BritBox Announces Next Jubilee Simulcast "The RHS Chelsea Flower Show"

BritBox US has become more of an originals player in the past couple of years; however, the streaming service was initially conceived in 2016 as a way to provide legal British content directly to consumers who were already VPNing ITV and iPlayer in the states. It has always carried simulcasts aimed directly at the U.K. ex-pat, especially around major holidays. The Jubilee is its latest pick-up; on May 15, it simulcast The Queen's Platinum Jubilee Celebration, a special filled with extraordinarily old-school British pageantry, with massive amounts of horse choreography and A-List British actors in period costume. On May 22, it'll carry The RHS Chelsea Flower Show, paying tribute to the Queen's long-standing patronage.

With the Emmy nomination window closing at the end of May and the Cannes Film Festival and Market in full swing in France, late spring is always a significant time for British TV and movies. But though the U.K.'s royal family has not had a great couple of years in the public eye (nearly all of which have been self-inflicted), Jubilee years don't come around often. This is the first 70th Jubilee celebration ever held in England; Elizabeth II has beaten Victoria's 63-year record by almost a decade and is now the second longest-reigning European monarch after Louis XIV of France. With the June coronation celebration only weeks away, the TV specials are piling up.

The RHS Chelsea Flower Show is a yearly tradition, started during the aforementioned Queen Victoria's run in 1862. The week-long event turns Chelsea into a high-class posh festival, with upper-classes and avid gardeners alike taking in the gardening displays and competitions. It's also one long associated with royal patronage, with Cathy Cambridge taking the lead in the last few years, part of the slow transfer of power that acknowledges that (should the monarchy last long enough) she will be Queen one day.