Call Northside 777 (1948)

Saturday, tune in to WETA and uncover the truth with Henry Hathaway’s 1948 classic film, Call Northside 777. Based on a true story, this film stars the always likeable Jimmy Stewart as skeptical reporter P.J. McNeal. A woman places an ad in the newspaper with a large reward looking for the truth about the closed murder of a police officer. McNeal investigates the 11 year old crime, and as he delves deeper and deeper into the case, he finds loose ends, a potentially innocent convict, and a system unwilling to admit error. Driven to exonerate a man who has been behind bars for over a decade, McNeal will stop at nothing. 

Watch the trailer!

Watch Call Northside 777 on WETA TV26 & HD Saturday at 9:30pm!

Looking for a new series to watch or just a great adventure to follow? WETA UK has everything you need! From new mysteries, to new seasons, and new shows all together, this week on WETA UK is sure to please every viewer.

Monday at 8:00pm tune in to WETA UK for the first part of a new Foyle’s War mystery, Plan of Attack. It’s April 1944 and when shots are fired outside Hastings police station killing DCS Meredith. Christopher Foyle must put aside his memoirs and return to his old job. This episode is the first of Foyle’s War season 6. Watch the trailer!

Tuesday at 7:30pm start watching May to December with season 3! A balding Scottish solicitor in his mid-50s and an attractive gym-mistress half his age fall in love despite plenty of conflicting advice from family and friends. 

Wednesday at 11:00pm begin Hustle from the very first episode of season 1. Con artist Mickey Stone is fresh out of jail. His marriage is on the rocks, but he has a strong family to fall back on. That family – Albert and Ash, two old-timers and beautiful, street-sharp Stacie – are his partners in crime. Coming together to perform one last con, they hook up with young blood Danny Blue, a rookie with the makings of a master. But after the first last one, there have just got to be more. Watch the trailer!

Thursday at 10:00pm settle in for the first episode of Waking the Dead season 6. The award-winning, edge-of-your-seat spy drama is a white-knuckle ride through the perilous world of deadly terrorists, international cover-ups and treacherous double-agents.

Friday at 8:00pm have you been watching Ladies of Letters? This gentle comedy drama is about two very different widows who forge a friendship through letters, each letter attempting to out-do the other. Watch the trailer!

Saturday at 8:00pm continue watching the WETA UK Event: The Complete Prime Suspect! This week watch four episodes back-to-back. Watch the trailer!

Sunday at 9:30pm join us for the WETA UK premiere of Worst Week of My Life! The week before a wedding can be stressful at the best of times but to Mel and Howard, it becomes a nightmare and everything that can go wrong does. Watch the trailer!

We all feel desperate from time to time, it’s a versatile feeling that spans the globe as it spans our weekend schedule. This weekend on WETA, we share four movies with characters desperate for something: fame, success, life, and respect. The three documentaries run late into Sunday morning so if you haven’t done it yet, set your DVR to record from Saturday 9:30pm – Sunday 3:30am.

Baby Jane Hudson (Bette Davis) was a vaudeville star, but as an adult, she was overshadowed by her movie star sister, Blanche (Joan Crawford). One night in the 1930s, Blanche was permanently crippled in an accident blamed on Jane. Now in 1962, Jane and Blanche live together in their decaying Los Angeles mansion as Jane plots their showbiz comeback. Blanche desperately tries to get away from Jane but can she succeed to escape her tormenting sister who handicapped her as a young woman and continues to do so in their older age? Watch the trailer.

Marcos Hernandez came to the United States from Mexico, after a deadly border crossing through the Sonora Desert in southern Arizona. He is searching for his father, Francisco, also an undocumented border crosser, who disappeared in the Sonora Desert while entering the U.S. Marcos sends money from his home in Chicago to his mother in Mexico City every month so she can buy medicine for his brother, Gustavo, who needs a kidney transplant. The Undocumented is Marcos’s story—as well as the story of countless other migrants. Follow Marcos’s search with the efforts of humanitarians and Border Patrol agents who are fighting to prevent migrant deaths, the medical investigators and Mexican Consulate workers who are trying to identify dead border crossers, and Mexican families who are struggling to accept the loss of a loved one. Watch the trailer.

