Acorn TV Announces World-Class 2017 Slatewith 14 New and Returning Favorites

The Premier North American Streaming Service for World-Class TV from Britain and Beyond features Exclusive U.S. Premieres Every Month, including Evelyn Waugh’s BBC One comedy Decline and Fall, Aussie medical drama The Heart Guy, ITV thriller Loch Ness, and the return of 19-2, A Place to Call Home, George Gently and Doc Martin, among many more

Silver Spring, MD – After a record 2016, Acorn TV is thrilled to announce more exclusive first-rate international mysteries, dramas and comedies throughout 2017. Called “Well-written, beautifully acted and surprisingly compelling scripted televisionan essential must-havealong with HBO Go and Netflix(The Hollywood Reporter) and “A perfect streaming service for the Anglophile in your life” (The New York Times), Acorn TV continues to curate the very best in international television and has become the premier North American streaming service for world-class TV from Britain and beyond from RLJ Entertainment (NASDAQ: RLJE).

Following the exclusive premieres of critically acclaimed Acorn TV Originals Agatha Christie’s The Witness for the Prosecution with BBC One, Agatha Raisin with Sky, The Level with ITV, and Close to the Enemy with BBC Two, Acorn TV has more than 14 exclusive U.S. Premieres coming up in 2017. Acorn TV Originals include ITV’s atmospheric thriller Loch Ness, the final episodes of hit BBC One detective drama George Gently, new Kay Mellor BBC One drama Love, Lies and Records, and Irish thriller Acceptable Risk. Hit new series include the first-ever TV adaptation of Evelyn Waugh’s classic comedy Decline and Fall from BBC One, British drama Delicious, ITV medical drama Good Karma Hospital, and Aussie medical dramedy The Heart Guy. Additionally, 2017 features exclusive new seasons of several of Acorn TV’s trademark series, including addictive Aussie period drama A Place to Call Home, Season 5; smash hit ITV detective drama Vera, Series 7; “Acorn’s superior legal drama” (TV Guide) Janet King, Series 3; #1 Australian drama 800 Words, Season 2; award-winning Canadian cop drama 19-2, Season 4; and Acorn’s most popular series, Doc Martin, Series 8, starring Martin Clunes.  

Watch the 2017 Acorn TV trailer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kUKYjanPcGE&feature=youtu.be

Mark Stevens, President of Acorn Brands at RLJ Entertainment, noted, “With consumers having more choices than ever before to find content, Acorn TV continues to curate the very best in television from around the world. Besides licensing huge hit series like Doc Martin, 19-2, and A Place to Call Home, we’ve already doubled our Original programs over last year. The first Acorn TV Originals of the year, Striking Out and Agatha Christie’s The Witness for the Prosecution, have been extremely popular with our subscribers, and we’re excited to show them our upcoming slate filled with atmospheric crime drama Loch Ness, a first-rate international thriller in Acceptable Risk, the newest drama from award-winning British writer Kay Mellor with Love, Lies & Records, as well as the final episodes of excellent British detective drama George Gently.”

Acorn TV’s international distribution partners include Endemol Shine International for Good Karma Hospital, A Place to Call Home, Delicious and Decline and Fall; ITV Studios Global Entertainment for Loch Ness and Vera, Content Media Corporation for 19-2, Soho Moon for Acceptable Risk, DRG for Doc Martin, FremantleMedia International for The Heart Guy, DCD Rights for Janet King, All3Media International and Rollem Productions for Love, Lies and Records, and All3Media International for 800 Words and George Gently. The UK-based development division for RLJ Entertainment’s Acorn brand, Acorn Media Enterprises, is the U.S. co-production partner for Acceptable Risk, George Gently, Series 8, and Love, Lies and Records.

