6 Shows Commissioned by the BBC in 2025 That Need to Cross the Pond

This decade has been several flavors of awful for the entertainment industry since the pandemic first hit in March 2020, followed by the double strike of 2023. Five years in, the aftereffects are still everywhere, from the ongoing sale of the 115-year-old Paramount Studios to the multiple rounds of layoffs at Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery. However, it is a callous insult to injury that, on top of all this, the political instability in the U.S. has all but halted what was a decade-long influx of British series onto American streaming services.

Not that the British networks are commissioning less, though the BBC notably did not have a swing-for-the-fences drama slate for 2025 after 2024's fizzled. However, the head of comedy, Jon Petrie, did do one for his side of the entertainment roster. Petrie commissioned ten shows altogether, four of which were recommissions of series that don't seem likely to head our way (Only Child, Funboys, The Young Offenders, The Golden Cobra). The biggest, The Reluctant Vampire, we have already covered, and two are super seasonal (the Christmas-themed Stuffed) or partly animated (Small Prophets), which makes them harder to sell. But that still leaves several shows that have no business not coming here.

The issue is the hostile political climate that has formed between America and Europe, along with the erratic threats of tariffs. The two have compounded to make deals with the U.S., the U.K.'s biggest benefactor and co-producer, no longer a safe bet. The chilling effect this has had on the industry is hard to overstate; the growing pile of BBC-commissioned series without any distribution deal, months after they were announced, is starting to become concerning.