More than three decades ago, Vietnamese refugees began to settle in Versailles, a then-isolated community in eastern New Orleans. Although by the early 2000s the community had accomplished material successes, it remained divided between older immigrants and American-born youth. A Village Called Versailles is the story of this little-known community in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. When the storm devastated New Orleans in August 2005, Versailles residents rebuilt their neighborhood faster than most other damaged neighborhoods in the city, only to find themselves threatened by a new toxic landfill slated to open just two miles away. Forced out of Vietnam by the war 30 years ago, many residents felt their homes were being taken away from them once again. Watch the story of this community fighting to regain their safety and happiness in New Orleans. Watch the trailer.

Begin new seasons and new series on WETA UK this week! Introducing Lead Balloon to the Washington, DC area, WETA UK is full of surprises this week. Read on for more highlights and trailers, plus, don’t forget to mark your calendars!

Monday at 8:00pm tune in for the Foyle’s War season 2 kick-off! In the first part of the mystery titled, Fifty Ships, an American multi-millionaire, Foyle’s old love interest, and a mysterious Dutch refugee, are all implicated when a dead body is discovered on a beach. Sam looks for a new residence after her home is destroyed in a bombing raid. Foyle investigates a looting case when coins disappear from Sam’s ruined home.

Tuesday at 9:00pm get ready for season 2 of Rumpole of the Bailey. In this first episode of season 2, Rumpole and the Man of God, Rumpole defends a vicar who is charged with theft, but trouble arises when the distressed clergyman refuses to take the stand in his own defense. George Frobisher, the next Circuit Judge, joins the Rumpoles for dinner and introduces his new girlfriend who Rumpole remembers seeing in court.

Tuesday at 10:00pm start season 6 of MI-5 a.k.a Spooks. The award-winning, edge-of-your-seat spy drama is back with another white-knuckle ride through the perilous world of deadly terrorists, international cover-ups and treacherous double-agents.

Wednesday at 8:00pm Inspector Morse takes on The Day of the Devil. In this mystery, a serial rapist and Satanist named John Barrie escapes from a mental hospital and demands that his therapist be turned over to him. A master of disguise, Barrie sets up an elaborate and deadly battle of wits with Morse. Part 2 airs next Wednesday at 8:00pm

Thursday at 7:30pm say hello to Keeping Up Appearances season 2! When it comes to snobbery, Hyacinth Bucket is in a class of her own. Award-winning actress Patricia Routledge plays the comic monster in a role which viewers have taken to their hearts. In season 2, Daddy goes missing again, Hyacinth drags Richard off for a weekend of golf at an executive golf club, in spite of the fact that he doesn't like the game, and, determined that the neighbors should see the van delivering her classy new three-piece suite, Hyacinth has parking cones placed outside the house, along with a special notice warning of an immediate delivery.

Friday beginning at 6:00pm begin all new seasons on WETA UK. First at 6:00pm, watch Waiting for God from the very first episode. Then at 8:30pm watch Rosemary & Thyme take on Memory of Water in the first episode of season 2. At 9:30pm get your full dose of laughs with Outnumbered season 4 episode 1, and kick off season 3 of Men Behaving Badly at 10:30. We’re not done just yet! At 11:30pm tune in for the British classic Allo, Allo as we begin season 4.

Saturday beginning at 8:00pm conclude season two of the WETA UK Event: The Complete Vera. Stay tuned to the Programmer’s Choice blog because we have a brand new WETA UK Event next Saturday!

Sunday at 9:00pm we’re proud to announce the WETA UK premiere of Lead Balloon! Written by and starring Jack Dee, one of the UK’s most successful stand-up comedians, you’re invited to enter the world of Rick Spleen… Rick Spleen is a disillusioned stand-up comedian and writer whose career has not gone the way he had planned. Worse still, he’s stuck with a lousy stage name that he chose 20 years ago. Rick combines a mass of neuroses and petty grievances with a terrible propensity for lying which is not a recipe for success. Along for the ride is his quick-talking American co-writer Marty, his unflappable partner Mel, and his incompetent daughter Sam. Join us this Sunday and every week for this brand new, modern British comedy, Lead Balloon!

Read this article for highlights in this week's WETA UK schedule! WETA UK is the Washington, DC area's 24-hour a day, 7-days a week all British public broadcast channel. In this blog post, find more information on new episodes, new series, and reminders of WETA UK favorites.

Read the full article to watch video previews of these programs!

Monday at 8:00pm, Foyle’s War begins the new two part mystery Eagle Day with a bang, as a German bomb raid destroys a Hastings house. When man is found dead in the rubble with a knife in his chest, Foyle is called in to investigate the peculiar circumstances. 

