'This England' to Grace BritBox at the Start of November

When it was first announced there would be a TV series about Boris Johnson's role in dealing with COVID-19 in June 2020, it was decried as "too soon." After all, the crisis had barely started at that point; most people had only just realized that "ten weeks and then back to normal" was about to give way to two long years of lockdowns and testing, not to mention political fights over masking and vaccinations. When Kenneth Branagh was presented as Johnson six months later, it still felt too soon. However, by rushing to work on the series, by the time it made it to screen in the U.K. in September 2021, Boris Johnson's reign had only just fully collapsed from his COVID-era partygate scandal.

One might consider that fortuitous timing had Queen Elizabeth II not died two weeks before. The series premiere wound up so completely overshadowed on Sky TV as to be unnoticed in all the mourning and aftershocks of the new King Charles III, not to mention the here today gone tomorrow of Johnson's successor Liz Truss. However, their loss is America's gain. A year and change later, the series makes its way across the pond to BritBox, where it arrives just in time for audiences to be ready to look back with a knowing eye at how Johnson really handled it.

BritBox will bring all six episodes of the series as a binge just in time for November. Check out Sky TV's original trailer from last year.