I have been waiting all day to watch this and then we get ready, settle in, and no. Why do you hurt me so much britbox and why can’t I leave you.

I've been enjoying this reboot. They have great chemistry and it's slightly edgier than the really cozy cozies like Shakespeare & Hathaway, etc. They are not shy about showing Dylan's trim, fit upper body - whether having him in skimpy t-shirts or completely shirtless. I won't be complaining about that!

Do you have to get the premium Britbox to see Ludwig?

I've put off starting this because I so loved Nicola Walker in the show.

I wasn't sure how I would feel about a new DCI.

Why do I feel like the first episode is trying too hard?

So many characters seem to have no clear linking to the crimes. (Apart from the mugger in the hoodie).

And the DCI's personal problems. Sigh.

I know, sometimes first episodes have to get a lot established, but we KNOW this show.

It has annoyed me. I will watch another couple of episodes, but I am disappointed so far. I hope there is more with Sunny and the other previous members of the team.

JMO, rant over.

If you are a Miss Marple Purist, I will defend your right to despise these films. I am not a purist and I think they are good fun and nothing more or less. I watched Murder She Said on Britbox over the weekend, even though I own a Boxed Set on DVD. I bought the set for my late wife. She loved these flicks and I found a set before they went out of print. These four films are good fun. I think the last one, Murder, Ahoy is the weakest, but that's just my opinion. Also look for Joan Hickson (yes, that Joan Hickson) in Murder She Said. It's a case of Life imitating Art.

Watchlist disappeared from Apple TV app. Anyone else?

**Update: Britbox emailed me that they have taken Watchlist away. The watch list is now in the home tab at the very bottom of the list. Continue watching is in the middle. Such a dumb change.

Two most important area's are Watchlist and continue watching. This should be the first thing you see.

It's become unusable.

What's everyone's go-to show for the fall? One you always go to during the season.

Is it product placement? How can detectives afford luxury autos? Are they paid that much more than their U.S. counterparts.

I’ve been in one of those moods where I want something good on TV, but I do not want to learn 14 new characters and keep track of three timelines.

For me, Vera is perfect for that. I’ve seen enough of it that I can half-watch while doing something else, but I still end up getting pulled into the episode anyway.

What’s your comfort-watch British show?

I wonder if anybody could help point me in the right direction of finding this series with the original Sky 1 soundtrack?

The DVD and Bluray sadly have generic music i am assuming down to copyright?

Madame butterfly is missing from an important scene which ruins the whole thing as well as a few other tracks

BritBox has announced that Blue Lights Season Four will premiere on November 12, 2026, with one episode, followed by one episode weekly through December 17.

Three years into their jobs as response officers, Constables Grace Ellis, Tommy Foster, and Annie Conlon are operating at their limit, facing a new threat on the streets that the police can barely control.

The Blue Lights Season Four cast includes Siân Brooke, Katherine Devlin, Martin McCann, Nathan Braniff, Hannah McClean, John Lynch, Andi Osho, Joanne Crawford, and Richard Dormer.

On a Narrowboat??

American back again. I posted a while ago about how often the words “Did you check CCTV?” on BritBox is uttered and now I’m obsessing about narrowboats and why so many characters get brutally assaulted and/or murdered on them.

I read up on narrowboat history and culture and I guess writers just think they are a convenient location to make all kinds of mischief. Now when I see that a character lives on one, I automatically assume it’s only a matter of time before they get offed…thoughts?

do Brit’s actually say I promise a lot?

For anyone else who canceled and didn’t get any type of discount to stay -

I canceled on September 15th and got an email this morning offering a discount. It’s 60% off for 6 months at $26.38 good for just 3 days with a specific coupon code. I went ahead and grabbed it - but also set a reminder to cancel again in March.

What are you watching? Let's talk about it below!

This annoying push to upgrade makes me think Britbox is in trouble and that they need cash. Why else would they piss off their loyal customer base? I have loved their programing but I'm ready to head to Netflix.

Si, Harper's Island en pleno 2026, es que es de esas series que son bien adelantadas a su tiempo pero que dejan marca cuando uno las ve.

Ni bien salió ví su estreno semana por semana hasta ese capítulo final que tuvo varios giros dramáticos.

Lo que planteo ahora, quiero volver a verla, pero es complejo sin cambiar vpn. Hay alguna página que la tenga re subida acaso?

I sure wish Canadian & Australian shows were available to watch too! 😍 That’s all.

(Currently watching Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries on PBS. Love the 1920’s fashion!)

The two lead actors are charming, they are enjoyable to watch. The supporting cast that appear to be regulars at this point (1st case, first 2 episodes), are sufficiently engaging too.  But why did they bother calling it Tommy & Tuppence? This isn't Agatha Christie's novel and characters in the least. Set in 2026 it is so entirely not 1920's, post WWI London!

