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Oct 26, 2024 · Vote up the best shows set in the Victorian Era (from 1837-1901) that are not Westerns. Latest additions: Belgravia: The Next Chapter, The Artful Dodger, The Buccaneers. Most divisive: The Living and the Dead. Over 1.2K Ranker voters have come together to rank this list of The 65+ Best Victorian Era Shows, Ranked.
- The Best British Detective Series
Its gentle but engrossing nature was in stark contrast to...
- The Old West
The finest Western TV shows showcase a unique blend of...
- Steampunk
Given how visually stunning steampunk imagery is, it only...
- The Best British Detective Series
- Best Historical Movies, Dramas and Documentaries on Netflix
- Best Historical Movies, Dramas and Documentaries on Prime Video
- Best Historical Movies, Dramas and Documentaries on BBC iPlayer
- Best Historical Movies, Dramas and Documentaries on Lionsgate+ / Starz
- Best Historical Movies, Dramas and Documentaries on Now
- Best Historical Movies, Dramas and Documentaries on Disney+
- Best Historical Movies, Dramas and Documentaries on Apple TV+
- Best Historical Movies, Dramas and Documentaries on HBO
- Best Historical Movies, Dramas and Documentaries on Hulu
- Best Historical Movies, Dramas and Documentaries on Paramount+
African Queens: Cleopatra
Streaming in the UK and US | drama-documentary series The second offering in Hollywood star Jada Pinkett Smith’s anthology drama-doc series focuses on Cleopatra, who ruled the Ptolemaic Kingdom from 51-30BC. It’s a portrait of a royal whose beauty, in this reading, has come to overshadow her intellect and daring. It’s also a series that was greeted by controversy in Egypt for casting a mixed-heritage actor, Adele James, in the lead role. Also available to stream via Netflix, African Queens: N...
Alexander: The Making Of A God
Streaming in the UK and US | drama-documentary series It’s not often that a politician intervenes directly to criticise a historical drama-doc. But this was what happened in February 2024 when Lina Mendoni, Greece’s minister for culture, called Alexander: The Making Of A God“extremely poor-quality fiction”. The main problem, it seems, is the show’s portrayal of a a romantic relationship between Alexander and his confidant, Hephaestion. Whatever your thoughts on how Alexander expressed his sex...
All Quiet On The Western Front
Streaming in the UK and US | feature-length drama Based on German writer Erich Maria Remarque’s First World War novel, like the classic 1930 Oscar winner, here’s a visceral drama that takes viewers to the trenches of the Western Front. Directed by Edward Berger (Deutschland 83, Patrick Melrose), it follows young soldier Paul Bäumer (Felix Kammerer), who patriotically dreams of being a hero, but instead finds himself descending into a nightmare of filthy conditions, poor food and the ever-pres...
The Aeronauts
Streaming in the UK and US | feature-length drama James Glaisher (Eddie Redmayne) has a big idea. He thinks it’s possible to predict the weather. To prove this, he needs to fly as high in the sky as possible. Enter pilot Amelia (Felicity Jones), a fictionalised composite of women balloonists. Based onFalling Upwards: How We Took To The Air(2013) by academic and biographer Richard Homes, Tom Harper’s fine drama charts an ascent in 1862, when Glaisher (and, in reality, balloonist Henry Tracey C...
Air
Streaming in the UK and US | feature-length drama Arriving in the wake of Apple's Tetris, here's another drama that mixes up cultural history with product development. Here, the focus is on the origin of Air Jordan basketball shoes, and how their launch transformed the fortunes of Nike. Directed by Ben Affleck, who also plays Nike CEO Phil Knight, the film outlines how marketing executive and talent scout Sonny Vaccaro (Matt Damon) became convinced that Michael Jordan (Damian Young), third pi...
