The Underground Railroad (Amazon Prime)
Colson Whitehead's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel gets the TV adaptation it deserves courtesy of director Barry Jenkins who has an Oscar to prove his worthiness for the job. The action focuses on Cora and Caesar, two on the run slaves who discover that the titular railroad is no mere metaphor but a secret train that can carry them north of the Mason-Dixon line to freedom. There's lots of historical liberty taking, but the series' heart is definitely in the right place. Look out for Thuso Mbedu, the South African actor playing Cora who's a massive star back home.

Big Sky (Disney+, May 21)
Having won no fewer than eight Emmys with Big Little Lies, David E. Kelley returns with this deft adaptation of C.J. Box's The Highway series of whodunits. Katheryn Winnick of Vikings fame and Brave New World's Kylie Bunbury co-star as a former cop and a private detective entrusted with finding two sisters who've been abducted on a remote Montana highway. It soon becomes apparent that they're dealing with a serial killer trucker whose behaviour is accelerating faster than his rig. Also featuring as a sex worker is Jesse James Keitel (no relation) who makes US TV history by being the first non-binary actor to play a non-binary character on primetime.

Halston (Netflix)
Ewan McGregor stars as Roy Halston Frowick, the fashion designer who shot to fame in 1961 when he designed the iconic pillbox hat that Jacqueline Kennedy wore at JFK's presidential inauguration. The textbook definition of "maverick", he went on to befriend the likes of Andy Warhol, Bianca Jagger, Prince Rainier and Liza Minnelli before succumbing in the early '90s to an AIDS-related cancer. Expect lashings of luxury, sex, status and fame with a side order of surreal comedy.

Gunplot (RTÉ Podcast)
Having deservedly scored a massive hit with The Nobody Zone, the national broadcaster's podcast division cast a forensic eye over the 1970 Arms Trial that found then government ministers Charles J. Haughey and Neil Blaney accused of trying to import £80,000 worth of guns for the IRA. They were turbulent times with Taoiseach Jack Lynch considering military action to protect Derry Nationalists from the RUC and UDA. Frequently stranger than fiction, it's a fascinating story brilliantly told with the help of RTÉ's extensive archives. The accompanying TV doc is on their player.

Time Is A Killer & Ice Cold Killers: Rocco Schiavone (Walter Presents strand of Channel4.com)
Having inflamed numerous passions as Casino Royale Bond girl Solange, Catarina Murino stars as a woman returning to her Corsican hometown 25 years after being the only member of her family to survive a car crash. Or was she? A letter purporting to be from her mother triggers a labyrinthine mystery that only she can unravel. Also new from Walter is Ice Cold Murders: Rocco Schiavone whose titular police commissioner gets transferred to a remote Alpine town after pissing the wrong people off in Rome.