As we near the festive season, it’s time to decorate the tree, break out the jar of ginger cookies, settle in to your favourite armchair and get ready for another month of quality entertainment from Acorn TV.
Viewers looking for their annual Christmas Eve fix of Murdoch Mysteries are in for a real treat as Detective Murdoch (Yannick Bisson) hosts A Music Lover’s Guide to Murdoch Mysteries, a very special evening with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra showcasing the traditional music of the Victorian and Edwardian eras.
Going further back in time to the Elizabethan era, Academy Award nominee Helen Mirren is magnetic in Elizabeth I. Looking beyond the myth to the woman behind the crown, this fascinating mini-series illuminates the grimy, lustful underbelly behind the opulence and formality of the English court. It’s not just the weather heating up this December!
Fans of the world’s bestselling author of all time rejoice, the greatest detective to ever walk the Earth is back! Acorn TV subscribers can join Hercule Poirot in solving many more mysteries as four more series of Agatha Christie’s Poirot launch across the month. Viewers can then settle in for a hilarious romp as Miriam Margolyes ticks off her preposterous bucket list in that outrageous way only she can, in English road-trip comedy Bucket.
As usual, there’s plenty more to enjoy with Acorn TV’s ever-growing list of quality and compelling series from Britain, Australia and beyond. Read on for the full list of December releases – and don’t forget to binge Granchester S4 when it releases on November 23.
DECEMBER HIGHLIGHTS
Thursday, 24 December 2020
A MUSIC LOVER’S GUIDE TO MURDOCH
MYSTERIES
AUSTRALIAN PREMIERE
Celebrate the holidays with the music of the Murdoch Mysteries Victorian and Edwardianeras in this one-hour musical extravaganza Christmas special.
Murdoch Mysteries fans are typically delighted by a new season of the hit series on ChristmasEve each year. Covid-19 may have caused production delays, but nothing will stop the celebration! This Christmas Eve join Yannick Bisson / Detective Murdoch as he hosts an evening with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra to showcase the traditional music of the time.
Monday, 7 December 2020
AGATHA CHRISTIE’S POIROT – SERIES 9 & 10
SUBSCRIPTION STREAMING PREMIERE
Monday, 21 December 2020
AGATHA CHRISTIE’S POIROT – SERIES 11 & 12
SUBSCRIPTION STREAMING PREMIERE
“One of the great TV achievements – and great TV performances – of the past 30 years”
– The Daily Telegraph UK
He is fastidious, refined, ingenious, incomparable and, bien sûr, the greatest detective that ever walked the Earth! He is Hercule Poirot and he determines the facts, unravels the truth and exposes the murderer with more unparalleled brilliance and ego than ever before. Agatha Christie’s most compelling sleuth will prove once again that regardless of the case, no villain can ever get the better of Poirot.
David Suchet (Hidden,A Perfect Murder) is a pitch-perfect Poirot in these gorgeously filmedadaptations of Agatha Christie’s mysteries. The diminutive detective cracks cases with a sharp mind, dry wit, and help from his friends, including Captain Hastings (Hugh Fraser, Sharpe), Inspector Japp (Philip Jackson, Boomers, The Good Karma Hospital) and Ariadne Oliver (Zoe Wanamaker,My Family, Mr. Selfridge).
“The series remains as timeless as Christie herself”
– New York Daily News
Monday, 28 December 2020 ELIZABETH I
The hardest thing to govern is the heart.
Academy Award nominee Helen Mirren (The Queen, Gosford Park) stars alongsideHugh Dancy(Hannibal, Homeland), Toby Jones (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Detectorists) andJeremy Irons(Their Finest, The Borgias) in this mini-series about thepublic and private lives of Queen Elizabeth I in the later years of her reign.
“Mirren… is magnetic in the role”
– The New York Times
Elizabeth I, daughter of Henry VIII, re-united a nation divided by religious strife, faced down the Spanish Armada and, after an unprecedented forty-five-year reign, died one of England’s best-loved monarchs. During her time as Queen, poets and playwrights wrote about her, artists painted her and composers dedicated their work to her, all contributing to the legend of Gloriana, the Virgin Queen.
Elizabeth I looks beyond the myth, to the woman behind the crown. The woman subjected toa humiliating gynaecological examination when contemplating marrying a French Prince, to ensure she was still able to have children; the woman who ran a country and yet who wasn’t allowed to marry the man she loved; the woman who, in her mid-fifties, conducted a passionate affair with a man half her age, a man whose arrogance eventually led him to mount a desperate challenge for Elizabeth’s throne.
Illuminating the grimy, lustful underbelly behind the opulence and formality of the English court, this drama tells for the first time the intimate story of Britain’s most famous Queen.
“A richly drawn portrait of a powerful woman who is both ruthless and sentimental, formidable and mercurial, vain and likable”
– The New York Times
ALSO ARRIVING IN DECEMBER
Monday, 14 December 2020
BUCKET
NEW TO STREAMING / EXCLUSIVE
4 Episodes
Miriam Margolyes (Call the Midwife,MissFisher, Harry Potter franchise) stars in thisupbeat comedy series about a mother and daughter on a bucket list road trip to resolve the past that has made their present tense.
Fran is a reserved high school history teacher in a rut. Mim is an eccentric free spirit who believes 70 is the new 40. They are also mother and daughter, and their relationship is not exactly easy. But when Mim reveals she is dying and wants to go on a road trip to tick off items on her bucket list, Fran feels she has no choice but to come along for the ride.
Fran and Mim have to try to come to terms with their past and their future as they tick off items on Mim’s preposterous list one by one. Fran has to learn to let loose. Mim has to learn to think of someone else for a change. Both of them have to make the most of the time they have left together and find a way to accept the fact that it will soon be at an end. But with Mim and Fran, tragedy always somehow ends up as comedy.
Monday, 14 December 2020
UNDENIABLE
NEW TO STREAMING / EXCLUSIVE
How far would you go for justice?
This gripping psychological thriller follows Jane as she comes face to face with her mother’s killer 23 years after witnessing the murder as a child.
1991. Seven-year-old Jane bears witness to the inexplicable murder of her mother. Jane saw the killer’s face but, despite investigation, his identity and motive remain unknown and, to this day, he roams free. Twenty-three years later, Jane is a grown woman, married with a daughter of her own. Her mother’s murder still haunts her and the spectre of that man has stalked her into adult life.
One day, she pays a routine visit to the local hospital and comes face to face with him. Jane is utterly convinced that she has found her mother’s killer, a ghost from the past, here in the flesh. She sets about trying to prove it any way that she can, determined to bring to justice the man who took her mother away. But what if Andrew Bolton, a well-respected doctor and a beloved family man, is just as ordinary and innocent as he claims. After all, Jane has been wrong before…
Monday, 28 December 2020
SECRET STATE
4 Episodes
Gabriel Byrne (The Usual Suspects,Miller’sCrossing) leads an impressive cast includingCharles Dance (Game of Thrones,GosfordPark),Lia Williams(Doc Martin, The Missing) ,Anna Madeley (In Bruges,Deadwater Fell)and Gina McKee (Notting Hill, Atonement) in this taut political thriller.
In the lead-up to a General Election, a large-scale industrial accident in the North of England, which causes several fatalities, raises awkward questions about safety procedures at the American-owned petrochemical firm that owns the accident site. The British Prime-Minister claims he has secured a compensation package after a dash across the Atlantic – but he and his plane disappear on their return flight. Deputy Prime Minister Tom Dawkins, a man with a profound belief in transparency and open Government has to take the reins. His quest for truth and justice for the victims take him to the dark heart of Government’s financial and military dealings…
