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A streaming app that’s been touted as a rival to Sky Glass will soon be available on more smart TVs.

First launched in April last year, Freely is a relatively new free streaming service backed by the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5, and gives users the ability to stream live and on-demand TV all in one place, without paying a subscription fee.

It’s similar to Sky Glass, which also lets viewers tune into hundreds of live and on-demand channels via a broadband connection, rather than an aerial. Viewers can pause and rewind live TV with the app too.

While Sky Glass TV owners have to pay a minimum of £26 per month for content, Freely is, as the name suggests, completely free.

Sky Glass does offer premium features that viewers won’t find on Freely, however, such as personalisation for each member of the family, as well as the ability to ‘bookmark’ favourite shows.

But now it’s been announced that TVs powered by technology company Roku will have Freely installed, which includes models from brands including JVC, Logik, Sharp, METZ and Polaroid.

Meanwhile, Hisense, Bush, Panasonic and Toshiba already sell TVs with the Freely app.

Jonathan Thompson, CEO of Everyone TV, said of the news: ‘Offering freely on the Roku operating system is a major milestone for us, as we continue to expand reach for the free streaming platform.

‘We’re delighted that as a huge global player, Roku has recognised the importance of easy and seamless access to public service broadcast content for UK audiences and I look forward to seeing Freely smart TVs with Roku in market this summer.’

Earlier this year, Freely announced the launch of 16 new channels, including three Channel 4 channels that viewers ‘won’t find anywhere else’.

4Reality will feature reality TV gold like Married at First Sight, while 4Homes will offer dream homes, renovations and design inspiration with shows like Grand Designs.

The channel 4Life will bring travel, food and animals to screens with shows like The Dog House.

There are 11 new Channel 5 live channels that were also added, including Police Interceptors, 5 Cops and Dogs Behaving (Very) Badly.

Six of these are exclusive to Freely and My5, including The Yorkshire Vet, GPs Behind Closed Doors and Milkshake.

Freely has also recently launched two ITV channels called The Chase and Saturday Night Every Night, which are also available on ITVX.

Akhila Khanna, ITV Director of Distribution, said at the time: ‘At ITV we’re proud to be part of Freely and making these channels available to the Freely TV Guide reinforces our commitment to delivering fantastic, free content through this innovative platform and showcases our continued collaboration with other leading UK broadcasters.’

A version of this article was published on April 16, 2025.

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Virgin Island sparked controversy last month, but bosses reportedly made a great move for the sake of its contestants.

Last month, the divisive Channel 4 reality show saw 12 adult virgins guided by seven experts to help explore their intimacy issues, with viewers split over how to feel.

Some people found it all a bit cringeworthy, while others were concerned about the care of vulnerable people appearing on the series.

Now, it’s been reported that show bosses placed a sex ban on the crew, including experts and therapists Danielle Harel, Celeste Hirschman.

Given the intimate nature of the show, it was apparently decided that the ban would be appropriate to make sure everyone was comfortable.

‘Location shoots like this are usually a hotbed for hook-ups. But Virgin Island was no fun for anyone except the virgins,’ a source told The Sun.

The insider told the outlet that ‘production wanted to make them feel comfortable and unintimidated’.

They added: ‘This sort of crew sex ban is unheard of in the TV world, but is very responsible of Channel 4.’

Last month, the first series reached its climax after breaking records for the broadcaster, who noted the show rose ‘to the top of Channel 4’s list of new unscripted launches for share of 16-34s since modern records began’.

Virgin Island’s figures placed it above the likes of Supernanny, The Jury: Murder Trial and the original series of Married At First Sight, while almost nine million people tuned in across the run.

It’s not surprising, then, that Channel 4 want to go another round, with a second season already in the pipeline.

The broadcaster’s measures to make everyone comfortable appears to have worked, as series one participant Dave insisted they all felt ‘so safe and secure’ on set.

In a statement encouraging people to apply for the next series, he said:

Series one participant, Dave, said of his experience: ‘Anyone who has watched the show will have seen how much my confidence grew over the course of the series, and I can’t speak highly enough of the experts and production team for making us feel so safe and secure.’

He added: ‘I was lucky enough to achieve the ultimate aim of the series whilst on the Island, and I can’t wait to see the next group of participants go on the same journey – I would wholly encourage anyone with enough courage and resilience to apply, it’s completely changed my life.’

Applications for season 2 are open now, with Channel 4 and Double Act Productions putting some strict restrictions in place for anyone looking to get involved.

‘It’s been such a thrill to watch this show catch fire,’ said Virgin Island Commissioning Editor, Jonah Weston. ‘From the brave cast to our wonderful experts I don’t think I’ve ever worked on anything quite so bold, warm and well-intentioned.’

As well as needing to have seen the first season, virgins hoping to take part will face a series of Zoom interviews, and some ‘one-to-one meetings’ in London over the summer.

The application form explains: ‘If invited to take part in the retreat, you may be required for a day’s interview filming in the UK around September 2025.

