Every month BBC iPlayer offers a plethora of new movies and TV shows to watch. Critic Lillian Crawford picks six of the best titles to check out in the coming weeks.
Top Picks: TV
Fleetwood Mac’s Songbird: Christine McVie (BBC Two, February 5)
This documentary about the groundbreaking rock band Fleetwood Mac was first broadcast in 2019, focusing on one of the genre’s most successful singer-songwriters Christine McVie. Her hits include ‘Don’t Stop’ and ‘Little Lies’, telling McVie’s story in relation to the turbulent history of the band at large.
The feature-length episode is followed by two more documentaries about Fleetwood Mac: first, a live performance by the band from 1997 filmed at Warner Bros Studios in Burbank, California featuring ‘The Chain’ and ‘Don’t Stop’; and second, a 2009 documentary telling the wider story of the band through their own words. Rumour has it this is a triple-bill you don’t want to miss.
Chloe (BBC One, February 6)
Having played Princess Anne in The Crown, Erin Doherty plays Becky in this new drama series, a temp who lives with her mother who has early-onset dementia. She covets the lifestyle of her former school mate Chloe, played by Poppy Gilbert, whose Instagram account she obsessively follows. After Chloe dies, Becky reinvents herself as Sasha to enter Chloe’s friendship group.
Penned by Alice Seabright, the series begins on Sunday February 6, with all six episodes available on iPlayer immediately after the first episode is broadcast. It looks to be a gripping psychological thriller, with Becky’s motivations enshrouded in mystery.
This Is Going To Hurt (BBC One, February 8)
Based on Adam Kay’s best-selling memoir about the challenge of being a junior NHS doctor, This Is Going To Hurt is one of the BBC’s major dramas of 2022. The series stars Ben Whishaw as Adam and has been adapted from the book by the author himself, toeing the line between comedy and wince-inducing drama.
The first of seven episodes will be broadcast on BBC One on Tuesday February 8, with the full series available on iPlayer immediately afterwards. Relevant now more than ever, this is an apposite drama that aims to shed light on some of the bravest and most overworked people in the UK.
Top Picks: Movies
Sorry We Missed You (BBC Two, February 6)
This social-realist drama from 2019 directed by Ken Loach sees the great British director tackle the gig economy through the lens of a delivery man. Kris Hitchen plays Ricky, who loses work after a downturn in the building trade and signs up as an independent contractor to deliver parcels, before his life is turned upside down by his taskmaster boss and the debt of having to provide his own white van.
The film is followed on BBC Two by a documentary called Versus: The Life and Films of Ken Loach which reflects on the director’s long and varied career. His controversial social criticism is examined from his Wednesday Play Cathy Come Home to I, Daniel Blake, making a perfect companion piece to his latest feature.
Booksmart (BBC Three, February 9)
The directorial debut of Olivia Wilde focuses on Molly and Amy, played by Beanie Feldstein and Kaitlyn Dever, who have been too busy securing their places at Ivy League universities to party at high school. They decide to experience all the fun they’ve missed out on in a single night, leading to a riotous binge of the highs and lows of student nightlife.
The film is being broadcast on the newly reinstated BBC Three channel, and will be available for thirty days after on iPlayer. It’s a joyous and wild ride that is bound to bring back plenty of good, bad, and ugly memories of late adolescence.
Fort Apache and She Wore A Yellow Ribbon (BBC Four, February 10)
A BBC Four double-bill celebrates the filmography of director John Ford, whose 140 films remain highly influential on Hollywood today. Fort Apache is the first of three films Ford made about the US Cavalry, set around Monument Valley. Henry Fonda plays embittered officer Owen Thursday, with John Wayne cast in a supporting role.
The film is immediately followed on BBC Four by the second of Ford’s trilogy, She Wore A Yellow Ribbon, which puts Wayne in the limelight as Captain Nathan Brittles who embarks on his final mission. If the first two films take your fancy, be sure to seek out the final film Rio Grande as well.