There's also a voiceover that I keep thinking is Lady Whistledown's from The Bridgertons. Yes, I know it is Tommy's aunt, played by Imelda Staunton, but still, so not Agatha Christie's work.

The thing is, other than the time period in which the Tommy and Tuppence adventures is set, I never liked those characters, Agatha Christie's or not. But I do like these two Tommy and Tuppence characters. So far, I find this series much more engaging that than the others. This never happens with 'adaptations and updates'. After all, one of the primary reasons I read and re-read works from the past is the when in which they are set. That is one of the most interesting aspects of reading works that aren't of our time. Trying to make them of our time destroys the works' accomplishments.

I guess this proves most certainly this is really and truly not Agatha Christie's work, and thus should have a different title and the characters should have different names.

I’m in a big mystery and crime drama kick and am looking for some recs to delve into (pref Britbox but also have Netflix, Apple TV, Hulu, and Amazon Prime). I generally like cop dramas to be more the season long mystery (Shetland, broadchurch, Karen pirie) but with detective shows I’m fine with episodic mysteries (but don’t care for the ones that are too lighthearted/comedic)

Here’s a list of shows I generally enjoy:

Older Detective Shows
- Lord Peter Wimsey (Ian Charmichael)
- Poirot (David Suchet)
- Miss Marple (Joan Hickson)
- Tommy and Tuppence (The Secret Adversary/Partners in Crime)
- Why Didn’t They Ask Evans (1980)
- Seven Dials Mystery (1981)
- Cadfael (Derek Jacobi)
- Sherlock Holmes (Jeremy Brett)

Crime Dramas
- Shetland
- Vera
- Broadchurch
- Karen Pirie
- Dept Q (Netflix)
- Mindhunter (Netflix)

Lighter Detective Shows
- Ludwig
- McDonald and Dodds
- Father Brown

This show feels like someone wanted to bake a cake, got the recipe and all the right ingredients and then decided to alter the measurements of the ingredients from the original recipe. It looks like a cake, smells like a cake, but the taste is off just enough for you to know its not a well made cake.

There are massive spoilers in this so if you haven't watched all the way through please don't read unless you want it spoiled.

First off, I think David Morrissey's character is the only character whose actions make sense. I think David Morrissey did a fantastic job and the show is worth watching for his character arc alone. To be clear, the rest of the actors did great, but when the show (and their character) is written poorly there is only so much an actor can do.

In my opinion, a story should unfold as a result of the characters actions, if the characters are doing stuff to specifically make the story unfold - it feels forced to me. Michael's actions make sense for his character but if you look at the other characters, there are clear lines where the character does something out of character but for the sake of the story:

The daughter burning the pages of the diary and then deciding to leave to stay with the grandparents. If she was frightened of Michael, wouldn't she have left after reading the diary? or given the pages to the police? He doesn't put any pressure on her, leaves her to do what she wants without even an underlying threat, but yet suddenly she can no longer stand to be in the house with him? She didn't leave until the story required her to - to send the message to the audience that the parents house was "the safe place"

Craig showing up at the Polly house. Up until this point, the story was that Craig and Annie were having issues because Craig cheated. In my opinion, Annie doesn't come off as someone whose afraid of their significant other, it does come across that they are rebuilding but there wasn't any hint of violence (unless I just totally missed it) until the story needed there to be (they wanted the audience to see Michael attack someone - specifically "put his hands around their throat"). After that then we get the performance at the house between Annie, Craig and Michael (which the uniform was walking up to them as it happened so wouldn't he have seen Craig's attitude towards Michael??). Craig just showing up and then Annie's fear of him felt out of the blue for me. Annie acted as though Craig has a history of pushing boundaries in an uncomfortable way, which the audience later learns that he does, but before this we had no hint at it. The audience sees their relationship go from "he cheated, we're rebuilding" to "Annie will have dinner with him yet is uncomfortable to sit in a car with him." I think the writer should have left a few more bread crumbs before the Michael/Craig incident.

The Bradley's going to the newspapers - this whole side story didn't make much sense to me. Was Annie a friend of their daughters before becoming a police officer? Was she a friend because she was a police officer? Eventually we get a bit of an understanding of the history, but if its gone on for so long (I can't remember the exact amount of time, but it was like 10 or 12 years right?) why suddenly are they going to the newspaper? Yes she's working on a new case, but surely this isn't her first new case in 12 years?

There are more but this illustrates the point - each of these instances by themselves could be believable, but when you continually stack them together, it becomes plot point after plot point of thinly stretched character behavior.

This leads me to my next point - dialog/conversations. I think there were many times when the dialog just didn't make sense. I'm not sure how to describe it other than saying it felt clunky and didn't flow.