Devotion
Streaming in the UK | feature-length drama Jesse Brown was the first African-American pilot to complete the US Navy's basic flight training programme. He went on to serve with distinction in the Korean War(1950–53) and won the Distinguished Flying Cross. The frigate USS Jesse L. Brown was named in his honour. This biopic charts his career, the story of a man born in Mississippi and who encountered overt racism throughout his life. The central relationship here is between Brown (Jonathan Major...
The Australian Wars
Streaming in the UK | documentary series One of the myths of the colonisation of Australia is that Britons moved to an empty continent. In fact, at least 100,000 people, mostly indigenous Australians, died in the conflict-blighted decades that followed the landing of the First Fleet in 1788. It’s a history explored here over three episodes by filmmaker Rachel Perkins, who has both European and First Nations ancestry. The first episode charts events in New South Wales, when pressure on resourc...
Digging For Britain
Streaming in the UK | one season available First aired in 2010, Digging For Britain rests on a straightforward premise, the idea that, for all the foul weather, mud and long hours involved, archaeology is inherently fascinating. It helps too of course that every year the series focuses in on those excavations that have radically changed our understanding of the past and/or made the most jaw-dropping discoveries – such as when, in the latest series, a dig in Carlisle, which stands at the weste...
Disco: Soundtrack Of A Revolution
Streaming in the UK | documentary series For all it conquered the mainstream, disco was deeply subversive. As this three-part documentary series recounts, it was after all music that emerged from New York’s underground club scene, its history bound up with the radicalism of the 1960s and, in particular, the struggle for gay rights. The second of the documentaries takes us into years when Saturday Night Fever(1977) and its soundtrack were international hits, while the final instalment charts t...
Becoming Elizabeth
Streaming in the UK and US via Starz | drama series In 1558, following the death of her half-sister, Mary I, Elizabeth Tudor ascended to the English throne. ‘Good Queen Bess’ would rule for more than four decades. But as this series created by playwright Anya Reiss reminds us by focusing on the young Elizabeth, things might have been very different. A teenager and third in succession when Henry VIIIdied, it’s remarkable she survived the era’s poisonous court politics, let alone become such a...
Dangerous Liaisons
Streaming in the UK and US | one season available Set aside all thoughts of director Stephen Frears’ garlanded 1988 film version, this take on events in late 18th-century France has rather less lofty ambitions. Very loosely based on the epistolatory novel of the same name by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos (1741–1803), it stars Nicholas Denton as Pascal Valmont and Alice Englert as Camille. Later, both will be better known under ennobled monikers, but for now we’re in origin story territory as we...
The Great
Streaming in the UK and US | three seasons available There’s not a great deal of emphasis placed on historical accuracy in The Great. Instead, to quote the opening credits of the second series, it tells an almost entirely untrue story of 18th-century Russia. Then again, historical accuracy is hardly the point. Created by Tony McNamara, co-writer of the Oscar-winning The Favourite, this is a royal romp that has huge fun as it traces the ascent to power of Catherine the Great– portrayed by Elle...
Al Murray: Why Does Everyone Hate the British Empire?
Streaming in the UK | documentary series At its height, the British Empire covered close to a quarter of the Earth’s total land area. What should we make of the colonial era? It’s a question comedian Al Murray tackles here over four episodes that see him travel to India, Jamaica, South Africa and Australia. In each country, Murray teams up with a local comedian to explore the history of British colonial rule and its legacy. Elsewhere, Murray’s alter-ego, The Pub Landlord, also offers ‘insight...
Apollo 11
Streaming in the UK | feature-length documentary Originally released in cinemas to mark the 50th anniversary of Neil Armstrong becoming the first human being to step out onto the Moon’s surface, director Todd Douglas Miller’s extraordinary documentary uses hi-res period footage and audio to tell the story of the Apollo 11 mission. Yes, you know what happens, but that doesn’t lessen the awe. More specifically, the pervading sense that all this happened long ago gives the footage a near-mythic...
