New on BritBox in the UK: What’s added in December 2020?

Lots of great new British television shows are coming to BritBox!

The digital video subscription service from the BBC and ITV offers viewers in the UK the very best in past, present and future British programming.

Featuring the biggest collection of British content available on any streaming service, Britbox is available for just £5.99 per month in HD via web, mobile, tablet and connected TVs.

Here are all of December’s upcoming new additions:

 

Under the Skin (available from 1st December 2020)

Surreal Film4 sci-fi horror starring Scarlett Johansson. An alien who has adopted the guise of a beautiful woman roams Glasgow, using her looks to attract men and lure them to an unspeakable fate.

 

Time Bandits (available from 1st December 2020)

Off-beat Film4 comedy fantasy from Terry Gilliam, starring John Cleese and Sean Connery. A young boy travels through time with a band of thieves looking for treasure.

 

Heartbeat – Seasons 1-3 (available from 3rd December 2020)

One of the most loved and successful series of all time, Heartbeat is set in the fictional North Yorkshire village of Aidensfield and brilliantly evokes the heady mood of the 1960s- all driven by a wonderfully nostalgic soundtrack of hit songs from the era.

Nick Berry stars as PC Nick Rowan in this hugely popular series centres on the local police and the many fascinating village characters; deftly combining humour and drama in its intriguing crime and medical storylines.

 

Minder – The Complete Series (available from 3rd December 2020)

The legendary George Cole plays Arthur Daley, an “entrepreneur” and king of the dodgy deal. If there’s money to be made Arthur’s interested! Arthur needs a bodyguard – enter Terry McCann (Dennis Waterman); just out of prison and in need of work, Terry becomes Arthur’s business associate and “Minder”.

Drinking in the Winchester Club run by Dave “The Barman” Harris (Glynn Edwards), driving the Capri and chatting up the ladies, Arthur and Terry cook up one half-baked scheme after another and their relationship strains to the limit, but ultimately they remain the best of friends.

When Terry finally tires of Arthur and escapes to Australia, Arthur takes his nephew Ray Daley (Gary Webster) under his wing, and so begins a whole new chapter of wheeling and dealing the Arthur Daley way!

 

Gemma Collins: Diva Forever & Ever (available from 4th December 2020)

Before the lockdown, successful businesswoman Gemma Collins was searching for her new dream home. With Gemma closing the doors to her Brentwood shop, will the lockdown put her dream home and future in jeopardy?

 

The Mallorca Files – Season 1 (available from 6th December 2020)

The attraction sizzles between workaholic DC Miranda Blake and her laid-back partner Max. They’re assigned to investigate crimes in the sunny Balearics. Starring Elen Rhys and Julian Looman.

 

The Persuaders! – The Complete Series (available from 10th December 2020)

They’re a pair of playboys with nothing in common but trouble…Roger Moore is Lord Brett Sinclair, a classic English aristocrat who finds his elegant life a bit dull. Tony Curtis is Danny Wilde, a rough-and-tumble Yank who worked his way from New York City’s slums to great wealth.

Thrown together by a judge who wants a second shot at criminals he’s been obliged to let walk, they are The Persuaders!, operating in the name of justice, on the fringes of the law.

 

Jekyll & Hyde – The Complete Series (available from 10th December 2020)

In 1930s London opportunity fills the air, but for the young, sensitive and naïve Doctor Robert Jekyll a dark past lurks in the shadows. Jekyll has inherited his grandfather’s curse, and in extreme moments is overcome by an inexplicable power – Hyde. Superhuman and uninhibited, the devilishly alluring Hyde is everything Jekyll isn’t.

Stunning CGI, a captivating score and mesmerising performances with a subtle wit and romance capture Jekyll’s struggle to balance the light and dark inside himself as he falls deeper into Hyde’s fearsome yet magical world. Here, no-one is quite as they seem – and monstrous creatures and sinister organisations will stop at nothing in the fight for his soul. Starring Tom Bateman and Richard E. Grant.

 

Soapy Slip Ups (available from 10th December 2020)

Coronation Street is one of the world’s longest running and most loved TV soap operas and this programme will take viewers on an affectionate rollercoaster ride through Weatherfield and its bloopers.

Misbehaving props, wardrobe malfunctions, corpsing and missed lines, this half hour special has them all and will feature some of Coronation Street’s biggest stars including Simon Gregson (Steve McDonald), Jimmi Harkishin (Dev Alahan), Ben Price (Nick Tilsley), Jane Danson (Leanne Battersby), Alex Mardell (Emma Brooker), Jack P Shepherd (David Platt) and Jenny McAlpline (Fiz) all talking us through their biggest bloopers.

 

The Best of An Audience With… (available from 10th December 2020)

A selection of the best episodes of the iconic entertainment show in which a celebrity host performs for an exclusive audience of celebrity guests.

Episodes feature Billy Connolly, Bob Monkhouse, Cliff Richard, Harry Hill, Jimmy Tarbuck, Ken Dodd, Kenneth Williams, Peter Ustinov, Ronnie Corbett, Victoria Wood and Dame Edna.

