Who needs to pay for a subscription when you can stream new and old cinematic gems alike for free on BBC iPlayer?

We round up the best movies currently available on BBC iPlayer, with their expiry dates listed so you know how long you have to stream them. (Click here to see our reviews of the best TV shows on BBC iPlayer.)

Murder on the Orient Express

Albert Finney dons the iconic Hercule moustache for this star-studded take on the classic Poirot mystery.

Available until: 22nd January 2020

Death on the Nile (1978)

Peter Ustinov wears the moustache this time, as Hercule Poirot embarks on an Egyptian cruise only for a beautiful American heiress is murdered during her honeymoon voyage. The star=studded cast includes Bette Davis, Mia Farrow, David Niven, Angela Lansbury and Maggie Smith.

Available until: 22nd January 2020

Brief Encounter

David Lean’s romantic masterpiece chronicles an almost-affair between a wife (Celia Johnson) and a married man (Trevor Howard) after their paths cross at a station. Throbbing with passion, pain and pathos, it’s a beautiful, timeless tribute to unrequited love, captured with monochrome precision and swooningly accompanied by Rachmaninov. Even today, people still flock to Carnforth railway station in Lancashire to relive their memories of the film – and filmmakers such as Todd Haynes still echo Lean’s classic in their own work.

Available until: 15th January 2020

Love & Friendship

This utterly delightful comedy is Jane Austen like you’ve never seen her before.

Available until: 15th January 2020

Just Jim

Things look up when a lonely Welsh lad forms a friendship with his mysterious American neighbour, but is it all too good to be true? The ever-likeable Craig Roberts makes his directorial debut with this dark coming-of-age comedy.

Available until: 15th January 2020

Score: Cinema’s Greatest Soundtracks

This enjoyable, informative documentary shines a deserving spotlight on the magic of movie music.

Available until: 15th January 2020

Philomena

Steve Coogan and Judi Dench make a charming odd couple in Stephen Frears’ drama about an old lady teaming up with a jaded journalist to find out what happened to her son, after being separated from him when younger by a Catholic home.

Available until: 19th January 2020

The Bleeder

Liev Schreiber delivers an award-worthy performance in this tale of the real life inspiration behind Rocky Balboa.

Available until: 19th January 2020

We Need to Talk About Kevin

Lynne Ramsay’s adaptation of Lionel Shriver’s novel may not always be the psychological mystery that either set out to make, but Tilda Swinton and Ezra Miller’s performances as troubled teen Kevin and his mother are horribly convincing.

Available until: 19th January 2020

Mrs. Brown

Judi Dench and Billy Connolly are on excellent form in this low-key drama about one of history’s most unusual love stories, as a grieving Queen Victoria finds herself drawn to an unconventional Highlander.

Available until: 20th January 2020

Tamara Drewe

Gemma Arterton and Tamsin Grieg are superb in this drama based on the graphic novel about Tamara, who returns to the sleepy Dorset village where she grew up, sparking a contest for her affections.

Available until: 23rd January 2020

Made in Dagenham

Gemma Arterton and Sally Hawkins are superb in this winning tale of female factory workers fighting for equal pay. Given a 15 certificate because of its swearing, this is still worth considering as an option for younger teens, thanks to its uplifting true tale and inspiring example.

Available until: 23rd January 2020

Guys and Dolls

Frank Sinatra and Jean Simmons crackle with charisma in this film version of the classic Broadway musical, which sees gambler Nathan Detroit bet Sky Masterson (Marlon Brando) that he can woo Sarah, a women who works at the Save a Soul Mission. With songs that sound as good as the characters’ names, anyone who doesn’t find themselves tapping their toes along should sit down and stop rocking the boat.

Available until: 24th January 2020

It Follows

Imagine someone walking towards you. Not very scary, is it? Wait until you see It Follows. David Robert Mitchell’s horror thriller follows Jay (Maika Monroe), who finds herself on a date gone terrifyingly wrong, when she wakes up post-sex strapped to a chair and is told that something is going to try and kill her. Why? We don’t know. Who? We don’t know that either. What we do know is that this entity will continue following her until it catches her and shuffles her off her mortal coil. It’s clever. It’s unconventional. And it’s very, very creepy.

Available until: 24th January 2020

The Importance of Being Earnest

Rupert Everett, Reese Witherspoon, Colin Firth and Judi Dench lead this impressively cast adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s masterpiece, which sees a comedy of mistaken identity ensue when two gentlemen friends use the same alias to pursue the women they love.

Available until: 24th January 2020

Hugh Grant Triple-Bill: Paddington 2

This flawless family sequel will make you laugh, cry and fall in love with Hugh Grant. What more could you want?