Britain’s Greatest Obsessions
Streaming in the UK | documentary series Britons may disagree about subjects as diverse as politics, football and whether the jam should go above or below the cream on scones, but we nevertheless have shared national obsessions to bind us together: the weather, pubs and the nuances of social class. These are among the subjects explored in a celebrity-fronted series that begins with comedian Harry Hill investigating the roots of our conviction that we have the world’s greatest sense of humour,...
The 1619 Project
Streaming in the UK | documentary series In August 2019, the New York Times set out to reframe US history by treating the arrival of the first slave ship, in 1619, as the starting point to look at events that have often been celebrated rather than critiqued. As you might expect, this approach was at times controversial, notably over the way it linked the American Revolutionary War to the way vested interests wanted to maintain slavery. This six-part series, which draws on essays in a recent b...
Cristóbal Balenciaga
Streaming in the UK | drama series Dubbed “The Master” and “The King of Fashion”, Spanish designer Cristóbal Balenciaga (1895–1972), whose work was elegant and sculptural, redefined haute couture. But not without some challenges along the way, as this lavish and beautifully framed Spanish bio-drama recounts. The series is especially strong in its evocation of the world of Parisian high fashion in the 1930s, which initially proves resistant to Balenciaga’s ideas. As Balenciaga (Alberto San Jua...
Feud: Capote Vs The Swans
Streaming in the UK and US | drama series The witty guest at countless parties, Truman Capote (1924–84) saw 1960s New York high society up close. He also wrote about what he saw, which was fine until he began work on Answered Prayers. While Capote never finished a novel he grandly hoped would be an American version of Marcel Proust’s In Search Of Lost Time, magazine excerpts that were published offended many of his jet-set acquaintances. Tom Hollander stars as Capote, a brittle man unequal to...
The Big Cigar
Streaming in the UK and US | drama series As the 1970s progressed, legal problems began to mount up for Black Panther Party leader Huey P Newton (André Holland). Accused of murder and the subject of close attention from the authorities, Newton fled to Havana, where he lived between 1974 and 1977. As this “mostly true” drama relates, movie mogul Bert Schneider (Alessandro Nivola), whose successes included the countercultural classic Easy Rider, helped Newton escape the United States in a cunni...
The Buccaneers
Streaming in the UK & US | drama series In the wake of Bridgerton and The Great, the idea of costume dramas with a distinctly 21st-century sensibility is, of course, no longer novel. Nevertheless, British writer Katherine Jakeways’ The Buccaneersis a welcome addition to the canon. Based on an unfinished story by Edith Wharton, it follows the fortunes of a group of exuberant young American women who launch themselves into London society in the 1870s. Naturally, cultural collisions and misunder...
The Completely Made-Up Adventures Of Dick Turpin
Streaming in the UK and US | comedy series Leading the cast as Dick Turpin, a dandy vegan highwayman who thinks there should be “less violence” in his chosen profession, comedian Noel Fielding of The Mighty Booshfame brings a whimsical charm to 18th century-set proceedings that are mostly very silly. A show that’s slight yet always watchable, principally because it’s funny and because its cast of British comic actors are clearly enjoying themselves. Rounding out the cast as members of the Ess...
Band of Brothers
Streaming in the US | drama series First shown in 2001, Band Of Brothershas dated well. In great part, that’s down to the elegant simplicity of the central idea: to follow Easy Company, part of the 101st Airborne Division, from jump training through parachute landings in Normandy and onwards to the end of conflict. Based on historian Stephen E Ambrose’s 1992 book, which gathered together interviews with veterans, it conveys a gritty authenticity, although the filmmakers did take some historic...
Boardwalk Empire
Streaming in the US | five seasons available Originally aired between 2010 and 2014, Boardwalk Empire set out to tell an epic story of Atlantic City gangsters in the prohibition era. And it largely succeeded, although it’s arguable the earlier episodes are stronger, notably a pilot directed by Martin Scorsese. Back before the long-form television revolution meant it was routine to see film stars on TV, its cast was notably starry, including Steve Buscemi as Enoch ‘Nucky’ Thompson, corrupt cit...