‘You must then be available to film at the retreat for approx. three weeks abroad in autumn 2025. You are responsible for getting the permitted time off work or study, if relevant.’

Metro has contacted Channel 4 for comment.

Virgin Island is available to stream on ITVX.

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Would someone please spare a thought for the offspring of the mega wealthy? It’s something TV has been asking us to do for years and it looks like the going still isn’t great for the super-rich in We Were Liars.

In the latest glossy spin on the rich-people-having-a-terrible-time sub-genre of the small screen, Amazon Prime Video has turned the smash BookTok sensation from E Lockhart into a twisty, turny eight-part adaptation.

On this occasion the fabulously wealthy family in question are the Sinclairs, a Kennedy-esque oppressively blonde brood who every summer decamp to their private island Beechwood, near Martha’s Vineyard.

The picture-postcard setting is their very own summer idyll, with huge houses and endless opportunities to cannonball into the aquamarine water. 

Yet all is not as it seems. ‘Something terrible happened last summer,’ our heroine Cady Sinclair – played by Emily Alyn Lind of the doomed Gossip Girl reboot – tells us. ‘I have no memory of what or who hurt me.’ 

We see Cady’s mangled half-naked body atop a cliff at the end of summer, after a mysterious incident which the entire show wraps around. We flashback to the beginning of June to, like Cady, piece together everything she forgot and find out what happened.

Of the Sinclair grandchildren, there are the ‘littles’ and the titular ‘liars’ (yes, it’s a bit smug) – Cady and her cousins are known as such after a childhood spent being troublemakers prone to a fib. There’s Johnny (Joseph Zada), Mirren (Esther McGregor) and Gat (Shubham Maheshwari), who is the outsider of the group, as not technically a Sinclair, and one of the only non-white people on Beechwood.

Before everything goes bust for Cady, a long-simmering attraction to Gat finally blossoms into full-blown summer romance. The show bottles up that giddy feeling of being a teenager with a huge crush – it’s a lot of close-ups on eyes, mouths, feet and hands as they brush – even if it is on someone who’s positioned as cousin-adjacent.

In between the summer loving, there’s inevitable family drama. The Sinclair grandfather Harris (David Morse) only doles out his affection and its accompanying cash in teaspoon measures. Everyone has a secret hidden beneath their quiet luxury clothing and none of the three Sinclair daughters are happy with their lot.

The highlight among them is The Vampire Diaries’ Candice King, although it is strange to see her playing an embittered mother when she doesn’t look much different from vampiric Caroline.

When Cady isn’t making ominous reference to her impending amnesia via voiceover, We Were Liars is largely a summer vibes machine with a big-budget soundtrack (HAIM! Hozier! Good Neighbours!) you’ll be seeking out on Spotify. The sunny daytime is this show’s domain, so much so you might find yourself squinting at the screen during the under-lit nighttime scenes. 

Cady helpfully dyes her hair brown after her accident. But even with this visual aid, the hopscotching time frame between two summers can be confusing, much like Cady’s own patchy memory of things.

The breathy voiceover doesn’t do much to clue you in on what’s happening when, since it starts to sound like Carrie Bradshaw’s column word salad when you really tune into what she’s quite repetitively saying.

But whenever you start to feel bogged down in the so-so teen melodrama, some big reveal will come from another corner of the show to pull you back in. This is the show’s strength: it moves at a clip and there is always something barmy happening to one of the Sinclairs. 

Unlike the best eat-the-rich mysteries, this is painfully lacking in the laughs department and probably takes itself a bit too seriously. But you won’t regret sticking around for the final reveal to plug the gap in Cady’s memory: it’s so bonkers it’s beyond the guessing game.

We Were Liars is available to stream on Prime Video from June 18.

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A ‘distinctive’ series about a diplomat hunting down a team of treasure hunters to recover their spoils is now streaming for free in the UK.

First hitting screens in 2021, La Fortuna is a Spanish-American adventure drama television miniseries.

Directed by Alejandro Amenábar, the series marked the acclaimed filmmakers first foray into small screen productions.

Based on the 2018 graphic novel El tesoro del Cisne Negro by Paco Roca and Guillermo Corral, the six-parter, which is now on ITVX in the UK, was also based on an incredible true story.

In 1804 the Spanish ship Nuestra Senora de las Mercedes was sunk by the British Navy off the south coast of Portugal during the Battle of Cap Santa Maria.

Over two centuries later, in 2007, the Florida-based company Odysseus Marine Exploration reported having discovered a shipwreck, later revealed to be the Senora.

The crew recovered almost 500,000 silver and gold coins from the wreck before transporting them to the United States.

But soon after the Spanish government kickstarted a legal battle over what it considered to be illegal looting, with the coins estimated to be worth around $500,000 (£368,000).

