Everything British for PBS Viewers to Stream in January 2024

The last holidays of the year are winding down, and with it, the final days of the old year. With January 2024 on the horizon, it's officially the middle of the decade, with the 2020s firmly entrenched in whatever it is they are going to do. The new year is also a significant time for British debuts on TV, a legacy that began with Downton Abbey at the beginning of the last decade. It has now become a tradition on PBS and across streaming services in America. We'll be covering the competition in our other monthly post for what's worth streaming in January 2024; PBS still stands tall with the most to offer as the bells toll the arrival of New Year's Day.

PBS's ability to offer as much as it does right out of the gate comes from having multiple different sources for British programming, feeding PBS Passport and its various PBS channels over on Amazon. There's American Public Television, which, despite the name, does supply British shows. Everyone's favorite, Masterpiece, has been bringing over banger after banger in the past few months. Then there are the lesser-known ones, like PBS Distribution, responsible for bringing over long-running favorites like Call The Midwife and new arrivals like D.I. Ray. Last but not least, there's Walter Presents' anthology series, which brings the best of foreign favorites to the U.K. (and then the U.S.). 

Between the four of them, January is just packed. Let's run down everything arriving for the top of the year.

While California holds the Rose Bowl Parade, hours earlier London holds its own Near Year's Day Parade through the city of Westminster, a tradition stemming back to the 1970s. Cultural and community groups rub shoulders with leading professional entertainers and the mayors of London. Plus, more than 20 U.S. marching bands and a thousand varsity cheerleaders fill the streets of the U.K. capital for their moment in the global spotlight. This is a PBS Passport exclusive and one that is only available on certain PBS stations, so check your local listings and streaming services.

London's New Year's Day Parade 2024 debuts on PBS Passport on Monday, January 1, 2024.

Channel 4, unfortunately, has mistaken the deep well of popularity of The Great British Baking Show to be a deep well of popularity for Paul Hollywood. I don't have enough characters in this box to explain why this is wrong, especially in America; however, that didn't stop them from sending Paul Hollywood to California on his motorbike (probably hoping he wouldn't return) and filming the results. If you must watch Paul Hollywood Goes To Hollywood, perhaps in hopes of him discovering how little he belongs there, it is also a PBS Passport exclusive and will air only on some PBS stations, so check your local listings and streaming services.

Paul Hollywood Goes To Hollywood arrives on PBS Passport only on Monday, January 1, 2024. 

The French series, Astrid, known in its home country where it airs on France 2 as Astrid et Raphaëlle, last dropped new episodes on PBS Passport and the Masterpiece Channel on Amazon in April 2023. Part of the delay was due to the series proving so popular that local PBS stations began airing it on linear on Thursdays, despite it being in French with subtitles. Season 2 recently concluded its on-air run in November 2023, and now Season 3 is following on streaming. Sara Mortensen returns as Astrid Nielsen, with Lola Dewaere as her partner in criminal hunting, Raphaëlle Coste. 

Astrid Season 3 arrives with all eight episodes on PBS Passport and the PBS Masterpiece Channel on Amazon on Friday, January 5, 2024. Season 4 just concluded in France, with Season 5 expected to be greenlit after the new year.

Masterpiece's Sunday night lineup for its winter premieres kicks off with the fan-favorite Victorian-era set mystery series Miss Scarlet & the Duke. The series has had a bit of a shuffle about in its schedule, initially premiering in January 2021 and then disappearing for nearly two years before airing Seasons 2 and 3 nearly back to back in the fall and winter of 2022 and 2023. But after a year away, it looks to have settled down as a January arrival for the foreseeable future, with Eliza Scarlet (Kate Phillips) now in possession of a successful detective agency while her bestie Detective William "The Duke" Wellington (Stuart Martin) helps her solve crimes from the official angle.

Miss Scarlet & the Duke Season 4 premieres on Sunday, January 7 at 8 p.m. ET on most PBS stations and the PBS Masterpiece Channel on Amazon and will run on a weekly format. All six episodes will arrive on PBS Passport on premiere day for members.

Masterpiece's other major period piece hit, All Creatures Great & Small, follows Miss Scarlet at 9 p.m. ET on Sunday nights starting the same day. Like the Victorian-era series, the World War II-era Yorkshire-set series is also beginning its fourth season this year, and the war is definitely underway. Tristan (Callum Woodhouse) is off on the continent tending to wounded animals as a vet in the army and will not appear this season, while James (Nicholas Ralph) is waiting for the inevitable moment when he, too, is called up. Meanwhile, with the men of Yorkshire slowly disappearing, Siegfried (Samuel West) is hiring outside help, with sometimes hilarious consequences. 

All Creatures Great & Small Season 4 premieres on Sunday, January 7 at 9 p.m. ET on most PBS stations and the PBS Masterpiece Channel on Amazon and will run on a weekly format. All seven episodes will arrive on PBS Passport on premiere day for members.

