I saw a message on a coffee cup the other day. It read, "The possibilities are endless once we decide to act." It got me thinking, life is full of infinite possibilities. Big and small, good and bad. Sometimes we create these opportunities, other times we simply stumble upon them, but we have to open our minds to see them. Before I transform this into a new-age motivational self-help column, however, here's a quick rundown of the possible shows that could be winging their way onto our television screens in the months ahead, if you're ready to embrace them …
If costume dramas are your thing, then the BBC's Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, adapted from Susanna Clarke's bestselling fantasy novel of the same name, may tickle your petticoat. Set in 19th-century England during the Napoleonic wars, the show stars Bertie Carvel ( Sherlock) and Eddie Marsan ( Ray Donovan) as two wizards who team up to battle a dark lord. It's quite likely to be another enchanting British period drama series, much like the enormously successful Downton Abbey, which will begin its fifth season in Britain this autumn.
While the online teaser trailer for Downton hasn't given too much away, we do know Anna Chancellor ( Spooks) and Richard E. Grant ( Gosford Park) will be joining the cast, while Maggie Smith's Dowager Countess of Grantham will (thankfully) be getting more screen time. Despite the trailer's ominous oration from butler Carson - "I feel a shaking of the ground I stand on. The nature of life is not permanence, but flux. Things are changing" - the show's creator and writer Julian Fellowes has sworn not to kill off anyone this year, after all the vitriolic mourning at the death of fan favourite Matthew Crawley.
There's also no shortage of crime and suspense lurking around the corner: while there have been whisperings of a second season of the superb Broadchurch, the first series of the critically acclaimed British mystery thriller has received the obligatory stateside remake. Renamed Gracepoint, it will star former Dr Who David Tennant in a reprisal of his Broadchurch role, alongside Breaking Bad's Anna Gunn, who steps in for Bafta award-winning Olivia Colman. With an alternative ending and slightly different plot to the British original, this is a show worth keeping a beady eye out for.
Yet another kill-the-president drama, Hostages is a cross between the mega successful Homeland and 24, and stars Toni Collette as a White House medic who is being forced by terrorists holding her family captive to yep, you guessed it, kill the president.
Well, as Jack Bauer is currently scampering around London in the latest series of 24: Live Another Day, maybe she should call the Caped Crusader for assistance - although the young Bruce Wayne has yet to discover his winged calling in Fox's tantalisingly stylish Gotham. This Batman origins series focuses on James Gordon, an idealistic policeman who will one day become commissioner of the crime-infested metropolis. Look out for the pre-villainous versions of the Riddler, Penguin and Catwoman, before they take up costume design.