BBC iPlayer

Type: free

Shows we’ve recommended on this platform:

28 Days Later

Director: Danny Boyle

Runtime: 113 minutes

Overview: After a deadly virus escapes from a research facility, London becomes eerily empty and dangerously unpredictable. A small band of survivors tries to stay alive while the infection spreads fast through people and animals, forcing them to make hard choices about trust, safety, and what’s left of humanity.



Mission: Impossible

Director: Brian De Palma

Runtime: 111 minutes

Overview: After a covert mission collapses without warning, an elite agent finds himself blamed for the disaster and hunted from all sides. With trust in short supply, he goes on the run to uncover a hidden traitor inside the agency and stop sensitive intelligence from falling into the wrong hands.



The Notebook

Director: Nick Cassavetes

Runtime: 123 minutes

Overview: In a nursing home, an older man reads a love story from a worn notebook to a woman living with memory loss. The tale follows two young lovers kept apart by war and family pressures, then drawn back together years later after life has taken them in different directions.



Louis Theroux's Weird Weekends

Director: N/A

Runtime: 60 minutes

Overview: Louis Theroux which delves into the weirder fringes of American society.



Louis Theroux: The Settlers

Director: Joshua Baker

Runtime: 62 minutes

Overview: 14 years after his first visit, Louis Theroux meets some of the growing community of religious-nationalist Israelis who have settled in the occupied West Bank.



Louis Theroux: Miami Mega Jail

Director: Emma Cooper

Runtime: 60 minutes

Overview: Louis takes an in-depth look at Miami's jail system, a vast holding pen for the unconvicted where most inmates are awaiting trial.



Time

Director: Andrea Harkin

Runtime: 58 minutes

Overview: In a British prison, a first-time inmate and a prison officer face guilt, violence, and impossible choices as they try to get through each day. This tense, gritty drama explores survival, responsibility, and the emotional toll of life behind bars.



The Capture

Director: N/A

Runtime: N/A minutes

Overview: A former soldier finally gets his life back after a conviction is overturned, hoping to focus on his young daughter and a fresh start. But new CCTV footage from a night out throws everything into doubt, pulling him into a tense fight to prove what really happened as powerful forces close in.



I May Destroy You

Director: Sam Miller

Runtime: N/A minutes

Overview: In modern-day London, a young writer with a busy social life is thrown off course after a night out leaves her shaken and searching for answers. As she tries to make sense of what happened, she rethinks relationships, consent, and the everyday choices that shape her future, leaning on friends while rebuilding her confidence and direction.



The Missing

Director: Tom Shankland, Ben Chanan

Runtime: 60 minutes

Overview: After a child vanishes during a family trip, the search stretches across years and borders, reopening old wounds and raising new questions. Told across two timelines, this tense anthology thriller follows the ripple effects on loved ones, investigators, and a community struggling with grief, suspicion, and the need for answers.



Bodies

Director: John Strickland, Iain B. MacDonald

Runtime: 60 minutes

Overview: This British medical drama follows staff on a busy NHS labour and gynaecology ward as they juggle relentless targets, workplace politics, and personal entanglements. It aims for a gritty, unvarnished look at hospital life, with intense procedures and hard choices that test professional ethics and relationships.



Luther

Director: Brian Kirk, Jamie Payne, Sam Miller, Stefan Schwartz, Farren Blackburn

Runtime: 60 minutes

Overview: A driven detective hunts brutal killers across London while battling his own inner turmoil and a growing reputation that puts him at odds with colleagues. Each case piles on fresh pressure, forcing him to make risky choices as his personal life and work crises collide.



Doctor Foster: A Woman Scorned

Director: N/A

Runtime: 54 minutes

Overview: A woman begins to suspect her husband is having an affair and starts digging for the truth. As she follows one lead after another, the situation spirals beyond betrayal into a tense, emotionally charged unraveling that exposes darker behavior and a streak of violence beneath the surface.



Sherwood

Director: N/A

Runtime: 60 minutes

Overview: In a divided former mining community, a shocking killing reopens long-held grudges and sparks fresh rivalries. As the search for answers intensifies, families and neighbors are pulled into a tense spiral of suspicion, revenge, and painful history.



