Join us as we look at what’s new on BBC iPlayer this week. From RuPaul’s Drag Race to Ludwig and movies from Wildlife to Relic, we take a look at what’s new this week on BBC iPlayer.
RuPaul’s Drag Race UK
International drag icon, RuPaul, is back in Blighty with his cult competitive reality show. Rooted in camp, British pop culture, and famed for its unpredictability, Drag Race UK fans will be delighted with a rambunctious new cast and a competition with even more twists, more laughs and more sass. So start your engines and control your excitement as a fresh new set of amazing drag queens compete to be crowned The UK’s Next Drag Race Superstar in one of the world’s most unpredictable, glamorous, and fiercely entertaining races.
Now embarking on its sixth season, the multiple award-winning flagship BBC Three show is highly anticipated every Autumn by its huge young and ardent fanbase. This year the competition sees hopeful drag queens, Actavia from North Wales, Chanel O’Conor from Scotland, Charra Tea from Belfast, Dita Garbo from Kent, Kiki Snatch from London, Kyran Thrax from Lancashire, La Voix from Stockton Upon Tees, Lill from Manchester, Marmalade from Cardiff, Rileasa Slaves from London, Saki Yew from Manchester and Zahirah Zapanta from Nottingham compete across ten weeks in a variety of spicy challenges and iconic games designed to test their drag mettle.
RuPaul, affectionately known as Mama Ru, leads an esteemed judging panel that includes regular judges Michelle Visage, Alan Carr, and Graham Norton, as well as a bevvy of celebrity guest judges, who this year range from Mabel to Simon Le Bon. Together, they deliberate the fate of the queens, but it is the queen of queens, Mama Ru, who has the final word on who shantays or sashays away from the competition. Watch RuPaul’s Drag Race UK on BBC iPlayer from Thursday 26 September.
What’s new on BBC iPlayer this week – Sep 22, 2024
Ludwig
John (Ludwig) Taylor (DAVID MITCHELL), Big Talk Studios, Colin Hutton. ©BBC Pictures
When John ‘Ludwig’ Taylor’s (David Mitchell) identical twin, James, disappears off the face of the earth, John takes over his brother’s identity in a quest to discover his whereabouts. John has never married, never had a family and never really ventured further than his own front door. Without a computer, mobile phone or even a television, he lives in quiet solitude, designing puzzles for a living, under the nom de plume of ‘Ludwig’.
However, filling the shoes of your identical twin is one thing – when your twin also happens to be a successful DCI leading Cambridge’s busy inner-city major crimes team, the stakes are much higher. John may be a master of all things cryptic, but can he crack the biggest puzzle of his life?
Joining David Mitchell in the case-of-the-week crime comedy-drama is Anna Maxwell Martin (Line of Duty), as Lucy Betts-Taylor, John’s sister-in-law and wife of his missing brother James. Dipo Ola (Landscapers), Gerran Howell (Suspicion), Izuka Hoyle (Big Boys), Dylan Hughes (Malory Towers), and Dorothy Atkinson (The Gold) also join the cast.
David Mitchell said, “The idea was pitched to me quite a while ago. I love TV detective shows. It’s one of the types of programmes I find most enjoyable and comforting to watch. I grew up loving Miss Marple, Inspector Morse, and Poirot, so it’s a bit of a dream for me to be in one”.
Executive Producer Kenton Allen added, “Ludwig is a classic crime drama with a unique twist. That unique twist being that the lead detective is not a detective, but his twin brother is”.
The Battle for Black Music: Paid in Full
The docuseries explores the historical injustices suffered by the music industry’s Black artists and the disparity in profits they received, despite creating the records that have driven the fabric and culture of popular music. Watch The Battle for Black Music: Paid in Full on BBC iPlayer from Saturday, 21 September.
Small Town, Big Riot
Mobeen Azhar heads to Kirkby to investigate how a peaceful protest outside a hotel housing asylum seekers turned into a riot in February 2023, uncovering the blueprint for a national wave of violent riots which took place across the country in the summer of 2024. Watch Small Town, Big Riot on BBC iPlayer from Monday 23 September.
What’s new on BBC iPlayer this week – Sep 22, 2024
Apples Never Fall
Apples Never Fall, Amy (ALISON BRIE), Stan (SAM NEILL), Joy (ANNETTE BENING), Logan (CONOR MERRIGAN-TURNER), Brooke (ESSIE RANDLES), Troy (JAKE LACY), Peacock TV. ©BBC Pictures
Mystery drama. The seemingly picture-perfect Delaney family are forced to re-examine their parents’ so-called perfect marriage as their family’s darkest secrets begin to surface… Featuring a star cast including Alison Brie, Annette Bening, and Sam Neill. Watch Apple’s Never Fall on BBC iPlayer from Saturday, 21 September.
Movies streaming now on iPlayer
Relic
The most potent horror often comes from reflecting on our shared human experiences and fears, whether through discussions on racism in Get Out or parenthood in The Babadook. With her bold debut feature, Relic, Natalie Erika James dives into the psychological fear of dementia through supernatural horror. As Relic opens, water pours from an overflowing bath, and an elderly woman (Robyn Nevin) stares at the twinkling lights of her Christmas tree. Something is wrong, and when we cut to the woman’s daughter weeks later, it’s clear what that is. Kay (Emily Mortimer) lives in Melbourne, miles from her ageing mother. But that distance feels even more significant as she receives a phone call informing her that her elderly mother, Edna, is missing following ongoing memory problems.
The mystery of Edna’s disappearance takes Kay and her young daughter Sam (Bella Heathcote) to her mum’s rural home in the search for answers. But, when Edna suddenly reappears, the initial joy quickly turns to concern and fear as a veil of darkness descends over the house and its inhabitants. Relic cleverly plays with our sense of time throughout the unfolding mystery as days turn to weeks and possibly months in the blink of an eye – the house and its memories creaking as a deadly force enters and refuses to leave. Here, Natalie Erika James draws upon the style of Polanski, Cronenberg and Aster as she plays with our very sense of reality, mirroring the horror of dementia in celluloid.
The result is a heartbreaking exploration of terminal illness that is petrifying, harrowing, bold and emotional. James understands that the best horror holds a mirror to our deepest and darkest fears and announces her arrival with a truly creative and bold horror.
What’s new on BBC iPlayer this week – Sep 22, 2024
Wildlife
Paul Dano’s directorial debut beautifully explores family breakdown through the eyes of teenage Joe (Ed Oxenbould). Wildlife captures the painful realisation that everything Joe believed as a child is slowly falling apart as relationships fracture and the true nature of the family home is dragged into the light as the veil of his younger years lifts.
Joe’s dad, Jerry (Jake Gyllenhaal), works at a local golf course, while his mum, Jeanne (Carey Mulligan), dutifully stays home no matter the individual aspirations she holds. In truth, both Joe and Jeanne do what it takes to keep Jerry happy. However, as the world changes outside their door and the 1960s liberation movement comes knocking, family, gender roles, and equity are about to shake the foundations of their small home, as Jerry loses his job and Jeanne becomes the breadwinner.
Dano’s exquisitely written, directed, and performed story of family separation, social change, and an unravelling love is both a coming-of-age journey and a sharp dissection of the oppression and hyper-masculinity behind the 1950s and 1960s vision of the American Dream.
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