The arrival of the brand new series Funny Woman, which premiered on Sky Max in February 2023, rounds out the Sunday night premieres. Based on Nick Hornby's best-selling book Funny Girl, the Morwenna Banks-penned series stars Gemma Arterton as Barbara Parker, who, at the height of the 60s, has just been crowned Miss Blackpool. Determined to be more than a beauty queen in a seaside town, she heads to London to become a TV comedian, only to discover it's a man's man's man's man's world. The series has already been renewed for Season 2 in the U.K., so there should be more next year.

Funny Woman Season 1 premieres on Sunday, January 7 at 10 p.m. ET on most PBS stations and the PBS Masterpiece Channel on Amazon and will run on a weekly format. All six episodes will arrive on PBS Passport on premiere day for members.

Like Astrid, Luna + Sophie (SOKO Potsdam) is a Walter Presents fan-favorite that grew in popularity via word of mouth, to the point that Season 2 aired on some PBS stations in the summer of 2023 after Season 3 debuted with all episodes on PBS Passport and the Masterpiece channel in March 2023. However, at the time, I assumed Season 3 would be the last to come over. Despite the rename, Luna + Sophie is actually one of a dozen CSI-style procedural shows out of Germany, all called SOKO (Insert City), where recasting is frequent; Luna Kunath (Caroline Erikson) and Sophie Pohlmann (Katrin Jaehne) were part of a mass turnover in Season 4 of Potsdam, which occurred before American audiences fell in love with them as the heart of the series. However, it seems I was wrong. Walter is bringing Season 4 over, at least to let audiences say goodbye, and maybe hoping to see if fans will watch Luna + Sophie sans Luna and Sophie.

All 13 episodes of Luna + Sophie (SOKO Potsdam) Season 4 arrive on PBS Passport and the PBS Masterpiece channel on Friday, January 12, 2024.

For those itching for more Call The Midwife after the 2023 Holiday Special but unable to wait for Season 13 to arrive in March, PBS Passport has you covered. Call The Midwife Season 12 will return for members to re-watch ahead of the Season 13 premiere. Like the January 1 premieres, this is a PBS Passport exclusive for members only, so check your local listings and streaming schedules to ensure this one is happening near you. As always, this is only the season previous; the rest reside on Netflix.

All of Call The Midwife Season 12 and the Season 13 Holiday special will be on PBS Passport for members starting Friday, January 12, 2024, in preparation for the Season 13 debut in March.

It's been nearly a year since Inspector Ricciardi (Il Commissario Ricciardi) Season 1 debuted on PBS Passport in February 2023, as part of the opening salvo of Batch 2 of Walter Presents' big deluge at the top of 2023. The 1930s-set Italian crime drama, based on the novels by Maurizio De Giovanni, stars Lino Guanciale, who fans will recognize from The Good Apprentice (L'Allieva). Here he plays Police Commissioner Luigi Alfredo Ricciardi, a detective with the secret ability to see ghosts of those who died violent deaths and hear their last thoughts. Season 2 premiered on RAI in March 2023 and begins with Luigi fearing passing on his curse to future children. Season 3 is expected to come out in 2024 or 2025.

All four feature-length episodes of Inspector Ricciardi (Il Commissario Ricciardi) Season 2 will arrive on PBS Passport and the PBS Masterpiece Channel on Friday, January 19, 2024.

The 2021 Finish limited series Bad Apples (Mädät Omenat) from Viaplay is a 1970s-era horror series based on the real-life decision by the Finnish government to kidnap female Finnish dissidents and put them away in mental institutions. Satu Tuuli Karhu stars as Onerva Poikelus, a vocal idealistic student activist. However, her opinions are too intense for some, and she is committed to a sanatorium against her will. She's made out to be an aggressive troublemaker by the authorities, even her own husband, but she is adamant she is fighting for justice. While trying to maintain her sanity, Onerva is subject to experimental treatments administered to women in the sanatorium. Are they really mad, or is the truth far worse?

All eight episodes of Bad Apples (Mädät Omenat) arrive on PBS Passport and PBS' Masterpiece Channel on Friday, January 26, 2024.

Because of the way Walter Presents brings series to the U.K. and then to the U.S., not everything comes over in order or even under the same name as it aired anywhere else. Such is the case with the final series of January, the 2021 miniseries Circles of Power, which is actually the second season of the French political thriller Jeux D'Influence. Season 1 of Jeux D'Influence aired in 2018 and did air in the U.K. under the title The Inside Game, but that never made it to American shores, hence the completely new title for our viewing. (Don't worry, the two seasons are only very loosely connected, and you don't need to have seen Season 1 to understand Season 2.) All you have to know about Season 2 is that a Minister of Agriculture is about to have a no-good, very bad day due to poor life choices.

All six episodes of Circles of Power debut on PBS Passport and the PBS Masterpiece Channel on Friday, January 26, 2024.