Available until: 24th January 2020

Hugh Grant Triple-Bill: Florence Foster Jenkins

Meryl Streep is on splendid form in this comedy based on the true story of Florence Foster Jenkins, a 1920s New York socialite whose attempts to make it on stage resulted in her being dubbed the worst singer in the world. Hugh Grant is wonderful as the English husband encouraging her.

Available until: 24th January 2020

Hugh Grant Triple-Bill: Emma

Alan Rickman in a hat. If that isn’t enough to get your attention, Ang Lee’s sumptuous take on Jane Austen’s tale (adapted by Emma Thompson) of three daughters stars Kate Winslet, Thompson, Hugh Grant and Gemma Jones.

Available until: 24th January 2020

The Eagle Has Landed

A squad of German paratroopers is sent to England to kidnap Winston Churchill in this classic World War II adventure, starring Michael Caine, based on the bestseller by Jack Higgins.

Available until: 24th January

Scrooge

Available until: 24th January 2020

The Duchess

18th-century drama based on the tumultuous life of the duchess of Devonshire, a bright, popular aristocrat who is trapped in a failed marriage and has to face personal conflicts.

Available until: 24th January 2020

The Limehouse Golem

This intelligently gory period horror is an enjoyable, old-fashioned ride.

Available until: 25th January 2020

Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa

North Norfolk’s finest radio DJ ends up in a siege in this feature-length outing. A big-screen adventure that keeps things decidedly small, Alpha Papa impresses not because of its laugh count but because of its surprisingly mature take on Steve Coogan’s ageing non-celebrity, which emerges as something tender as well as silly.

Available until: 28th January 2020

The 39 Steps

The very definition of classic. Hitchcock’s 1935 thriller, which goes from London to the Forth Bridge and back again, takes in everything from spies to handcuffs. Shackled together for the duration, Robert Donat’s Hannay sets the template for Hitch’s wrong-man-on-the-run, while Madeleine Carroll’s sniping love interest adds a fun comic touch. The low-key climax may not be the Big Ben-straddling stunt of the 1978 remake, but this is cracking, tense stuff.

Available until: 1st February 2020

The Ipcress File

Sidney J. Furie’s 1965 spy thriller deftly subverts any conventions established by the burgeoning 007 franchise, jauntily swaying from Harry Palmer frying eggs to mind-bending hypnosis, all the while accompanied by John Barry’s irresistibly cool score.

Available until: 1st February 2020

My Life As a Courgette

This delicately heartwarming study of loss, family and friendship is a tiny stop-motion masterpiece.

Available until: 2nd February 2020

What We Do in the Shadows

There’s one thing you need to know about Jemaine Clement and Thor: Ragnarok director Taika Waititi’s horror comedy, which follows a group of vampire flatmates in Wellington: it’s very, very, very funny. If you like vampires, or you like Waititi’s Hunt for the Wilderpeople, do not miss the chance to see this.

Available until: 3rd February 2020

A Hard Day’s Night

Anarchic and offbeat 1960s story of 36 hours in the lives of The Beatles, as they travel to a TV show in London.

Available until: 3rd February 2020

Mustang (2015)

Northern Turkey. Lale and her four sisters are on their way home from school, innocently playing with the local boys. But prying village eyes view their games with suspicion…

Available until: 4th February 2020

Paint Your Wagon

The rugged trail west, hard-fighting, hard-drinking Ben joins forces with the quiet-living Pardner, but their friendship is tested when Pardner falls in love with Ben’s wife.

Available until: 4th February 2020

Our Little Sister

Hirokazu Koreeda’s family drama follows three sisters who attend the funeral of their father, only to meet their half-sister, Suzu (Suzu Hirose), for the first time. She is invited by the eldest, Sachi (Haruka Ayase), to live with them. There are no soap opera shouting matches to be found here, though: Koreeda is a master of the everyday, of capturing complex relationships through the minutest shifts in behaviour.

Available until: 5th February 2020

Burton and Taylor

Dominic West and Helena Bonham Carter are excellent in this underseen drama telling the story of Hollywood’s most glamorous couple, Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor, who acted together for the last time in Noel Coward’s Private Lives in 1983.

Available until: April 2020

Paranormal Activity

A young couple’s joy at moving into their own new home turns sour as sinister disturbances interrupt their sleep. A camcorder documents their increasingly distressing experience. When things don’t happen, it’s brilliantly disturbing. When they do, it’s a slight disappointment.

Available until: October 2020

Facing Franco’s Crimes: The Silence of Others

Storyville strikes gold again with this very powerful documentary that reveals the reality of life after Franco’s dictatorship fell in Spain, with a government-sanctioned ‘pact of forgetting’ the crimes that victims suffered. Filmed over several years, the sensitive but shocking snapshot of the nation’s fascist past is a reminder not to let history repeat itself again.

Available until: December 2020

Man on the Moon

Jim Carrey is remarkable in this biopic of controversial comedian Andy Kaufman. Star of Taxi and Saturday Night Live, Kaufman’s unorthodox humour was often misunderstood.

