Summer is almost over, but most streamers still have enough content left to keep the summertime festivities going. While almost everyone knows and has Netflix or Prime Video, a select group has discovered the underrated pleasures of BritBox.
As the premiere streamer for all things British, BritBox always has compelling movies and TV shows that keep people coming back for more. August is no different, with the premieres of the acclaimed TV shows Murder Investigation Team, The Ex-Wife, and Next of Kin. There are also classic movies like A Room with a View and Another Country debuting as well. Like any other streaming service, titles come and go, so keep reading to find out everything coming to BritBox in August 2023.
Granite Harbour (all episodes available)
After completing his tour with the Royal Military Police, Lance Corporal Davis Lindo (Romario Simpson, Django) envisions becoming a Scotland Yard detective but instead finds himself training as a Detective Constable in Aberdeen in the northeast of Scotland.
Murder Investigation Team (all episodes available)
From the makers of The Bill, Murder Investigation Team reveals the gritty reality of police work, where success is part grueling procedure and part gut instinct. Leaders of an elite squad of detectives, brusque DI Vivien Friend (Samantha Spiro, Me Before You) and intuitive DC Rosie MacManus (Lindsey Coulson, EastEnders) single-mindedly pursue those who do unthinkable deeds in the nation’s capital.
The Ex-Wife S1 (all episodes available)
Based on Jess Ryder’s hit psychological thriller of the same name, The Ex-Wife tells the story of Tasha (Celine Buckens, Showtrial), a young woman who feels like she is living the dream: she has the perfect house, a loving husband and a beautiful little girl. But there’s one large blot on Tasha’s marital landscape: her husband’s ex-wife won’t leave them alone and seems intent on staying in the picture. When Tasha returns home one day to find her life turned upside down, she realizes that the dream she is living may be about to turn into a nightmare.
Rumpole of the Bailey (all episodes available)
In John Mortimer (Brideshead Revisited)’s satirical look at criminal law and the workings of the Old Bailey, Horace Rumpole (Leo McKern, Blue Lagoon) is a barrister who spouts Wordsworth to himself and is famed among colleagues for his battered hat and general slovenliness. His wife, known as “She who must be obeyed,” sometimes thinks Rumpole has been so busy playing parts in courts that he’s lost all trace of his own identity.
In this British drama based on the novel by E.M. Forster, Lucy Honeychurch (Helena Bonham-Carter, The Crown) a young Englishwoman, is touring Italy with her older cousin (Maggie Smith, Downton Abbey). At a hotel in Florence, Lucy meets the charming and free-spirited George Emerson (Julian Sands, Crossbones). Although intrigued by George, once she’s back in England Lucy ponders settling down with the wealthy, staid Cecil Vyse (Daniel Day-Lewis, Lincoln). When George reappears in her life, Lucy must decide between him and Cecil.
In this film adaptation of the Julian Mitchell play, classmates and fellow outcasts Guy Bennett (Rupert Everett, My Best Friend’s Wedding) and Tommy Judd (Colin Firth, The King’s Speech) find comfort in friendship during the 1930s, at an elite British public school where conformity is the norm. Openly gay Bennett must deal with bullying and homophobia, while Judd struggles to reconcile the expectations of the establishment with his own Marxist beliefs when he is given the opportunity to become head boy.
Above Suspicion S1-4 (all episodes available)
From award-winning writer Lynda La Plante, Above Suspicion follows the detective careers of DC Anna Travis (Kelly Reilly, Yellowstone) and her police partner DCI James Langton (Ciaran Hinds, Game of Thrones) as they investigate shocking crimes and seek to bring sadistic and merciless killers to justice. Under the unorthodox guidance of Langton, rookie Travis must negotiate a series of killings shocking even to the most hardened detective and defy the challenges of these brutal crimes to rise up the ranks of the police force. While investigating the mutilated body of a young woman whose death seems to echo that of a notorious unsolved murder from the 1940s, Travis and Langton will have their detective skills pushed to the limits as they seek to bring those above suspicion to justice.
