Impatient Mac users in the UK have been complaining that while the BBC streams shows to their platform using iPlayer, it doesn’t yet allow them to download shows for offline viewing, a feature Windows users already enjoy.

Things have changed.

Developer wizard_drongo has released an application called iPlayer Downloader which enables Mac users to download shows from iPlayer in the QuickTime format. It’s not a legal tool, as the software also eradicates and DRM on iPlayer shows, meaning episodes can be transferred to other devices, encoded into different media, and watched beyond the BBC’s permitted window for using such content.

It’s highly probable the BBC will move fast to undermine the hack used in the software in order to protect its service and its content suppliers, but meanwhile Mac users with a penchant for Doctor Who can build their unofficial collection of digital recordings.

The move is likely to increase the pressure on the BBC to enable show downloads for Mac users, the company has promised to make such features available later this year. This will only allow Mac users to watch content for a defined period, after which downloaded files will cease to work.