2017 Exclusive U.S. Premieres

May 2017

DECLINE AND FALL

Comedian Jack Whitehall, David Suchet (Poirot) and Eva Longoria (Desperate Housewives) star in the first-ever television adaptation of Evelyn Waugh’s first published novel, which is considered one of the greatest comic novels of all time. The 3-part miniseries recently aired to rave reviews on BBC One. When Paul Pennyfeather (Whitehall) is unfairly expelled from Oxford University, that expulsion kicks off a disastrous chain of events that no one – least of all Paul – could have anticipated. (Mon., May 15, 3 eps., Trailer)

DELICIOUS, Series 1

Iain Glen (Game of Thrones, Jack Taylor), Dawn French (The Vicar of Dibley), and Emilia Fox (Silent Witness) star in new four-part drama about food, love and infidelity in Cornwall. Leo Vincent (Iain Glen, Game of Thrones, Jack Taylor) is a successful chef with more than a few secrets: he stole most of his recipes from his ex-wife Gina (Dawn French, The Vicar of Dibley), who he cheated on for years. Now married to “the other woman” (Emilia Fox, Silent Witness), Leo is having yet another affair. After a shocking death, Gina is forced to evaluate her closest relationships. (Fri., May 26, 4 eps., Trailer)

800 WORDS, Series 2, Part 2

Called “the Best Show You’re Not Watching.” (Inquisitr) and “easy to get sucked in by its scenic and anthropological charms” (The New York Times), Acorn TV’s New Zealand dramedy returns with more new episodes from its second season. The heart-warming Aussie-Kiwi dramedy continues the saga of George Turner (Erik Thomson, Packed to the Rafters, The Code), a man looking to make a new life for himself and his family in a strangely beautiful and quirky New Zealand coastal town. (Mon., May 29, 8 eps., International trailer)

June 2017

THE HEART GUY, Series 1

Charming Australian medical dramedy in the vein of Doc Martin follows a genius doctor (RodgerCorser, Underbelly, Rush) forced to return to his hometown and become a local doctor after his personal life spins out of control. (Mon., June 5, 10 eps., aka Doctor, Doctor in Australia, Trailer)

LOCH NESS (Acorn TV Original Series)

The new, atmospheric murder mystery thriller stars Laura Fraser (Breaking Bad, The Missing) and SiobhanFinneran (Happy Valley, Downton Abbey). The beautiful, haunting shores of Scotland’s most iconic loch is the stunning backdrop for the new six-part ITV crime drama. In a community nourished and sustained by myth and bordered by untamed nature, the search for a serial killer becomes a matter of life and death for local detective Annie Redford (Laura Fraser). Within the tightly knit town, a sense of horror begins to dawn as the villagers realize that there is more than one kind of monster in their midst. (Mon., June 19, 6 eps.)

July 2017

JANET KING, Series 3

Called “One of the best legal procedurals I’ve seen in years” (Slate) and “Acorn’s superior legal drama” (TV Guide), Janet King stars Marta Dusseldorp (A Place to Call Home, Jack Irish) as a brilliant lawyer in eight new episodes. Full of twists and turns, the series offers an “astutely realized mystery” (The Australian).

August 2017

19-2, Season 4

The final season of the Canadian Screen Award-winning drama and International Emmy-nominated cop drama . Called “One of the best cop dramas ever” (Tribune News Service) and “Makes the genre seem new again…exciting in a wholly new way.” (The Wall Street Journal), this intense, character-driven drama stars Canadian Screen Award winning actors Adrian Holmes (Arrow, Smallville) and Jared Keeso (Falling Skies) as partners in the MontrealPoliceDepartment.

THE GOOD KARMA HOSPITAL

This seductive medical drama is set in a coastal town in tropical South India and tells the story of junior doctor Ruby Walker (Amrita Acharia, Game of Thrones), who arrives in India looking for a job and a distraction from her heartbreak. She anticipates the sunshine, the palm trees and picture-perfect beaches. She's even prepared for the sacred cows, the tuk-tuks and the Delhi-belly that everyone warned her about. What she doesn't expect are the realities of work, life and even love at an under-resourced and over-worked cottage hospital. The series co-stars Amanda Redman (New Tricks) and Neil Morrissey (Striking Out, The Night Manager).

Fall/Winter 2017

ACCEPTABLE RISK (Acorn TV Original Series)

A gripping international conspiracy thriller starring award-winning actress Elaine Cassidy (The Paradise, No Offence) and set in the high stakes world of big pharmaceutical. When an Irish marketing executive for a pharmaceutical company is murdered while on a business trip to Berlin, his wife begins to believe that the firm is covering up details about his killing. As she does so, she becomes aware that both her dead husband and herself were the object of an intense surveillance operation that has been tracking their every move. Overnight, her secure, comfortable, upper-middle-class lifestyle has been shattered.

