This shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone who’s been reading this blog series. What might be shocking is that I’m into it too!
I called this way back in 2017. Mrs. Buckler, a huge British movie fan, signed up for Brit Box’s free, seven-day trial. I was sure that she was going to find so many shows she wanted to see that we’d be adding it to our streaming services menu. To my surprise, she didn’t. In fact, she canceled on day six, thus saving us money… and me from watching shows similar to Doc Martin and Downtown Abbey. Five years later, she went ahead and signed up for Brit Box, but it was on my urging. I’ll tell you why but first, let’s talk about…
What BritBox Is
It’s a streaming service that brings British TV to U.S. audiences. BBC Worldwide and ITV came up with the idea. They made this service available to American lovers of British TV and British ex-pats. We’re talking sitcoms, dramas, and series. Viewers get this ad-free, video-on-demand (SVOD) 24 hours after their UK broadcasts. BritBox is available on iOS, Android, Roku, Apple TV, PC, Macs, and Chromecast platforms.
So, Why Did I Convince My Wife to Get BritBox?
In a word, Sharpe. Never heard of this TV series? It stars the indomitable Sean Bean as Richard Sharpe, a British soldier in the Napoleonic Wars. It’s gritty, adventurous, and rather well-lit, like most British TV shows. (Think Absolutely Fabulous.) It originally ran from 1993 to 1997 and I’d seen the first episode on TV sometime around then. Sadly, I never watched the rest of the series because life got in the way.
For reasons I still don’t understand, I recently recalled that first episode of Sharpe. Thanks to YouTube, I found plenty of clips but no episodes of this classic show. That’s when I had my lightbulb moment. Since my wife LOVES British shows, I told her about Sharpe. “It’s something we could watch together,” I added. Mrs. Buckler was delighted with that idea.
My wife started searching for replays of the series. I figured she’d find it for rent on Amazon Prime but that wasn’t meant to be. Only the DVD series and we disconnected our DVD player months ago. (Funny how I think of it as an outdated 8-track player now!) The only way for us to see Sharpe was to stream it on BritBox. At the risk of stating the obvious…
Mrs. Buckler Fell in Love with BritBox
I would’ve been happy binge-watching every episode of Sharpe then dumping the free subscription. My wife’s willpower just wasn’t as strong the second time around. As she was searching through the streaming service’s offerings, she started seeing things she likes. Enough to make us full subscribers, as you might have guessed.
Like me, my wife is reaching back into British TV’s past. Line of Duty is one of the TV shows she’s gotten hooked on. It originally aired on June 26, 2012, on BBC. She’s also watching Vera, a crime drama that was first shown on ITV on May 1, 2011. She’s also knee-deep into a few other older shows. It’s all good. We’re having fun getting caught up on what’s going on across the pond.
And with that, I bid you a fond goodbye. Or, as they say in England, “Cheerio!”
