David Farnor | On 22, Dec 2015

From box sets of old BBC Three favourites to the highlights of last year’s Christmas – and a chance to catch up with Sherlock – BBC iPlayer’s December line-up is as diverse as ever. We review the best bits – and tell you how long you have left to watch them.

TV

People Just Do Nothing: Season 1

Several years after it was first a BBC Comedy Feed pilot, the first full season of People Just Do Nothing returns – and you should take the chance to catch up with the vaguely inept owners of pirate station Kurupt FM. (They’re very big in the Brentford area.)

Co-created by and starring Allan Mustafa as MC Grindah and co-starring Hugo Chegwin as DJ Beats, what started as a YouTube series has been nurtured by the Beeb into a comedy staple – becoming the first BBC Three show to premiere on iPlayer along the way. There’s a hint of Alan Partridge to the mockumentary – “How far does Kurupt reach?” asks our filmmakers on a balcony overlooking a council estate. “As far as the eye can see,” comes the proud reply. “But not that bit on the left.” – but the setting, characters and knowingly bad music has its own rhythm, which the cast stick to with engaging chemistry. Scenes where we catch Beats out of his hat and in a business suit for a job interview bring a surprising sympathy to his useless existence – and even more sympathy for his girlfriend, Roche, who has to endure the worst birthday party for their daughter ever recorded on screen. Asim Chaudhry as their friend, who runs a string of incompetent and illegal businesses, is always a treat. (Watch out for his “Polish Vodka”, which isn’t from Poland, but is made with window cleaner.)

Available until: 5th January 2016

Photo: Roughcut / Jack Barnes

Sherlock: Season 3: His Last Vow

The BBC continues to repeat the third season of Sherlock ahead of this year’s Christmas special. For those wanting more story from Season 3, His Last Vow certainly gives it to them. And then some. Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss spent the season’s first two episodes gradually refocusing the series to follow characters more than crimes. That’s what elevates the BBC’s reboot above programmes such as Jonathan Creek – Sherlock isn’t a detective show, it’s a show about a detective.

All that time spent exploring the sandbox of affections means that when they do kick the plot engine into gear, it carries weight; enough weight to turn this season’s climactic battle of wits into a tussle of loyalty and leverage – exactly the currency that professional blackmailer Charles Augustus Magnussen trades in.

Lars Mikkelsen is chilling as the ruthless villain, all blank eyes and grey clothes. It’s the final step in a journey that has humanised the superhuman. Cumberbatch has excelled in the lead for these three chapters, going from sexily-cheekboned cipher to comedy French waiter to, in a bold move from Moffat and Gatiss, full-on morphine junkie. Those cheeks have never looked less chiseled.

Available until: 25th December 2015

Photo: BBC/Hartswood Films

Luther

“I’m with the police.” “Which police?” “The police.” And just like that, Luther is back, with Idris Elba on blistering form. Since we last saw him – ditching his detective’s coat into the Thames to be with Alice (Ruth Wilson) – he’s been getting away from the grimy police work in a cottage on a cliff. “Close to the edge,” say his colleagues, when they inevitable come knocking. “Closer and closer every day,” he quips.

That on-the-nose dialogue could become cheesy and laughable in another cop show’s hands, but not Luther’s. Elba’s glowering performance pushes past the verge of parody into the heights of myth. Even his stubble is the stuff of legend. As soon as he switches his Jumper of Stereotype for his Coat of Badass, Loofah in on a determined mission to do one thing: solve a crime, and punch, assault or threaten as many people as possible to do it.

That bluntness seeps throughout the show’s style, so even the gory details become deliberately harsh. “What did he do with the heart?” “He ate it,” comes the reply. With a psycho running around East London and Alice apparently dead, there’s a thrill to this curt, concise story-telling, which is even restricting its narrative to two episodes to avoid any unnecessary fluff. Because let’s face it: if there were any, Loofah would just punch it in the face anyway. Gripping stuff.

Star Wars at the BBC

For those who can’t get enough Star Wars, this exclusive iPlayer documentary sees Peter Serafinowicz (the voice of Darth Maul, don’t forget) dig into the BBC archives to find the biggest Star Wars actors and characters from the Seventies appearing on shows such as Pebble Mill and Ask Aspel. Because who needs interviews with the actors now when you can watch Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher on Blue Peter in 1980?

