BBC ‘Oppenheimer’ Series Returns To IPlayer 40 Years After Launch

Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer has been grabbing plenty of headlines and dollars this week but the BBC has turned the clocks back to a different retelling, making its classic series available on iPlayer.

The BAFTA-winning series aired on the BBC more than 40 years ago and is available from today as a boxset on the VoD player.

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Sam Waterston was the Cillian Murphy of the series, starring as the titular scientist as he led the weapons laboratory of the Manhattan Project, all the while under constant surveillance by the FBI because of his left wing politics and association with communists. As with Nolan’s movie, the show followed his role in developing the world’s first nuclear weapons and his rivalry with Edward Teller, through to being stripped of his security clearance by the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission in the 1950s. David Suchet, Kate Harper, John Carson, Christopher Munke and Jana Shelden also starred.

The show catapulted Waterston to fame, as he went on to land roles in Law and Order, The Newsroom, and Grace & Frankie. It aired in the U.S. on PBS’ American Playhouse and won three BAFTAs including Best Drama Series, while being nominated for seven.

The BBC’s move comes as Oppenheimer tears up the global box office alongside Barbie. Deadline’s latest box office report had Universal’s opus at $405.6M global and more is expected this weekend during the second ‘Barbenheimer’ holdover.

IPlayer has been continuing to add classic series of late including Colin Firth-starrer Pride and Prejudice.

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