It's August, and it is miserably hot here in the Northern Hemisphere. August is always miserably hot in most of America, but this year seems worse than usual, perhaps because we keep breaking records for the hottest days ever recorded on the planet. This is the time to huddle indoors in the air conditioning (and rescue your loved ones if they don't have air conditioning) and spend the days indoors watching ice-cold murder mysteries set in extreme northern climates where they mistake 70 degrees for a heatwave. Obviously, I'm talking about British TV.
Unfortunately, August is still a wasteland when it comes to TV and movie releases. As we already noted, PBS' offerings for the month are slim, but at least public television has the excuse that it's an election year, and PBS News has a convention to cover gavel to gavel. Meanwhile, Disney+/Hulu and Apple TV+ have no excuse of that nature; they're just sitting this month out when it comes to British programming. (Apple TV+ does have Pachinko Season 2 arriving towards the end of the month, but that's an American-made series. Now, where is Andor Season 2?)
Lucky for us Anglophiles, Netflix is once again stepping up with a plethora of programs (several of which are about the planet and climate change!), BritBox continues to import titles from the BBC at a regular clip, and poor AMC Networks has a couple of shows, hoping that the lack of competition means someone will watch one. So grab an icepack from the freezer and strap that sucker to the base of your skull (it really works!), and let's (very slowly) run down the list (we don't want to overheat!) of what British show there are that are worth watching for August 2024.
Under The Vines Season 3
For those who want to watch what Charles Edwards is up to when he's not wearing elf ears and forging endless rings for dwarves, elves, and mankind, Acorn TV brings back the New Zealand favorite, Under the Vines, for a six-episode third season. No, it's not a mystery, but a family drama down under (where August is the height of wintertime). Edwards and Rebecca Gibney star as Louis and Daisy, raising grapes, making wine, and discovering themselves, not necessarily in the order. Acorn TV has a two-episode premiere on Monday, August 19, 2024, with one a week to follow.
Fifteen-Love
Meanwhile, tucked away over on Sundance Now, this month will bring the tennis series Fifteen-Love, just in time for those who will be missing the Olympics. The series ran on Prime Video UK in the summer of 2023 and starsElla Lily Hylandas fictional tennis prodigy Justine Pearce andAidan Turneras her creepy, sexually abusive coach, Glenn Lapthorn, who she accuses of molesting her five years after her career is shattered by the experience. The series aired in the U.K. as three feature-length episodes that binge-dropped all at once; AMC+ and Sundance Now will stream the series as six 45-minute installments, with the first two arriving Thursday, August 22, 20924, and one a week to follow.
The Change
BritBox's first major arrival for August is The Change, a Channel 4 comedy about menopause. Comedian Bridget Christie (Ghosts) created, wrote, and stars as Linda, a 50-year-old menopausal, working-class married mother of two, who experiences an existential crisis and leaves her family to return to her rural roots in the wilderness of the Forest of Dean on the back of a motorbike she last rode 30 years ago. The six-part comedy-drama describes itself as "Think Deliverance, with pigs." All episodes arrive on Thursday, August 1, 2024.
Granite Harbour Season 2
Now, this is more like it: Granite Harbour returns to the nice chilly world of Aberdeen for a new three-part second season of cold crime. Starring Romario Simpson as DS Lindo and Hannah Donaldson as DC Bart, the two investigate a pair of fatal cases with dark consequences at their heart, immersing the Major Investigations Team in the granite city’s criminal underworld where they face down drug kingpin Grace McFadden, played by River City's Lesley Hart, and her brewing drugs-turf war over who controls the flow of cocaine. All three episodes arrive on Thursday, August 15, 2024.
Avoidance Season 2
BritBox closes out the month with more comedy as Romesh Ranganathan returns with his series, Avoidance, which he created, wrote, and stars in as the newly single. Jonathan, for a second season. Season two picks up in the aftermath of Jonathan’s marriage breaking down and his absconding with his son to live with his sister, Dan (Mandeep Dhillon). Dan and her wife Courtney (Lisa McGrillis) have a baby on the way, his soon-to-be ex has a hot new man, and most importantly, Jonathan’s wearing lycra. All six episodes arrive on Thursday, August 22, 2024.