The Secret of Star Wars

For those who prefer their build-up to The Force Awakens to be more promotional than nostalgic, Radio 1 DJ Dev looks into “the secret” of Star Wars’ success over the decades, chatting to cast and crew from the new film. Jokes about him playing with a lightsaber make things feel less generic, but the highlight is John Boyega explaining why The Force Awakens continues the Star Wars’ formula for magic: “It’s the ultimate battle between good and evil. And it’s got a guy from Peckham in it.”

Available until: 10th January 2016

The Mighty Boosh: Season 1

“Come with us now on a journey through time and space…” It’s been over 10 years since The Mighty Boosh first arrived on BBC Three in the middle of the night. Now, the misadventures of zookeepers Howard Moon and Vince Noir are available to watch whenever you like for free this December – a Christmas present that’s worth unwrapping for comedy fans.

Noel Fielding and Julian Barratt’s series is full of ingenuity and wit, both visual and verbal. While later seasons saw the show lose its charm, with dubious humour and poor taste, Season 1 stuck closely to the programme’s radio roots, relying on the chemistry between Fielding and Barratt to generate the giggles. From musical excursions into hell to a journey into the icy Tundra, the creatures and characters on display are as surreal as they are silly. One highlight is Howard’s adventuring hero, Dixon Bainbridge, with a moustache as big as his ego. “I dream of being Howard Moon, colon, explorer,” sighs Barratt. “Howard Moon colon explorer?” comes the reply.

Available until: 18th January 2016

From Andy Pandy to Zebedee: the Golden Age of Children’s TV

Nigel Planer takes us back to the “golden age” of kids’ TV. From Andy Pandy to Zebedee, the clips from the archive hit the right nostalgia notes, while the insight into making the programmes offers an interesting contrast to today – an age where TV for a lot of kids also includes YouTube and the boundary between commercials and entertainment content threatens to become blurred.

Available until: 20th January 2016

Photo: BBC

Gangsta Granny

With The Boy in the Dress already available, another of David Walliams’ feel-good family comedies has arrived on BBC iPlayer. First broadcast on New Year’s Day last year, it follows Ben, who discovers something surprising about his granny…

Available until: 20th January 2016

The Incredible Adventures of Professor Branestawm

Before the sequel, Professor Branestawm Returns, airs on BBC One this Christmas Eve, catch up with his first hour-long adventure, based on Norman Hunter’s novels. Armed with inventions and eccentric friends, the eccentric inventor (played by Harry Hill) tries to stop a businessman and local councillor from bulldozing his workshop.

Available until: 20th January 2016

Photo: BBC Pictures / Adam Lawrence

Arena: Night and Day

Arena, which began way back in October 1975 with Laurence Olivier in conversation with Kenneth Tynan, has become the world’s longest-running arts TV strand, with an archive of over 600 films built up over the decades. How do you mark a 40th anniversary? Cut together clips from the archive into a special 24-hour movie, designed to stream in real-time. Now, you can see an edited 90-minute version on BBC iPlayer, from Dylan Thomas reciting poetry to Elvis’ relatives catching squirrel in Mississippi and the dreams of Edna Everage, Jean Genet and David Bowie.

Available until: 22nd December 2015

Blood and Gold: The Making of Spain

It’s a universal fact that any programme hosted by someone with the name Simon Sebag Montefiore is bound to be brilliant. And sure enough, this documentary series gets off to a cracking start with a look at the Cordoba Caliphate and the early years of Spain’s history. It’s the kind of battleground where people were beheaded, burned and then stabbed for good measure and, between his hat and his penchant for grand statements in dramatic poses, our presenter fits right in with the legends. Que bueno.

Available until: 12th January 2016

Photo: BBC/Craig Hastings

Smack Em Up

This iPlayer exclusive Smack follows wrestler Fergal Devitt at home in Ireland and on his final international tour before he joins the WWE. He’s a likeable subject, but it’s the behind-the-scenes clips and bits of wrestling footage that make this interesting – the WWE and Mexico are familiar sights for most, but this gives us a rare glimpse of the bizarre world of Japanese pro-wrestling.

Available until: 10th January 2016

The Boy in the Dress

Dennis is an ordinary boy but he feels different. He creates a whole new persona and puts it to the ultimate test – can a boy wear a dress? David Walliams’ family comedy was first broadcast at Christmas last year and here’s a welcome chance to revisit it over the holidays. Genuinely charming.

