Founder and Editor of Geektown.co.uk

Now, to get you more in the festive mood, I give you ‘The Twelve Days of Star Trek’ from Ryan’s Edits.