For lovers of HBO drama and comedy, Sky Atlantic was pretty big news when it first launched on the 1st February 2011. The new channel became the home of HBOs television output here in the UK, with a huge mix of UK television premiers and classics from HBO’s back catalogue thrown into the mix for good measure.
The prohibition-era drama epic Boardwalk Empire was a big feature in the launch of the new channel, and it’s gone on to be a big success, leading on to a number of following series. It brought together the might of Martin Scorsese’s directorial skills to kick things off with the pilot episode with Steve Buscemi (Monsters University) in the lead character role, Nucky Thomson, and Stephen Graham (This is England ’86) in a surprise casting as Al Capone.
Sky Atlantic also reruns a whole host of old series episodes featuring classic HBO television series The Sopranos, Six Feet Under and Entourage. However, the prospect of premiers of new series of Entourage and Mad Men was arguably the biggest factor in the success of the channel, keeping HBO fans interested.
The addition of Boardwalk Empire has been accompanied by a raft of other new debut shows for the UK, including comedies How To Make It In America and Weeds, along with Kate Winslet’s drama mini-series Mildred Pierce. Other programmes that feature heavily are Battlestar Gallactica, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Flight of the Concords, Game of Thrones, Mid Morning Matters With Alan Partridge, The Pacific and Seinfeld.
With so much on the go, Sky Atlantic has gone on to be a big part of TV since it broke in 2011, especially with the addition of movies to its output. Sky Atlantic is free to all existing Sky customers in the UK, so if you’ve got the dish you’ve probably got the channel.
