Acorn TV and Sundance Now Unveil April Slates

Acorn TV and Sundance Now unveil April slates

As the month of March is drawing to a close, Acorn TV and Sundance Now have unveiled their upcoming slates of programming set to debut in April, with the latter including hits such as the Golden Globe-nominated mockumentary Best In Show and the former featuring the premiere of the David Tennant (Good Omens)-led miniseries Deadwater Fell.

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Full list of titles premiering on Acorn TV:

• Balthazar: Series 2, the fascinating French crime thriller about a charismatic forensic pathologist who can make the dead speak like no one else to solve some of Paris’ most enigmatic crimes. (April 20)
• Seachange: Series 1-2, the original run of the popular 1990s Australian drama to premiere in the U.S. for the very first time. (April 27)
• Blood: Series 2, season finale, a gritty Irish psychological thriller (April 6)
• Murdoch Mysteries: Season 13, the beloved Canadian dramedy to premiere the last two episodes of this landmark season. (April 13)
• Deadwater Fell: Episode 1, new episodes premiere Mondays, darkly gripping and highly-rated UK miniseries’ ensemble cast features Tennant, Cush Jumbo (The Good Fight), Matthew McNulty (The Terror) and Anna Madeley (The Crown). When a seemingly perfect and happy family is murdered by someone they know and trust, the small Scottish community they call home becomes torn apart with mistrust and suspicion as those closest to the family begin to question everything they thought they knew about their friends. (April 6)
• Land Girls: Series 1, follow the lives, loves and highs and lows of four members of the Women’s Land Army who are working at the Hoxley Estate during World War II. They soon discover that their decision to serve their country will change their lives forever. (5 episodes, April 6)
• Vintage Roads Great & Small: Series 2, this series is a light-hearted and inspiring celebration of early motor car travel and explores the history and heritage found along Britain’s vintage highways. This series delves into the period when motor cars first appeared on the scene, and in between the two World Wars when car ownership rose from a few hundred to two million, allowing drivers the freedom to explore the remotest corners of Britain for the first time. The series illustrates how the car has transformed facets of everyday life across the British Isles.  (4 episodes, April 13)
• Lovejoy: Series 5, based on the successful novels of Jonathan Gash, this highly-rated BBC series stars Ian McShane (American Gods) as a rakish antique dealer gifted at sorting the real from the fakes. Which should help, given the shady, dangerous nature of his business, one where certain collectors would kill for the perfect set of antique pistols, quite literally. It’s a wild, unregulated world flooded with aristocrats, con men, and criminals, all of whom Lovejoy goes up against with the help of his young, mopey assistant Eric (Chris Jury, The Big Game), the genially intoxicated Tinker (Dudley Sutton, The Football Factory), and Lady Jane (Phyllis Logan, Downton Abbey), an upper-cruster who serves as his confidante. (14 episodes, April 13)
• Land Girls: Series 2 (5 episodes, April 20)
• Lovejoy: Series 6, The Final Season (10 episodes, April 27)
• Barristers: Documentary Series, this groundbreaking BBC documentary series follows some of the UK’s leading legal minds. For the first time ever in Northern Ireland, cameras have access to the workings of their courts – over a 15-month period, the series follows the barristers as they build and represent their cases – from fighting for a mother’s access to her children to taking the Department of Justice to the Supreme Court in London. (5 episodes, April 27)

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The full list of titles set to premiere on Sundance Now in April includes:

