It's the time of year again when drought suddenly turns to overload on the television schedules, with an embarrassment of riches laid out across all the channels. By Christmas, many of these gleaming jewels will have been identified as stuffed-up turkeys, but for the moment everything seems rich, varied and full of promise.
When it comes to drama on British TV this autumn, it's the revenge of This Life, with former stars of the groundbreaking series popping up all over the place: Natasha Sharp plays Becky Sharp in the BBC's version of Vanity Fair in October; Daniela Nardini is a policewoman in Undercover Heart starting next month on BBC 1, and Jack Davenport stars in Ultraviolet, a hip and stylish vampire series starting on Channel 4 this Tuesday. The producer of This Life (and Ballykissangel), Tony Garnett, is responsible for BBC 2's The Cops, described as "a precinct-based ensemble drama for the postwatershed audience" (which means there'll be dirty bits).
Ballykissangel itself returns to the BBC next weekend, without Dervla Kirwan or Stephen Tompkinson, of course, but with new cast members Lorcan Cranitch, Victoria Smurfit and Don Wycherly, none of whom, the producers insist, is a direct replacement for Kirwan or for Tompkinson, who will be starring with Robson Green in ITV's Grafters, an eight-part series about sparring brothers who are also business partners, which starts later in the autumn.
Vanity Fair is the BBC's flagship costume drama of the season, but there's plenty more swashbuckling and bodice-ripping on offer in the same channel's The Scarlet Pimpernel, with Richard E. Grant as the elusive hero and Elizabeth McGovern as his lover Marguerite, while ITV's Hornblower, the first of four occasional feature-length adaptations of C.S. Forester's seafaring novels, promises spectacular naval battles in the Black Sea, with Ioan Gruffudd in the title role, supported by Robert Lindsay, Cherie Lunghi and Anthony Sher.
The pick of the nature programmes looks to be David Attenborough's new ten-part series Life of Birds on BBC 1, while BBC 2's Earth Story is a monumental history of the geology of the planet. Also on a monumental scale, Cold War, starting next week on RTE 1, and later this month on BBC 1, is a 24-part documentary series exploring the relationship between East and West over a 45-year period culminating in the collapse of the Soviet bloc. Meanwhile, the rash of docu-soaps continues, with Nurse and The Zookeepers on BBC 1 and BBC 2 respectively, while ITV has Motorway Life, following the comings and goings on the M 6.
RTE actually announced its schedule way back in July, but many of the new offerings only begin next week, especially on Network 2. Monday night sees the return of Don't Feed the Gondolas, the comedy quiz which bears a suspicious resemblance to Have I Got News For You, and starting next Friday is 2Phat, in which Ray D'Arcy teams up again with old sparring partners Zig and Zag. Blackboard Jungle, the schools' quiz that D'Arcy used to present, has been replaced by a new programme, Gridlock, hosted by Derek Mooney and starting on Monday.
2Phat looks promising, but observers of RTE's long-running comedy difficulties will be holding their breath for Couched, the "slightly surreal" series from a team that includes Barry Murphy, star of Network 2's superb Apres Match this summer. @Last TV, one of Network 2's brighter new series last year, returns for another run in October, but it's not all good news - Upwardly Mobile is back on Sunday 20th.
True Stories documentary strand is already up and running, and subjects covered in coming weeks include the experiences of Irish couples trying to adopt Chinese children and the story of how three Dublin hospitals moved this year to new premises in Tallaght. Paddy O'Gorman takes his Queuing for a Living format in front of the camera, talking to the marginalised of Irish society.
RTE's primetime drama slot on Sunday evenings has already kicked off with the first episode of Fall- ing for a Dancer, and will continue through the winter with several series of particular Irish interest. Kings In Green Castles, in October, is a four-parter, starring James Fox, Fionnuala Flanagan and Stephen Dillane, based on the true story of the Durack family who emigrated to Australia during the Famine and became the largest land-holders in the world. Flesh and Blood, another four-part series in November, is a tale of two Irish brothers who share a passion for harness racing, but are divided by tragedy. Also in November, Adrian Dunbar plays Theobald Wolfe Tone in The Officer From France, marking the 200th anniversary of the revolutionary's death. It's quite a strong line-up, but with a noticeable absence of contemporary themes.
TnaG's official launch of its autumn schedule takes place at the end of next week, and the channel has a promising line-up of new drama and comedy to announce. Scealta O Theach na mBocht is a fourpart drama series set in a poorhouse during the Famine, written by Eugene McCabe and starring Brendan Gleeson, Mick Lally and Ruth McCabe.
Oscailt is a series of short dramas from new directors, among them Paul Mercier, whose comedy Lip Service, starring Sean McGinley, is set against the backdrop of the Leaving Cert oral Irish exam.
Two new comedy series are also on the way; the creators of the channel's most critically successful programme so far, CU Burn, have a new series called Gleann Ceo, set in a rural police station threatened with closure because there's no crime in the area. Caisleann Klaus, described as a sort of Irish version of The Good Life, is about a German who comes to live in the West of Ireland, and finds that things are not quite what he expected.
TnaG also promises a range of new documentaries, while the main news bulletin is being moved from ten to eight o'clock every evening. The channel's English language content seems set to increase further, with repeats of independently-produced RTE series like Our House running in the early evenings and an extensive season of classic Hollywood films spread across the week - Monday night for westerns, Wednesday for comedies, Friday for action films and Sunday for dramas.