ITV have commissioned a number of really great dramas that will be shown in the New Year. There are some old favourites as well as some brand new ones and I was chuffed to see that Trial and Retribution is back on ITV1 on January 9th at 9pm

After 10 years of crime fighting, straight talking DCS Mike Walker, DCI Roisin Conner and DS David Satchell return to solve three horrific cases that are set to push the team to its very limits.

In the first – Trial & Retribution: Siren (XX) – DCS Walker and DCI Connor arrive at the site of an horrific crash involving an ambulance to find two dead paramedics, and the man they were treating shot in the head. His fiancé, celebrity heiress and paparazzi fodder, Imogen Buller-Turi, is distressed, but alive – the innocent victim in what appears to be a shocking case of road rage.

DCI Jack McGill from the drugs squad arrives on the scene. He’s good looking and charming, as well as a committed and passionate cop with integrity. His investigation of a suspect crosses paths with Connor’s murder investigation. The sexual chemistry between them is palpable, though they cloak it in barbed asides, scoring points off each other.

But everything is not as it seems, in this thrilling and intense story of greed, betrayal and murderous revenge.

Then on 4th January, 9pm on ITV1, we have a new series from Lynda La Plante, Above Suspicion. Based on her best selling novel, the two-part drama introduces DC Anna Travis, a young and ambitious officer who is fast-tracking her way through the ranks, eager to prove herself to be as successful as her late father.

Anna has been assigned to her first murder case – a gruesome series of killings that has shocked even the most hardened of detectives. The murders started eight years ago, and now the body count is up to six. The method of killing is identical, and the victims are all drug-users and prostitutes.

Then a seventh body is found. The modus operandi is the same, but the victim is a young student. Determined to earn recognition from her boss, the brusque Detective Chief Inspector Langton, and the respect of her male colleagues, Anna works hard to find a vital piece of information which links one man to the murders.

There’s also a brand new drama starring Philip Glenister who plays Rupert Galvin in Demons but the start date has yet to be confirmed. Demons is a contemporary spin on the legacy of Bram Stoker’s Dracula set above and beneath the streets of modern-day London.

Glenister’s character Rupert Galvin is a larger-than-life American with a tragic past and a zero tolerance policy to the rabble of mythical “half-life” entities that exist all around us. When he bursts into the life of his teenage godson, Luke, played by Christian Cooke, whose father died in mysterious circumstances 15 years before, little does Luke know what will be thrust upon him.

There are supernatural forces of evil at work and it is Luke’s destiny, as the last descendent of the Van Helsing line, to smite the half-lives that stalk our streets.

In addition to the TV series, a unique online experience, Demons: The game, will accompany the show allowing players to immerse themselves in Luke’s deadly mission.

And finally, Dexter’s back! The start of the new series is on ITV1, 8th January at 10.35pm and sees two treasure hunters making a gruesome discovery when they stumble upon what appears to be a mass underwater grave off the Florida coast… and, Dexter Morgan has a problem.

Actually he has several problems, and that’s not counting the fact that he’s a serial killer. Well, was a serial killer, for it’s been nearly forty days since he was forced to slit his brother Rudi’s throat, and, despite his best efforts, he can’t bring himself to kill anyone. It isn’t that he doesn’t want to – he needs to – but for some reason at the moments when it counts most, he is getting performance anxiety. He just cannot do it, so how will he cope with these weird events? Tune in to find out!