Available until: 13th January 2016

Horizon Tim Peake Special: How to Be an Astronaut

“It’s not very easy to become an astronaut,” quips Tim Peake two-thirds of the way through this Horizon special – and the hour-long video diary of his preparation to become Britain’s first astronaut on board the ISS proves it.

Why is he flying up there? Because the station is a vital part of humankind’s exploration of space: it’s a stepping stone to the stars, but also a place for experiments (“I don’t have to understand the science, just know how to do them”) to be carried out. Zero gravity, meanwhile, takes its physical toll on humans, so people can’t stay up there forever.

Tim’s launch will be broadcast live on the BBC with a Stargazing special on Tuesday morning at 10.30am and there is a constant sense of excitement underpinning Tim’s training. As he puts it, he didn’t even realise Britons could be astronauts. The sight of him fulfilling that dream (not to mention globe-trotting to various facilities, as countries such as Russia and America work together for something bigger than world politics) is quietly inspiring. The result is an uplifting, as well as informative, watch, even as the trials become particularly tough. Relocating his family to Houston is one challenge, but learning how to fly back to the station from open space is another: glimpses of Gravity and how things can wrong linger in the corner of your mind. Even if you miss the live launch, catching up with this on BBC iPlayer will leave your spirits blasting off.

Available until: 14th January 2016
Photo: BBC/Max Alexander – UKSA

Reggie Yates’ Extreme UK: Gay and Under Attack

Reggie Yates presents this investigation of homosexuality in Britain’s black and Asian communities – the part of society that least supports same-sex marriage. From Muslims insisting that being gay is a choice to a church attempting to exorcise someone for their sexuality, this is an eye-opening and measured portrayal of a range of views. Yates, swapping hats and coats as he mingles with the everyday Brits on the streets, emerges as a sincere and sensitive interviewer. With 1 in 10 gay people under the age of 25, this kind of topical, factual programming is exactly the kind of thing that BBC Three can do very well.

Available until: 6th January 2016

Photo: BBC/Sundog Pictures/Phill Taylor

Stampy’s Christmas Cake Caper

YouTuber Stampy Cat takes over the Royal Society of Edinburgh Christmas Lecture to answer questions about how to be a successful vlogger – and creates a special, seasonal Minecraft episode in front of the crowd. It’s a strangely passive sensation to see him play through his self-created festive adventure – The mission? Make a Christmas cake after all the cookies disappeared from Mrs. Claus’ bakery – but the crowd of kids cheering along seem perfectly happy to not be involved. The spectacle of them hanging on his every word makes for revealing watching for parents – while the Q&A and Minecraft fun will delight your kids this Christmas. It’s an iPlayer exclusive, so don’t hesitate to load it up on their tablet.

Available until: 2nd January 2016

Luther: The Journey So Far

Before Idris Elba’s detective returns to our screens, this 13-minute tour through the first three seasons of the BBC drama are the perfect way to get back up to speed.

Available until: 7th January 2016

Photo: BBC/Steffan Hill/Mikel Camara

Masterchef: The Professionals

Another cooking show? You might well shrug off Masterchef: The Professionals, but BBC Two’s spin-off, which sees pro chefs trying to impress a panel of judges, is a genuine treat, thanks to a tasty combination of Sean Pertwee’s voiceover, overly dramatic music, hammy judge reactions and – best of all – the surprising tendency for dishes to go horribly wrong. The sight of one cook attempting a sabyon in Episode 2, without even knowing what is – no, we don’t either – is one of the funniest things you’ll see on TV this year. (Missed Episode 2? Don’t worry: there are at least another 10 to watch and the series still hasn’t finished.)

Photo: BBC/Shine

This Is Tottenham

What a curious programme this is, promising at once both a warts-and-all portrait of social struggles in Tottenham, a candid look at an MP’s day-to-day life and a moving slice of human interest. At the heart of it all is David Lammy, who strolls about talking to his constituents like the world’s hippest agony aunt, managing to be simultaneously condescending, sincere, detached and engaged.

Available until: 8th January 2016

Photo: BBC/CTCV/Steffan Hill

Radio 1 Live Sessions

Annie Mac and Radio 1 bring in a bunch of bands to perform exclusive concerts in East London. Currently on offer are Coldplay and Mercury Music Prize nominee Jamie xx.

Available until: 2nd January 2016

Photo:BBC / Sarah Jeynes

David Cup Tennis

Belgium and Great Britain go head-to-head in a historic tennis final, as Andy Murray leads the British team hoping to win the tournament for the first time since the 1930s. You’ve probably already seen the result, but that doesn’t mean you can’t relive the cracking sport on display – in fact, you even have time to do it in the Christmas holidays.