• The Young Victoria: Starring Emily Blunt (A Quiet Place) in the titular role, this captivating period drama follows the turbulent early life and first years of Queen Victoria’s rule, and her enduring romance with Prince Albert (Rupert Friend, Homeland). Also starring Paul Bettany (Avengers: Infinity War), Miranda Richardson (Good Omens), Jim Broadbent (Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince), Mark Strong (Kingsman: The Secret Service) and Harriet Walter (The Crown). Winner of the Academy Award and BAFTA for Best Costume Design. (Film, April 1)
• Best In Show: A Golden Globe-nominated mockumentary that follows five colorful entrants who compete in a prestigious dog show, co-written by Christopher Guest (This Is Spinal Tap) and Eugene Levy (Schitt’s Creek) and directed by Guest. Featuring a huge star-studded cast, including Levy, Catherine O’Hara (Schitt’s Creek), John Michael Higgins (Pitch Perfect), Michael McKean (Better Call Saul), Michael Hitchcock (Crazy Ex-Girlfriend), Parker Posey (Lost in Space), Jennifer Coolidge (Legally Blonde), Jane Lynch (Glee), Guest, Larry Miller (10 Things I Hate About You), Fred Willard (Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy), Ed Begley Jr. (Pineapple Express) and Bob Balaban (Gosford Park). (Film, April 1)
• Little Children:  Based on the novel of the same name by Todd Perrotta, this drama follows the intersecting lives of two lovelorn spouses (Kate Winslet, Titanic) and Patrick Wilson (Insidious) from separate marriages, a registered sex offender (Jackie Earle Haley, Watchmen), and a disgraced ex-police officer (Noah Emmerich, The Americans), as they all struggle to resist their vulnerabilities and temptations in suburban Massachusetts. (Film, April 1)
• Straight Forward: With stunning scenery and high-stakes action, this gritty international thriller is an adrenaline-filled ride across the globe. When her father is murdered, Danish con-woman Sylvia (Cecilie Stenspil, The Protectors) plots revenge on the crime kingpin Ravn (Mark Mitchinson, The Hobbit). Forced to flee to New Zealand, can Sylvia save her family from the other side of the world? (8 episodes, April 2)
• The Restaurant: Season 3, Episode 3 (Sundance Now Original). Another episode of the lavish Swedish ensemble drama. Calle (Charlie Gustafsson) is the new head chef at Nina’s (Hedda Stiernstedt) and works to renew the menu. Meanwhile, Ester (Ida Engvoll) and Mirko (Jakob Tamm) make another attempt at sabotage. John (Morten Vang Simonsen) and the leftist gang discover a new way to fund their business. When Christina (Julia Heveus) discovers the truth, she gets very upset. (April 2)
• Playing for Keeps: Episode 7. Another episode of the glamorous Australian drama. Tahlia (Olympia Valance, Neighbours) and Connor (Jackson Gallagher, Home and Away) attend counseling in a bid to save their shattered relationship. (April 2)
• Miss Arizona: Rose Raynes (Johanna Braddy, Quantico) was crowned Miss Arizona – 15 years ago. Now a bored housewife trapped in a less than ideal marriage, Rose accepts an invitation to teach a life skills class at a women’s shelter. Rose attempts to relive her pageant days and share her “Making Your Presence a Present” platform speech with a room of four disinterested women dodging abusive exes. But when trouble shows up at the shelter, what the women really need is for Rose’s shiny Escalade to get them out of dodge. The five embark on an all-night adventure through L.A.’s darkest streets and wildest drag club as the women fight to survive, and in so doing, discover what they need most. (Film, April 6)
• The Hacker Wars: Ripped from international headlines, The Hacker Wars takes you to the front lines of the high-stakes battle over the fate of the internet, freedom and privacy. (Documentary, April 7)
• The Restaurant: Season 3, Episode 4 (Sundance Now Original). Peter has realized that Ester and Mirko are responsible for the attacks on Nina’s nightclub and decides to confront them. Money is disappearing from the tills at Nina’s, leading to a conflict between Nina and Christina. (April 9)
• Playing For Keeps: Episode 8, Finale. The truth behind Jacks’ death is finally revealed. (April 9)
• When the Starlight Ends: It’s been one month and fourteen days since she left. Jacob (Sam Heughan, Outlander) is a writer and Cassandra (Arabella Oz, Jigsaw) was his muse. She will forever be the one who haunts him every time he sits at his keyboard trying to write. And each time, as Jacob tries to figure out why he lost the love of his life, he relives every moment, both real and imagined, searching whether he made the right decisions and determined to write the perfect ending for them. (Film, April 13)
• The Case of Sally Challen: In 2010 in Surrey, mother of two, Sally Challen, bludgeoned her husband to death as he sat eating lunch at the kitchen table. No one at her trial, including her close family and friends, were surprised when the jury found her unanimously guilty of murder. This year, Sally’s widely reported appeal against her conviction gripped the newspapers and the nation. Sally’s new defense lawyers argued that she was the victim of Richard’s ‘coercive control’, a newly understood type of psychological abuse, and that she should be in prison for manslaughter, not murder. It is the first time that coercive control has been presented to the courts as a partial defense to murder. (Documentary, April 14)
