ArtsAutosBooksBusinessEducationEntertainmentFamilyFashionFoodGamesGenderHealthHolidaysHomeHubPagesPersonal FinancePetsPoliticsReligionSportsTechnologyTravel

British Shows and Movies We Are Missing and How You Can Watch Now

Updated on July 19, 2022
Source

Why wait for Region 1 and 2

I love good British ironic humor and the witty way they put things. It is on the corky side and it is the same reasons I love Better off Ted (a short lived NBC show) and Parks and Rec (an NBC show now entering its 3rd season) and Ctrl a short web that only ran one season.

There are plenty of UK shows and movies I'd love to see because they have my favorite actors in them, but there is a problem...Different countries hold back their release dates. A movie that is just going into the movie theater here might be being released on DVD somewhere else so to stop people from seeing the movie or heaven forbid pirating the movie before it even comes out in their country they encode the DVD players to be Region specfic. Canada and the USA are region one, the UK is region 2 and it goes all the way up to six. But there are ways to get around this.

UK TV In Region 1

I love this show, I've seen all of the four seasons via Netflix and I now own all four season too, but the last 2 hour episode in had to find online. IT is the best.


FAQ About Time Travel and the first way to watch UK Movies and TV

If you are rereading this, I wrote this in direct response to the fact that I couldn't watch the things I wanted to see and have now learned a new way to see Region 2 DVDs and I am happy yo say I have now seen this one.

I was waiting to see this movie for over six months, being that it was clear it might never be released in the US region, I bought it from Amazon.com and had it shipped from the UK. Recently a good friend of mine told me that you can change the region code on your computer, but you can only do it four times and whatever it is on the fourth time you are stuck with forever or the life of your computer. I watched and loved this rather short 80 minute movie. I'd love to see more like it.

Blu-ray

Some Blu-ray disk are now Region free, but not the pricey players, unless you buy it that way or are lucky enough to buy one and get a system upgrade to region free which I think might be rare and or expensive. More Blu-rays work in most blu-ray players because there are only three region codes vs. DVD which has six, but they won't play normal DVDs from other regions. If you're thinking you can skate by with the transferable digital movies that come with it you might be sadly mistaken, unless you own an expensive sony psp player or an equally pricey ipod player you can't watch them on the ipod, even then you have to have itunes. Itunes will even hold your movie hostage unless you link a credit card to your itunes account, for a movie you already own. These movies also expire and then can't be downloaded.

If you liked Downtown Abbey and you already have a blu-ray you can watch the entire set on this Region Free DVD straight from the UK, but buy it from Amazon Prime, because if it doesn't work you can send it back and they'll pay the shipping unlike ebay.

By the way Downton Abbey about a wealthy family and their servants in 1900s, is awesome. You can see season one on Netflicks, Amazon Prime and Hulu.

I had been Waiting

What can you do about it, you could just wait for your favorite show or that movie you've wanted to see for ages to come out here, but the truth is some movies will never be released in the US. I've been waiting a year for this one movie I want to see, it came out 2009 and there is no date for it to be released here in the theaters or on DVD. I have friends who have been waiting years to see their favorite British shows make it to the US. Even if it is in your region there is no way of knowing if you will come across it. I had to special order the Bumble Bees Flies Anyway from Canada for my friend's birthday one year, because they simply stopped making it here.

This is an Amazon pic from Lost In Austen, A movie I waited about a year to see. I bought it as soon as it came out on Region 1, and have never regretted it, it is a good movie.

Hacked Codes for DVD players

You can find some hacked numbers on the web or buy a DVD program to un-encode your DVD player so it will play any region you want. If you have an older player like mine, it might not work.

My DVD player is a eight year old Sanyo, they don't make them as sturdy as this anymore. That also makes them less hack-able. I'm only glad I haven't had to replace it, like I would have if I had waited a few years to buy one.

Easy Region Free or Code Movie Watching

If neither of those options are good for and you still want to see new and exciting entertainment, you can buy a region free or code free DVD player, these players were probably first built for people who were moving across the world and didn't want to buy all their favorite movies again. You can buy one of the standard home theater models or buy a portable one, the best part is no matter were you go all you have to do is buy an adapter for your DVD player and you can watch your favorite movies or even rent movies when you are in a place like England or Ireland. I use those as my examples, because despite trying to learn French, English is all I speak.