Available until: 29th December

Burt Bacharach: A Life in Song

If you’ve ever seen Burt Bacharach in concert, you’ll be all too aware that he delivers something special: crooning in his immediately recognisable rasp, he visibly enjoys not just performing the well-known classics, but reliving old times. “Memories,” he sighed, while smoking, on the Royal Festival Hall stage several years ago, to no one in particular. Now, he’s back again for a concert celebrating his career, complete with guests Alfie Boe, Sophie Ellis-Bextor, Justin Hayward, Michael Kiwanuka and Joss Stone. Memories.

Available until: 28th December

Capital

The value of UK housing stock has risen £1.8 trillion in the last decade to be worth over £5 trillion. Those of us lucky to be on the property ladder are sitting on goldmines, while an entire generation is stuck living in rented property or with their parents. The BBC’s new drama, based on John Lanchester’s novel, puts us bang in the middle of it, as a diverse group of London residents find themselves harassed by postcards declaring “WE WANT WHAT YOU HAVE”. The ensemble includes Gemma Jones as a forgetful old woman, Adeel Akhtar as a kind corner shop owner and, best of all, Toby Jones as a slimy banker who slithers away to Canary Wharf every morning. As pressures pile up and the financial crisis looms, people start to interact, all sharing the same fears but separated by such huge gaps. What will win out: Capital in terms of money or Capital in terms of a London community? This is absorbingly topical stuff, filled with delicately painted portraits of believable characters. “What use is £30,000 to anybody?” splutters Jones, when he gets his disappointing bonus. You almost agree with him.

Available until: 24th December
Photo: BBC/Kudos/Hal Shinnie

The Bridge: Season 3

Nordic noir fans, rejoice! One of the best Scandinavian crime dramas is back for a third run. When a Danish gender campaigner is found murdered in Malmo, Saga is assigned a new Danish colleague to help investigate.

Available until: 28th December (Episode 3 + 4)

Photo: BBC/Filmlance International AB/Carolina Romare

Frank Skinner On Demand with…

BBC iPlayer’s latest original series sees Frank Skinner and an array of celebrity guests discuss – yes – iPlayer. Talking through their favourite things they’ve been watching recently, the result is like a 15-minute podcast presenting highlights from the catch-up service. A bit like our weekly column, but less comprehensive and with more famous people. Worth watching just to hear them discuss iPlayer’s original feature film Fear Itself and horror movies in general.

Available until: New episodes arrive every Friday – available for 7 days

Photo: BBC iPlayer

London Spy

How do you make a spy drama stand out only a few days after SPECTRE has blown up the cinema box office? Hire Ben Whishaw. And start with a slow romance. Whishaw plays Danny, a warehouse worker who crosses paths with Alex (Ed Holcroft) one day near the HQ of MI5. Alex is good-looking, he’s quiet, he’s mysterious. And, it turns out, he’s a spy (in case the title didn’t give that away). But it’s a whole hour before we, and Danny, discover that – a lingering 60 minutes from writer Tom Rob Smith (Child 44) that ropes us in with a restrained, chilled love affair that is so well performed by our couple that any contrivances (including Jim Broadbent as conveniently placed father figure Scottie) are swiftly locked up in a box and put out of sight.

Available until: 23rd December (Episode 3)

Photo: BBC/WTTV Limited

The Great Pottery Throw Down

“My base is undulating,” says someone halfway through The Great Pottery Thrown Down – ceramics’ answer to Bake Off – and you immediately wish Mel and Sue were here. Presenter Sara Cox plays coy with the innuendo in a way that fits the milder setting of a barn full of clay, although the sight of a judge crying at how beautiful a bowl is may amuse more than move. The rest fits the successful BBC formula, with an array of contestants (from Mr. Dreadlocks And Waistcoat to Mrs. Shy, Nervous One) that should keep any avid pottery lover engaged. For non-kiln fans, it’s hard to shake the fact that cakes are better than bowls.

Available until: 23rd December (Episode 2)

Photo: Love Productions / Mark Boudillon

The Hunt

David Attenborough returns to the BBC with this nature series following predators as they hunt their prey. “Frustration…” growls our narrator, as we see a cheetah’s attempted attack fail. Fantastic.

