The streaming service is adding more classic box sets to mark the Beeb reaching 100.
Dan McGolpin, Director of BBC iPlayer and Channels:
“There’s no better time than during the BBC’s centenary year to discover a classic BBC series that you’ve never seen before or to watch one of your favourites again. From comedy series that re-wrote the rules, such as The Young Ones or The Royle Family through to ground-breaking comic drama for 2022 like This Is Going to Hurt, there’s something for everyone on BBC iPlayer.”
There are thousands of classic box sets to watch on iPlayer to mark the BBC’s centenary year, including recent arrivals like 80s off-the-wall sitcom The Young Ones, 90s family sitcom, 2point4 Children and across the year, these will be joined by more comedy favourites, including Rowan Atkinson starring as Blackadder, Lesley Manville in Mum and Tom Hollander and Olivia Colman in Rev. There’s also great dramas on the way, including Clocking Off, the BAFTA award-winning drama which followed the lives of a group of workers at a Manchester textile factory and every episode of classic detective drama New Tricks.
There’s a huge selection of factual box sets from the archive – from a Sir David Attenborough collection, featuring programmes like Elsa the Lioness, Zoo Quest, Life on Earth, The Blue Planet and Planet Earth, to mouth-watering shows for foodies like Floyd on France, Madhur Jaffrey’s Flavours of India, Rick Stein’s Seafood Odyssey and Ken Hom’s Chinese Cookery.
There’s also lots from Michael Palin, including Around the World in 80 Days and Michael Palin’s Hemingway Adventure and the Louis Theroux collection featuring shows like Louis Theroux’s Weird Weekends and Louis Theroux: America’s Most Dangerous Pets. Although the Beeb are keeping a positive spin on things so they won’t be airing anything concerning their decades of harbouring paedophiles – so you won’t be seeing the Jimmy Savile Theroux documentary or anything with Stuart Hall.
Sticking to happier times and there are lots of classics to enjoy, including 90s favourites dinnerladies, Keeping Up Appearances, The Royle Family, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and One Foot in the Grave as well as noughties hits like The Office, Gavin & Stacey, Miranda, Little Britain, My Family and Still Game. Delve deeper into the archive with iconic 70s sitcom Porridge, or watch a more recent classic from the 2010s with Citizen Khan, Detectorists and Still Open All Hours.
BBC dramas include going back to school in Waterloo Road to meeting London’s slickest con artists in Hustle or experiencing a modern take on a swashbuckling adventure in The Musketeers.
There’s edge-of-the-seat drama with box sets of Luther, Happy Valley and Waking the Dead, along with huge star lineups like Benedict Cumberbatch as Sherlock, Matthew Macfadyen and Keeley Hawes in Spooks and Gillian Anderson and Jamie Dornan in The Fall. For fans of Walford, take a trip down memory lane with a selection of classic EastEnders episodes, plus more than 350 episodes from 2008-2010.
