New on Netflix UK: the best shows and films out in March 2020

Millions of people around the world are stuck inside due to the coronavirus outbreak. If you’re looking for some escapism or want to pass the time, streaming services have got you covered. Here are some of the best shows and films added to Netflix UK this month.

The English Game

Downton Abbey creator Julian Fellowes has created two new period dramas to add to his portfolio after the worldwide success of his previous effort. Belgravia has begun on ITV, but fans can also turn to Netflix for the full first series of The English Game, about two 19th-century footballers on opposite sides of the class divide.

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As Wired puts it: “It was initially meant as a sport for gentlemen, with the rich elite trying to shut working class people out from playing. This six-part series is about them rising up and fighting to be included, while the rich quake in their boots that their game will get overrun.”

Kevin Guthrie stars as Fergus Suter and Edward Holcroft plays Arthur Kinnaird, known as the “First Lord of Football”.

Available now

Lost Girls

This moody thriller starring Amy Ryan tells the story of a distraught mother who launches her own investigation into the disappearance of her daughter from New York’s Long Island.

The show takes an even darker turn, however, when she discovers far more than she bargained for during her search.

Director Liz Garbus “brings off something extraordinary in a film that sets out to leave us sad, enraged, and profoundly unsatisfied”, says Vulture. “Lost Girls makes us want to rethink our need for a certain kind of closure in a world that has so little of it.”

Available now

I, Tonya

Margot Robbie offers a spectacular central performance as tortured figure skater Tonya Harding in I, Tonya, but there’s so much more to this story that makes it essential viewing.

A sprawling biopic spanning decades of Harding’s life, the film is at times hilarious and other times heartbreaking. It was a big success upon its release in 2017, with another phenomenal performance from Allison Janney as Harding’s villainous mother securing her an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress.

“I, Tonya is kitschy and smart and funny and insightful, and sometimes sobering,” writes Richard Roeper in the Chicago Sun Times. “It reminds us that one of the many sad things about Tonya Harding’s life story is Harding never realised she didn’t have to be the villain, the late-night punch-line, the object of so much derision and mockery.”

Available from 30 March

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Spirited Away

Hayao Miyazaki’s masterpiece Spirited Away - to date the second highest-grossing anime film of all time - was introduced to the platform at the start of the month. In this epic adventure, a ten-year-old girl enters a world full of spirits.

The London Evening Standard calls the 2001 Oscar-winning film “vivid, amusing and genuinely awe-inspiring”.

“For anyone who considers animation the poor relation of live action fantasy, Spirited Away is proof that a combination of imaginative and profound writing coupled with draughtsmanship of the highest calibre can exceed the wildest dreams of the innovative creator,” the paper adds.

Available now

Ozark - season three

Netflix “ups the ante” with the third season of Ozark, which will be released at the end of the month.

The show follows a financial adviser (Jason Bateman) who drags his family from Chicago to the Missouri Ozarks to escape a drug boss. Laura Linney stars as his wife, who joins him in running a money-laundering empire. However, the couple begin to turn on each other in season three.

“The result is a fresh source of drama and character conflict dripping with deep-rooted emotion, which also in turn ups the stakes of the series significantly,” says Collider. “In short, Ozark season three bets big on itself and wins.”

Available on 27 March