{"id":248077,"date":"2025-07-08T13:20:17","date_gmt":"2025-07-08T13:20:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/248077\/"},"modified":"2025-07-08T13:20:17","modified_gmt":"2025-07-08T13:20:17","slug":"you-have-just-days-left-to-watch-compelling-british-legal-drama-before-it-leaves-uk-streamer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/248077\/","title":{"rendered":"You have just days left to watch “compelling” British legal drama before it leaves UK streamer"},"content":{"rendered":"

Emma Thompson<\/a>‘s British legal drama The Children Act<\/a> is set to leave a UK streaming service <\/a>in the coming days. <\/p>\n

Based on Ian McEwan’s 2014 novel of the same name, the film stars Thompson as a High Court judge who is given a case where doctors want to perform a blood transfusion on a 17-year-old Jehovah’s Witness (Fionn Whitehead).<\/p>\n

The synopsis reads: “Judge Fiona May must race against the clock to determine the fate of a teenage boy in need of a lifesaving blood transfusion, stretching her life and her fractured marriage to breaking point.”<\/p>\n

The legal drama is scheduled to leave BBC iPlayer<\/a> on Thursday, meaning fans of Thompson have just days left to stream the film for free in the UK. <\/p>\n

Released in 2017, the film currently has a respectable score of 74% on Rotten Tomatoes<\/a> from 112 critic reviews, with critics praising Thompson’s lead performance. <\/p>\n

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eOne<\/p>\n

Related: <\/strong>Maggie Smith’s “charming” British movie with stacked cast is now streaming for free<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Vulture<\/a> described the drama as “compelling” adding: “No one gives better pensive gaze here than Thompson; the drama lies in the fallibility of even the most competent and well-intentioned among us.”<\/p>\n

“The Children Act feels utterly of a piece with the original book: urbane, understated, handsomely realized and impeccably interpreted by a cast of superb actors,” wrote The Washington Post<\/a>. <\/p>\n

“This film adaptation never reaches the intimate heights of Ian McEwan’s novel,” penned Rolling Stone<\/a>. “But Emma Thompson’s portrait of a family court judge who lets the world in at the cost of losing her own judgment is acting of the highest order.”<\/p>\n

\"jason<\/p>\n

eOne<\/p>\n

Related: <\/strong>Watch now! “Nightmarish” sci-fi horror “masterpiece” is now streaming for free<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

The Observer<\/a> penned: “Equally comfortable on both stage and screen, Emma Thompson brings an added value to the mix that literally saves the film and keeps the viewer awake.”<\/p>\n

“Another reminder, if one were needed, of the subtlety and skill of Emma Thompson’s stratospheric talent,” said Empire Magazine<\/a>. <\/p>\n

However, not everyone agreed with this take, with The Boston Globe<\/a> writing: “The Children Act isn’t all that interesting a movie, despite the many talented people involved and the generally high level of work they do.”<\/p>\n

Digital Spy’s new print issue is here! Buy <\/strong>Oasis – Live in ’25<\/strong><\/a> in newsagents or <\/strong>online<\/strong><\/a>, now priced at just \u00a38.99.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Deals that might interest you\"Shop<\/a>Shop Sky TV, broadband and mobile deals\"Stranger<\/a>Stranger Things Hellfire Club Dice Dangle CharmCredit: Pandora\"Shop<\/a>Shop Claudia Winkleman’s Traitors looksCredit: BBC \/ Studio Lambert\"On\"Richard<\/a>Richard Osman: We Solve MurdersCredit: Viking\"Shop<\/a>Shop PS5 consolesCredit: PlayStation\"Shop<\/a>Shop Alison Hammond’s outfitsCredit: Mark Bourdillon\"Apple<\/a>Apple TV+ 7-day free trialCredit: Apple TV+\"Sign<\/a>Sign up for Disney+Credit: Chuck Zlotnick\"The<\/a>The Street of Lies: An Official Coronation Street Interactive NovelCredit: Octopus Books\"Death<\/a>Death in Paradise: The Puzzle BookCredit: BBC Books\"Lettermark\"<\/p>\n

Reporter, Digital Spy<\/strong><\/p>\n

Harriet is a freelance news writer specialising in TV<\/a> and movies<\/a> at Digital Spy<\/strong>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A horror enthusiast, she joined Digital Spy<\/strong> after working on her own horror website, reviewing films and focusing largely on feminism in the genre.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In her spare time, Harriet paints and produces mixed-media art. She graduated from the University of Kingston with a BA in fine art, where she specialised in painting. She also has an MA in journalism from Birkbeck University.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Emma Thompson‘s British legal drama The Children Act is set to leave a UK streaming service in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":248078,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3935],"tags":[1380,95981,1331,77,3989,1330,3943,95980,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-248077","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-content-type-news","9":"tag-contentid-05cc5b4e-a566-4ffd-8c12-f13c3816324d","10":"tag-displaytype-standard-article","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-hasproduct-true","13":"tag-locale-gb","14":"tag-movies","15":"tag-shorttitle-compelling-british-legal-drama-leaving-uk-streamer","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114817822308831876","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248077","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=248077"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248077\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/248078"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=248077"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=248077"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=248077"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}