Moving into a friends place that he has.

No landline has been connected for years, but on calling BT they said it just needs turning on, which is good.

Is my only option signing up to 12 months with BT for landline before I can use another company or is there another way?

don't bother? boredband would be the only reason I could think of?

That's why I need it.

Missus watches streaming TV and I need it for work.

ah, then get work to pay for it!!

So is the answer, I must have a BT line for 12 months then?

You can move a BT line about the place. I signed up for a year at one address have now moved it (counts on fingers) 3 times since then. It doesn't count as cancelling.

BT wanted 100 quid or mre to reconnect us ONLY, and then wanted to bill us with a penalty if we didnt make enough calls!

Virgin connected us to cable for free and threw in land line with the broadband.

Yeah check if cable is available in the area.

Out of the loop for cable.

phone up sky and see what they say and whether they would offer connection inluded in a sky package along with the phone/broadband

Talk Talk / Sky / Virgin can do it for you too.
Dont have to use BT direct to provide your landline, hell i could even do it for you through my company, but we dont do residential.
I use talk talk myself. £21 per month for everything (line, calls and broadband)