Tuesday at 8:00pm, join us for the WETA UK Premiere of Hetty Wainthropp Investigates, a drama about the adventures of a housewife-turned-investigator. In season 3, Hetty's strong sense of justice, kind disposition and skill at blending into her surroundings bring her into contact with people from all walks of life. No measure is too extreme when she’s on a case- from to posing as an Australian to prevent a crisis or working in the hospital after she’s had an operation.

Wednesday at 8:00pm, take on the Inspector Morse case, Deadly Slumber. In part one of the two part mystery, Chief Inspector Morse and Sgt. investigate the apparent suicide of a business man who ran a medical clinic with his wife.

Thursday at 9:00pm, Agatha Christie’s Poirot ponders, How Does Your Garden Grow? Poirot becomes the center of attention at the Chelsea Flower Show, when a new rose on display is named after him. But after Miss Barrowby gives him a packet of seeds and dies the very same evening, Poirot investigates the shocking poisoning. Could the culprit really be the young Russian nurse? 

Friday at 8:00pm, in the new British comedy, Ladies of Letters, starring Patricia Routledge and Prunella Scales, distance makes the heart grow fonder. Follow the friendship between two elderly ladies, who share a sometimes rocky relationship through letters and e-mail. 

Saturday beginning at 8:00pm, continue watching the WETA UK Event: The Complete Vera with episodes 3 and 4. Chief Inspector Vera Stanhope is an experienced and brilliant murder investigator in North East England. Kind-hearted but an inherent loner, Vera freely admits she can become obsessed with work. Driven by her own demons, the detective faces the world with sarcastic wit, guile, and courage.

Sunday at 11:00pm, have you seen Red Dwarf? This sitcom follows the last human being alive, stranded in space with his friends on the ship, the Red Dwarf. Watch two back-to-back episodes every Sunday from 11:00pm – 12:00pm!

Just when you thought you’d never get over Sundays without Downton Abbey, WETA TV26 and WETA HD begins Call the Midwife season 2 and Masterpiece Classic: Mr. Selfridge this Sunday, March 31!

Read the full article to watch trailers of these two series!

In episode 1, it’s Nurse Jenny Lee’s birthday celebration at the Nonnatus House but as soon as the party comes to an end, she is assigned a new patient, the pregnant Molly Brignall.  The well-being of Molly and her child is compromised putting Jenny in a difficult spot.  Trixie and Sister Evangelina care for a Captain’s pregnant daughter but how will the two do aboard a ship?

Prepare to be swept back to early 20th Century England with Mr. Selfridge, the newest Masterpiece series based on real-life events. Follow the story of Harry Gordon Selfridge, an American businessman from Chicago, played by Jeremy Piven (Entourage). Selfridge moves to London and opens the department store chain Selfridges at the end of Oxford Street with £400,000 of his own money. Selfridge’s foreign principles and modern retail techniques create quite a stir in London society and the drama commences.

Check out the new shows and highlights from this week's WETA UK schedule! Read the full article to watch previews of these shows!

Monday at 8:00pm Christopher Foyle begins a new case in Foyle’s War: A Lesson in Murder. It’s June 1940 and a reliable objector dies in a holding cell after being beaten up by police. A young boy evacuated from London dies in an explosion. Strange ties to Judge Gascoigne in these deaths lead police to believe there will be a revenge attack on the Judge. Who’s to blame? It may not be as straight forward as you think! More air dates.

Tuesday at 11:30pm begin season 9 of the British classic Allo, Allo. Be sure to tune into this final season of Allo, Allo, a sitcom set in a small town café in Nazi-occupied France during World War II.

Wednesday at 8:00pm watch Inspector Morse tackle the mystery of Cherubim and Seraphim. Morse's step-niece, Marilyn Garrett, commits suicide and he takes leave to research her past. His investigation leads him into an alien world of teenage hedonism, raves and expensive drugs. Will Morse find closure in investigating her history or add salt to his wounds? More air dates.

Thursday at 10:00pm test your crime-solving skills with Waking the Dead: Straw Dog. Grace is asked to give evidence at a hearing from a case she worked on in the beginning of her career. This haunts Grace but will she overcome her distress and help the case? More air dates.

Friday at 8:00pm tune in for the WETA UK premiere of Ladies of Letters. This British comedy series starring Patricia Routledge and Prunella Scales surrounds the relationship between two elderly ladies who share a sometimes rocky relationship through letters and e-mail. More air dates.