Normal People

Director: Hettie Macdonald

Runtime: 30 minutes

Overview: Two young people keep drifting in and out of each other’s lives, pulled together by attraction and pushed apart by insecurity, class pressures, and what they leave unsaid. As they move from school into early adulthood, their connection becomes a tender, painful study of intimacy, power, and the need to be loved.



The Lakes

Director: Bill Anderson, David Blair, David Moore, Roberto Bangura, Sallie Aprahamian

Runtime: 60 minutes

Overview: The Lakes is a mystery drama created and written by Jimmy McGovern for BBC1. The first series – comprised of four episodes – broadcast from 14 September to 5 October 1997. A second series of ten episodes ran from 10 January to 14 March 1999. Danny Kavanagh leaves Liverpool for the Lake District, finding work at a hotel and love with a local girl named Emma. Yet Danny remains an outsider in the close-knit community, and through the machinations of fate, he finds himself implicated in a tragedy. The secrets, lies, and crimes, of the seemingly tranquil community continue to be revealed.



This Is Going to Hurt

Director: Lucy Forbes, Tom Kingsley

Runtime: 45 minutes

Overview: A junior doctor in a busy obstetrics and gynaecology ward faces relentless shifts, limited resources, and constant pressure. The series mixes sharp humour with raw, emotional moments as work and personal life collide in an overstretched hospital system.



Line of Duty

Director: Daniel Nettheim, David Caffrey, Douglas Mackinnon, Jed Mercurio, John Strickland, Susan Tully, Gareth Bryn, Michael Keillor

Runtime: 60 minutes

Overview: A controversial police anti-corruption unit investigates wrongdoing from within the force, where every case tests loyalty, procedure, and trust. As inquiries intensify, tense interviews and courtroom moments push investigators to follow tiny details that could expose cover-ups or clear the innocent.



Life on Mars

Director: Bharat Nalluri, John McKay, Richard Clark, Andrew Gunn, S.J. Clarkson, John Alexander

Runtime: 60 minutes

Overview: After a car accident during a major investigation, a modern-day detective wakes up in 1973 with no clear explanation. Forced to work cases in a world of outdated tools and rougher attitudes, he tries to survive the culture shock while searching for clues that might explain what happened and how to get back.



Peaky Blinders

Director: Steven Knight

Runtime: N/A minutes

Overview: In postwar 1919 Birmingham, a notorious gang builds its reputation with razor-bladed caps and ruthless ambition. As their sharp-minded leader pushes the family business to new heights, shifting alliances and mounting pressure test how far they’ll go to rise in a changing world.



Happy Valley

Director: Euros Lyn

Runtime: 59 minutes

Overview: A tough, experienced police officer juggles demanding cases with a complicated home life while raising a grandchild after a personal loss. Set in a close-knit Yorkshire community, the series blends dark humor with tense investigations and the everyday pressures that follow her on and off the job.



Inside No. 9

Director: Dan Zeff, Graeme Harper, Guillem Morales, Kieron J. Walsh, Louise Hooper, Reece Shearsmith, David Kerr, Jim O'Hanlon, George Kane, Barbara Wiltshire, Al Campbell, Matt Lipsey, Ian Bevitt

Runtime: 30 minutes

Overview: This darkly comic anthology delivers self-contained stories set in or around a place marked “number 9.” Each episode shifts tone between humor, thriller, horror, and drama, building everyday situations into strange, unsettling, and often surprising tales you can watch in any order.



Call the Midwife

Director: Heidi Thomas

Runtime: 52 minutes

Overview: In 1950s East End London, a close-knit group of midwives serves a struggling community, balancing demanding work with everyday relationships and faith. Based on real memoirs, each episode blends tough social realities with warmth, humor, and hard-won hope as they help families through life’s biggest moments.



Doctor Who

Director: Donald Wilson, Sydney Newman, C. E. Webber

Runtime: N/A minutes

Overview: A brilliant time-traveling alien roams the universe, hopping across eras and worlds to help people in trouble. With quick wits, a big heart, and a knack for finding danger, this adventurer turns saving planets into an ongoing, unpredictable ride through space and time.