Silver Spring, MD; April 12, 2019 - Acorn TV is excited to announce its full May 2019 slate featuring the exclusive U.S. Premiere of the highest-rated UK show of 2019 and from the creator of Bodyguard with the return of BBC One’s immensely popular, critically adored cop thriller LINE OF DUTY, Season 5 (Int’l Trailer, Mon., May 13, Interviews Available). Called “Binge-inducing television at its best… best British police show since Prime Suspect… Suspensefully plotted and wickedly well-acted… Addictive… jaw-dropping reveals” by The New York Times, seasons 1-4 are available for a highly-enjoyable, star-studded binge-watch.
Additionally, new Acorn TV Original and BBC Wales family drama PITCHING IN starring Larry Lamb (EastEnders) and Golden Globe winner Hayley Mills (The Parent Trap, Pollyanna) makes its U.S. debut (Int’l Trailer, Fri., May 24/Memorial Day Weekend). Both series are available to watch now on our press watch site.
Throughout May, Acorn TV also adds: the International Emmy-winning drama A VOYAGE ROUND MY FATHER starring Laurence Olivier and Alan Bates; fascinating BBC documentaries; the final seasons of classic British courtroom drama series RUMPOLE OF THE BAILEY; dramedy KINGDOM, Series 1-3 starring Stephen Fry; WIDE SARGASSO SEA starring Golden Globe nominee Rebecca Hall and Rafe Spall; and more.
May 2019 Acorn TV Calendar
Monday, May 6th
A VOYAGE ROUND MY FATHER
International Emmy for Best Drama
The humorous, heartwarming story of a most peculiar family. Before creating the beloved courtroom drama Rumpole of the Bailey, writer John Mortimer found inspiration in his own life for this portrait of a difficult but enduring love between father and son in mid-20th-century Britain. Legendary actor Laurence Olivier stars as the eccentric patriarch, a blind barrister so stubborn and cantankerous that he refuses to acknowledge his sightlessness. Alan Bates (Gosford Park) portrays his devoted son, who follows his father's footsteps in the law while longing to become a writer, with Jane Asher (Brideshead Revisited) as his wife. Adapted for the screen by Mortimer himself and filmed largely on location at his family estate in bucolic Oxfordshire, this production garnered multiple awards. (1982, TV Movie)
ROME: Empire Without Limit (BBC Documentary)
In this four-part series classicist and historian, Professor Mary Beard draws on her immense scholarship, unique viewpoints and myth-busting approach to Roman history, to give her definitive take on the Roman Empire. How and why did it happen? In search of answers, she takes us to the most telling sites and the most revealing artifacts, and she examines the legacy the Roman Empire has left behind. (4 EPS, 2016)
CALIGULA with Mary Beard (BBC Documentary)
Professor Mary Beard embarks on an investigative journey to explore the life and times of one of Rome’s most extraordinary and notorious individuals, Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus Germanicus – better known to us as Caligula. (1 hour, 2013)
Monday, May 13th
LINE OF DUTY, Season 5 (Exclusive U.S. Premiere)
#1 Highest-rated UK show of 2019
“Masterpiece… Not a scene, line or beat is wasted… instantly addictive” -The Guardian on Season 5
“Binge-inducing television at its best… best British police show since Prime Suspect… Suspensefully plotted and wickedly well acted, this is British crime drama at its finest… Addictive… jaw-dropping reveals or cliffhangers” -The New York Times
Season 4 is “100% Fresh… an adrenaline-fueled thrill ride from start to finish” -Rotten Tomatoes Critics Consensus
Seasons 1 – 4 Trailer (Easy binge at just six-episodes per season)
From the creator of international sensation Bodyguard, BBC One’s top-rated, critically adored cop thriller LINE OF DUTY returns. In Season 5, when three police officers are shot dead during the hijack of a seized drugs transport, police anticorruption unit AC-12 move in to investigate possible police collusion. Written and created by Jed Mercurio (Bodyguard), LINE OF DUTY is a cat-and-mouse thriller that takes a probing look into modern police corruption. Each season features a new guest lead and Season 5 stars Stephen Graham (Boardwalk Empire’s Al Capone, Save Me, Peaky Blinders) and Rochenda Sandall (Black Mirror) alongside series regulars - Martin Compston (The Great Train Robbery, Sweet Sixteen) as DS Steve Arnott, Vicky McClure (Broadchurch) as DS Kate Fleming, and 2018 BAFTA Award Nominee Adrian Dunbar (Blood) as Supt. Ted Hastings. Continuing its tradition of gripping storylines and breathtaking cliffhangers, Season 4 of the BAFTA-nominated crime drama was its most successful yet. Growing across its run, the series four finale was the series highest-rated ever with a consolidated figure of 9.9 million viewers, placing it among the top five dramas of 2017 across all UK channels. Season 5’s recent premiere on BBC One had the highest ratings ever for the series. (6 EPS)