Industry Season 3
Industry may be the HBO show that was harmed the most by the failure, first of AT&T and now by Warner Bros. Discovery, to market anything that was considered primarily streamed on Max. The series, which is best described in its good moments as Succession meets Euphoria, is a smash hit in the U.K., with the original quintet of stars now household names over there, while Americans haven't a clue the show exists over here. HBO has made a last-ditch effort to get viewers' attention by adding Game of Thrones star Kit Harington, but it may be too late. Season 3 of the series premieres Sunday, August 11, 2024, at 9 p.m. ET, and airs/streams on a weekly schedule. Here's hoping someone watches.
A Good Girl's Guide To Murder
Sometimes, Netflix really is all there is for us Anglophiles, even if half their U.K. series are too trashy for this list (Sorry to Love Is Blind U.K., but absolutely not.) The streaming service that's winning the dominance wars handily kicks off August with the hit BBC series A Good Girl's Guide To Murder, based on the novel of the same name, and starring Wenesday's Emma Myers as the teenager convinced that the death of a fellow student a year previous is far more dastardly than anyone wants to admit. All episodes arrive on Thursday, August 1, 2024.
Secret World of Sound with David Attenborough
One of two nature specials on Netflix that spring from the U.K., the first stars British Natural Treasure Sir David Attenborough, who, at 98 years old, is still gallivanting around the globe in hopes someone will listen to him about stopping climate change before we all die. The Secret World of Sound with David Attenboroughtakes a new tack on the natural world by telling us all to shut up and use our ears because the music of nature is glorious. For those who saw the PBS Nature episode where Attenborough explored sounds, think of this as the expanded edition. All episodes arrive on Wednesday, August 7, 2024.
The Umbrella Academy Season 4
In the British-ish category, Netflix will bring the fourth and final season of the strange world of The Umbrella Academy. Based on the offbeat comic, and starring a who's who of British talent, the final season of the genre-bending, dystopian superhero series continues to mess about with the timeline ever since one of their members accidentally got stuck on the wrong side of the apocalypse. Maybe this time, they'll manage to save the world without it accidentally ending at a different point? All episodes arrive on Thursday, August 8, 2024.
Secrets Lives of Orangutans
For those who are looking to choose who they want to be the next sonorous British actor to narrate our nature specials when Attenborough finally hangs it up and returns to the Earth that he loves so much, Netflix's other nature-focused series offers Sir Patrick Stewart as a possible alternative. The former starship captain will tell us all about the Secrets Lives of Orangutans, a thing about which most of us are unaware. (Attenborough actually owned a pet Orangutan in the 1950s, when that was still a thing people did, so clearly, he won't need to watch.) All episodes arrive on Thursday, August 22, 2024.
Kaos
Technically heralding from the Netflix U.K. division, so it actually belongs here, Kaos may be riding on starring American Jeff Goldblum as Zeus. However, like most series and films about Greek Gods doing Greek God Things (not to be confused with The Last Supper), this show is super British in tone, and co-stars PBS favorites Janet McTeer, David Thewlis, Billie Piper, and Stanley Townsend. Also, New Jersey's own Debi Mazar plays Medusa, and I dearly hope it's in her natural accent. All episodes arrive on Netflix on Thursday, August 29, 2024.
Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Season 2
Finally, Prime Video returns with its billion-dollar two-season adaptation of nothing JRR Tolkien ever actually wrote, The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. Like so many of the British-ish shows before it, this series is total high fantasy more than it is British, but the cast is glorious, the costumes amazing, and the story... well, at least someone's started forging some evil rings around here, so the show can get on with it already. Will Jeff Bezos keep making seasons of this super expensive boondoggle, or will common sense override ego? Hey, that just so happens the plot of the second season, too! The series premieres on Thursday, August 29, 2024, with two episodes and one a week to follow.
