YOUR GUIDE TO AMAZON FREEVEE

What is it? Previously known as IMDB TV, Amazon Freevee is home to free on-demand TV and film, funded by commercial breaks.

How do I watch it? You need a regular Amazon account, the one you’d use to purchase goods from the site, but you don’t need the Prime subscription (see box below left). Simply go to the Amazon Prime Video app or website, sign yourself in, and choose the Freevee channel. The downside is that the advert breaks in the shows you’ll watch aren’t placed as elegantly as they are on a commercial television channel, so be prepared for sudden interruptions, and to see the same advert many, many times. It’s a good excuse to make a cup of tea.

What are the TV highlights? A surprisingly good selection of high-end US dramas, such as brilliant legal thriller Damages, ground-breaking police show The Shield, Aaron Sorkin’s political classic The West Wing (starring Martin Sheen and Stockard Channing, top) and wry comedy Community. Freevee is also home to such vintage US series as The A-team (above), Magnum PI, and Little House On The Prairie and also to the BBC’S trilogy of Johnny Worricker spy dramas starring Bill Nighy. The service also has a growing roster of original shows, including British spy thriller Alex Rider.

And the films? A decent assortment of classics, from Orson Welles’s The Third

Man to screwball comedy His Girl Friday and Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers in the musical Top Hat. There is also some more modern fare, such as warm British musical Walking On Sunshine, dystopian sci-fi Gattaca and offbeat Peckham comedy Superbob, co-written by and starring Ted Lasso’s Brett Goldstein (left, as Superbob).

And in future? They’ll be going big and bold, with an American remake of dark anthology show

Inside No 9.