Available until: December 2020

Minding the Gap

Bing Liu’s Oscar nominated documentary Minding the Gap is the coming-of-age saga of three skateboarding friends in their Rust Belt hometown, hit hard by decades of recession. Read our interview with Bing here and our full review of the film here.

Available until: December 2020

I Walked with a Zombie

A nurse tending a paralysed woman on a Caribbean island discovers that her charge hides a terrifying secret. Jacques Tourneur’s 1943 classic stars Frances Dee and Tom Conway.

Available until: 23rd October 2023

Night of the Living Dead

George A Romero’s 1967 classc, which sees a group of people barricaded in a farmhouse to survive the reawakening of the dead, remains as chillingly relevant as ever.

Available until: 23rd October 2023

Twelve Monkeys

Brad Pitt is excellent in this time-travel thriller in which a convict from 2035 is sent back in time to find the cause of a virus which has wiped out most of the planet’s population.

Available until: December 2020

iPlayer Originals and Exclusives

Happy New Year, Colin Burstead

Tragicomedy directed by Ben Wheatley about the difficulty of family relations. Middle-aged Colin organises a New Year’s Eve gathering for his extended family. Read our review

Available until: February 2020

HyperNormalisation

Adam Curtis’ latest documentary is perfectly at home on BBC iPlayer, freed from broadcasting constraints to ramble through the last three decades of global history to try and work out how we got to today’s world of Donald Trump and Brexit. The result is typically simplified and willfully obtuse, but there are thought-provoking flashes of inspiration amid the experimental mash-up of polemic and pop culture. Clocking in at almost three hours, no one else is making documentaries like this, and that’s something to be celebrated.

Available until: October 2021

Fear Itself

BBC iPlayer’s second original feature is the follow-up to teen documentary Beyond Clueless. Young director Charlie Lyne and the Beeb’s streaming platform prove a scarily perfect match, the lack of constraints giving him the chance to fully embrace the experimental nature of his film essay. The documentary stitches together clips from existing horror movies to explore how and why they scare us, but instead of an explanatory voice-over critiquing and giving context, we’re given a whispered narration from an anonymous woman who is working through her own fears. Contrasting cuts and eerie echoes arise during the hypnotic 80-minute montage, quietly raising questions while offering a fresh insight into films that have, in some cases, become all too familiar. As interesting as it is creepy. (Read our full review.)

Available until: October 2020

The Fear of God: 25 Years of The Exorcist

The Exorcist is, without a doubt, one of the scariest films ever made – and, without a doubt, the man most determined to convince you of that fact is Mark Kermode. The BBC critic is known for his ardent love of William Friedkin’s seminal horror, so it is no surprise that in 1998, he wound up presenting a documentary marking its 25th anniversary. 21 years on, however, it is a surprise that BBC iPlayer should bring it back to our screens for Halloween, after the documentary has existed in various cuts in various places but never available to stream legally until now. Read our full review

Available until: TBC

Family Favourites

Wallace & Gromit

Wallace and Gromit don’t appear on the TV as much as they used to, so any chance to catch them on BBC iPlayer should never be passed up. A Grand Day Out, which sees them travel to the moon for cheese, turns 30 this year and sums up their charm with simple imagination. A Close Shave combines Aardman’s usual slapstick and witty puns with conspiracies, wool shops and robot dogs. Worth it just for the best on-screen use of porridge since… well, maybe ever. And The Wrong Trousers, which sees Wallace’s home infiltrated by a killer penguin – who disguises himself as a chicken to commit armed robbery – is arguably their best, thanks to an inspired train sequence.

Available until: 23rd January 2020

The BFG

A galumphing warm hug of a film, Steve Spielberg’s adaptation of Roald Dahl’s classic completely captures the wide-eyed wonder of childhood. Magical.

Available until: 21st January 2020

Julia Donaldson Shorts

The Gruffalo

The definitive adaptation of Julia Donaldson’s book tells the magical tale of a mouse who takes a walk through the woods in search of a nut – and tells everyone he meets of his imaginary creature.

Available until: January 2021

The Gruffalo’s Child

A little Gruffalo ignores her father’s warnings and tiptoes out into the snow in search of the Big Bad Mouse in this charming sequel.

Available until: January 2021

Zog

The story of a keen young dragon in his first years at Dragon School.

Available until: January 2021

Room on the Broom

A kind witch invites a surprising collection of animals to join her on her broom, much to the frustration of her cat.

Available until: January 2021

The Highway Rat

A greedy rat (David Tennant) travels the highway in search of other animals’ food, before his sweet tooth finally leads him to a sticky outcome.

Available until: January 2021

Stick Man

Stick Man tells the tale of a happy-go-lucky father’s epic journey to make it home in time for Christmas.

Available until: January 2021