After a bit of scratching around i was able to get the basic get_iplayer script installed and running on my N900 without the chrooted debian environment. I have not tried the web front end.

Key to this is the need to have the libwww-perl module installed, great it is in extras-devel (alarm bell #1 should now be ringing) however it will not install due to missing dependencies. There is a helpful page on the maemo.org wiki that explains the status of Perl in Fremantle. The upshot of this is that you could install packages from the SDK repository to get this working (alarm bell #2 starts).

!!WARNING!!
If you are not comfortable with putting your device in a state where you will need to re-flash the software manually, walk away now.
!!WARNING!!

Installing packages from the SDK repository effectively changes the software configuration so that it is no longer recognised as running Maemo 5. You will not receive future updates in the application manager for the operating system. Yes, hacking around like this bit me hard on the N810.

You will need to have root privileges in the xterminal for the following:

1. Edit the file /etc/apt/sources.list to include the Fremantle SDK repository
2. Run 'apt-get update'
3. Run 'apt-get install libwww-perl' with the SDK repository installed this will resolve the dependencies.
4. Download the get_iplayer script and set as executable.
5. Run 'get_iplayer -h' for help.

While this works I would strongly recommend against following these instructions and disclaim any problems that arise.

IMO it would be much easier to run the web PVR front end on a personal server and connect to it from the N900 using just the web browser but this is a nice hack.

Have fun,
LES..