Our Most Highly-Anticipated British TV Arrivals on Streaming of 2023

When Netflix remade the award-winning British series House of Cards in 2013 for its first major release, few understood just how much it would change the way we consume entertainment in the coming decade that followed. But as we round into 2023 and the tenth anniversary of that debut, the upheaval is about to begin again. Since the beginning of the 2020s, Telly Visions has been tracking the streaming world for anglophiles, where the shows and movies are going, and why. This past year, 2022, has been relatively calm, no new major streaming services were launched, and only one shut down Spectrum Originals. However, that will not be the case for 2023.

The major shift among the most prominent streaming services will be the merger of HBO Max with Discovery+, currently on track to occur in the summer of 2023. This will be the capstone in Discovery Network's takeover of Warner Media (which owns HBO Max), and for viewers, it will subtract one streaming service from the 20+ services available. It will also mean that Anglophiles will have to decide if the combined streamer (rumored to be called "Max") is still worth paying for. 

However, that's not the only significant change viewers should keep an eye on.

Up until now, we here at Telly Visions have treated these two streamers as separate entities, despite the latter buying the former in 2018. That's because parent company AMC Networks kept the two brands distinct without crossing over shows from one to the other. The same cannot be said of AMCN's other niche streamers, Sundance Now, Shudder, IFC, and the streamer-less BBC America. Moreover, Acorn TV came in with over 1 million subscribers, a much larger base than any of AMC's other offerings.

However, there are signs that the wall between the two is coming down. Acorn TV is now streaming several shows that debuted on other AMC Network streaming services, its separate PR department has been slashed, and outside of the U.S., at least one Acorn TV service has been shut down. Moreover, there have been dire stories from inside AMC Networks suggesting the entire streaming operation is about to be overhauled. How that plays out may very well depend on how the Anne Rice series on AMC+ do for subscriber numbers.

But while we wait to see what happens, there are at least a few series fans can look for. Mrs. Sidhu Investigates is Acorn TV's new big get, while Dalgleish will be back for Season 2 in 2023 on Acorn TV, as will The Chelsea Detective, Harry Wild, and The Larkins. Kin is also supposed to be getting a second season over on AMC+, and Happy Valley's final season, which already debuted in the U.K. will be heading to AMC+ once its finishes its run over there. And Sundance Now is bringing Sanctuary, SisterS, The Lovers, and Mary & George.

Prime Video has been a money loser for Amazon since it launched, but nobody cares because the company makes so much from renting cloud space to websites like this one it can afford it. That's good news for Anglophiles, as Prime Video has a number of British (and British-ish) shows on its slate, and new acquisition MGM+ (formerly Epix) is getting a makeover that aims towards more European fare. 

Prime Video already announced it has The Power coming in 2023, based on Naomi Alderman’s novel of the same name. The British sci-fi series about teen girls across the world developing the power to electrocute people at will comes with an international cast and setting, with an ensemble of girls hailing from London, Seattle, Nigeria, and Eastern Europe. It will also bring back Wheel of Time and Carnival Row for Season 2, and has Lord of the Rings returning for another round of episodes. MGM+, meanwhile, is reviving Julian Fellowes' Belgravia and accidentally landed Rogue Heroes, which is the biggest show on the BBC for 2022.  

Apple TV+ gets the award for most improved streamer for Anglophiles for 2022. The good news is it will stay that way, thanks to parent company Apple's massive coffers and commitment to patiently waiting for success. (It also helped the company managed to hire several HBO vets during the upheaval of the last few years.) This is one streamer that you can subscribe to with confidence you'll get your money's worth, especially if you get a new apple production and take advantage of the free months of service that come with it.

The biggest title coming for 2023 is Ted Lasso's final season, but there's so much more than that on the way. Trying is getting a fourth season, and Bad Sisters is getting a second one. But the debuts heading this way are also biggies, starting with The Buccaneers adaptation, which is going to give Bridgerton a run for its money. Apple also has the sci-fi film Fingernails debuting in 2023. Plus there's a slew of shows like Peter Capaldi's Criminal Record, Idris Elba's Hijack, Antonia Thomas' Still Up, Tom Hiddleston's The White Darkness, and the as yet untitled Dick Turpin series with Noel Fielding, just to name the ones we know about.

Likewise, BritBox is looking well heading into the new year. The U.K. version of the streamer underwent serious upheaval across the pond, with the BBC pulling out of the joint venture over there and sole owner ITV turning it into ITVX. But the BBC is still a partner in the American version, and ITV is not aiming to make BritBox a sole destination service for its programming anytime soon. Even so, BritBox has several wins this past year with series like Sherwood and Karen Pirie and, hopefully, will land several more in the months ahead. 

It certainly has enough titles to land at least one hit. The two major titles are Three Little Birds, the Lenny Henry-penned series about the Windrush generation, and Archie, a biopic series on Cary Grant, starring Jason Issacs. But that's just the tip of the iceberg. Britbox also has Season 2 of The Responder, The Tower, and Time coming in 2023, along with more of Father Brown spinoff, The Sister Boniface Mysteries, and the debut of Death in Paradise spinoff, Beyond Paradise. All that and possibly more Sherwood as an anthology series and a new mystery Inspector Singh Investigates, starring Unforgotten's Sanjeev Bhaskar. There's a lot here for fans to watch.

