The best films on BBC iPlayer (20th January 2022)
James R | On 20, Jan 2022
Who needs to pay for a subscription when you can stream new and old cinematic gems alike for free on BBC iPlayer?
What films are currently available on BBC iPlayer? We round up the best movies on BBC iPlayer right now, 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.)
North by Northwest
Cary Grant takes on Hitchcock’s classic innocent-man-on-the-run role in this iconic thriller about an ad exec who’s pursued by a ruthless spy after being mistaken for a government agent.
Available until: 23rd January 2022
To Catch a Thief
When a reformed jewel thief is suspected of returning to his former occupation, he must ferret out the real thief in order to prove his innocence. Alfred Hitchcock. Grace Kelly. Cary Grant. What more could you want?
Available until: 23rd January 2022
Crazy Rich Asians
Utter joy from start to finish, Crazy Rich Asians is the film the world needs right now.
Available until: 22nd January 2022
Casablanca
Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman are electric in this classic romance set in Morocco during the early days of World War II, as the jaded owner of a gin joint unexpectedly crosses paths with his former lover.
Available until: 23rd January 2022
Singin’ in the Rain
A radiant cast, impeccable choreography and catchy songs make this one of the most feel-good movies of all time.
Available until: 24th January 2022
The Adventures of Robin Hood
Errol Flynn is the epitome of charisma in this gorgeously old-fashioned adventure that sees him play the swashbuckling hero Robin Hood, fighting against the dastardly Prince John.
Available until: 24th January 2022
Mary Poppins Returns
Emily Blunt is practically perfect in this sequel that recaptures the original’s pure feel-good magic.
Available until: 24th January 2022
Their Finest
Gemma Arterton and Bill Nighy are on top form in this likeable comedy-drama about a former secretary, newly appointed as a scriptwriter for propaganda films, who joins the cast and crew of a major production while the Blitz rages around them.
Available until: 24th January 2022
Mr Holmes
A serene but devilishly smart take on one of popular culture’s most enduring legends.
Available until: 25th January 2022
Paddington
A charming, funny film that embraces everyone in the audience, regardless of age or origin.
Available until: 25th January 2022
Paddington 2
This flawless family comedy will make you laugh, cry and fall in love with Hugh Grant. What more could you want?
Available until: 26th January 2022
When Harry Met Sally
Several decades later and we still can’t have enough of what she’s having.
Available until: 26th January 2022
Blade Runner 2049
Denis Villeneuve’s remarkable sci-fi sequel is a profound evolution of the timeless original.
Available until: 26th January 2022
West Side Story
Romeo and Julie gets the musical treatment, as Natalie Wood and Richard Beymer play two star-cross’d lovers in 1950s New York, caught between two warring gangs. From the whip-smart direction to the ear-worming songs, Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim’s musical is a treat guaranteed to get your fingers clicking.
Available until: 26th January 2022
The BFG
A galumphing warm hug of a film, The BFG completely captures the wide-eyed wonder of childhood.
Available until: 26th January 2022
Some Like It Hot
“Well, nobody’s perfect.”
Available until: 27th January 2022
A Star Is Born
Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga shine in this foot-stomping tearjerker of a musical.
Available until: 28th January 2022
Missing Link
It may not look like an evolution for Laika, but this big-hearted comedy is still an outstanding animated adventure.
Available until: 28th January 2022
Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa
If Alan Partridge directed a movie about himself, this would be it.
Available until: 29th January 2022
Man Up
The funniest and breeziest British rom-com in years.
Available until: 31st January 2022
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: 31st January 2022
The Eagle Has Landed
Not only a great outing Michael Caine, as he stars in John Sturges’ 1976 thriller about a Nazi plan to kidnap Winston Churchill, but a classic entry in the WWII cinematic canon.
Available until: 31st January 2022
Judy
Renée Zellweger is remarkable in this enchanting biopic of Judy Garland.
Available until: 29th January 2022
Ready Player One
Steven Spielberg crafts a thrilling, jaw-dropping piece of pop culture candy where visuals distract from a shallow script.
Available until: 29th January 2022
The Eichmann Show
Martin Freeman stars in this drama about the efforts to broadcast the 1961 trial of Adolf Eichmann in Israel. A moving, gripping reminder of the banality of evil – and the importance of telling what happened to new generations.
Available until: 28th January 2022
Mary Queen of Scots
Saoirse Ronan and Margot Robbie are fantastic in this drama about Mary Stuart’s return to Scotland to claim the throne from her cousin, Elizabeth I.
Available until: 1st February 2022
Portrait of a Lady on Fire
Céline Sciamma’s most accomplished film to date is beautiful, bold and sensual. Read our full review.
Available until: 3rd February 2022
Young Adult
Charlize Theron is remarkable in this deliciously spiky comedy drama.
Available until: 6th February 2022
After the Storm
This gentle, bittersweet drama about family and regrets is an understated gem.
Available until: 7th February 2022
Midnight Special
This nostalgic sci-fi is a heartfelt study of belief, belonging and human bonds.
Available until: 7th February 2022
The Sisters Brothers
Get on these siblings’ wavelength and you’ll be rewarded with an enjoyably unusual Western.
Available until: 8th February 2022
End of Watch
Not a good cop or bad cop movie. Just a really, really good cop movie.
Available until: 15th February 2022
Ophelia
Daisy Ridley is remarkable in this refreshing retelling of Hamlet.
Available until: 15th February 2022
Stan & Ollie
Steve Coogan and John C. Reilly capture the magic of entertainment and friendship in this warm, winning biopic.