DOC MARTIN, Series 8

One of Acorn TV’s and ITV’s most popular series returns. BAFTA winner Martin Clunes (Arthur & George, Men Behaving Badly) offers an uproarious lead performance as a tactless, self-centered, and uptight doctor in a quirky seaside town in Cornwall. After having therapy to save their marriage in the last series, Doc Martin and Louisa face the challenge of living happily together with their baby, James Henry. Set in the fictional town of Portwenn, the series also features Caroline Catz (Murder in Suburbia) as his wife Louisa and Dame Eileen Atkins (Upstairs, Downstairs, Cranford) as the Doc’s formidable Aunt Ruth.

GEORGE GENTLY, Series 8 (Acorn TV Original)

The final two feature-length episodes of the EDGAR®-winning BBC One detective series. Called “Great, bordering on brilliant” (Esquire) and an “excellent BBC detective series” (Los Angeles Times), Tony® nominee Martin Shaw returns for his final cases as North of England’s most upstanding detective, George Gently, again assisted by his trusted partner, Detective Inspector John Bacchus (Lee Ingleby), and Detective Sergeant Rachel Coles (Lisa McGrillis). Richard Harrington (Poldark, Hinterland) guest stars.

LOVE, LIES and RECORDS (Acorn TV Original Series)

The new BBC One drama series from the pen of BAFTA award-winning writer Kay Mellor (The Syndicate) and starring Ashley Jensen (Agatha Raisin, Catastrophe). The six-part series follows Registrar Kate Dickenson (Jensen) as she tries to juggle her personal life with the daily dramas of births, marriages and deaths and the impact they have on her. The series co-stars Adrian Bower (Granchester, The Last Kingdom), Kenny Doughty (Vera, Stella), Rebecca Front (Doctor Thorne, War & Peace, Humans) and Mark Stanley (Dark River, Dickensian).

A PLACE TO CALL HOME, Season 5

Called an “instantly irresistible saga…captivatingly filmed, deeply romantic drama of immense intelligence distinguished by a uniformly superb cast” by The Wall Street Journal, Acorn TV’s addictive Aussie period drama returns starring Marta Dusseldorp (A Place to Call Home, Jack Irish) and Noni Hazlehurst (Little Fish). Against the backdrop of post-World War II Australia, A Place to Call Home follows Sarah Adams, a nurse who becomes involved in the affairs of the wealthy Bligh family. Dealing with themes such as anti-Semitism, sexuality, and social class, this rich and meaningful, high-quality production has been hailed as one of the best television series of 2015 by The Wall Street Journal.

VERA, Series 7

Called “One of the best mysteries…in the last decade” (The Baltimore Sun), Vera follows a cantankerous but brilliant detective who solves unthinkable crimes in northeast England. Two-time Oscar® nominee BrendaBlethyn imbues DCI Vera Stanhope with “a monumental intelligence” (The Guardian) in this hit detective drama inspired by Ann Cleeves’ bestselling crime fiction.

WATCH: Acorn TV’s exclusive May/June premieres can be watched now at press watch site, https://acorn.tv/press (mirror to your TV via Apple TV or Chromecast) with DVDs available upon request.

To read our recent press releases, please visit our Corporate Press Room:

http://www.rljentertainment.com/press-room/

Acorn TV Press Contact: Chad Campbell, ccampbell@acorn.tv

About RLJ Entertainment

RLJ Entertainment, Inc. (NASDAQ: RLJE) is a premium digital channel company serving distinct audiences primarily through its popular OTT branded channels, Acorn TV (British TV) and UMC (Urban Movie Channel), which have rapidly grown through development, acquisition, and distribution of its exclusive rights to a large library of international and British dramas, independent feature films and urban content. RLJE’s titles are also distributed in multiple formats including broadcast and pay television, theatrical and non-theatrical, DVD, Blu-ray, and a variety of digital distribution models (including EST, VOD, SVOD and AVOD) in North America, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Additionally, through Acorn Media Enterprises, its UK development arm, RLJE co-produces and develops new programs and owns 64% of Agatha Christie Limited. For more information, please visit RLJEntertainment.com, Acorn.tv, and UMC.tv.