'Karen Pirie' Season 2's Trailer Rewinds to 1984

BritBox's continuing slow roll into a powerhouse streamer for the Anglophile crowd is gathering momentum as we slide into the latter half of 2025. The niche-based subscription service has undergone numerous improvements over the last 18 months, since the BBC took full ownership of the international app. (BritBox was a joint venture between BBC and ITV until early 2024.) The growth has benefited all parties, with BritBox securing more hit shows that debut at a quicker pace, such as Karen Pirie Season 2, which now has an official release date.

Additionally, BritBox is stepping up to be a co-producer, as other traditional producers struggle or face financial difficulties, ensuring shows like Karen Pirie get greenlit for further installments. However, if I had to name one change that the new ownership made that does the most good, it's the move away from binge-dropping shows. It took the multi-pronged arrivals of Disney+, Apple TV+, HBO Max, and Peacock, all of which refused to follow Netflix's frankly deranged model of dropping an entire season in one go, as somehow superior to weekly rollouts, exposing the model to be as foolish as TV critics had said it would be.

It also encouraged smaller streaming services, such as BritBox, to switch from bingeing, which was frankly doing them no good, to weekly rollouts. The change was slow, with Britbox initially switching to "two episodes a week" for several months. However, the streaming service recently switched to one episode a week, just in time for Karen Pirie's three-feature-length episode format to take full advantage.