What’s leaving Sky and NOW TV in August / September 2017?
David Farnor | On 24, Aug 2017
Autumn is coming. And that means summer is leaving – even Game of Thrones is drawing to a close, as we put away our buckets and spades and pick up our notepads and pens for the post-summer return to school and work.
Before you give up on the summer completely, though, there’s still time to enjoy some of Sky’s best films and box sets before they disappear, from The Man from UNCLE and Black Books to Spaced, Veep, Silicon Valley and The Leftovers’ very final season.
Not a Sky customer? You can get access to both Sky Box Sets and Sky Cinema through contract-free streaming service NOW, which costs £8.99 a month (for an Entertainment Membership, including Sky 1, Sky Atlantic, FOX UK and more), or £9.99 a month for the whole Sky Cinema catalogue. Whichever you subscribe to, this is your last chance to stream the following:
TV
The Catch Season 1 – 31st August
Shonda Rhimes follows up her other hit shoos with this new series, which follows Alice Vaughn – strong, successful and LA’s top private investigator. But when her fiance cons her out of millions and disappears, Alice goes on a private mission for payback…
Black Books Season 1 to 3 – 1st September
It’s been over 15 years since Black Books first aired on Channel 4, so you’d be forgiven for forgetting about it, or not even hearing about it in the first place. What you can’t be forgiven for, though, is not watching it. Dylan Moran, Bill Bailey and Tamsin Grieg deliver hilarious performances across all three seasons of Moran’s Bernard Black running the world’s least welcoming book shop. Surreal, silly, smart and stuffed with one-liners, this is one of the best sitcoms of the modern era.
Scandal Season 5 – 31st August
Olivia Pope and her gladiators in suits face another season of gossip and fixes.
Spaced Season 1 and 2 – 1st September
Simon Pegg and Jessica Hynes (nee Stevenson) play two adorably geeky flatmates in this inspired comedy from Pegg, Edgar Wright and Nick Frost – a taste of the Cornetto-flavoured wit and ingenuity that was to come in their big screen outings.
Teachers Season 1 to 4 – 1st September
The same can be said of Channel 4’s Teachers, which aired in 2001. Tim Loane’s drama, which follows a group of slacker secondary school teachers, starred Andrew Lincoln, a role that gave him his break way before he became Rick Grimes in The Walking Dead. He’s just as charismatic behind a classroom desk.
Veep Season 1 to 5 – 7th September
Born from The Thick Of It and helmed by Armando Iannucci himself, Veep follows to the day-to-day trials of Vice President Selina Meyer and her working relationships. Struggling against the President, the media and her staff, Selina tries to balance staying afloat with staying relevant.
Silicon Valley Season 1 to 3 – 12th September
From the creator of Beavis and Butt-Head comes this comedy charting the rising fortunes of a socially awkward computer programmer and his company.
The Leftovers Season 3 – 14th September
One of the most inventive and unpredictable series on television comes to a close as the third and final season of the critically acclaimed drama The Leftovers begins. It’s been four years since the events at Miracle, and the world is still struggling to come to terms with The Departure – the unexplainable global event that saw two percent of the population suddenly vanish.
Riviera Season 1 – 17th September
Neil Jordan’s new show is part family drama, part high-octane crime series, set against the awe-inspiring backdrop of France’s Côte d’Azur. With the first two episodes co-written by Booker Prize-winning author John Banville (The Sea), it stars Julia Stiles as Georgina Clios, the smart and resourceful second wife of Constantine Clios, who dies in mysterious circumstances in a yacht explosion. Georgina slowly begins a journey from light to dark as she discovers how little she knew about the man she loved and the world he lived in.