Billie: In Search of Billie Holiday
With The United States vs Billie Holiday up for awards, there’s no better time to catch this superior documentary, which takes us back through the life of the singing legend. An icon who has often been considered a victim, James Erskine brings depth to the story of her career, as unvarnished in its portrait of her talent and personal troubles as it is unflinching in its details of the politics and social tensions she had to somehow navigate. It’s all held together with spellbinding footage of her singing on stage, including the powerful, mesmerising Strange Fruit.
The Mole Agent
An octogenarian becomes an unlikely spy in this hugely entertaining and moving Oscar-nominated documentary.
Collective
This Oscar-nominated documentary about healthcare corruption in Romania is a gripping, harrowing watch.
Finding Jack Charlton
This moving documentary tells the story of football legend Jack Charlton, which looks at his special association with Ireland, his complicated relationship with brother Sir Bobby Charlton and his final battle with dementia.
Destroyer
Nicole Kidman is blisteringly good in this brutally gripping crime drama.
When We Were Kings
This documentary captures perhaps the most famous heavyweight title fight of all time which took place on 30th October 1974 in Kinshasa, Zaire, between champion George Foreman and challenger Muhammad Ali.
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.
Let the Right One In
A haunting meditation on desire and devotion, this is one of the best horrors of the last 10 years.
Gunda
Viktor Kossakovsky’s charming, poignant and unique documentary offers a piglet’s eye view of farmyard reality. Read our full review
Flint
Scottish filmmaker Anthony Baxter captures the fallout of the Flint water crisis in this urgent and eye-opening documentary.
A Farewell to Arms
Helen Hayes and Gary Cooper are on iconic form in this adaptation of Ernest Hemingway’s novel about an American serving as an ambulance driver in Italy during World War I, who falls in love with a nurse.
The Peanut Butter Falcon
This heartfelt, funny road trip is warm, enjoyably earnest buddy movie.
I Am Greta
This intimate documentary gives us a personal insight into the young woman who’s become one of the most prominent climate activists of our generation.
Available until: November 2022
Wildlife
Paul Dano directs a stellar cast in this enthralling all-American drama.
Available until: November 2022
The Babadook
Six years after the death of her husband, Amelia struggles to discipline her out of control 6 year-old Samuel, a son she finds difficult to love. Samuel’s dreams are plagued by a monster he believes is coming to kill them both. When a disturbing storybook called The Babadook turns up at their house, Samuel is convinced that the Babadook is the creature he’s been dreaming about. The Babadook astutely unites the wry, modern storybook incarnation with the genre’s disturbing past. The result is one of the horror movies of recent years.
Available until: November 2022
One Man and His Shoes
This excellent, unflinching documentary charts the story of the Air Jordan phenomenon, showing the sneakers’ social, cultural and racial significance and how groundbreaking marketing strategies created a multi-billion-dollar business.
Available until: November 2022
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 2022
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 2022
Mr Blandings Builds His Dream House
Cary Grant and Myrna Loy star in this comedy about a family forced out of their Manhattan apartment court disaster when they buy a dilapidated country house, fit only for demolition.
Available until: February 2023
The Plank
Two workmen struggle with a plank of work as they attempt to move it from a timber yard to their building site in this classic silent comedy directed by and starring Eric Sykes.
Jellyfish
This superbly acted coming-of-age Brit flick isn’t exactly what you’d call a comedy – but it’s a helluva set.
The Gangster, The Cop, The Devil
This intense, action-packed flick hardly ever lets up.
Silver Screen Classics
Silver Screen Classics: Collection 1
BBC iPlayer has the rights to a bunch of classics from old Hollywood studio RKO, including Citizen Kane (1941), King Kong (1933), Suspicion (1941), The Magnificent Ambersons (1942) and Top Hat (1935). Others include Angel Face (1952), Beautiful But Dangerous (1954), Blackbeard the Pirate (1952), Bringing Up Baby, Carefree (1938), Fort Apache (1948), The Gay Divorce (1934), Kitty Foyle (1940), Love Affair (1939), Miracle of the Bells (1948), Mr Blandings Builds His Dreamhouse (1948), My Favourite Wife (1940), She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949), The Sky’s the Limit (1943), The Spanish Main (1945), The Velvet Touch (1948), Vivacious Lady (1938) and Wagon Master (1950).
Available until: November 2022
Silver Screen Classics: Collection 2
Just when you think BBC iPlayer can’t spoil us any more, up pops a second wave of classic films from RKO Pictures, one of Hollywood’s Golden Age studios. This collection includes the classic Gershwin musical A Damsel in Distress, classic 1950s chiller The Thing from Another World, and more Katherine Hepburn, Ginger Rogers and Cary Grant than you can shake a stick at. Other titles include: Second Chance, I Remember Mama, Holiday Affair, Bachelor Knight, Yellow Canary, Primrose Path, Sylvia Scarlett, Hotel Reserve, Anne of Green Gables and Anne of Windy Poplars.
Available until: November 2022
Cat People
The first horror film producer Val Lewton made for RKO Pictures redefined the genre by leaving its terrors to the audience’s imagination. A Serbian émigré in Manhattan believes that, because of an ancient curse, any physical intimacy with the man she loves will turn her into a feline predator.
Run
Mark Stanley delivers an intense lead turn in Scott Graham’s poignant road movie to nowhere.
Available until: November 2022
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 classic, 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
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 2022
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: December 2022
Family Favourites
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.
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.
Zog
The story of a keen young dragon in his first years at Dragon School.
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.
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.
Stick Man
Stick Man tells the tale of a happy-go-lucky father’s epic journey to make it home in time for Christmas.
Wallace & Gromit: Shorts
Enjoy a triple-bill of Aardman’s charming stop-motion duo with The Wrong Trousers, A Grand Day Out and A Matter of Loaf and Death all available to stream.
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