Everything British for PBS Viewers to Stream in August 2024

The dog days of August are upon us, and while streaming has mostly changed the TV season so that no one takes summers off anymore, PBS is still a linear network at heart, and most of its shows run on the old September-May TV season, with a set of mysteries to cover the summer. But with most of those either having just ended (like D.I. Ray and Professor T) or ending the first weekend in August (like Grantchester Season 9), the August schedule feels old-school light, with only Walter Presents dropping new titles every Friday.

That's not completely accurate, of course; COBRA and Hotel Portofino, both in their third seasons, are still premiering with weekly episodes on Thursdays and Sundays, respectively. For those who aren't PBS Passport members, new episodes for both will stream weekly on the PBS app and the PBS Masterpiece Prime Video Channel on their respective evenings. Grantchester also has one more episode to go for non-PBS Passport members, arriving Sunday, August 4, 2024. 

However, with the Democratic National Convention taking up an entire week of evening programming, Frontline specials on Biden's decision to exit the race, Trump's Project 2025, and so forth, not to mention other American-centric stuff, August is pretty slim picking for the Anglophiles. Let's run down what few shows will be hitting PBS Passport as binges, as well as what else is coming in August 2024.

With Masterpiece bringing Wolf Hall: The Mirror & the Light to PBS in the spring of 2025, the lack of the original Wolf Hall on PBS Passport has been a glaring oversight for some time now. Thankfully, WGBH's favorite anthology series has finally rectified that issue, with all six episodes of the original 2015 series arriving as a binge starting at the top of the month. Don't look for the series on your linear networks, though; it will eventually air there, but not until much closer to the 2024 holiday season.

All six episodes of Wolf Hall arrive on PBS Passport (and continue to be on the PBS Masterpiece Prime Video Channel, which it never left) on Thursday, August 1, 2024.

Masterpiece's lack of Wolf Hall isn't the only show that should be on PBS Passport, but isn't. As fans of Call The Midwife know, the BBC's longstanding contract with Netflix means the series exits the PBS streaming world only two weeks after the finale of the current season. The show then stays Netflix-only until Christmas time, when the most recent Festive Specials repopulate, and the prior two seasons arrive as an early binge of PBS Passport members only in January. But that's about to change, as PBS Distribution acquired the rights to Season 10 and beyond starting in August, allowing fans of Poplar to stream the most recent four seasons to their heart's content.

All episodes of Call The Midwife Season 10-13 arrive as a binge on Thursday, August 1, 2024, on PBS Passport and the PBS Masterpiece Prime Video Channel.

Walter Presents' first debut for August 2024 is the Flemish miniseries The Day (Da Dag), a Belgian-made series that originally aired in 2018. The fictional story of an ingenious bank robbery gone wrong, the 12-episode series cuts back and forth from two perspectives. The odd-numbered episodes are told from the point of view of a team of negotiators and special forces responding to a hostage situation in a small bank. The even-numbered ones are the exact same events but seen through the eyes of the criminals and their victims inside.

All 12 episodes of The Day arrive on Friday, August 2, 2024, on PBS Passport and the PBS Masterpiece Prime Video Channel.

The Day isn't the only throwback series that debuted in the time before the pandemic. Walter Presents' second debut for August is the French series The Intern (La Stagiaire), the first season of which aired on France 3 way back in 2014/2015. Starring French actress Michèle Bernier, the series follows the story of Constance Meyer, who was once a farmer and mayor of her village. However, after a judicial error that lands her behind bars, she decides to restart her life at the age of 50, and following her release, she becomes a law student and intern. The series has run eight seasons and counting; however, currently, the first two are the only ones available for the global market.

All six episodes of The Intern Season 1 arrive on Friday, August 9, 2024, on PBS Passport and the PBS Masterpiece Prime Video Channel. Season 2 will probably follow in the coming months, and we'll see about the rest after that.

Returning to shows that debuted in this decade, The King's Favorite (Diane de Poitiers) is a French miniseries from 2022. Those of you who are watching The Serpent Queen on Starz will no doubt recognize the original French title as young Catherine de Medici's main rival for the affections of her husband, King Henry II. Starring Isabelle Adjani as Diane de Poitiers, the miniseries is a blend of fiction and history, but this time told from de Poitiers' point of view. Consider it getting to hear the other side of the story.

The King's Favorite originally ran as two feature-length episodes on France 2; Walter Presents has broken it into four parts, all of which arrive on Friday, August 16, 2024, on PBS Passport and the PBS Masterpiece Prime Video Channel.

Following The King's Favorite, Walter Presents brings viewers a second French miniseries from 2022, titled Visions. When 11-year-old Lilly goes missing during her mother's birthday party, eight-year-old Diego claims he saw her dress burning in a fire. Starring Soufiane Guerrab as Detective Romain Sauvant, this psychological mystery series about a child's visions and drawings helping to solve the case may sound like something you've seen before, but it's so well done, it feels like the first time.

All six episodes of Visions arrive on Friday, August 23, 2024, on PBS Passport and the PBS Masterpiece Prime Video Channel.

Finally, Walter Presents closes out August with the third and final season of Italian fan-favorite The Good Apprentice (L'Allieva). Starring Alessandra Mastronardi as Alice Allevi, the series follows her experiences as a student studying forensic medicine, torn between her career or a relationship with Dr. Claudio Conforti. Season 1 debuted back in April 2023; Season 2 arrived in November 2023.   

All 12 episodes of The Good Apprentice Season 3, the show's final season, debut on Friday, August 30, 2024, on PBS Passport and the PBS Masterpiece Prime Video Channel.