First off - Acorn TV has announced a date for the upcoming season (5) of Madame Blanc Mysteries. It begins on November 9th, with seven episodes airing over seven weeks. All the usuals will be back, and we’ll even see the return of Sir Tony Robinson (as Dom’s uncle).
Sixty-seven years ago today, the very first BBC production of Bleak House premiered (in 1959, if you don’t feel like doing the math). Constance Cox adapted Dickens’s novel into 11 half-hour episodes, and Diana Fairfax and Andrew Cruickshank starred.
Though the original footage was lost, the production itself survived thanks to telerecording - with an added guest star. In one of the later episodes, a bug crawls across the screen, and that little guy (or gal) appears in all surviving copies of the series.
Though no streaming services offer the 1959 production of Bleak House, you can find those old telerecordings on sites like YouTube. Prefer something a little more modern? Try one of these:
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: The English Neighborhood - This one’s kind of interesting because there’s a British connection, but it’s from the other side. The series itself is Spanish, set in 1941 when a young woman is hired by a British mining company. She gets to know a handsome Englishman there, and finds herself dragged into a difficult situation.
Reading: The Oxford Detective Society by Faith Martin - This is the first in the new Oxford Detective Society series, and it opens with an Oxford biographer who’s been hired to write about a 1960s music icon who died in mysterious circumstances - but soon after she starts poking around, she realizes she’s attracted some very dangerous attention. It was just under $5 at time of writing (Kindle version), but if you use Kindle Unlimited and/or Audible, it’s a “read and listen” selection.
THIS WEEK IN BRITISH TV
On Acorn TV, new episodes of season 3 of Signora Volpe continue on Mondays, along with new episodes of the Graham Norton Show on Thursdays (Graham Norton is also on AMC+). On the 12th, they added the Belgian English-language mystery This is Not a Murder Mystery and the docuseries The Flight Attendant Murders. On the 19th, they’ll begin airing episodes of The Red King, a 2024 crime drama that mixes a missing persons case with a dash of Welsh folk horror.
PBS Passport and PBS Masterpiece, the final episode of Marble Hall Murders (the follow-up to Magpie Murders and Moonflower Murders) premiered on October 11th, along with the final episode of season 3 of Marlow Murder Club - so if you were waiting to binge, they’re all there now. On the 18th, they’ll be adding season 2 of The Gold, season 5 of Professor T, and season 2 of Maigret.
On Apple TV+, the 16th of September brought the premiere of season 6 of Slow Horses, with new episodes continuing weekly through October 21st. On the 7th, Small Prophets premiered (new episodes airing weekly).
On AMC+, they’ll be airing 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 Netflix, October 15th brought season 4 of The Diplomat.
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 15th brought season 1 of Humans and season 2 of Fantastic Friends. On the 22nd, they’ll add Murder in Concrete and The Castle: Rebuilding History.
“One day I'll send you out for a routine inquiry and it'll turn out to be just that. But I won't hold my breath. You'd find something suspicious in a saint's sock drawer.”
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