The Best English Period Dramas That Need Revisiting
Period dramas are the ultimate form of escapist comfort viewing so from new favourites like To Walk Invisible to old classics like Pride and Prejudice, there's no shortage of amazing period dramas to stream this January.
Pour yourself a drink, dig out the remnants of the snack box, put your feet up, and get comfy.
David Copperfield (1999, BBC)
Based on the novel by Charles Dickens
It’s never a dull moment when you step inside the world of Charles Dickens. British dramas based on classic works can be ponderous and slow but this adaptation moves along at exactly the right pace to keep us interested.
Thought to be one of Dickens’ most autobiographical stories, David Copperfield, starring a young and very cute Daniel Radcliffe, is also said to be his favourite.
Calling all costume drama aficionados - add this adaptation to your must-watch list.
Bleak House (2005, BBC)
Based on the novel by Charles Dickens
A fresh and imaginative adaptation of Dickens' Victorian drama, Bleak House stars Anna Maxwell Martin as Esther Summerson and the incomparable Gillian Anderson as Lady Dedlock. She’s hiding a dark secret and seeks to conceal the truth from merciless lawyer Tulkinghorn 'Game of Thones’ Charles Dance) amidst an infamous court case.
Dickens is famous for his legions of memorable, colourful characters, and Bleak House is no exception. Anderson, unrecognisable from her X-File days, is fragile and enigmatic.
All in all, Bleak House is a gripping tale about the injustices of the 19th Century English legal system.
Emma (1972, BBC)
Based on the novel by Jane Austen
Widely known as the best of the early BBC Austen adaptations, Emma was first aired on the BBC in 1972 consisting of six 45 minute episodes.
Set in the small town of Highbury, the classic adaptation depicts often hilarious attempts of Miss Emma Woodhouse (Doran Godwin) to make proper marital matches for all of her friends.
Though often mistaken in her judgment, she is counselled and criticised by her neighbour and brother-in-law, the wise Mr. Knightley (John Carson) whose attentions to her are motivated by more than just brotherly love.
Jane Eyre (2011, BBC Films)
Based on the novel by Charlotte Brontë
Mia Wasikowska shines in an ingenious, exquisitely crafted version of the Charlotte Brontë classic.
Orphaned and viciously treated as a child, Jane endured a cruel boarding school and eventually secures a position as a governess in Thornfield Hall, a remote house in the Yorkshire Peak District whose master of the house is a glowering, charismatic, and secretly tortured Mr. Rochester (Michael Fassbender).
North and South (2004, BBC)
Based on the novel by Elizabeth Gaskell
North and South tells the tale of Margaret Hale (Daniela Denby-Ashe), a young woman from southern England who has to move to the north after her father decides to leave the clergy.
The family struggles to adapt itself to the industrial town's customs, especially after meeting the Thorntons, a noble family of cotton mill owners who seem to loathe their social inferiors.
The story traverses the issues of class and gender, as Margaret's compassion for the town mill workers clashes with her burgeoning attraction to John Thornton (Richard Armitage).
Pride and Prejudice (1995, BBC)
Based on the novel by Jane Austen
When it comes to the most memorable men written by Jane Austen and brought to life on the screen, Colin Firth’s Mr. Darcy tends to overshadow all others—and for good reason.
A brilliant six-part BBC adaptation, we’re convinced Colin Firth’s scene in which a soaked Mr. Darcy emerges from a lake is quite possibly reason alone to dig out your old VHS tape of Pride and Prejudice ASAP.
Lake-dipping aside, screenwriter Andrew Davies lets the novel's sparkling dialogue speak for itself, making this a total joy for dedicated Austenites and for more recent initiates.
Sense and Sensibility (1995, BBC)
Based on the novel by Jane Austen
Ang Lee’s adaptation of Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility, which premiered in the UK 16 years ago, is best known for its dazzling direction and for Emma Thompson’s Oscar-winning screenplay (which she wrote, incidentally, while nursing a broken heart).
Facing poverty after the death of their father, three sisters must rely on the generosity of others, starring Emma Thomson, Kate Winslet, and the late, great Alan Rickman.
Lady Chatterley's Lover (2015, BBC)
Based on the novel by D. H. Lawrence
In this BBC adaptation of D.H. Lawrence's racy novel, Madden plays everyone's favourite sexy gardener, Oliver Mellors, to Holliday Grainger's Lady Chatterley.
Madden thoroughly smoulders and Grainger’s portrayal of Constance is superb, playing the role of complicated, sympathetic, playful, lonely, dutiful, and conflicted simultaneously.
Happily, sex remains a vital part of the story, but it’s handled with a sensitivity that unites passion and lust ever so tastefully.
To Walk Invisible (2016, BBC)
Written and directed by Sally Wainwright
When it comes to the Brontë sisters, questions—and mythology—abound. A two-hour drama, the biopic portrays the enthralling contradictions of the Brontës, centering on the three-year period when the sisters resolved to publish their writing as a means of self-preservation.
Aware of how they would be judged as women penetrating a man’s domain, they chose to use gender-neutral pseudonyms, so they could, as Charlotte explained in a letter, “walk invisible.”
The retelling of the Brontë sisters’ story is a vibrant dramatization of how three sheltered women became extraordinary novelists.
