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Far from being a comforting vision of the past, the best period drama reclaims history for now. That's because these clear-eyed series are rooted in the real world, argues Caryn James....
Period dramas have served as the backbone of British cinema and television, ever since the first films began production at the tail end of the 19th Century. But more often than not, these ...
- Hanna Flint
- Bleak House (2005) - Available on Hulu
- Persuasion (1995) - Available to Purchase on Prime Video
- Pride and Prejudice (1995) - Available on Hulu, HBO Max, and BritBox
- North and South (2004) - Available on BritBox and Hoopla
- The Barchester Chronicles
- Peaky Blinders (2013–2022) - Available on Netflix
- The Way We Live Now (2001) - Available on BritBox and Hoopla
- Upstairs, Downstairs (1971) - Available on BritBox and Acorn TV
- Great Expectations (1999) - Available on BritBox
- Madame Bovary (2000) - Available on BritBox
Charles Dickens was known for his gritty tales of life spent in Victorian London, but nowhere are the depths of depravity and the heights of ambition revealed so candidly than in Bleak House, BBC's 2005 adaptation of his famous novel starring Gillian Anderson (The X-Files, Hannibal), and Charles Dance (Game of Thrones). This adaptation received 10 ...
Before Ciaran Hinds gave tour-de-force performances in Game of Thrones and The Terror, he played the dashing Wentworth to Amanda Root's Anne, two star-crossed lovers torn apart by the brutal rules of British society. They are separated for nearly a decade, and in that time, Wentworth becomes a model seaman in the British Navy and Anne's once-wealth...
Pride and Prejudice may be the most renowned of Jane Austen's novels, but the 1995 BBC adaptation is the most renowned version on the big or small screen. Other versions have tried and failed to capture the electric chemistry of Colin Firth in a career-defining role as the aloof Mr. Darcy and Jennifer Ehle as the fiery Elizabeth Bennet. One hidden ...
When the daughter of a middle-class clergyman leaves her comfortable life in the South of England for the industrial North, she doesn't expect to find anything alluring among its smokestacks and cotton mills. Once pulled into the frenetic pace of the northern city of Milton, she encounters John Thornton, whom she perceives as a ruthless mill owner....
When the widower Reverend Harding, who both serves the people of Barchester as a clergyman and as the warden of the hospital, is accused of cheating pensioners, he's almost run out of his parish. When a young surgeon takes it upon himself to expose the Reverend, matters are only made worse by the fact that he's also fallen in love with the Reverend...
Somewhere amidst the whimsical Austen and dreary Dickens sits Peaky Blinders, a no-holds-barred gritty period drama set in Birmingham, England shortly before the first World War. It focuses on rivalries between several gangster families, foremost among them the Shelbys. RELATED:The 10 Best Episodes Of Peaky Blinders (According To IMDb) The real Pea...
Augustus Melmotte, a Jewish financier from Austria, arrives in London determined to make himself a proper English gentleman. He upends the current financial markets and all of London society in his pursuit, and his lofty ascent and downward spiral are set against the backdrop of avarice and corruption. Melmotte (David Suchet) is a character that is...
Before there was Downton Abbey and the dramatic chronicles of the Crawley family and their servant staff in the English countryside, there was Upstairs, Downstairs, a deft look at the goings-on of the Bellamy family upstairs along with their downstairs staff at 165 Eaton Place. Amidst the socio-political and historical events of the Edwardian Era, ...
One of Charles Dickens's most famous novels, Great Expectations comes to vivid life in this masterful BBC adaptation about a young orphan boy named Pip (Ioan Gruffudd, Fantastic Four, Horatio Hornblower)achieves great fortune under mysterious circumstances. RELATED: 10 Underrated Period Drama TV Series & Movies, Ranked In love with his childhood pl...
Britain's most famous adulteress is brought to sensual life by Frances O'Connor in Madame Bovary. The classic novel by Gustave Flaubert was salacious enough to be banned from the French Court in 1857 for obscenity, earning it a scandalous reputation much like its heroine. Featuring the talents of some of Britain's greatest thespians, Greg Wise (Sen...
- Kayleena Pierce-Bohen
- Nancy Durrant
- Bridgerton, 2020 - ongoing. (Liam Daniel/Netflix/PA) PA Media. With its second season pulling in a whopping 620 million viewing hours in under a month back in spring, Bridgerton has long since taken the title of the world’s most popular period drama.
- Persuasion, 2022. Nick Wall/Netflix. So people hated it, some people loved it. This Netflix adaption of Persuasion has a dreamy cast Dakota Johnson playing Anne Elliot, Cosmo Jarvis playing Captain Frederick Wentworth, Henry Golding playing Mr. William Elliot and had acclaimed stage director Carrie Cracknell behind the camera.
- The Essex Serpent, 2022. In 1893, released by his death from her abusive husband, young widow Cora Seaborne (Claire Danes) moves to a small village in Essex to look into reports of a mythical creature known as the Essex Serpent, which is spooking the locals.
- The Personal History of David Copperfield, 2019. The sweetest, brightest, happiest adaption of a Dickens that there ever was, nothing could be a better distraction from that fourth Unprecedented Times news bulletin you received this morning.
6 days ago · North and South helped move the TV costume genre and other BBC adaptations past static storytelling into more inventive television, influencing numerous period dramas (Downton Abbey, The Crown) that followed.
Dec 6, 2009 · Be transported back in time through these compelling period drama pieces. Episode 1 — A Very British Scandal, Series 1 Margaret Sweeny meets the dashing (and married) Ian Campbell, future Duke...
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There’s nothing like snuggling up with a comforting period drama and returning to a simpler time, and we could all do with some escapism right now.
