Don’t get me wrong, I love my American TV shows, US producers really know how to make a show but when I want something serious and artsy in nature I always turn to the BBC. We are a nation of Anglophiles after all. Besides Capitalism tends to get in the way of even good shows (Daredevil for example) which often get cancelled due to low ratings or some finicky reasons.
The BBC being a state broadcaster does not normally have to worry about such mundane things as ratings. They do get plenty of opportunity to try out things. The result is that most of their shows (series) are better paced and there is no rush to make sure that the crime is solved, for example, by the end of each episode.
Here are the BBC shows of 2018
- Dr Who– a reboot of the old series. I will admit I do not know who Spock is since Star Wars is not my cup of tea. Instead Dr Who has provided me with my much needed scifi fixes and even with a female lead the show has been scintillating- the sexists stand shamed.
- Killing Eve-I was skeptical of this at first after watching trailers and reading the reviews. I like binge watching so I waited until the first series ( this is what the BBC calls a season) and then sampled the first episode. It’s ridiculous is all I will say, but it is surprisingly entertaining. Plenty of fetishistic gory murders in there.
- McMafia- The premier was received with much fanfare before the whole thing just fizzled to a satisfactory conclusion. Still a great show to watch
- The Bodyguard- my wife liked this one but this is a stereotypical lazy terror flick. There are evil Muslims ( or terrorists as the two are one and the same apparently, who knew) who want to destroy beautiful Britain and they run around trying to kill all sorts of politicians but they are thwarted by an immortal, handsome (heroes are always handsome you know) hero. It’s available on Netflix too.
- Collateral-this is a great murder mystery
- Trust– you have seen Getty images now it’s time you know their family story.
- Press- the BBC really needs to work on their titles. Despite the unimaginative name this is a very good show. It’s the BBC’s take on the fake news era. Feels a little like it was made by The CW but it succeeds in being mature in the end.
- The Long Song– Americans always praise themselves, Lincoln is considered a saint, for ending slavery but most slaves didn’t find it liberating. Most found themselves poor, homeless and worse off than they were before. A depressing series.
- Mrs Wilson– can you really know someone?
- Small Island-a look at the lives of the Windrush generation
How to watch these shows
If you are not in the UK you will need a SmartDNS service. I would recommend either SmartDNS Proxy ($25 for two years) or SmartyDNS (a little more expensive but with more Netflix regions). Once you have a DNS service change your current DNS settings to those you are given by the SmartDNS service provider. You can also download their Android apps from the store.
- Sign up for the iPlayer service. This is free.
- Enter a valid UK ZIP code when you log in for the first time
- Click on any of the above links and you will be taken to the first episode of that show.
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2 comments
Let’s be responsible here Techzim. To use iPlayer one has to be a BBC tv license holder. Even the iPlayer app will ask you to confirn that you hold a valid BBC tv license before you can use it. Stop promoting illegal activities just for the sake of paid content from your VPN provider client.
Using SmartDNS, VPNs, or proxies to access iPlayer is somewhere in the grey area. There are cases when British expats have valid BBC TV licenses and they are only able to watch iPlayer by using one of the technologies mentioned above.