Season 3 of His Dark Materials now on iPlayer

All three series of His Dark Materials are still on BBC iPlayer and should be there until at least the end of 2024.  They’re all marked for being available for 1 year currently approaching January 2024.

Adaptations of much-loved books don’t always go well, but on the whole, it looks like His Dark Materials has got more right than wrong. The second series of the fantasy has been adapted from the novel The Subtle Knife written by Philip Pullman, as a joint venture between HBO and the BBC. I’ve not read the novel myself, but many have said its overall a decent adaption and the TV series has received excellent reviews so far.

Here’s the trailer for the second series which is being premiered on both the BBC and HBO in November. At the time of writing the first episode of series 2 has been released on BBC iPlayer, with the next episodes being released weekly.

The good news for those of us who regularly watch BBC News live on iPlayer is that both series will be available for over a year. So, you can watch the first series while the second one is released.

Watch His Dark Materials on BBC iPlayer Abroad

Of course, this site shows you the ideal VPN here for anyone who wants to watch from abroad! Don’t be worried about it being technical, it’s super easy to use on a computer, laptop or tablet, in fact you can even watch it on your phone. After the install you just have to click on a button to hide your location so the BBC iPlayer thinks you’re in the UK.

Here’s a video showing how it’s done; this is from Canada but it’s exactly the same anywhere in the world.

You have to create a BBC iPlayer account but that’s very straight forward and is just used to keep track of your viewing preferences. Remember to enter a UK postcode when you create the account, doesn’t matter where as long as it’s valid. Here’s my local train station’s code which works perfectly well – CH1 3NS.

Second Series From the Subtle Knife

One of the main reasons that the first series attracted such great reviews was because it was considered to be a proper adaption of the book. Indeed it was considered superior to the big budget film which was released in 2007. Phillip Pullman’s novels are extremely popular and have a huge fan base. It’s been assured by the producers that the second series is just as faithful to the book it’s based on – The Subtle Knife. There are some minor changes, however these have been implemented simply to try and create the best TV interpretation possible.