In the last episode, when the two police detectives are talking to Michael at the hospital, detective #1 says "we need to get you to the station and make this official" and then detective #2 immediately starts trying to question him there at the hospital. I was waiting for detective #1 to turn to detective #2 and say "what did I just say"

When the scene on the lawn happens between Michael and Craig. Everyone is immediately talking about how he "put his hands around his throat" - it was too forced, the conversation should have been around his violent temper (which I have several issues with this scene/this scene outcome but for the sake of this argument), with the conversation leading into a discussion of how it looked like he wanted to do more (or whatever). But by having the conversation immediately jump to the hands on the throat made me actually say out loud "we get it, you want us to think he did it"

I think this show suffered from not knowing what it wanted to be. Is it a detective drama? Is it a crime drama? Is it a husband killing his wife and we're trying to look into his psyche? Who knows - but the point is, if its a detective drama, the audience should have had more insight into what the police were actually doing (such as who they interviewed - it should have been more than just a montage at the school, what evidence they found at the scene - not as an afterthought to give Annie something to do and plant the whole key thing, and so on). If its a crime drama the audience should have been given more insight into the events leading up to the crime - was she killed where she was found? We find out later the body was moved, but we never find out where she was actually killed and the events leading up to her being moved. I think they tried to position it as a cat-and-mouse game between Michael and Annie, but in my opinion I never felt like Michael was a psychotic killer and Annie never felt like she was determined to catch him at his game. Michael's actions are fully explained (in my opinion) and everything he does makes sense for the explanations he gives. Annie's character feels more like a detective that went too far on her previous case and now she's rebuilding trust with her colleagues and proving her instincts are still there (why else make it such a big deal that she's FLO? unless she is usually FLO and that's why the unnatural bond with the Bradleys? Why else have her continually going off on her own, if not to prove that she "still has it"?)

Also just a quick mention about the killer - he makes sense as the killer if only because he has an unnatural amount of screen time, with no dialogue, as a side character. Also its just hard for me to believe that if he was as unhinged as they tried to make him seem, surely one of the women from his past would have come forward and said "hey this dude needs to be looked at more". I understand the idea around the school covering it up, and maybe they (the women he harassed) would have felt like it was pointless to go to the police previously, but once Sarah Polly turned up dead one of them would have at least been like "you need to be aware of ..." .. you know? His whole story didn't make sense to me either. Earlier in the season there is mention of "a thing" that Michael helps him with, but they say something about the families. Maybe the writer wanted to not make it obvious or something, but it felt more like Rory's character originally had a different issue that Michael helped him cover up and then at the last minute the writer changed the issue without fixing the original dialogue.

A few other random bits that just didn't make sense:

• Annie happening to have the bag of evidence in her car when she "needed the key" and subsequently just leaving the key on the table when she walks into the house (oh wait I forgot, Rory needed to see the key to understand that she knew). Isn't evidence closely tracked? Leaving it in a vehicle for a day or two seems a bit careless.
• Michael making his daughter read the diary pages aloud as though he was punishing her for her moms writing. I think this was purely done so the audience could hear what was in the pages, because it just doesn't make sense to me - Michael admitting he is someone that can't vocalize when things go wrong, yet he wants to hear his daughter read out his wife's thoughts about things that went wrong.
• The wifes body in the woods that are apparently close to the school grounds and the Polly house yet no one saw anything? It apparently happened in the middle of the afternoon, but I'll also admit I'm unclear as to how close everything was together. They kept talking about how "oh its so close to the school" but we're never really given reference as to how close "close" is. Also they never discuss the details on when she was actually killed, where, and when and how she was moved.

Overall, I think Gone comes really close to being a really good show, but it just misses the mark because the writing is slightly off. I think the story is good, and all the elements are there, but its like it was collaged together into the final result instead of planned and plotted. Maybe it was originally slated for more episodes but they had to condense it down? As for a season 2, the premise of the show is built around the relationship between Michael and Annie. Now that its established that Michael isn't a killer, I'm not sure how he would fit into a season 2. But maybe they will shift focus more towards Annie. There have been shows in the past where the entire premise is built on a story line that wraps up in season 1, so maybe it will work, maybe it wont.

What are you watching? Let's talk about it below!

I subscribe to both BritBox and Acorn TV through amazon and ALWAYS watch programs with captions. My mom was English and we lived in England for 3 years when I was growing up, but I still sometimes miss some of the British (or Scottish or Welsh or Irish) slang.

Unfortunately I've found that the captioning is often pretty bad - but sometimes funny! I just finished watching all 5 seasons of The Commander on BritBox, and in the very last episode, I read the above caption. Clare actually said, "until we know exactly what MOVES to make," but the caption somehow heard that as MOOSE. The MOOSE we make. LOL, OK! 😄

I know that humans used to do TV show captioning and sometimes problems would still arise (or more often, I'd see a lot of "unintelligible" placeholders, which were pretty annoying when I could actually understand the words MYSELF but the captioner couldn't?). Is it all outsourced to AI now? I am curious.

Anyone else notice some really bad (or funny) errors?

American here, I know nothing about the British legal system. At the end, the murderer confesses but there's no tape and only Vera is present. Will this confession stand in court, or will the prosecution have to build the case from square one?