Best dramas on Disney+

This National Geographic drama was released in weekly episode instalments, making for the perfect kind of release for such a thought-provoking and important look into real historical events.

The series stars Bel Powley, who many will recognise from Everything I Know About Love, as Miep Gies, a secretary who helped to hide Otto Frank and his family from the Nazis in the Second World War. The series explores the responsibility and pressure that Miep and her husband Jan (Joe Cole) were under as they strive to protect the Franks and others during one of the darkest moments in history. MORGAN CORMACK

Donald Glover’s surreal comedy masterpiece has now finished airing, with all four seasons available on Disney Plus for UK viewers to watch. It follows Earn (Glover), who manages his cousin Alfred AKA Paper Boi’s (Brian Tyree Henry) rap career, as well as their friend Darius (LaKeith Stanfield) and Earn’s ex-girlfriend Van (Zazie Beetz).

If you’re looking for traditional story structure and arcs, this isn’t it – Atlanta frequently rips up its own rule-book, especially in season 3 which featured multiple episodes without any of the main cast. This may be the aspect of the show that keeps you on your toes, but it’s the biting humour and cutting social commentary which will keep you coming back for more. JAMES HIBBS

Writer Taffy Brodesser-Akner brings her own much-discussed 2019 novel to the small screen, making heavy use of narration to create the not-unpleasant feeling that we are watching a book. Manhattan doctor and dad of two Toby Fleishman (Jesse Eisenberg) has just emerged from a bad marriage to the apparently hideous Rachel (Claire Danes); he is just starting to enjoy a new life of one-night stands and rekindled old friendships when a mysterious event causes him to re-evaluate.

What seems like naughty fun proves to be an astute, bracingly honest take on class and careers as well as life and love in one’s 40s. JACK SEALE

This adaptation of Jilly Cooper’s raunchy 1988 bonkbuster has it all: sex, nudity, unadulterated, often adulterous, debauchery, caddish behaviour and more gorgeous country houses and champagne-quaffing than is decent. A top-notch cast including Alex Hassell, Aidan Turner, David Tennant, Emily Atack, Victoria Smurfit, Katherine Parkinson and Danny Dyer star in a saga about the rivalry between the boss of a TV company and Rutshire’s most famous lothario. It’s very non-PC, but also great fun. JANE RACKHAM

Based on a true story amid the Troubles, this is a searing adaptation of Patrick Radden Keefe’s acclaimed book of the same name. Spanning four decades and several generations, there are multiple compelling narratives, including that of young sisters Marian and Dolours (Hazel Doupe and Lola Petticrew), who decide to join the IRA. Almost 30 years later, Dolours (Maxine Peake) finally, but anonymously, tells her story. FRANCES TAYLOR

A drama set in Japan in the early 1600s, based on a thousand-page doorstop of a novel (by James Clavell) published in 1975? It sounds potentially stodgy but this word-of-mouth hit is anything but. Cosmo Jarvis is excellent as John Blackthorne, an English sailor who arrives in Japan and manages to flourish despite knowing nothing of the language or customs; Anna Sawai is even better as Lady Mariko, his translator whose position in society is uncertain. Every episode is a poised fable, super-charged by the locals' bewilderingly unforgiving code of honour, which could cause anyone to perpetrate murder or suicide at any moment. You will be swept away, breathless. JACK SEALE

When you sit down to watch a show like The Bear, a comedy drama about a talented chef that was met with widespread acclaim when it arrived on US screens, there’s always a chance that your expectations won’t meet reality and you’ll be left disappointed. But if it is the best thing you end up watching this year, with three exceptional seasons now available, no one will question your taste. ABBY ROBINSON

From Australia, a highly atmospheric psychological thriller inspired by the real New Age group the Family. Teresa Palmer (A Discovery of Witches) plays a woman whose youth was spent as a member of a cult, with a mysterious female leader (Miranda Otto) and an army of spookily blond children – an organisation which may now be linked to the disappearance of a schoolgirl. Guy Pearce co-stars in a drama that scores strongly on creepy, crepuscular visuals. JACK SEALE

Television loves a movie spin-off/sequel these days, but they rarely have such a direct link to the original film: 26 years since the film The Full Monty introduced us to a gang of ex-steelworkers in Sheffield, forming a striptease troupe to try to make ends meet, the same characters are back, played by the same actors.

As the first episode makes clear with its montage of real-life politicians emptily promising to improve life in the post-industrial North, the underlying theme of people left to cope with their dwindling prospects remains. As the lads and their loved ones get into a series of light comedy-drama scrapes, the portrayal of a society that has simply abandoned these characters is unflinching.

Sometimes that’s an uneasy mix, but when The Full Monty is funny it’s hilarious, and when it’s hard-hitting it’s devastating. JACK SEALE