In 2022, Hulu began benefitting from Disney+'s U.K. launch by landing a bunch of its high-profile releases deemed not family-friendly enough for the flagship streamer in the U.S. The decision to turn FX from a standalone streaming something into a brand like Marvel or Star Wars also benefitted Hulu, which carries all the cable network's shows. However, it does mean Hulu is still a streaming service with multiple personalities -- Disney+, FX, Hulu Originals, and the default streamer for NBC and ABC -- trying to embrace them all under one name.

But while 2023 will continue with Hulu getting most of the U.K. stuff and Disney+ sticking to British-ish content only in the U.S., the end of the year will bring massive change. That's the deadline for NBC Universal to pull all its content from Hulu, giving Disney complete control of Hulu. One month ago, I would have sworn on a bible that would immediately lead to Hulu ceasing as a standalone operator, and becoming a tile on Disney+, as Disney CEO Bob Chapek has all but said that was the plan in September. But then he got fired, and former CEO Bob Iger returned, and Iger is not someone who moves that fast. Hulu may eventually merge under Disney+, but probably not this year.

Disney+ has one British show coming for 2023: Doctor Who, starting with the 60th-anniversary specials, which the BBC hopes to entice a GenZ audience to watch by putting it there in America. The Doctor and the TARDIS will be Disney+ bound; however, everything Anglophiles are looking for will be on Hulu, including The Great Season 3, The Ballad of Renegade Nell, Obituary, The Veil, The Young Woman and the Sea, and the new adaptation of Great Expectations.

As mentioned above, HBO Max and Discovery+ will become one in the summer of 2023. However, it may mean the service stops being quite so necessary for Anglophiles as it was previously. Discovery Networks bought Warner Media after a brief but disastrous stint where it was owned by AT&T, who nearly tanked the company trying to imitate Disney+. Since the merger closed in the spring of 2022, Discovery's CEO David Zaslav has shut down all HBO Max European productions, removed several HBO dramas from the service (including British ones) with plans to sell the rights to stream to other companies, and even allowed DC to fire Henry Cavill as Superman.  

But the fallout from all of this and the merger of the services is 2024's problem. For 2023, HBO has several shows on the way, including The Gilded Age Season 2, Our Flag Means Death Season 2, Succession Season 4, and The Last of Us (which is British-ish). How long those shows last after they debut is anyone's guess, as is how long they remain on the combined service. But one bright spot: Discovery Networks loves a reality show, and that's good news for the criminally undermarketed The Great Pottery Throwdown, which will be bolstered by being paired alongside The Repair Shop and other British reality shows on the Discovery+ roster.

Despite what you may have heard, Netflix is doing fine now. Stock numbers and fearmongering aside, the streaming service works a year to 18 months in advance when making original content when it can, and even if its fortunes crashed tomorrow, it would still be fine for 2023 and beyond. In short, Netflix is still the champion of the streaming world, though it's taken a few blows. While lots of its non-original British content have exited for other streamers who will pay more for it, it has enough deals with the BBC and ITV and Channels 4 and 5 that there's plenty for Anglophiles to watch here.

The Crown's final season is, of course, the significant arrival for 2023, expected at the end of the year again. Bridgerton Season 3 and its spinoff, Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story, are supposed to arrive in 2023, plus Sex Education Season 4 and Heartstopper. The British-ish The Witcher Season 3 (Henry Cavill's last season) will come in the summer of 2023. Plus, there's more Black Mirror, a Luther movie, a Peaky Binders film, more Dahliverse with Henry Sugar, more Wallace and Gromit, and more of The Great British Baking Show. And that's not even mentioning all the new stuff like Champion, Lockwood & Co., Coming Undone, One Day, SupaCell, and The Gentlemen. Netflix is doing just fine, you guys.

If Apple TV+ was 2022's most improved, then Paramount+ is poised to take that title in 2023. The streaming service is so American its only hits currently are the very American Star Trek and the even more American Yellowstone. But launching a U.K. version of its service means it needs U.K. programming. Parent company Paramount committed to commissioning 50 international series for 2023, and quite a few are British. The streaming service doesn't need them all to hit, mind you; just one or two will do the trick, but if it does even better than that, it will be The One To Watch this year.

Some of the new titles we're looking forward to this year include Ruby Stokes and Samantha Morton in The Burning Girls, Hugh Bonneville and Charlotte Spencer leading The Gold, Brett Gelman heading up a British cast as the American fish out of water in Entitled, Kenneth Branagh's A Gentleman in Moscow, Jessica Brown Findlay's Flatshare, Ian McShane's Last King of the Cross, John Bradley's North Shore, Emun Elliott's Sexy Beast, and Saoirse Monica Jackson's The Doll Factory. In short, there's a lot coming to this streaming service, and we will be watching to see if any of it lands.

Poor Peacock. The streaming service has Comcvast money supporting it, but it also has one of the worst quarters in 2022 with zero new subscribers. The home of Eurovision also doesn't have a lot of British shows on the way other than Hide, starring David & Georgia Tennant, at least not that they've announced. However, it's large coffers and Comcast's determination to see it succeed means Peacock is a likely candidate to start buying up other streamers as they collapse, in hopes their subscriber base comes with the programming.

Much like AMC Networks, Starz is struggling, with Dangerous Liaisons Season 2 canceled after it was renewed and Becoming Elizabeth canned as well. There is rumor of an Eleanor of Aquitaine show in the works for 2023, but right now the home of Outlander has....Outlander....and more Outlander. And that's it.