BBC to take on Netflix with a Christmas box set bonanza
THE BBC is to make box sets of its most popular programmes available this Christmas, in an attempt to compete with Netflix and Amazon.
Entire runs of Happy Valley, Wolf Hall and Line of Duty will be on iplayer, along with every series of Planet Earth, Blue Planet and Frozen Planet.
A handful of Eastenders Christmas specials will also be available, including the 1986 episode in which Den Watts served Angie with divorce papers – a moment that was watched by 30.1 million viewers.
Family content includes previous Christmas adaptations of Room on the Broom, The Gruffalo and The Boy in the Dress. All will be available from Dec 16.
Charlotte Moore, the BBC’S director of content, said: “There is no need to go anywhere else this Christmas because we have an even richer offer across the BBC than ever before.
“We are always home to the very best British programmes during the festive season but with so much content to fit in, it’s fantastic to give audiences a special gift on iplayer to complement our schedules.”
Currently, programmes disappear from iplayer after 30 days. But as Netflix and Amazon attract customers who enjoy binge-watching series from beginning to end, the BBC knows it must compete.
Appearing before MPS this month, Lord Hall, the director-general of the BBC, said the corporation was looking at ways to make its archive available to all – but at a cost.
Attempts to sell old shows via BBC Store ended in failure, and the “download and keep” service was closed down this summer after 18 months.
Lord Hall said the BBC had made a mistake and failed to grasp that viewers want on-demand streaming services such as those offered by its rivals.
Meanwhile, Steven Knight, the Peaky Blinders writer, is to adapt a collection of Charles Dickens novels for the BBC. A Christmas Carol will be the first in the series, executive-produced by Sir Ridley Scott and Tom Hardy.
Knight has taken period drama in a darker direction – as shown in his other recent drama, Taboo – and the BBC promised a “wholly original and visionary take” on Dickens.
The first adaptation will be shown on BBC One in three parts at Christmas in 2019. Knight said: “To have the chance to revisit the text and interpret in a new way is the greatest privilege. We need luck and wisdom to do this justice.”
The language is likely to sound more modern than in many television costume dramas. Knight has previously said: “There’s a convention in English stuff that if something is more than 100 years old, people have to say ‘do not’ instead of ‘don’t’. They have to say ‘will not’ instead of ‘won’t’.
“No one ever spoke like that, even in Victorian or pre-victorian times.”
Ms Moore said “It’s incredibly exciting to have a genius like Steven Knight embark on a series of Charles Dickens adaptations.”
‘We have an even richer offer across the BBC this Christmas than ever before’