iWorld
Hungama Play expands its library with blockbuster TV shows from BBC Studios
MUMBAI: Hungama Play, a premium video on demand platform owned by Hungama Digital Media, has premiered a slate of critically acclaimed TV shows from BBC Studios. Available as a result of a long-standing partnership with BBC Studios, these shows include BAFTA winner – Happy Valley, cult comedy – Yes, Prime Minister, Golden Globe winner – Top of the Lake, Emmy nominated – Fleming: The Man Who Would Be Bond and Almost Royal.
Hungama will leverage its distribution strengths to give the shows a wide release. Besides Hungama Play, the shows will be available to stream through Hungama Play on Vodafone Play, Idea Movies & TV, Airtel TV, Amazon Fire TV Stick, Tata Sky Binge, SHAREit and Android TVs. Additionally, Hungama’s strategic association with Xiaomi will also enable users to watch the shows via Hungama Play on Mi TV.
Speaking about the new BBC content, Siddhartha Roy, COO, Hungama Digital Media, said, “Hungama Play offers a diverse, multi-lingual and multi-genre library of content. Our partnership with BBC has helped us strengthen our library further by adding award-winning and critically acclaimed TV shows to our content offerings. We are certain that the new shows will offer our audiences a chance to explore content that is enriching, distinct and unique.”
Stanley Fernandes, Sales Director, South Asia at BBC Studios said, “BBC’s content is well-appreciated by viewers and critics alike, around the world. Our shows are known to be path-breaking and driven by strong stories and characters. We are glad to premiere five of our most-watched shows on Hungama Play. We are certain that Hungama Play’s strong distribution network will make the content available to the viewers readily and easily.”
New shows, now available on Hungama Play include:
Happy Valley
Happy Valley is a British crime drama that follows Catherine, a no-nonsense police sergeant who heads up a team of officers in a rural Yorkshire valley. Things go downhill when a staged kidnapping spirals out of control turning into a brutal series of crimes. The story follows Catherine involved in something significantly bigger than her rank, but unknowingly close to home. The BAFTA-winning series has been touted as a powerhouse of heartbreak, thrills and laughs along with a chilling narrative.
Creator: Sally Wainwright
Stars: Sarah Lancashire (BAFTA, National Television Award recipient), Siobhan Finneran (Downton Abbey), Charlie Murphy (Peaky Blinders), James Norton (Black Mirror)
Top of the Lake
Top of the Lake is a powerful and haunting story from Oscar-winning writer/director Jane Campion and stars Emmy Award winning actress Elisabeth Moss in the lead role (who won a Golden Globe for her performance in this show). Obsessed with the disappearance of a 12-year-old pregnant girl near a freezing lake in New Zealand, a brave detective finds herself up against small-town secrets and a side of herself that was meticulously kept at bay.
Creators: Jane Campion, Gerard Lee
Stars: Elisabeth Moss (The Handmaid’s Tale, Mad Men), David Wenham (300: Rise of an Empire, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, Lord of the Rings), Peter Mullan (Ozark, Braveheart), Holly Hunter (Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, The Big Sick)
Yes, Prime Minister
A revival of classic 1980s comedy ‘Yes, Minister’, ‘Yes, Prime Minister’ deals with much complex situations of current times. The ultimately powerful but beleaguered Prime Minister is once again 'assisted' by his impenetrably loquacious Cabinet Secretary, Sir Humphrey Appleby, and torn but sensible Principal Private Secretary, Bernard Woolley. As in their previous roles, their jobs often devolve into a battle of agendas, ideals, wills, and wits.
Creators: Antony Jay, Jonathan Lynn
Stars: David Haig (Killing Eve, Downton Abbey), Henry Goodman (Notting Hill), Chris Larkin
Almost Royal
BBC America’s first original comedy series Almost Royal follows the lives of two ignorant British aristocrats visiting America for the first time. The faux-reality series shows its protagonist interacting with real-life, unsuspecting everyday Americans.
