Dream Stream: The Tudors, Miranda, and Futurama

The Tudors

Series 1-4 – Channel 4

With Becoming Elizabeth having garnered some juicy reviews since landing on Channel 4 last week, Britain's insatiable appetite for a period drama romp has been stoked again.

Well, maybe its high time to also get reacquainted with The Virgin Queen's most famous ancestor. Keep that bodice tight and adjust your ruffs folks – daddy's home...

Created and written by Michael Hirst, The Tudors is a sublime historical fiction series that follows the infamous reign of King Henry VIII, and his insatiable temper and appetite for pleasure.

Seductive, sexy and scandalous, The Tudors is period drama at its absolute best, and every episode is currently available to binge via Channel 4 – happy days indeed! This is one to get comfy for...

Desperate for an heir and growing distant from his first wife, The young Henry VIII (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) is a proud, boisterous and hot-headed monarch whose endless desire is matched only by his limitless self-belief.

Guiding Henry through the murky world of European politics and kingship are the vainglorious Cardinal Thomas Wolsey (Sam Neill) and the pious Sir Thomas More (Jeremy Northam) – two very different sides of the King’s advisory coin.

As noblemen and commoners alike play for position around the young King, Henry pursues his own world of pleasure and women alongside his cavalier best friend, Charles Brandon (Henry Cavill).

While every liaison to Henry is little more than a game, a young woman, Anne Boleyn (Natalie Dormer), is about to come into his life who will change it and England forever...

Superbly executed and masterfully cast, The Tudors is the gift that keeps on giving and is endlessly watchable. As England’s most famous ever male monarch, Rhys Meyers gives a mesmerising performance that will keep you entranced throughout.

With four series chronicling Henry VIII’s entire reign – and some impressive ‘ageing-up’ of actors towards the end – The Tudors is the perfect TV comfort blanket for lovers of royal scandal and sauce.

Miranda

Series 1-3 plus specials – BBC iPlayer

Life can be both funny and cringe-worthy, and it is certainly both for Miranda...

Written by and starring comedian Miranda Hart, Miranda revolves around the many difficulties its titular protagonist gets herself into.

Six feet and one inch tall and sometimes mistaken for a man, Miranda’s life is not easy.

She has never fit in with her old boarding school friends, Tilly (Sally Phillips) and Fanny (Katy Wix), finds social situations awkward – especially around men – and she is a constant disappointment to her mother, Penny (Patricia Hodge), who is desperate for her to get a proper job and a husband.

Although Miranda owns and lives above her own joke shop and boutique, she lacks any real capacity for business, so it is managed by her childhood friend Stevie Sutton (Sarah Hadland).

With romantic entanglements, trials in friendships and a constant butting of heads with her mum, Miranda does her best to make her way in the world, though often gets it wrong with hilarious consequences.

With an outstanding performance by Hart in every instalment, this is a comedy we can all love over and over again – and the great news is, it’s now all available for a binge!

Futurama

Seasons 1-10 – Disney+

The Simpsons in the future?.. Why the devil not!..

Created by ‘Godfather of the Animated Sitcom’ Matt Groening, Futurama is a sci-fi comedy cartoon series that first came to our screens just before the turn of the millennium.

Rather than focusing on an average-but-not-so-average modern day family as he had done with The Simpsons, Groening chose to develop his next pop culture phenomenon as a show that would follow a protagonist thrust 1,000 years into the future.

Enter Philip J. Fry, a pizza delivery boy who is cryogenically preserved for a millennium and revived in the 31st century.

Though well outside of his comfort zone, Fry quickly adjusts to life in the future, having never really fit in in the past.

Finding work at an interplanetary delivery company run by his descendent, Professor Hubert J. Farnsworth, Fry joins a ragtag delivery team including the no-nonsense one-eyed Leela and hard-drinking cigar-smoking robot, Bender.

With a universe of laughs for them to get entangled in, the adventures of the Futurama gang are hilarious from start to finish, and this is certainly one that the big kid in you will love.

With brilliant voice performances from Billy West, Katey Sagal, John DiMaggio, Lauren Tom and Phil LaMarr, Futurama is the gift that keeps on giving, and the perfect choice for a bit of light animation-driven laughter.

Got a streaming recommendation for our readers? Tweet @DMorris_Star or email daniel.morris@mnamedia.co.uk