Saturday 8:00pm – 11:00pm join us for the special airing of She-Wolves: England’s Early Queens. In this three part series, historian Dr. Helen Castor explores the lives of seven English queens who challenged male power, the fierce reactions they provoked and whether the term 'she-wolves' was deserved. Also airs Sunday March 31 12:00pm – 3:00pm.

Sunday at 8:00pm kick off season 2 of Yes, Prime Minister! Prime Minister Jim Hacker is still guided by his Machiavellian mentor, Sir Humphrey Appleby. When Jim decides to implement a new plan to reduce unemployment in the North, Sir Humphrey decides that desperate cases call for desperate measures. Meanwhile, if the Prime Minister gives false information to Parliament, should the Cabinet Secretary support him, or should he tell all? As Sir Humphrey ponders the ethics, he finds that he too has something to hide. More air dates.

Every Monday, the Programmer’s Choice gives you highlights from this week’s WETA UK schedule. These highlights include new shows, new seasons, special episodes, and refreshers on WETA UK favorites. Read on to see what WETA UK shows are featured this week March 18 – March 24!

Read the full blog post to watch trailers of these shows!

Monday at 7:30pm begin season 2 of the hearty series Fresh Fields. Hester and William Fields are bored empty nesters. William is an accountant and Hester does random things around town including taking care of her elderly mother and gossiping with her neighbor Sonia. Stars: Julia McKenzie (Miss Marple, Return to Cranford), Anton Rodgers (May to December). Also airs throughout the week.

Tuesday at 7:30pm catch the first episode of May to December season 2. Two unlikely people find a mutual love of old musicals humor sparking a romance surprising much more than just themselves. Stars: Anton Rodgers (Fresh Fields), Frances White (I, Claudius). Also airs throughout the week. 

Wednesday at 11:00pm continue the action and humor of Hustle. Master con-man Mickey Bricks and his team of talented con artists have a very important rule: never con an honest man. So instead, they have lots of greedy enemies lined up for some of their boldest cons yet. Tough decisions and plenty of fun as the team goes head to head with some of the meanest, greediest people society has to offer. Stars: Adrian Lester, Robert Glenister (Prime Suspect), Robert Vaughn, Matt Di Angelo (EastEnders), and Kelly Adams.

Thursday at 8:00pm rekindle your love of Jeremy Brett as Sherlock Holmes. This week, Holmes and Watson take on The Norwood Builder, when a notorious retiree is found murdered, his recently-named heir is the prime suspect. Also airs: Saturday at 2:00pm. Then at 9:30pm Hercule Poirot and Captain Hastings investigates the mystery Double Sin in Agatha Christie’s Poirot. A woman is robbed while delivering a set of antique Napoleon miniatures to an American collector. Poirot and Hastings set out to find the thief. Also airs: Saturday at 4:00pm.

Friday at 8:00pm get your warm-hearted laughs with The Café. Three generations of a family host customers at their seafront cafe in this warm and funny comedy series. Sarah moves back home from London, having lost her boyfriend and her job, so she's helping her mum Carol at the café. But returning home has its pluses and minuses. Also airs: Tuesday at 5:30pm.

Saturday at 9:30pm experience Masterpiece Contemporary: Framed. Based on the bestselling book by Frank Cottrell Boyce, when London's National Gallery accidentally floods, treasured paintings must be transferred to an abandoned slate mine in the Welsh countryside for safety. Curator Quentin Lester is secretly pleased to have the art all to himself but while away, he encounters a lineup of quirky neighbors causing Lester great concern. Stars: Trevor Eve (Waking the Dead) and Eve Myles (Little Dorrit). Also airs: Sunday at 1:30pm.

Sunday at 5:00pm kick off season 2 of Born and Bred! In season 1, Tom Gilder moved his wife Deborah and four children from the busy city of Manchester to rural Ormston to take on the responsibility of his father’s practice. Despite a few old versus new clashes, Tom quickly settled in and together they got the go-ahead to make the cottage hospital a success. In season two, get ready for a whole new set of problems for the father-and-son practice. Delve further into the lives of the villagers, including some highly amusing incidents. Stars: James Bolam, Michael French (EastEnders), and Clive Swift (Keeping up Appearances). Also airs throughout the week. 

