Silver Spring, MD; July 25, 2018 – After starting off the year with several must-see Acorn TV Originals including the final season of BAFTA-winning BBC comedy Detectorists, star-studded ITV drama Girlfriends, and Welsh sensation Keeping Faith, Acorn TV announces its content-packed slate for the rest of the year filled with must-see new dramas and returning favorites. North America’s largest streaming service specializing in British and international television will feature the U.S. and Canadian premieres of several more Acorn TV Originals, including its first sole commission with Agatha Raisin, Series 2 starring Ashley Jensen (Catastrophe, Ugly Betty); new hit Aussie drama Mystery Road (Trailer) called “Australia’s answer to ‘True Detective’… Judy Davis is phenomenal” (Junkee); and Irish comedy Finding Joy; plus Welsh drama Bang, Italian drama Tangled Lies and new seasons of Acorn TV favorites 800 Words (Trailer), Paul Abbott’s No Offence (Trailer), Ackley Bridge (Trailer), The Heart Guy, and The Brokenwood Mysteries; as well as dates for two of its most popular Australian series with the final season of addictive period drama A Place to Call Home (Sept. 3/Labor Day) and Guy Pearce’s return as the late Peter Temple’s Jack Irish (Sept. 10, Trailer).
Acorn TV’s international distribution partners include: DCD Rights for Jack Irish; FremantleMedia International for No Offence and The Heart Guy; Seven Productions for 800 Words; all3media international for Mystery Road, Ackley Bridge, and The Brokenwood Mysteries; Banijay Rights for Bang; RAI for Tangled Lies; Endemol Shine International for A Place to Call Home; and Acorn Media Enterprises, Acorn TV’s UK-based development division, for Finding Joy and Agatha Raisin.
Mark Stevens, Chief Content Officer for the Acorn Brands at RLJ Entertainment, noted, “As a fast-growing, independent streaming service, Acorn TV can work with a wide variety of producers, broadcasters, and distributors to curate the globe for the very best in international TV. With our upcoming slate, we’re excited to offer our subscribers even more of what they love – returning favorites and new international productions featuring beautiful locations, stellar acting and compelling scripts, including our very first commission with the return of Agatha Raisin plus new seasons of many of our most popular series like 800 Words, Guy Pearce’s Jack Irish, and the final season of A Place to Call Home.”
Monday, August 6th
NO OFFENCE, Series 2 (Exclusive US/Canada Premiere, Trailer)
From award-winning writer Paul Abbott (Shameless, State of Play)
Called “an irresistible feast for all the senses” (The Telegraph) and winner of the Best Drama Series from the Royal Television Society, No Offence is Channel 4’s outrageous female-driven police procedural.Joanna Scanlan (Requiem, Notes on a Scandal) and Elaine Cassidy (Acceptable Risk) return with laugh-out-loud moments mixed with heartfelt drama. Set in a crumbling cop shop on the wrong side of Manchester, the series follows an unorthodox crack team of cops on the front line. In Series 2, dizzyingly capable but unquestionably unhinged DI Vivienne Deering (Scanlan) is back and this time she and the Friday St. team are thrust head to head against a ferocious and unpredictable Nigerian crime matriarch, Nora Attah (RakieAyola, Hermione in Harry Potter and the Cursed Child). (7 EPS)
Wednesday, August 15th
800 WORDS, Season 3, Part 2 Premiere, Episode 9 (Exclusive US/Canada Premiere, Trailer)
*NEXT DAY Premiere follows Australian world premiere
“The Best Show You’re Not Watching” -Inquisitr
“Amiable and touching…it’s easy to get sucked in by its scenic and anthropological charms” -The New York Times
The second half of Season 3 of this hugely popular and award-winning New Zealand family drama returns weekly on Wednesdays, the day after its New Zealand broadcast. Logie winner Erik Thomson (Packed to the Rafters, The Code) returns as George Turner, a man making a home for himself and his family in a beautiful and quirky New Zealand coastal town. (1 EP weekly)
Monday, August 20th
MYSTERY ROAD (Exclusive US/Canada Premiere, Acorn TV Original Series, Trailer)
“Australia’s answer to ‘True Detective’… Judy Davis is phenomenal.”-Junkee
“Stellar cast and outstanding cinematography”-The Guardian
ABC Australia’s hit new drama series stars multiple Emmy, BAFTA, and Golden Globe winner Judy Davis and AFCA winner Aaron Pedersen (Jack Irish, A Place to Call Home). This beautifully filmed and highly-anticipated series follows two detectives investigating the mysterious disappearance of two young men in a remote outback town. The 6-part series is currently a major ratings success for ABC Australia in primetime and has been featured at several festivals, including Denver’s SeriesFest, the Munich Film Festival, Saint-Tropez Film Festival, BANFF World Media Festival ‘Master Class Series’, MIP-TV and Series Mania. (6 EPS)
Monday, August 27th
TANGLED LIES (US Premiere, Italian Language)
New Italian drama series known as Scomparsa in Italy. The life of a single mother is thrown into anguish when her only daughter and a friend disappear on their way home one night. The whole community joins in a race against time to find the girls, uncovering the seemingly tranquil town’s dirty secrets. (6 Feature-Length episodes)
Friday, August 31 (Labor Day Weekend)
A PLACE TO CALL HOME, Season 6: The Final Season, Episode 1 & 2 (Exclusive US Premiere)
“Instantly irresistible saga…captivatingly filmed, deeply romantic drama of immense intelligence distinguished by a uniformly superb cast” -The Wall Street Journal