Other TV shows leaving in August / September 2017:
24th August
Outside Edge Season 2
25th August
Naked And Afraid Season 2 and 3
27th August
Hunderby Season 1
Chopper Squad Season 3
Ridiculousness Season 9
Outside Edge Season 3
30th August
Antiques House Season 1
31st August
Blood & Oil Season 1
Idiotsitter Season 1
Don’t Sit In The Front Row Season 1
Brief Encounters Season 1
Grey Anatomy Season 12
The Art Show Season 1
The Return of Sherlock Holmes Season 1
Wuthering Heights Season 1
1st September
Grouchy Young Men Season 1 and 2
Most Ridiculous Season 1
House of Fools Season 2
Are You the One? Season 1 to 5
The Wrong Mans Season 1
4th September
Only Fools and Horses Season 1
Vera Season 6
6th September
Idris Elba: Fighter Season 1
Jericho Season 1
9th September
Scott and Bailey Season 4
10th September
DCI Banks Season 5
11th September
Gavin & Stacey Season 1
Drunk History USA Season 1
12th September
Gavin & Stacey Season 3
14th September
Devious Maids Season 1 to 4
Most Ridiculous Season 2
The Return of Sherlock Holmes Season 3
15th September
Naked And Afraid XL Season 2
Sinbad Season 1
Movies
The Man From U.N.C.L.E. – 26th August
Henry Cavill and Armie Hammer (and a scene-stealing Alicia Vikander) are on super-stylish form in Guy Ritchie’s period spy thriller, based on the classic TV series. Between the slick suits, snappy editing and super-cool soundtrack, this is a cool pastiche that isn’t ashamed to simply have fun. Sometimes, it’s not just about how well you do something: it’s about how good you look while doing it.
The Wild Bunch – 31st August
Sam Peckinpah’s film about an ageing outlaw gang in a changing frontier is an undeniable classic.
The Goonies – 31st August
“Hey, you guys!”
Strangers on a Train – 31st August
This thrilling tale of double-crossing killers, after two strangers meet on a train and appear to agree to swap murders, is one of Hitchcock’s best.
Beethoven – 31st August
The only reason most children will even know what a St. Bernard is, this 1992 family comedy about a dog who runs riot when adopted by a picture-perfect family in the suburbs is wonderfully cheesy, unabashedly sentimental stuff.
Gran Torino – 31st August
Clint Eastwood is on reliably gruff form as an old American struggling to come to terms with the changing face of his neighbourhood.
Kill Bill: Vol 2 – 31st August
Tarantion’s rip-roaring rampage of revenge reaches a quiet, but satisfying conclusion in this Wild West-tinged second half.
Straight Outta Compton – 10th September
This Oscar-nominated drama charts the rise and fallouts of controversial legendary hip hop group N.W.A, who burst out of LA’s Compton gangland in the 1980s. Corey Hawkins is on stellar form as Dr Dre.
Back to the Future – 13th September
Robert Zemeckis’ decade-hopping classic, featuring Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd and a super-charged DeLorean, is genuinely timeless.
Inside Out – 15th September
“The best Pixar films have always had an element of autobiography about them, and Inside Out reads practically like a manifesto for Pixar’s output – heck, it’s practically a tour of the studio. Gather a bunch of diverse personalities together and let them work the controls in order to inspire outrageous flights of imagination, devastating heartbreak and cinematic joy. It was only a matter of time before Pixar made the logical leap and actually made a film from the viewpoint of the emotions they have so effortlessly mined over the past 20 years.” (Our full review)
Other movies leaving Sky Cinema and NOW in August / September 2017:
24th August
Bad Bromance
Cars 3: Special
Scooby-Doo
26th August
Forbidden Kingdom
27th August
Charlotte’s Web
Dreamgirls
28th August
Click
31st August
American Ultra
Battle of the Bulge
Captive (2015)
Freaky Friday (1976)
King Arthur
Lethal Weapon 2
Me, Myself & Irene
Pocahontas
Road to Paloma
Son of Flubber
Straight Time
The Crow’s Egg
The Frankenstein Theory
The Greatest Story Ever Told
The Prince and the Showgirl
The Runner (2015)
The Santa Clause 2
The Spirit of St. Louis
The Walk
Who’s That Knocking at My Door?
2nd September
Vacation
4th September
Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan
Mercury Rising
10th September
Strange Magic
13th September
The Matrix Reloaded
The Matrix Revolutions
14th September
Hotel Transylvania 2
15th September
Lava
Mr Magoo