Can you believe we still have new shows to share with you? As your go-to for British television in the Washington, DC area, we hope to deliver a wide variety of programming on WETA UK and that means trying new programs while also keeping your beloveds running. This week on WETA UK, you’ll be thrilled by our newest British detective Inspector George Gently, while we continue to share WETA UK favorites like DCI Banks. Adding to the excitement, new seasons begin for comedies Keeping Up Appearances, Outnumbered, and Blackadder. Read on for more information about these and other shows that we want to highlight in this week’s WETA UK schedule!

To watch video previews of these shows, click here!

Monday at 10:00pm don’t miss the WETA UK Inspector George Gently premiere! Inspector George Gently is an incorruptible, uncompromising cop transplanted from London’s Scotland Yard to England’s North Country in the mid-1960s. Gently’s reputation for honesty and relentlessness makes him almost as feared among his colleagues as he is among criminals. But he finds an odd ally in John Bacchus, an overeager, opinionated young sergeant who plays fast and loose with police procedures. Together the two tackle cases involving murderers, drug dealers, gun runners, and more. Gently is about to discover a whole new world of murder and intrigue in 1960s Britain, a place where everything is about to change, but the past is always present.

Tuesday at 11:00pm try out the comedy Benny Hill. The delightfully outrageous British comedian headlines a slapstick sketch series, an unapologetic throwback to burlesque traditions. This show also airs late-night throughout the week so if you’re looking for  more, check out the Benny Hill schedule on weta.org. 

Wednesday at 8:00pm Inspector Morse begins to investigate a new mystery in Absolute Conviction, Part 1. Morse and Lewis investigate the affairs of three people in prison for fraud but when one of them is murdered, they are surprised by what they find. Once someone attempts to kill one of the two surviving fraudsters, the clock seems to speed up and the crime-solving duo must take actions fast. 

Thursday at 7:30pm begin the roaring comedy Keeping Up Appearances from the very first episode. Hyacinth goes to incredible lengths in her quest for refinement. She insists that her name Bucket is pronounced bouquet. Her house is spick-and-span with everything in its proper place. Even the empty milk bottles sparkle on the doorstep after their obligatory rinse in the dishwasher. There is one very enormous drawback to Hyacinth’s pretensions. The rest of her family is as common as muck. They live together in a rundown house that looks like a junkyard. Sister Daisy and her husband Onslow are out-and-out slobs and her elderly father is a lecherous drunk. Whatever Hyacinth does, her family can always be guaranteed to show her up.

Friday at 9:30pm begin Outnumbered season 3, episode 1, a comedy series which captures the chaos of an ordinary British in a very unique way. The lives of Pete, Sue, and their three children are locked in an unequal battle. Using aspects of improvisation, this show sees the world as much from the children's point of view as that of the adults'.

Saturday at 8:00pm WETA UK Event: DCI Banks continues with Strange Affair and Dry Bones That Dream. In Strange Affair, DCI Alan Banks receives a disturbing message from his brother Roy and Banks drops everything to find him, just as new recruit DI Helen Morton finds evidence linking Banks to the body of a murder victim. In Dry Bones That Dream, DCI Alan Banks and DI Helen Morton must learn to reconcile their conflicting policing styles and personalities while trying to unravel the increasingly puzzling murder of a local accountant who has been leading a secret double life.

Sunday at 9:00pm kick off the fourth season of the classic comedy Blackadder entitled, Blackadder Goes Forth. A world-weary Captain Blackadder, veteran of numerous campaigns, suddenly finds himself in the trenches facing four million German machine guns. He is not a happy man. He’d be slightly happier if General Melchett's battle plans were less suicidal and if Private Baldrick's cooking wasn't confined to rat.

The mini-series I, Claudius, is based on a novel written in the form of an autobiography of the Roman Emperor Claudius. The classic story of the physically weak being intellectually underestimated was immensely popular when it first aired in 1977 and is still loved almost 35 years later. 

This Sunday, travel back in time to Rome through the eyes of Claudius and become a historical investigator of deadly plots and scandal in one of the greatest Empires of all time. When Emperor Caligula abuses his power as ruler of Rome, Claudius is named the new leader. A stuttering and sickly man, he immediately encounters challenges and power struggles. Does Claudius shy away from his new position or does he become the Emperor Rome needs? Follow the span of Claudius’ life and the history of the Roman Empire with this enthralling marathon of the award-winning series I, Claudius this Sunday.

Watch the I, Claudius Marathon over two weekends beginning this Sunday, March 10th from 10:00am to 6:00pm concluding Sunday, March 17th from 12:00pm - 6:00pm