Acorn TV’s addictive Aussie period drama returns for its final season 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 the year by The Wall Street Journal. (10 EPS, Weekly)
Monday, September 10th
JACK IRISH, Season 2 (Exclusive US/Canada Premiere, Trailer)
“Tight, taut, high-powered viewing… highly addictive”-The Guardian
“Terrific… a perfectly imperfect hero whose company you’ll relish… with romance, exotic suspense and dry wit, Jack’s the whole package.”-TV Guide
Popular film and Emmy-winning tv star Guy Pearce (Iron Man 3, Memento, When We Rise, Mildred Pierce, The King’s Speech) returns again to his Aussie roots as the late Peter Temple’s antihero in a new six-part thriller. Jack stumbles into the world of manipulative Pharmaceutical companies, corrupt educational institutions aimed at international students and fatal clinical trials. The apparent suicide of a foreign student triggers a chain of events that will see Jack risking his life to uncover the truth. Season 2 features returning favorites Marta Dusseldorp (A Place to Call Home, Janet King), Roy Billing, and Aaron Pedersen (Mystery Road). (6 EPS)
September TBD
ACKLEY BRIDGE, Series 2 (Exclusive US/Canada Premiere, Trailer)
“Humorous, mischievous… an assured, cleverly cinematic school comedy drama” -The Australian
From the creators of the BAFTA Best Drama Winner Shameless and BAFTA Best Miniseries winner National Treasure comes the return of school-based British drama. Set in a 50/50 multicultural school in West Yorkshire, Ackley Bridge offers a character-driven, gritty, funny, truthful, and mischievous angle into the daily drama of the teachers, teenagers and families whose lives and cultures collide in a fictional 21st century Northern town. (12 EPS)
October TBD
BANG, Series 1 (Exclusive US/Canada Premiere)
Following in the acclaimed footsteps of Keeping Faith and Hidden, Bang is a Welsh crime drama about blood, love and human relationships from BAFTA award-winning writer Roger Williams. Set in the steel town of Port Talbot, loner Sam has his life transformed when he comes into possession of a gun and starts to break the law. His ambitious policewoman sister Gina is paid to uphold it and makes it her mission to find the owner of the weapon. The family saga plays out against an inquiry into the shooting of a local businessman that raises questions for Sam and Gina about their father’s murder when they were young children. (8 EPS)
November TBD
AGATHA RAISIN, Series 2 (Movie 1 of 3) (Acorn TV Original Series)
WORLD PREMIERE
*Acorn TV’s first sole commission
“My favorite show of the summer…comic mystery with delightful Ashley Jensen” -The New York Times
Emmy®-nominated actress Ashley Jensen (Catastrophe, Extras, Ugly Betty) returns in the adaptations of MC Beaton’s best-selling novels. The series follows a London PR whizz turned amateur sleuth, who becomes entangled in mischief, mayhem, and murder when she opts for early retirement in a small village in the Cotswolds. The first TV movie of three in production follows the 2016 pilot and 8-episode Series 1. (TV Movie)
THE HEART GUY, Series 3 (Exclusive US/Canada Premiere)
“A satisfying, funny and touching redemption fable…ThisHeart Guy is a heartthrob for sure, and the show's another fine and entertaining discovery by Acorn.” -TV Guide
Acorn TV’s must-see Aussie medical dramedy returns. Called Doctor Doctor in Australia and akin to an Aussie Doc Martin with its fish-out-of-water premise and eccentric characters, the series follows a charming and genius doctor (Rodger Corser, Glitch, The Doctor Blake Mysteries) forced to return to his hometown and become a local doctor after his personal life spins out of control. (10 EPS)
November/December TBD
FINDING JOY (Acorn TV Original Series)
New Irish comedy created, written and starring Irish Film & TV Academy winner Amy Huberman (Striking Out, The Clinic). The six-part comedy series follows a single woman, Joy, after a painful breakup who looks for happiness in all the wrong places.Finding Joy is a warm, irreverent show with a lot of heart and laughs as Joy struggles with life, her friends and her world. (6 EPS)
THE BROKENWOOD MYSTERIES, Series 5 (Exclusive US/Canada Premiere)
“Must-see TV…Awesome… Mike Shepherd is an immensely likable guy…Easygoing, intelligent, and depending on the situation, funny or downright witty.” -British TV Place
Acorn TV’s New Zealand detective series is filmed amid the beautiful landscape of New Zealand’s North Island, and returns with four feature-length, standalone mysteries featuring compelling characters, dry humor, and piquant wit. After transferring from a big city to the small town of Brokenwood, Detective Senior Sergeant Mike Shepherd (Neill Rea, Go Girls) works cases alongside methodical young assistant, Detective Kristin Sims (Fern Sutherland, The Almighty Johnsons). (4 TV Movies)
Called a “glorious streaming service…an essential must-have” (The Hollywood Reporter) and featuring “the most robust, reliable selection of European, British, Canadian and Australian shows” (The New York Times), Acorn TV continues to curate the very best in international television with a deep library of mysteries, dramas, and comedies without commercials. Acorn TV is available via Roku, Apple TV, iOS, Chromecast, Android, Amazon Fire, Amazon Add-on, among many other devices and offers a free trial and thereafter is just $4.99/month or $49.99/year.
WATCH: Acorn TV’s exclusive premieres will be added to the press watch site, https://acorn.tv/press, as they become available (mirror to your TV via Apple TV or Chromecast) with DVDs available upon request.
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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.