RUMPOLE OF THE BAILEY, Series 6 & 7
The final two seasons of the iconic courtroom drama series. Nominated for two Emmys and seven BAFTAS, Rumpole of the Bailey follows the misadventures of Old Bailey defense barrister Horace Rumpole (Leo McKern) who has to contend with politics in chambers, unhelpful judges in court and the continuing disapproval of his wife Hilda at home, while trying to do his best for his often-ungrateful clients. (1991, 12 EPS)
Monday, May 20th
KINGDOM, Series 1-3
Stephen Fry (V for Vendetta, Jeeves & Wooster) stars in this charming series as Peter Kingdom, a compassionate solicitor whose life is overshadowed by the mysterious disappearance of his brother. Set in Market Shipborough in the beauty of the Norfolk landscape, the drama focuses on Kingdom's dysfunctional family, the people he works with, and the town's residents. (2007, 18 EPS)
WIDE SARGASSO SEA
Golden Globe nominee Rebecca Hall (Vicky Cristina Barcelona, The Town, The Prestige) and Rafe Spall (Jurassic Park: Fallen Kingdom, The Big Short) star in this Jean Rhys adaptation, a prequel to Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre. The tale begins in Jamaica of the 1830s, with Englishman Edward Rochester (Rafe Spall) arriving in Jamaica to stake out a fortune. He meets and falls hard for Antoinette Cosway (Rebecca Hall), a Creole heiress, who gives herself to him unquestioningly, and shares her dowry - including a sprawling, palatial honeymoon manor. For a time, all is bliss, but soon lust devolves into paranoid fear, betrayal, and tragedy. (2006, TV Movie)
Friday, May 24/Memorial Day Weekend
PITCHING IN (Acorn TV Original, Exclusive U.S. Premiere)
Recent widower, Frank Hardcastle (Larry Lamb, EastEnders), is struggling to find the energy or enthusiasm to run Daffodil Dunes Holiday Park in the picturesque North Wales coast. When his flighty daughter Carys and grandson Dylan, show up at his 71st birthday party and announce they are staying for good, Frank wonders if it’s time for him to sell and start again. Especially as local estate agent, Iona Driscoll (Hayley Mills, The Parent Trap), has a very tempting offer for him to consider - in more ways than one. But Carys convinces her dad to let her become the park’s new manager, prompting a flurry of hare-brained schemes. Carys also has to deal with her feelings for ex-fiance Danny, who runs the local pub with his new partner, Tanya. Can she stay away from the man she jilted at the altar? (4 EPS)
Monday, May 27th
ALL IN GOOD FAITH, Series 1-3
Richard Briers (The Good Life) stars as Revered Phillip Lambe who, in his middle age, decides to move his family from his wealthy Oxfordshire parish to one in Edendale, an urban town in the Midlands. He is determined to do new things in his new parish, while also being faced with tough new challenges. (1985, 18 EPS)
About Acorn TV: Called a “glorious streaming service… an essential must-have” (The Hollywood Reporter) and “Netflix for the Anglophile” (NPR), Acorn TV is North America’s largest streaming service specializing in British and international television from AMC Networks privately owned subsidiary RLJ Entertainment. Acorn TV adds exclusive new programs every week with a deep library of mysteries, dramas, and comedies with no set end dates or commercials. Subscribers can stream many of their favorite international series and discover new and classic programs previously unavailable to U.S. audiences. In 2019, Acorn TV features several commissioned series including British crime drama London Kills, fun British mystery Queens of Mystery and the final Series 2 movie of Agatha Raisin; new episodes of fan favorites Line of Duty from Jed Mercurio, British sensation Doc Martin, Welsh sensation Keeping Faith, medical drama The Good Karma Hospital, Paul Abbott’s No Offence, Aussie dramedy The Heart Guy, and Canadian hit Murdoch Mysteries; along with several new series, including British crime drama Manhunt, Lucy Lawless’s My Life is Murder, BBC One Wales family drama Pitching In, New Zealand crime drama Straight Forward and Dutch drama The Oldenheim Twelve; and a growing catalog of popular bingeable dramas A Place to Call Home, Blood, Mystery Road, Detectorists, Jack Irish, George Gently, and Foyle’s War; among much more. Acorn TV is available via Apple TV, Roku, iOS, Chromecast, Amazon Fire, Comcast/Xfinity, Android, among many other devices and offers a free trial and thereafter is just $4.99/month or $49.99/year. Facebook: OfficialAcornTV - Twitter @AcornTV
WATCH NOW: Premieres will be added as they become available, http://acorn.tv/press.
Acorn TV Press Contact: Chad Campbell, ccampbell@acorn.tv
