Today marks the anniversary of three very different British TV premieres, separated by more than 30 years.
On October 23, 1981, ITV introduced viewers to That's My Boy, a sitcom starring Mollie Sugden, best known as Mrs. Slocombe in Are You Being Served? Sugden played Ida Willis, a housekeeper who discovers that her employer's adopted son is actually the baby she gave up for adoption years earlier. The series ran for five seasons and gave Sugden another leading sitcom role following her success at Grace Brothers.
Fast-forward to October 23, 2013, and BBC Two premiered Ambassadors, a three-part comedy-drama starring David Mitchell and Robert Webb as British diplomats working at an embassy in the fictional Central Asian country of Tazbekistan. The series also featured Keeley Hawes and Tom Hollander.
And if you’re a fan of tracking down the really obscure shows? Girls on Top turns 41 today. It aired for two seasons in the mid-80s, following a group of young women living together above a wealthy romance novelist. Dawn French, Jennifer Saunders, Ruby Wax, Tracey Ullman, and Joan Greenwood starred - with appearances from Robbie Coltrane, Hugh Laurie, Pauline Quirke, and Alan Rickman, among others.
You won’t find Girls on Top on any of the major streaming services - but if you’re really curious about it, a bit of Googling will turn up some “gray market” uploads from amateur archivists.
This guide contains more than 220 pages of listings for US-based streaming services like Acorn TV, BritBox, Hulu, Netflix, HBO Max, Amazon Prime Video, and more - and there’s also an alphabetized index in back where you can find the service if you know the name of the show. 2500+ shows in total!
If you’re sick of endlessly clicking around trying to find something to watch, or if you feel like you’re not seeing everything that’s available to you on the services you use, it’s a great way to navigate the options. We use a larger-than-average 12-point font to make sure it’s readable, and there’s plenty of room for making notes about upcoming shows you want to remember to check on.
Want to learn more? You can CLICK HERE to view more details and sample pages, or to place your order.
What we’re…
Watching: Slow Horses (Season 6) - If you’ve been waiting for all the episodes to be available, you’ll be pleased to know the last episode was released earlier this week. I know it’s on Apple TV+ and a lot of people hate to watch anything outside of Acorn/BritBox/Netflix, but this one is definitely worth it, assuming you don’t mind your spy shows a bit on the edgy side. It’s darkly hilarious and intelligently written - and though it’s not a perfect replica of the books, it does them justice, as TV adaptations go.
Reading: The Coffee Shop Detectives by Louise Mumford - I’m actually listening to this one rather than reading, and that’s because it’s an Audible Original narrated by the delightful Alison Steadman (Gavin & Stacey, Here We Go). It’s a cozy-ish mystery about four female pensioners who decide to right an old wrong (the death of a friend) and finance an experimental treatment for a friend by pulling off a heist - and it’s great fun.
THIS WEEK IN BRITISH TV
On BritBox, new episodes of season 2 of Ludwig continue on Tuesdays, and new episodes of Celebrity Escape to the Country continue on Fridays. On the 22nd, they added season 3 of Time (new episodes weekly, 3 in total). On the 26th, they’ll add season 19 of Would I Lie to You?
On Acorn TV, all episodes of season 3 of Signora Volpe are now available. New episodes of the Graham Norton Show continue on Thursdays, and the finale of the Belgian English-language mystery This is Not a Murder Mystery will air on the 26th. On the 19th, they added The Red King, a 2024 crime drama that mixes a missing persons case with a dash of Welsh folk horror (episodes air weekly on Mondays). On the 26th, they’ll add the 2023 crime drama Wolf, along with the true crime documentary The Hunt for the Chameleon Killer.
PBS Passport and PBS Masterpiece, the 18th brought season 2 of The Gold (weekly), season 5 of Professor T (binge), and season 2 of Maigret (weekly).
On Apple TV+, the 16th of September brought the premiere of season 6 of Slow Horses - and all episodes are now available. On the 7th, Small Prophets premiered (new episodes airing weekly).
On AMC+, they added the first two episodes of Yaga on October 23rd. It’s Canadian, but it’s a mystery-thriller set in a small coastal town where a PI arrives to investigate the disappearance of a young heir - so it’s seasonally appropriate (and we know many of our readers love the occasional Canadian show).
On Amazon Prime Video, October 23rd brings the premiere of the Last One Laughing UK Halloween Special (which continues through October 30th).
On BBC Select (+ BritBox Premier), the 22nd brought Murder in Concrete and The Castle: Rebuilding History. On the 29th, they’ll add Wonderland: Secrets of the Spymasters & Spies, Einstein & Hawking: Masters of Our Universe, and Stolen Babies: Britain’s Adoption Scandal.
Joan: Look, Marty, you do realise that the villagers are dusting off their pitchforks, don't you?
Dr. Martin Ellingham: Yes. Exactly how many generations ago did the inbreeding start with these people?
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