Inside No. 9 S8 (all episodes available)
Steve Pemberton (Psychoville) and Reece Shearsmith (The League of Gentleman)’s award-winning anthology returns with six more deliciously dark tales where the ordinary and mundane rub shoulders with the extraordinary and macabre. Critically-acclaimed Inside No. 9 has won many awards including four BAFTAs, Royal Television Society awards, and a Rose d’Or. This eighth collection of films brings together a truly original mixture of comedy, drama, horror, and thriller – all designed to delight and confound. From online speed-dating to murderous mind games, from a fear of Fridays to a lakeside love-nest, and from East End gangsters to the bones of a dead saint, each episode is as unexpected and enthralling as the next. With a stellar cast of guest stars, every one of these tales will entertain and terrorize in equal measure.
The Museum S2 (all episodes available)
A second season of the critically acclaimed Welsh drama The Museum returns to BritBox as the action moves out of Cardiff and to West Wales – a land steeped in magic and mystery. Nia Roberts returns as Della who has had a temporary reassignment from her role as director of a museum in Cardiff after the events of the first season and now runs a museum in a rural town, but finds the world of art crime follows her wherever she goes.
Next of Kin S1 (all episodes available)
Starring award-winning British actress Archie Panjabi (The Good Wife), this fast-paced series focuses on doctor Mona Harcourt, as her family life is turned upside down in a matter of hours. As London, the city in which Mona and her husband Guy (Jack Davenport, Pirates of the Caribbean) work, is hit by a terrorist attack, Mona also learns that her brother Kareem (Navin Chowdry, The End of the F***ing World) has been abducted in Pakistan. With rumors swirling around the whereabouts and possible actions of Mona’s nephew Danny (Viveik Kalra, Blinded by the Light), a resolute Mona travels to Pakistan in the hope of keeping her family safe.
BritBox is a digital video subscription service offering the largest collection of British TV in the U.S. and Canada. Created by two British content powerhouses — BBC Studios, the subsidiary arm of the BBC, and ITV, the UK’s biggest commercial broadcaster—the service features iconic favorites, exclusive premieres, and current series and soaps—most available within 24 hours after their U.K. premiere. BritBox also offers expert curation and playlists that enable fans to easily find programs they know and discover new favorites via the web, mobile, tablet and connected TVs.
BritBox is available for $8 per month/$80 per year—after an introductory free trial period—on Roku, Amazon Fire TV stick, Apple TV 4th Gen, Samsung, LG and all iOS and Android devices, AirPlay, Chromecast, and online. BritBox is also available on Amazon Channels for Prime members and on Apple TV Channels on supported devices.
China just gave Hollywood a cautionary tale about AI filmmaking. Sanxingdui: Future Past, billed as the country's first fully AI-generated movie, hit theaters on October 23 and bombed at the box office.
According to Futurism, the film's reported $1.5 million production budget landed on more than 10,000 screens. Yet it pulled in only about $181,000, averaging roughly $20 per screen, making the budget difficult to recover.
Some of the best shots in Grok Imagine’s AI-made Odyssey don’t contain actors. Ancient landscapes stretch into the distance. Close-ups of grimy hands suggest people who have touched something rougher than a keyboard. For a few seconds, the illusion holds.
https://twitter.com/imagine/status/2113712964419063911
YouTube videos could soon look better without eating quite so much data, right? Thankfully, the platform plans to introduce a new video format called AV2 on its web player in early 2027, promising more efficient streaming and potentially fewer playback hiccups on slower internet connections. The big headline is a roughly 30% improvement in compression efficiency over AV1, YouTube's existing video format. That doesn't guarantee every video will use 30% less data, but it could make streaming a little easier on both internet connections and data allowances.
What is AV2, and why should viewers care?