Directors: Chris Faith, Marcus Liversedge
Stars: Ed Gamble, Amy Hoggart
Fleming: The Man Who Would Be Bond
Fleming: The Man Who Would Be Bond that chronicles the adventurous military career of James Bond creator Ian Fleming. The fictionalized biography dwells on various aspects of Fleming’s Royal Navy espionage and romantic adventures. The action drama features Dominic Cooper in the titular role and is directed by Mat Whitecross.
Director: Mat Whitecross
Stars: Dominic Cooper (Captain America: The First Avenger, My Week with Marilyn), Lara Pulver, Samuel West
The shows join Hungama Play’s extensive library of over 5000 films in English, Hindi and regional languages, over 1500 short films, 7500+ hours of kids and TV content in various languages and more than 150,000 short-format videos across genres like music, films, humour etc.
iWorld
Why Peaky Blinders is one of television’s biggest hits that still deserves more attention
Six seasons, multiple awards and the release of Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man bring the Shelby saga back into the spotlight
In the crowded universe of streaming content, only a handful of shows manage to leave a lasting cultural footprint. Peaky Blinders is overwhelmingly considered one of the biggest global hits of the past decade. Yet many viewers still haven’t fully explored the dark, gripping world of the Shelby family.
Originally produced for the UK’s BBC and later finding a massive global audience through Netflix, the series quietly grew from a British period drama into a worldwide streaming phenomenon.
Created by Steven Knight, the show follows the rise of the Shelby crime family in post-First World War Birmingham. What begins as a gritty street-gang story gradually expands into a sweeping narrative about ambition, politics, power and survival.
At the centre of the saga is Thomas Shelby, portrayed with extraordinary depth by Cillian Murphy. The casting of Murphy is widely regarded as perfect for the role. With piercing eyes, restrained dialogue and an almost hypnotic screen presence, he transforms Shelby into one of the most unforgettable characters in modern screen storytelling.
Murphy’s brilliance lies in his restraint. He rarely shouts or performs theatrically. Instead, a quiet stare, a calculated pause or a subtle shift in expression conveys the emotional storms within the character. Beneath the ruthless gang leader is a war veteran carrying trauma, guilt and loneliness. Murphy captures this complexity with remarkable precision, making Thomas Shelby both terrifying and deeply human.
Beyond its central performance, Peaky Blinders stands out for its unfiltered portrayal of reality. The show does not romanticise crime. Instead, it exposes the harsh social conditions of early 20th-century Britain, from poverty and class struggle to political extremism and the psychological scars left by war.
The series also presents powerful female characters who hold their own within the Shelby empire. Polly Gray, played by Helen McCrory, is the strategic backbone of the family and one of the most formidable figures in the story. Women in the series shape decisions, influence power structures and challenge the rigid social norms of the time.
Across six seasons, the narrative grows dramatically in scale. What begins in the smoky streets of Birmingham evolves into a story involving political conspiracies, fascism and international criminal networks.
The series has also earned significant critical acclaim. It won the BAFTA Television Award for Best Drama Series in 2018 and multiple National Television Awards for Best Drama, cementing its reputation as one of Britain’s most celebrated modern shows.
Another defining feature of the series is its iconic music. The show’s opening theme, Red Right Hand by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, became instantly recognisable and widely associated with the Shelby universe. Combined with a powerful soundtrack featuring artists such as Arctic Monkeys and Radiohead, the music helped shape the show’s dark, stylish identity and became hugely popular among fans.
And the Shelby story is not over yet.
In fact, its legacy is unfolding right now. The long-awaited feature-length continuation, Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man, was released on March 6, 2026, bringing the Shelby universe from streaming screens to cinemas and giving fans a new chapter in the saga.
For viewers who have not yet stepped into this world, the timing could not be better.
Six gripping seasons are ready to binge on Netflix. A new film has just arrived in theatres. And at the heart of it all stands one of the most magnetic performances in modern drama by Cillian Murphy.
So if Peaky Blinders has been sitting on your watchlist for years, this weekend is your moment.
So, by order of the Peaky fookin’ Blinders, consider this your cue to finally step into the ruthless world of Thomas Shelby. Pour yourself a drink, clear your schedule and press the play button. Because when the Peaky Blinders give an order, you listen.
