David Farnor | On 29, Mar 2014

Torchwood, The League of Gentlemen and a handful of other BBC series are leaving Netflix UK this weekend.

Ever since January’s dump of Netflix content, we’ve been making a special effort here at VODzilla.co to monitor what comes and goes on Netflix UK. We have a regularly updated list of new releases here and, as with Channel 4’s shows this month, we keep an eye on any major removals – from the start of April, you can now expect a regular round-up of the top titles leaving Netflix soon.

The start and end of a month always sees a lot of additions and removals as licences begin, expire and (sometimes) get renewed. In the run-up to the end of March, then, we were keeping an eye out for any particularly fond farewells. For example, the fact that this weekend is your last chance to stream Bring It On: In It to Win It and Bring It On: All or Nothing isn’t a huge tragedy.

What is, though, is the small selection of BBC content that’s bidding goodbye. This isn’t a loss on the 4oD scale of things – some of those remaining titles are also being swept up this month – but there are some gems going. The removals occur just as the BBC Trust approves plans for a paid service to accompany BBC iPlayer, which will see people able to download Beeb titles on a permanent basis. In the future, that could well spell no more BBC titles on Netflix and Amazon Prime Instant Video. With so many other shows still available, though, and new deals just signed for Sherlock Seasons 1 and 2, Call the Midwife and Doctor Who Season 6, that possibility is a long way off. In other words, don’t be surprised if these get renewed – as did Channel 4’s titles, albeit for one month – very soon.

Anyway, alongside our monitorings, we’ve been watching Wild China – a tip: maybe don’t bother – and noticed that it, along with Doctor Who: The Infinite Quest and Hitler on Trial: The Truth Behind the Story, another BBC title, were bowing out on 30th March. So we did a quick check of all BBC content on Netflix UK and found several series that are being taken down tomorrow.

For a list of things leaving Netflix UK at the end of March 2014, head to the bottom of the page. For the ones worth worrying about, here are our picks of the best.

This is your last chance to stream these nine must-see Netflix UK titles:

The League of Gentlemen

The League of Gentlemen – aka. Mark Gatiss, Steve Pemberton, Reece Shearsmith and Jeremy Dyson – have gone on to do brilliant things for British culture. From Coriolanus and Ghost Stories to Inside No. 9 and Sherlock, they’re practically national treasures. It’s no coincidence, then, that when they were working together on this jet black comedy series back in the late 1990s (first radio, then TV), it was something truly special: a warped bag of scary shop owners and pitiful German exchange teachers. Season 3 made a bold departure from the first two season’s format, becoming a cyclical retelling of the same events from different perspectives. While occasionally unsuccessful, it only cemented the group’s creative ambition. In case the flawless Christmas special didn’t make that clear enough. This is one of the best modern BBC TV series. Laugh at – and be freaked out by – it while you can.

Watch on Netflix UK

Torchwood

It took Russell T. Davies’ spin-off from Doctor Who a while to find its feet with Children of Earth (Season 3), but the mini-series, starring Peter Capaldi alongside John Barrowman and Eve Myles, is a brave, dark, shocking piece of science fiction that merges politics and morals with aliens and sexy haircuts. It’s only five episodes, so there’s time to catch the whole thing before it takes off.

Watch on Netflix UK

Saxondale

Everyone knows Alan Partridge, but have you met Saxondale? Steve Coogan’s other comic creation – a Mustang-driving pest controller with a taste for old rock – isn’t quite as hilarious, but his bearded, blunt sincerity makes for an unexpectedly sympathetic male lead. Amiably gentle and, at times, surprisingly hilarious.

Watch on Netflix UK

Milk

Sean Penn stars in this biopic of Harvey Milk, the first openly gay person to be elected to public office in California. It’s worthy, but Penn’s performance is excellent, supported by equally strong turns from Emile Hirsch and Josh Brolin.

Watch on Netflix UK

Jane Eyre

Toby Stephens and Ruth Wilson star in the BBC’s most recent adaptation of Charlotte Bronte’s classic costume drama. Stephens brings a sympathetic vulnerability to the usually stoic Mr. Rochester and Wilson’s naive (but not neurotic) Jane is as likeable as they come. Sumptuously directed, this is swooning, accomplished stuff.

Watch on Netflix UK

Mongrels

If you start doing Kermit arms at the sound of the words “puppets”, “musical” and “swearing”, Mongrels is for you. Adam Miller’s series spanned two seasons, following a group of animals (led by Rufus Jones’ Nelson, a metrosexual fox) in the backstreets of Millwall. In love with a clueless Afghan hound and best friends with a stupid cat and streetwise pigeon, the show continues the silliness and the slapstick farce of The Muppets, while adding in its own vein of satirical song and dance numbers and often inspired surreal daydream sequences. Unfortunately cancelled after its second season, this may be one of your last chances to see it.

Watch on Netflix UK

W.

Josh Brolin is fantastic as George Bush in Oliver Stone’s biopic. The film itself never quite lives up to his performance, but the portrayal of Dubya as a straight-forward guy (rather than a simple idiot) makes for a toothless, but unexpectedly engaging drama. A fascinating piece of culture more than an essential film.

Watch on Netflix UK

Right at Your Door

When a series of bombs have been detonates across Los Angeles, Brad seals up the house to stay alive. When his partner, Lexi, returns, he finds himself trapped in a simple moral conundrum that – in a post-9/11 world of terrorist scares – proves plausible enough to be gripping.

Watch on Netflix UK

Waking the Dead

It seems like Trevor Eve has starred in this BBC crime series since colour TV began, but the two-hour episodes are (at least in the early seasons) above average stuff. If you’re a procedural fan, this is worth watching for Trevor Eve’s facial hair alone.

Watch on Netflix UK

 

Titles leaving Netflix UK on 30th March

Tracy Beaker’s The Movie of Me
Life on Location
One Night
Grow Your Own Drugs
The Sarah Jane Adventures
Charlie and Lola
Bleak Old Shop of Stuff
Wild China
Jane Eyre
Rob Brydon’s Annually Retentive
Private Life of Plants
The League of Gentlemen
Waking the Dead
Mongrels
Saxondale
Jekyll
Whites
Torchwood
Doctor Who: The Infinite Quest
Hitler on Trial: The Truth Behind the Story
Tuff Turf
Wanted: Dead or Alive
Good
Soul Man
18 Again
Lust in the Dust
Still Breathing
Beyond Therapy
Shotgun Wedding
My Mother the Spy
The Interrogation of Michael Crowe
The Killing Time
Guilt by Association
Pin
Manny & Lo
Dream with the Fishes
The Truth about Jane
August
Female Perversions
Fifteen & Pregnant
This Girl’s Life
The Hired Heart
A Long Way Home
ATM
Puppetmaster vs. Demonic Toys
Right at Your Door
Everything Put Together
Web of Deception

Titles leaving Netflix UK on 31st March

River Cottage Spring and Autumn
Elizabeth I
THe Long, Hot Summer
Mary Marie
Blue Crush
Taps
The Trip (not the BBC series)
Redwoods
A Cool, Dry Place
Boy Culture
Bad Boy Street
Elliot Loves
Bring It On: In It to Win It
Milk
W.
Dangerous Minds
Is It Just Me?
Making Mr. Right
Shanghai Kiss
Another Gay Movie
Cabin Boy
Bear City
Amazing Grace
The Backwoods
The Scapegoat
Fallout
Asylum
Bring It On: All or Nothing
Reign of the Gargoyles
Painkiller Jane
Judge Dredd
Goemon

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