Catherine the Great
Streaming in the US | drama series Far more imperious than most royals, Helen Mirren deservedly won a Golden Globe for her turn here as the empress who ruled Russia from 1762 until 1796, and who revitalised the country after organising a coup d’état against her own husband, Peter III. The four-part series, where you can see the budget in every frame, focuses on Catherine the Great’s years in power, and shows her as ruthless and yet enlightened, interested in the latest thinking across Europe....
The Beatles: Eight Days A Week – The Touring Years
Streaming in the US | feature-length documentary In 1966, The Beatles quit touring. The Fab Four, the cheeky lads from Liverpool who had conquered the world, ceased to be – to be replaced by serious musicians who preferred recording at Abbey Road to life on the road. Yet the quartet’s itinerant years between 1962 and 1966 are important to understanding the band, and Ron Howard’s acclaimed documentary from 2016 tells a cultural history story of huge significance as we see The Beatles on the ho...
Escape From Pretoria
Streaming in the US | feature-length drama In 1979, a trio of anti-apartheid activists escaped prison in Pretoria. But how exactly did Tim Jenkin, Stephen Lee and Alex Moumbaris (renamed Leonard Fontaine here) get away? Adapted from a book by Jenkin, this Australian film takes us back to an era when South Africans could be incarcerated for distributing pro-ANC leaflets and when political prisoners received especially harsh treatment. The trio’s ingenious bid for freedom involves making wooden...
Great Expectations
Streaming in the US | drama series It’s safe to say Steven Knight’s take on Charles Dickens’ much-loved novel has divided opinion. Why? Because of the way the Peaky Blinderscreator has embellished the source material in this latest of many screen adaptations of the story of Pip, Estella and, in this version, an opium-smoking Miss Havisham. For Knight’s part, he says that his additions are all rooted in a close reading of Dickens – including, it seems, a naked Mr Pumblechook (Matt Berry) being...
- Great Exhibition. Designed to be a showcase of everything the British Empire had to offer, the Great Exhibition of 1851 was hosted at the Crystal Palace and had displays of science, industry, and the arts from throughout the empire.
- Dr. David Livingstone Begins Exhibition of Zambesi. The man for whom the phrase “Dr. Livingstone, I presume?” was created, Dr. David Livingstone, was a physician, missionary, and explorer.
- Crimean War Begins. The Crimean War was quite possibly the seminal conflict of the Victorian Period. The war resulted from Russian expansion into Europe and Turkey, which led to a coalition of the Ottoman Empire, France, Sardinia, and the United Kingdom opposing Russia.
- Dr. Snow Discovers Cholera Origins. Dr. John Snow is most well known for his discovery of the origins of a cholera epidemic in London in 1854. By tracking the source of the outbreak to a tainted well in Soho, he helped to establish cholera as a waterborne virus.
Four Hundred Years of Dorset Buttons. Shaftesbury can lay claim to being the cradle of the Dorset Button industry. As fashions, particularly for men, changed in the 17th century, from doublet and hose to waistcoat and breeches, the demand grew for button fastenings.
The 1850s (pronounced "eighteen-fifties") was a decade of the Gregorian calendar that began on January 1, 1850, and ended on December 31, 1859. It was a very turbulent decade, as wars such as the Crimean War, shifted and shook European politics, as well as the expansion of colonization towards the Far East, which also sparked conflicts like the ...
Oct 29, 2014 · The Zip – Sick of dealing with slow and annoying buttons, cords and ribbons to do up your clothes? Elias Howe Jr. was, so he invented the first zipper-style clothing and boot fasteners.
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May 24, 2018 · In the 1850s, women’s rights activists briefly adopted a new style in an effort to liberate themselves from heavy dresses. Lorraine Boissoneault. May 24, 2018. The bloomer costume Library of ...
