What's new on television this autumn? Austen, Hardy and Dickens

You could call them credit crunch classics - reliable dramas for worrying times.

This autumn sees a new crop of television series courtesy of the bankable trio of Jane Austen, Charles Dickens and Thomas Hardy.

Packed with star names from Kenneth Branagh to Tom Courtenay, they are among 10 TV highlights chosen by this week's Radio Times.

On BBC1, Hardy's Tess Of The d'Urbervilles, famously filmed by Roman Polanski with Nastassja Kinski, gets its first television adaptation in a decade. Rada-trained Gemma Arterton, from Gravesend - who is soon to be seen as a Bond girl in Quantum Of Solace - takes the title role.

The cast includes rising stars Eddie Redmayne and Jodie Whittaker and costume drama veterans such as Anna Massey.

Kate Harwood, the executive producer, said Hardy was "arguably the most neglected of Britain's great literary authors" so she was pleased to present the new version.

No one could call Charles Dickens neglected, but one of his lesser-known works, Little Dorrit, is set to follow the Baftaawardwinning Bleak House onto the small screen. Andrew Davies, the prolific king of adaptations, has written his own version of Dickens's love story/mystery for BBC1.

The cast includes Tom Courtenay, Amanda Redman, Matthew Macfadyen, Bill Paterson, Alun Armstrong and Andy Serkis ( Gollum in Lord Of The Rings).

Jane Tranter, the BBC's fiction controller, said: "Making classic adaptations both accessible and relevant to a broad modern audience is one of the great privileges of working with BBC drama productions."

Meanwhile ITV1 is to present Austen with a twist. Unwilling to plump for straight adaptation - or fearful of comparisons with the BBC's much-loved landmark version of Pride And Prejudice - it has made Lost In Austen.

Described as "Life On Mars in bonnets and corsets," it features an Austen fan, Amanda Price (played by Jemima Rooper) who discovers Pride And Prejudice heroine Elizabeth Bennet in her bathroom.

The two swap places in a series that again sees Gemma Arterton in a starring role, alongside Alex Kingston, Hugh Bonneville and Lindsay Duncan. Flynn Sarler, Radio Times's commissioning editor, said: "A lot of people have felt that there wasn't necessarily a huge amount of new things over the summer, but whatever your personal taste in television there's something new and different this autumn. There shouldn't be a week when there isn't something to watch or video."

Literary classics have long been a television staple with Elizabeth Gaskell's Cranford and Flora Thompson's Lark Rise To Candleford among recent examples.

Lost In Austen provided an "interesting take", Ms Sarler said. "You have a modern girl trying to live in the world of Pride And Prejudice. People will love or loathe it but I enjoyed it. Elliot Cowan is the best we've seen as Mr Darcy."

More details can be found in this week's edition of Radio Times.

PICK OF THE AUTUMN HIGHLIGHTS

Wallander - BBC1

Murder mysteries in which Kenneth Branagh stars as the quick-tempered Swedish detective Kurt Wallander. The Wallander books have sold more than 25 million copies worldwide; Branagh is a fan.

Oceans - BBC2

The hidden stories of the world's seas presented
by a team headed by Philippe Cousteau Jr, grandson of the celebrated ecologist and filmmaker Jacques. The new landmark natural history series covers stunning underwater scenery, strange creatures and shipwrecks.

The Devil's Whore - C4

A story of the English Civil War as told by Peter Flannery, creator of one of the most significant dramas of the Nineties, Our Friends In The North. A crack cast includes John Simm as well as Dominic West as Oliver Cromwell and Peter (The Thick Of It) Capaldi as Charles I.

Merlin - BBC1

Richard Wilson, Michelle Ryan, Colin Morgan, above, and Anthony Head star in a new 13-part adaptation of the stories of the wizard of Arthurian legend. It's sorcery and swords for all the family on a Saturday night.

Stephen Fry - In America - BBC1

Polymath entertainer Fry drives across the States in a black cab in a six-part travel series. "I wanted to find out what it is that makes the United States of America so unique, so diverse, so very American," he says.

James May's Big Ideas - BBC2

The Top Gear presenter tours the world to meet friendly boffins and explore all things scientific. He will tackle questions that have long perplexed him such as: "Can scientists make a double of me?"

Survivors - BBC1

A 21st century version of the cult sci-fi classic of the Seventies starring Max Beesley and Doctor Who's Freema Agyeman. The new story of a deadly virus that wipes out nearly all the world's population has been created by Adrian Hodges, who co-created Primeval.