One of the biggest new TV shows of the second half of 2024 is The Day of the Jackal, which is now available to watch (well, depending on where you live, with a late release date in some countries, but it's streaming in the UK).
The first five episodes are available to watch right now on Sky TV or Now TV, though in the US, Canada and New Zealand you'll have to wait a little while — here's how to watch The Day of the Jackal if you're interested.
The Day of the Jackal, an modernized version of a 50-year-old Frederick Forsyth novel of the same name, about a talented international assassin who becomes the target of a dedicated intelligence officer who wants to bring him down. Eddie Redmayne and Lashana Lynch star in the two roles respectively.
You're going to have to wait until mid-December to see all ten episode of The Day of the Jackal but if you don't want to wait that long, you might be glad to know that the TV show isn't the first adaptation of the book. A critically-acclaimed version was released two years after the novel, in 1973, and it's FREE to watch in the UK.
The Day of the Jackal as the movie is called was directed by High Noon and Oklahoma!'s Fred Zennemann and stars Edward Fox, Michael Lonsdale and Derek Jacobi.
It tells the same story as the book: of an underground military group which hires The Jackal to assassinate Charles de Gaulle while authorities try to stop the assassination from taking place.
The movie is remembered as a gripping thriller, with its 91% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and its many accolades (including an Oscar nomination for best editing) a testament to its quality.
And if you live in the UK, you don't have to pay to watch The Day of the Jackal, because it's on ITVX, so you just need to be a license fee payer. Unfortunately it's not streaming anywhere in the US, and is on Binge in Australia. If you're abroad from the UK but want to see it on ITVX, you can use a streaming VPN or follow the instructions below to do so.
The movie and TV versions of The Day of the Jackal aren't the only adaptations, with an Indian version from 1988 and also a 1997 American movie called The Jackal with Bruce Willis, Richard Gere and Sidney Poitier (which was only listed as being 'inspired by' Forsyth's work, despite the name and plot). However the 1973 movie remains the most popular and best-received, so if you're going to watch a previous version, it should be this one.
Or you could just read the book, found on Amazon here.
How to use a VPN to stream from abroad
- Download the app at NordVPN
- Choose the location of the streaming service you want to watch (UK, in this case)
- Navigate to the streaming service and start watching!
