BritBox Adding John Cleese, David Cross Comedies
'Bliss' and 'Hold The Sunset' are being added to the subscription service later this year.
BritBox, the subscription video streaming service from BBC Studios and ITV, in which AMC Networks also has a stake, has picked up two U.K. comedies to exclusively stream in the U.S.
Bliss, from David Cross (Arrested Development) and starring Stephen Mangan (Episodes) and Heather Graham (Austin Powers), will be added to the platform in August, with the John Cleese and Alison Steadman (Orphan Black) led ensemble Hold the Sunset following in September.
The pair of rom-coms join BritBox’s first original series The Bletchley Circle: San Francisco, which will debut on July 26. Picking up in 1956, the follow-up to The Bletchley Circle, the new series finds two of the original lead characters, Millie (Rachael Stirling) and Jean (Julie Graham), as they travel to America and join forces with two U.S. codebreakers to tackle a string of new murder cases. In the first episode, the team goes after a serial killer from their Bletchley war days, who has resurfaced in the United States.
“From the beginning the goal of BritBox was to bring great content from the U.K. to the U.S. and part of that is bringing amazing talent such as John Cleese, Alison Steadman and Stephen Mangan who are headlining our two newest acquisitions,” said Soumya Sriraman, BritBox president. "Having Hold the Sunset and Bliss, along with the debut of our first original series The Bletchley Circle: San Francisco, gives us an incredibly strong summer of fresh British programming."