In the TV show, the story focuses on Alex Ventura (Álvaro Mel), a young diplomat who ends up spearheading efforts to recover the underwater shipwreck of La Fortuna, seized off the coast of Gibraltar by Frank Wild (Stanley Tucci), a treasure hunter.

It was teased of the show: ‘La Fortuna was known to be carrying gold gathered all over South America to fund the Spanish war effort. Wild and his crew claim to have found it by chance. Now the Spanish government wants it back.’

The series also stars Ana Polvorosa as Lucía Vallarta, a civil servant and T’Nia Miller as Susan McLean, a lawyer collaborating with Frank.

At the time reviews of the series were mixed from critics and viewers, but many did share they were drawn in by the unique premise.

‘There is no puzzle to solve in La Fortuna, no hidden messages, and that relative straightforwardness coupled with the actors’ clinic put on by Tucci and Peters is enough to make La Fortuna worth retrieving from the depths of streaming,’ Vulture wrote in its review.

‘La Fortuna’s distinctive story, combined with the standout performances from Tucci and Peters, make the show one we want to stick with,’ Decider shared.

‘It’s a very topical, hot-button issue that the series addresses, intelligently and not without acknowledging that its central controversy has two sides — even if director and co-writer Alejandro Amenábar makes clear which side he’s on,’ the Wall Street Journal added.

Deadline explained the show as ‘a strange, soupy hybrid of courtroom drama, Indiana Jones fantasies and an Iberian version of The Office’.

Meanwhile fans said it was a ‘breath of fresh air worth binging’, a ‘masterpiece’ and even ‘the best Spanish series ever’.

Speaking to Empire in 2022, Stanley spoke about being drawn to his character, who is described in the first episode as a ‘pirate’.

What drew you to your character in La Fortuna****, who is actually described in the first episode

‘I mean, that’s what drew me to him, that he’s really complicated,’ he said.

‘He seems to be one thing, but turns out to be another thing. He’s a very complex guy, and those are always great roles to play.’

In real life, a U.S. federal court and a panel from the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit upheld the Spanish claim to the contents of La Fortuna.

However, they were not returned until 2013, when a court ordered Odyssey Marine to return the coins, which totalled 14.5 tonnes.

They are now held in the National Museum of Subaquatic Archaeology in Cartagena (Murcia) for cataloguing, study and permanent display.

La Fortuna is streaming on ITVX.

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A Clarkson’s Farm star is in some pain after suffering a ‘busted ankle’.

Kaleb Cooper, 26, has become a household name since rising to fame with Jeremy Clarkson on the Amazon Prime Video series, which is set on the former Top Gear star’s Diddly Squat farm.

The farmer has become a star in his own right, and he was kept busy at this year’s Royal Three Counties show in Worcestershire despite his recent injury.

‘I may be hobbling around because I’ve got a bit of a busted ankle, but it’ll be fine,’ he said in a video shared to the event’s official Instagram account before a packed schedule on Sunday.

He kicked off his day at a Future of Farming talk at 11am, followed by a Machinery Demo in the Main Arena at 12:45pm, and an appearance at the Food & Drink Theatre 45 minutes later.

Earlier in the week, he’d been spotted at Cereals 2025 – another farming festival – moving around on a mobility scooter in photos published by the Oxford Mail.

Kaleb seemed to be in good spirits as he chatted to locals, although his foot was still in a protective boot at the time.

He had vowed to still be at the Three Counties event too, despite revealing days earlier that he had ‘fractured’ his ankle.

In another Instagram Story, he said: ‘Just got back from football and trying to haul my [butt] to shut the chickens up… look at that ankle.’

Thankfully for Kaleb, his schedule will start to get a bit easier after Jeremy confirmed Clarkson’s Farm is taking a ‘short break’ after its upcoming fifth series.

The programme recently returned for a fourth season, and while another series is already in the works, there’ll be a chance for everyone to down tools in the near future.

Jeremy has had some health setbacks, with a heart operation in 2024, and he recently put his back out with no clue how he managed it.

‘I’d do a sixth if there was a reason for doing it, like a bloody good story. But if, say, my back turns out to be cancerous then I wouldn’t,’ he quipped in an interview with The Times.

The former Grand Tour presenter confirmed that either way, there’ll be a ‘short break’ after the fifth series.

He added: ‘Whatever happens we’ll definitely take a short break as the crews are all worn out. We’ve been filming here two or three days a week, every week, for five years. Everybody could do with a rest.’

There had been some concern from fans that Kaleb’s role was being scaled back for the fourth series as farmhand Harriet Cowan appeared to be replacing him.

However, Jeremy soon explained that Kaleb’s other commitments meant he needed someone else to help out.

‘What happened is this, he went away on his speaking tour, for a couple of months because he imagined that after four years, I’d be able to manage on my own,’ Jeremy explained.

‘I didn’t – I made a complete mess of everything and had to bring in a young girl called Harriet. Harriet is brilliant and looked after the fort until he got back.’

Clarkson’s Farm is available to stream on Amazon Prime Video.

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