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When the cats are away, the mice come out to play, with the truth of this ancient proverb travelling through time and space to apply to this week’s adventures in streaming. Indeed, whilst the likes of Netflix, Amazon, Disney and Apple are readying for big releases in the near future, the more humble services across Britain, such as All 4 and BBC iPlayer, are enjoying all the spoils. 

This week in streaming is somewhat fruitless if you’re a fan of big-budget releases, but for others who enjoy a quiet drama or crime romp, this may be the weekend for you. Whilst Amazon is delivering with a few hard-hitters, including the long-anticipated remake of a celebrated Austrian horror flick, BBC and Channel 4 have quietly released a handful of really neat content. 

There’s much to enjoy here for any type of viewer, however, whether you’re into classic movies of the past couple of years or are eagerly awaiting the latest series of your favourite show. Join us, below, as we break down the very best TV shows and movies coming to streaming this weekend for your viewing pleasure.  

Ditching his love of horror for sheer classical romance, Mexican filmmaker Guillermo del Toro won Best Picture in 2017 for The Shape of Water, a typical Hollywood love story with a fantasy twist. Oozing with class and cinematic charm, del Toro’s film is a dark fairytale following a deaf janitor who forms a unique relationship with a mysterious amphibious creature being held in captivity in a top-secret research facility.

It’s a peculiar film that feels both refreshingly original but also inextricably tied to the romance and grace of classic Hollywood, starring Sally Hawkins, Doug Jones and Octavia Spencer. 

An overlooked historical thriller which suffered severe delays in hitting cinemas thanks to the Covid-19 pandemic, The Courier is a surprisingly great time in spite of its rather generic title. Starring Benedict Cumberbatch, Merab Ninidze, Rachel Brosnahan, James Schofield and Fred Haig, the Dominic Cooke-directed movie tells the story of a businessman who is asked by a Russian source to try to help put an end to the Cuban Missile Crisis.

An intricate drama and surprisingly thrilling thriller, The Courier is worth checking out on Netflix if you like an espionage tale.

Truthfully, the trio of annoying car enthusiasts Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May haven’t ever really recovered from when they were each kicked off BBC’s Top Gear, but this certainly isn’t for a lack of trying. Taken in by Amazon Studios, the streaming service gave them the freedom to create more automobile antics, with this latest series taking them on a mission to drive a load of rally cars across Sweden and into Finland. The trick is that they can’t go below the Arctic Circle.

If this is your kind of thing, you’ll probably have a blast. 

Amazon is trying something new with this stylish 1940s drama that follows the story of a daring young upper-class woman, Marina, who sets out to hunt down the serial killer who has been stalking the city for months. A crime thriller with sprinklings of comedy, the brand new series stars the likes of Aura Garrido, Leon’s Jean Reno, Pablo Molinero, Álex García, Ángela Molina, Tito Valverde and many more. 

With the help of her butler, Héctor, Marina engages in the shadowy corners of the city in order to find the ruthless killer. Like the ‘40s? Like crime? This one’s for you. 

Occasionally a foreign horror will suffuse through the boundaries of the genre and become one of the most discussed titles in any given year. In 2014 that film was Severin Fiala and Veronika Franz’s Goodnight Mommy, a mysterious thriller in which twin brothers come home to their mother having gone through face-changing cosmetic surgery, but is the woman underneath the bandages still their mother at all?

Consider the remake from director Matt Sobel to be included within the pantheon of pointless American horror remakes, even if the film shows promise with Naomi Watts in the lead role.

On the lighter side of content, this week is the return of Channel 4’s celebrated cooking show, The Great British Bake Off, which sees 12 contestants fight it out for such weekly prizes as ‘Star Baker’ and baking supremacy at the end of the three-month-long show. Honestly, if you’ve never watched Bake Off, there are few shows as sweet, succulent, soft and sugared (several puns intended). 

As well as the 12 new contestants, hosts Noel Fielding, Matt Lucas, Paul Hollywood and Prue Leith all return.

Helmed by the award-winning filmmaker behind Hero and House of Flying Daggers, Zhang Yimou, One Second has been anticipated for quite some time now. Created as part of the same family as Giuseppe Tornatore’s Cinema Paradiso, Yimou’s tragicomic tale tells the story of an escaped convict in China who is searching for a missing film reel which contains footage of his estranged daughter. 

Seemingly, 2022 is the year to pay homage to the history of cinema, with Steven Spielberg’s Fabelmans and Sam Mendes’ Empire of Light doing the exact same.

The BBC isn’t perfect, but its track record with crime dramas is pretty decent, and 2021s Bloodlands was one of their most recent successes. The second series deals with DCI Tom Brannick, an undercover assassin who is forced into keeping his secret hidden after a murder is committed in his town. Thrilling and somewhat overly dramatic, as long as you can withhold your disbelief, Bloodlands is a great ride.

James Nesbitt leads the cast as the officer/assassin, with a supporting cast that includes Charlene McKenna, Lorcan Cranitch, Victoria Smurfit, Lisa Dwan and Michael Smiley.

Though Daisy May Cooper has been doing the rounds on panel shows and podcasts, she hasn’t made much of an appearance on television, with This Country remaining her lasting legacy in modern comedy. But Am I Being Unreasonable? hopes to change that with a promising concept, written by the actor herself, which follows two mums who find themselves in a winding thriller that includes angst, paranoia and much more. 

Whilst Cooper leads the cast, she is joined by the likes of Dustin Demri-Burns, Selin Hizli, Juliet Cowan and David Flynn.

CD Projekt Red experienced a tumultuous time upon the release of their video game Cyberpunk 2077 in 2020, with the highly-anticipated game failing to live up to the high expectation of fans thanks to its endless glitches and multiple over-promises. With that being said, two years later, gamers have turned a corner with the title, with several patches to the game making it entirely more enjoyable. 

As a result, the release of the Netflix series Cyberpunk: Edgerunners couldn’t have come at a better time, with the anime show reportedly being a surprising success. Telling the story of a bunch of street kids trying to survive in a body modification-obsessed city of the future, Edgerunners looks to be everything the video game tried to be upon its launch.

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