 

Fearne McCann: First Time Mum – Season 6 (available from 12th December 2020)

Ferne McCann as she navigates her biggest challenge yet: motherhood. We follow Ferne as she adapts to life as a single parent following the birth of her first child in 2017, baby daughter Sunday.

 

The Only Way is Essex – Season 26 (available from 17th December 2020)

Having navigated their way through lockdown, the Essex elite are back, and TOWIE royalty makes a welcome return to the fold. Amy Childs is back.

 

Gold Digger (available from 18th December 2020)

Julia Ormond and Ben Barnes star in the new BBC One domestic noir Gold Digger, about a woman falling in love with a much younger man and the effect it has on her already damaged family.

 

Auf Wiedersehen Pet – Seasons 1 & 2 (available from 24th December 2020)

Looking forward to bierkellers, frauleins, high wages and no taxes, Dennis (Tim Healy), Neville (Kevin Whately) and Oz (Jimmy Nail) leave Newcastle for work on a building site in Dusseldorf, meeting up with fellow ex-pats Wayne (Gary Holton), Bomber (Pat Roach), Barry (Timothy Spall) and Moxey (Christopher Fairbank).

This box set contains series one and two of the classic comedy showing the lads adventures in Germany, Spain and back home in Blighty.

 

The Dream Machine (available from 24th December 2020)

A fascinating glimpse behind the scenes of early television production as producer Francis Essex attempts to assemble his variety show Six Wonderful Girls, footage of which is juxtaposed with a lecturer teaching his students about the new medium of television.

Essex is trying to juggle his finances, arguing with executive Bill Ward over having to reduce his budget by £1,000. The Daily Telegraph critic asks him if he’s bothered about the ephemeral nature of television. Essex’s reply… ‘TV is a transient medium’.

We see Honor Blackman and Millicent Martin rehearsing with ATV’s top scriptwriters Sid and Dick in attendance. Finally, the tension of the recording!

 

Dad’s Army – Seasons 1-9 (available from 24th December 2020)

The entire collection of surviving episodes of Jimmy Perry and David Croft’s classic wartime comedy based around the Home Guard in Walmington-on-Sea.

Includes all nine surviving episodes from Series 1 and 2 and the complete series 3-9, as well as ‘A Stripe for Frazer’; an animated restoration of one of the missing episodes from the second series. Christmas specials from 1971, 1975 and 1976 are also included.

 

Strictly Come Dancing – Seasons 16-17 (available from 24th December 2020)

Enjoy the sixteenth and seventeenth seasons of Strictly Come Dancing!

Celebrity participants in 2018 included Katie Piper, Faye Tozer, Danny John-Jules, Joe Sugg, Vick Hope, Graeme Swann, Stacey Dooley, Dr Ranj Singh, Ashley Roberts, Seann Walsh, Kate Silverton, Lee Ryan, Lauren Steadman, Charles Venn and Susannah Constantine. The 2019 show featured David James MBE, Chris Ramsey, Emma Barton, Saffron Barker, Catherine Tyldesley, Mike Bushell, Karim Zeroual, Viscountess Emma Weymouth, Michelle Visage, Will Bayley MBE, Alex Scott MBE, Dev Griffin, James Cracknell OBE and Anneka Rice.

 

Hornblower (available from 31st December 2020)

The Hornblower series begins in 1974 in Portsmouth, England and is based on the character of Horatio from C.S. Forester’s stories. As a fierce squall rages in the English Channel, a pale-faced 17-year-old midshipman huddled at the stern is just embarking upon his career in the Royal Navy.

Sea-sick and drenched, Horatio Hornblower is laughed at by his new comrades as he boards a ship for the very first time. Little do they realise, however, that this young boy is destined to become one of the most courageous heroes of the Napoleanic Wars. Starring Ioan Gruffudd, Robert Lindsay and Cherie Lunghi.

 

The Beiderbecke Collection (available from 31st December 2020)

The entire comedy-drama series from Alan Plater. In ‘The Beiderbecke Affair’ (1984), woodwork teacher and jazz buff Trevor Chaplin (James Bolam) has always fantasised that a beautiful blonde will enter his life and simultaneously provide him with rare recordings of his hero Bix Beiderbecke. Unlikely as it seems, this is just what happens one evening when Trevor is at home in his flat.

In ‘The Beiderbecke Tapes’ (1987) Trevor and Jill find themselves plunged into another jazz-related mystery when the former purchases some Bix Beiderbecke tapes from a pub barman.

In the final part of the trilogy, ‘The Beiderbecke Connection’ (1988), Trevor and Jill are still living together, and they now have a baby boy to look after as well. Their household is increased still further when old friend Big Al asks them to take in a refugee as a favour; Trevor is reluctant until he discovers that his new guest is, like him, an ardent jazz fan.

 

Take a look at more new streaming recommendations here!