Acorn Media has started its own sort of selective Netflix, a Britflix if you will. It’s actually called AcornTV.
Acorn is well known to theater geeks as the distributor of such stage-centric DVDs as Discovering Hamlet (reviewed here), the three-DVD television rendition of Alan Ayckbourn’s The Norman Conquests (which I’ve been meaning to review here for a while now, and will soon), John Gielgud’s Ages of Man series, Broadway’s Lost Treasures, Sondheim! The Birthday Concert, the box set of ten star-studded Gilbert & Sullivan TV presentations from the 1970s, the nonmusical Ray Winstone rendition of Sweeney Todd, a host of British drama series which happen to feature stage icons… If somehow you’re theater-savvy enough to read this blog and have somehow escaped the allure of Acorn, the “Performance” subset of their online catalogue is here.
The online streaming service, which will spotlight just a fraction of Acorn’s ample offerings, began last week. You can sign up now for a few weeks of free sample streaming. Starting in September it’ll be a paid subscription service costing $24.99 a year.
The service is concise: a programmed schedule of six series of “British mysteries and dramas” available online for six weeks each. The shows are staggered so that something new comes onto the sched every week. According to a press release, “There are six seasons and more than 40 hours of programming offered at any given time.”
This system of course favors TV series over other Acorn-affiliated shows. Perhaps some of those theatery specials and documentaries may get on yet.
But who’s complaining? I’ve already watched the first three 90-minute episodes of Foyle’s War, the lush and leisurely WW2 Sussex-set mystery series starring Michael Kitchen, famed RADA-schooled veteran of landmark productions of plays by Pinter and Stoppard.
I’ve found Acorn’s menu of shows manageable and inviting.
On the current streaming slate: the 12-part Brideshead Revisited (tup through July 31), six episodes of The Forsyte Saga (up through Aug. 7), three two-part installments in The Far Pavilions (through Aug. 14), nine adventures of Agatha Christie’s Poirot (through Aug. 21), the first season of Upstairs, Downstairs (through Aug. 28). Foyle’s War, with four long episodes available, is up through Sept. 4. Forthcoming in August: Wish Me Luck and Derek Jacobi’s Cadfael mysteries.