Region 2 Movies From A Trusted Site

You can also order movies online and not from some website you don't know or trust, there is a UK Amazon and a German Amazon site, there are more, I surfed a few extra just for this lens. I found the German site when I was trying to get a hold of the German version of one of my favorite movies, since the special features were in English and subtitled in German. Alas it was not to be, they stopped making that version and I will never see All the Queens Men's special features. I don't want you to miss out like I did. You can even find Region 2 DVDs on the US Amazon site.

There are more than 5 Amazon sites operating throughout the world. These are the non American sites I was able to find while surfing around looking for unusual Region 2 movies to put in this lens.

http://www.amazon.co.uk United Kingdom

http://www.amazon.de Germany

http://www.amazon.fr France

http://www.amazon.it Italy

Amazon.es Spain

Great Movie

Be careful, UK 15 is our rated R, only for swearing. It was still a great movie, they said the F word three or four times.

working

This website uses cookies

As a user in the EEA, your approval is needed on a few things. To provide a better website experience, hubpages.com uses cookies (and other similar technologies) and may collect, process, and share personal data. Please choose which areas of our service you consent to our doing so.

For more information on managing or withdrawing consents and how we handle data, visit our Privacy Policy at: https://corp.maven.io/privacy-policy

Show Details
Necessary
HubPages Device IDThis is used to identify particular browsers or devices when the access the service, and is used for security reasons.
LoginThis is necessary to sign in to the HubPages Service.
Google RecaptchaThis is used to prevent bots and spam. (Privacy Policy)
AkismetThis is used to detect comment spam. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide data on traffic to our website, all personally identifyable data is anonymized. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Traffic PixelThis is used to collect data on traffic to articles and other pages on our site. Unless you are signed in to a HubPages account, all personally identifiable information is anonymized.
Amazon Web ServicesThis is a cloud services platform that we used to host our service. (Privacy Policy)
CloudflareThis is a cloud CDN service that we use to efficiently deliver files required for our service to operate such as javascript, cascading style sheets, images, and videos. (Privacy Policy)
Google Hosted LibrariesJavascript software libraries such as jQuery are loaded at endpoints on the googleapis.com or gstatic.com domains, for performance and efficiency reasons. (Privacy Policy)
Features
Google Custom SearchThis is feature allows you to search the site. (Privacy Policy)
Google MapsSome articles have Google Maps embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
Google ChartsThis is used to display charts and graphs on articles and the author center. (Privacy Policy)
Google AdSense Host APIThis service allows you to sign up for or associate a Google AdSense account with HubPages, so that you can earn money from ads on your articles. No data is shared unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Google YouTubeSome articles have YouTube videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
VimeoSome articles have Vimeo videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
PaypalThis is used for a registered author who enrolls in the HubPages Earnings program and requests to be paid via PayPal. No data is shared with Paypal unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook LoginYou can use this to streamline signing up for, or signing in to your Hubpages account. No data is shared with Facebook unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
MavenThis supports the Maven widget and search functionality. (Privacy Policy)
Marketing
Google AdSenseThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Google DoubleClickGoogle provides ad serving technology and runs an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Index ExchangeThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
SovrnThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook AdsThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Unified Ad MarketplaceThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
AppNexusThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
OpenxThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Rubicon ProjectThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
TripleLiftThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Say MediaWe partner with Say Media to deliver ad campaigns on our sites. (Privacy Policy)
Remarketing PixelsWe may use remarketing pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to advertise the HubPages Service to people that have visited our sites.
Conversion Tracking PixelsWe may use conversion tracking pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to identify when an advertisement has successfully resulted in the desired action, such as signing up for the HubPages Service or publishing an article on the HubPages Service.
Statistics
Author Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide traffic data and reports to the authors of articles on the HubPages Service. (Privacy Policy)
ComscoreComScore is a media measurement and analytics company providing marketing data and analytics to enterprises, media and advertising agencies, and publishers. Non-consent will result in ComScore only processing obfuscated personal data. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Tracking PixelSome articles display amazon products as part of the Amazon Affiliate program, this pixel provides traffic statistics for those products (Privacy Policy)
ClickscoThis is a data management platform studying reader behavior (Privacy Policy)