Available until: 25th December (Episode 2)

Photo: BBC/Silverback Films/Huw Cordey

The Apprentice (Rap Up / Honest Subtitles)

Why do people watch The Apprentice? An hour every week with foul human beings all trying to impress each other – and, worst of all, Lord Alan Sugar? The irritating reality game show lost its initial hate-watch appeal years ago, as contestants seem to be more self-aware of the potential for small-screen celebrity than ever before. Even a trip to France for some frog-out-of-water negotiations (“After several hours, they’ve only got one cheese…”) doesn’t quite vary the formula enough. But BBC iPlayer’s exclusive content relating to the series helps make it seem fresh again. Honest Subtitles accompanying a highlights reel only spell out the things that are obvious and covered in the dialogue or narration, but Radio 1’s Matt Edmondson provides a fairly witty recap of each week’s events in rhyme form (“Rap Up”) – something that keeps you in the loop without having to spend time with these awkward, annoying people.

Photo: Boundless

Danger Mouse

The BBC once again proves a safe pair of hands for rebooting your childhood favourites, as the all-new Danger Mouse introduces cutting edge tech (goodbye, eye patch; hello, iPatch) but sticks to an old-school formula of silly voices, non-stop puns and an extremely villainous toad. The opening double-bill proves narrative isn’t the show’s strong point, but the promise of more chaos squeezed into 11-minute chunks of zany Bond parodies is enough to raise anyone’s eyebrows as high as Penfold’s.

Photo: BBC / FremantleMedia Limited

Music Box with Guy Garvey

The Elbow’s likeable frontman throws the curtains wide on a new music series exclusive to iPlayer, which sees Garvey share and discuss artists that he is most excited about. The series will run every other week for six episodes, with the first living up to its promise of introducing audiences to new music through its focus on Here We Go Magic. The exclusive premiere of the video for Falling – from their new album Be Small – is an apt coup, with Garvey providing the kind of amusing and insightful commentary that listeners to his Radio 6 Music show will be familiar with. Space for archive music from Radiohead brings diversity to the line-up, while the sub-30-minute runtime makes this an easy fit into your commute. Most impressive, though, is the BBC’s Playlister, which enables you to add tracks to a music playlist – a feature that, while not always relevant to the Beeb’s catch-up TV content, really comes into its own. Much like YouTube’s links to purchase audio from its videos, it’s the kind of innovative touch the BBC is good at – and could signal a strong future for IPlayer in the music VOD world. One day like this a fortnight will see us right.

Available until: June 2016

Photo: BBC / Dean Chalkley

Matt Berry Does…

Matt Berry proves once again that almost anything he says is funny, mostly because of the way he says it. After several excellent comedy shorts for BBC iPlayer, the IT Crowd and Garth Marenghi star now has his own series of six iPlayer short films titled “Matt Berry Does…”. Father’s Day and Summer Holidays are the kind of arbitrary topics that get the absurdist treatment from him and Bob Mortimer – there’s something undeniably hilarious about Matt Berry’s voice playing on top of screaming fish – while the latest, Matt Berry Does… Ghosts, is another testament to how effective Berry’s silliness is when distilled down to one brief, concentrated dose. Especially if you like learning about ghosts called Kenneth.

Available until: June 2016

Photo: BBC iPlayer

Comedy Feeds

The BBC’s latest season of comedy pilots has arrived and it’s a consistently hilarious batch. Highlights include warped game show spoof Funz and Gamez, complete with depressed host and a production team that breaks into their contestants’ homes to steal prizes, and sketch show People Like Us, which just might be the best ensemble sketch programme since Big Train. Elsewhere, the return of a wayward daughter from university to her rural home is a delightfully original piece of comedy in an age where many sitcoms have become bland and familiar. These feeds should come with a warning – because they’ll leave you hungry for more. (Read our full review.)

Available until: June 2016.

Photo: BBC

My Jihad

As BBC iPlayer’s Original Drama Shorts return for another season, one of 2014’s best, My Jihad, returns as a miniseries of three 15-minute films. The first introduced us to Fahmida (Anjli Mohindra) and Nazir (Hamza Jeetooa), two single Muslims who crossed paths at an unsuccessful speed-dating night. Picking up events one month later, this is a universal exploration of love in modern Britain that packs in twice as much warmth and wit as most 30-minute shows do in a whole season. (Read our full review.)

Available until: 2016

Original Drama Shorts

BBC iPlayer continues to prove a platform for new talent with its latest bunch of shorts. From a moving demonstration of isolation and connection in an online age to a darkly funny – and unpredictable – story of female love and family loyalty, this is an impressively versatile collection of stories that are more than worth spending time with. (Read our full review.)

