‘The Doll Factory’ Finally Lands an American Streaming Home
'The Doll Factory' will finally come to America on the free streaming service no one knows exists, The Network.
Thanks to the rise of streaming services and their bottomless need for fresh content, it is actually easier than ever to watch much of the British TV that Anglophiles once had to spend months or even years waiting to see. (Often in surprisingly timely fashion, too! Miracles happen every day!) But every so often, a show slips through the cracks, lost in a sort of weird limbo with no official American distribution in sight.
That’s what happened to The Doll Factory, a six-part period thriller that originally aired in the U.K. in the Fall of 2023. Originally a product of Paramount+’s U.K. division, the project’s distribution was shelved when the network suddenly dumped all of its original British programming in one go. A few stragglers managed to find new homes — The Burning Girls, for example, randomly popped up on The Roku Channel — but it’s been a difficult road for most. But, happily, not all hope appears lost: The Doll Factory is finally coming to America thanks to the relatively unknown free streamer The Network.
Based on the novel by Elizabeth Macneal, the series follows two sisters in Victorian England who make a living painting mourning dolls, a taxidermist with a shop full of wonders, and a painter in search of a muse. It has the dark, twisty thriller vibes we see quite often in contemporary drama, but very rarely in a period-set piece.
It stars Esmé Creed-Miles (The Sandman), Mirren Mack (Miss Austen), Éanna Hardwicke (The Sixth Commandment), and George Webster (Masters of the Air).
Iris’ eyes are opened when she falls into the orbit of the Pre-Raphaelites. Their world is so immersive: beautiful, dark, twisty, and twisted – and I can’t wait for audiences to experience it all with her,” Miles said in a statement.
The series’ ensemble cast also includes Sharlene Whyte (Saniton), Pippa Haywood (Magpie Murders), Freddy Carter (Shadow and Bone), Saoirse-Monica Jackson (Derry Girls), Reece Kenwyne-Mpudzi (The Man Who Fell to Earth), Jim Caesar (Grantchester), Akshay Khanna (Andor), Aysha Kala (The Undeclared War), Nell Hudson (Victoria), and newcomer Reece Kenwyne-Mpudzi.
Rising British screenwriter Charley Miles adapted the series for television, with Sacha Polak (Dirty God) and Cathy Brady (Wildfire) directing. Tony Wood, Anna Burns, and Richard Tulk-Hart are executive producers for Buccaneer, alongside Miles.
The Doll Factory will premiere on The Network with all epiosdes on Thursday, May 28, 2026.
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