• The Restaurant: Season 3, Episode 5 (Sundance Now Original). Three years have passed since Christina left her mother and Nina’s nightclub behind. Now she lives in secret with John and the rest of the gang at the farmhouse. Nina learns that she has a granddaughter and tries to contact Christina. (April 16)
• Wildland: Emmy award-winning documentary. Every summer, the American West burns. Because of climate change, average temperatures have risen, resulting in a sudden increase in both the frequency and intensity of wildfires. Fighting these fires are the small crews who work to contain them by hand – using shovels and methods that haven’t changed in sixty years. Filmed during two recent wildfire seasons, Wildland is a sweeping, deeply personal account of a single firefighting crew as it struggles with fear, loyalty, dreams and demons. What emerges is a rich story of working-class men: their exterior world, their interior lives and the fire that lies between. (Documentary, April 20)
• A Girl Like Her: For the past year, 16-year-old Jessica Burns (Lexi Ainsworth, General Hospital) has been victimized and bullied by her former friend, Avery Keller (Hunter King, Life in Pieces), one of South Brookdale High’s most popular students. With the help of Jessica’s best friend, Brian Slater (Jimmy Bennett, Orphan), and a hidden digital camera, evidence of Avery’s relentless harassment threatens to come to light bringing both girls and their communities face to face with the truth. (Film, April 20)
• Frackman: An Australian documentary which follows the exploits of former construction worker turned anti-fracking activist Dayne Pratzky as he responds to the expansion of the coal seam gas industry near Tara, Queensland. (Documentary, April 20)
• Sanctuary: Episode 1. Estranged Swedish identical twins Siri and Helena (Josefin Asplund, Vikings in a dual role) have always had a complex relationship. When Helena receives an invitation to visit Siri at an exclusive residential sanatorium in the Alps, she is reluctant but figures it will be a nice vacation. Despite the peacefulness of the clinic, Helena refuses Siri’s plea for help in taking care of some business and to swap places for a few days but ends up waking up to find Siri gone. Soon she realizes that Siri isn’t coming back, and that the clinic is far from a place of recovery; it’s a facility for studying psychopaths. Helena is now trapped in a waking nightmare in which no one is who they seem to be, and everyone believes that she is Siri. Surrounded by the most predatory and manipulative people, including the director of the Sanctuary, Dr. Marvin Fisher (Matthew Modine, Stranger Things), imaginable, escape is now only the second order of business: the first is simple survival. (April 23)
• The Restaurant: Season 3, Episode 6 (Sundance Now Original). The night the elm trees are to be taken down, there is a huge uproar with several people caught in the commotion. Nina discovers that something is seriously wrong with the economy at her nightclub. (April 23)
• The Bridge: Filmmakers use hidden cameras to capture the various suicide attempts at the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, California – the world’s most popular suicide destination. Interviews with the victims’ loved ones describe their lives and mental health. (Documentary, April 27)
• How to Catch a Serial Killer: The pursuit of Christopher Halliwell by Detective Steve Fulcher has been one of the biggest crime stories in recent years, captivating the public’s attention. Spanning more than a decade, multiple murders, two much-publicized trials and one irreparably damaged career, it is a story of the dogged pursuit of a serial-killer by a police officer determined to get justice for the families of his victims. (Documentary, April 28)
• Sanctuary: Episode 2. Hel wakes up in a hospital room, restrained to the bed. Security and the institute’s director agree that escape is impossible thanks to their foolproof security system. Hel has to absorb two shocking facts: the doctors believe her twin is a psychopath, and this is not a rehab sanatorium, but a research facility populated with other dangerous psychopaths. She’s a lamb surrounded by lions. (April 30)
• The Restaurant: Season 3, Episode 7 (Sundance Now Original). John and the leftist gang are keeping Christina prisoner at the farmhouse. She tries to find an opportunity to escape, while Uno and the police are planning to move in on the farm. Nina’s nightclub is near bankruptcy and Nina is starting to consider the offer from Mirko to buy her out. Or can she and Peter find a way to leave their differences behind and join forces? The difficult times for Nina’s bring Nina and Calle closer together, but then Calle gets a very tempting offer from Angelo. (April 30)

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