Available until: June 2016

Clangers

“This is the Earth, our home…” begins Michael Palin at the start of each episode of The Clangers. “A tiny, wet planet, lost and alone. Lost in the vast silence of space…”

It’s not the introduction that older viewers will be used to, but it’s immediately clear that the Beeb’s updated version of Oliver Postgate’s classic has no intention of rebooting the show for modern audiences. In a year where Gerry Anderson’s equally loved series was given a CGI makeover, new characters and a different back-story, The Clangers feels like the antithesis to ITV’s Thunderbirds.

Palin’s avuncular tones are the perfect fit for The Clanger’s reassuring voice-over, which rejoices in the small details of our creatures’ lives. The result is something that feels as timeless as ever, because it doesn’t alter what made The Clangers special in the first place: its ability to present imagination as the most natural thing in the universe. (Read our full review.)

Photo: BBC/Coolabi, Smallfilms and Peter Firmin

Women Who Spit

“Your shabby, slipped-stitch mistakes make you miraculous,” spits Vanessa Kisuule in a short poem urging women to stop shrinking back and to take up space. It’s one of countless brilliant lines you’ll hear during this series of short films, which see female poets tackle topics facing young people today.

Cecilia Knapp’s explanation of why she writes is inspiring, Deanna Rodger’s look at those forced off the street is provocative, while Jemima Foxtrot’s double-performed examination of confidence and doubt is an entertaining and powerful reminder of the importance of self over surface. Each are excellent performers, leaving your tongue tripping back over syllables to savour their taste, but keep Megan Beech’s passionate cry for more women on our TV screens until last: after the previous four fantastic compositions, you’ll be hard pushed not to agree.

Important and urgent, this collection shows just how valuable BBC iPlayer can be as a platform to voices that should be heard more often.

Available until: May 2016

Photo: BBC/Thomas Caron Delion

Movies

West

Christian Schwochow’s drama stars Joerdis Triebel as a mother who smuggles herself out of East Germany along with her son in 1978 – but will crossing the Wall really escape the surveillance that drove her away?

Available until: 22nd December

Cartel Land

Storyville continues its chopped-down, cherry-picked highlights of the year’s documentary line-up with this exposé of the Mexican drug war and the cartels that operate around the Mexico/US border.

Available until: 23rd December

Flight of the Navigator

This classic piece of 1980s sci-fi follows a young boy who goes to sleep in 1978 and wakes up eight years later – just as Nasa uncover an alien spacecraft…

Available until: 28th December

Come As You Are

This Belgian drama takes its title somewhat literally, as we follow three disabled young men on a trip to Spain in the hope of losing their virginity.

Available until: 5th January 2016

Bridge to Terabithia

New classmate Leslie unlocks a mesmerising world of fantasy and imagination for fifth-grader Jesse in this poignant adventure based on the best-selling novel.

Available until: 26th December

Quartet

Dustin Hoffman’s directorial debut, adapted by Ronald Harwood from his own play, is exactly what you’d expect from the congenial actor; a warm-hearted ode to the act of performance. Maggie Smith on vocals? Another OAP on piano? This is The Best Exotic Marigold 2: The Musical. Or, Classic FM: The Movie. But that’s not necessarily a bad thing; the talented old farts stop their clarinets getting too full of hot air. Despite cliches and syrupy key changes, Hoffman’s relaxed helming keeps the tempo up – one opening montage is beautifully. The result hits all the right notes – and most of them in the right order.

Available until: 8th January 2016

Nativity

Martin Freeman stars in Debbie Isitt’s charming comedy about a grumpy teacher put in charge of his primary school’s nativity. The improvised hijinks from the young performers prompted the director to return for multiple sequels – Nativity 2, starring David Tennant, is available until 28th December – but the real sparkle and shine is in this cute original.

Available until: 12th January 2016

Fear Itself

BBC iPlayer’s second original feature is the follow-up to teen documentary Beyond Clueless. Young director Charlie Shackleton 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 2016

Bitter Lake

Adam Curtis’ bizarre, surreal, brilliant provocative documentary deconstructs the media’s presentation of politics and history with a dizzying complexity and a dark sense of humour. At over two hours, it’s a daunting watch, but an important one – not least because it showcases the potential for BBC iPlayer as a platform for bold, experimental work. (Read our full review.)

Available until: 2016

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