The top period dramas to stream now
Heaving bosoms and billowing shirts are standard fare in these historical TV classics
Period dramas may be steeped in history but they never get old, judging by their continuing popularity. From traditional "bodice and bonnet" costume dramas to bare-knuckle boxing in Victorian London, here are some of the best, available to stream now.
Miss Austen
Keeley Hawes and cast in Miss Austen
In this four-part adaptation of Gill Hornby's book about Cassandra Austen, sister to the British novelist Jane, literary vandalism is turned into "masterly TV", said The Guardian's Lucy Mangan.
Following her sister's death, Cassandra, played by Keeley Hawes with "customary controlled, unshowy magnificence", destroyed almost every one of an estimated 3,000 letters written by Jane to protect her and the family's reputation.
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"Miss Austen" is told via "extended flashbacks" as Cassandra reads through the letters, with a "perfect performance" from Patsy Ferran as the younger Jane.
But the present presents its own problems as Cassandra helps reverse the fate of the daughter of her friend Eliza, whose "position as an unmarried woman is used to evoke many of the concerns that infused Austen’s work".
"Bonnets, brittleness and any form of simpering" are not in evidence. Rather this production is "warm, intelligent, clear-eyed, confident and thought-provoking".
Available on iPlayer
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Bridgerton
Claudia Jessie as Eloise Bridgerton and Nicola Coughlan as Penelope Featherington in Bridgerton
This "costume drama for people who don’t like costume dramas" is "unbearably sexy", said The Guardian's Rachel Aroesti. Each season follows the love stories of different members of the Bridgerton family, who exist in "an immaculately constructed dreamland", making this the "pinnacle of comfort TV".
The long-simmering romance between Colin Bridgerton (Luke Newton) and his neighbour Penelope Featherington (Nicola Coughlan) makes the anticipation of "bedroom action" in the latest series nearly "unbearable". It's not all heady nights and heaving bosoms: "stilted, staccato dialogue" can "grate horribly", but the show’s "delights are still blindingly obvious, its flaws possible to overlook."
Available on Netflix
Pride and Prejudice
Jennifer Ehle and Colin Firth in Pride and Prejudice
Thirty years on, there's still "nothing to beat" the 1995 mini-series that "kicked off a generation's Jane Austen obsession" and fuelled the "romantic daydreams of millions", said House & Garden.
As Mark Darcy, Colin Firth unwittingly created an unforgettable TV moment when he emerged from the lake, billowing white shirt soaked in water, and came face to face with a flustered Elizabeth Bennet.
The nearly six-hour runtime leaves "far more room for world building" than other retellings of the same story, "fully sketching in the limited contours of the women’s world", said Vox's Tanya Pai.
Available on iPlayer
The Crown
Olivia Colman, Imelda Staunton and Claire Foy as Queen Elizabeth II through the years
This six-season Netflix show, which tells the story of Queen Elizabeth II's reign "couched in the language and mores of contemporary soap opera", certainly "gave the illusion of authenticity", said Stephen Bates in The Guardian. Yet director Peter Morgan gets "no closer" to the truth behind the "nature of the institution" even if his approach is "a bit more inventive".
There are moments when "scenes whose fusion of intelligence and emotion" match "the high bar Morgan has set for himself", said Mike Hayle in The New York Times. This is seen notably when Prince Philip, played by Jonathan Pryce in season six, explains his grandson William's anger to his son Charles; he manages to perfectly convey the "tangled mix of impatience and regret".
The cast are a highlight. Elizabeth Debicki, as Diana in seasons five and six, was "nearly uncanny in her evocation of the princess's physical affect and charisma".
Available on Netflix
Downton Abbey
Maggie Smith in Downton Abbey
This "posh pantomime" may be "a fantasy vision of a Britain that never really existed" but the study of an aristocratic family over the period 1912–1925 became a "proper international blockbuster", said The Guardian's Richard Vine. It also launched the careers of many, including Michelle Dockery as Lady Mary Crawley and Lily James as Lady Rose Aldridge. But Dame Maggie Smith as Violet Crawley, Dowager Countess of Grantham, was the Downton character with the "most uptown funk".
Everyone in this world, deftly sketched by Julian Fellowes, is "happy with their lot because the people at the top are such bally decent chaps" and it is certainly the "purest Sunday night soap we've had for years".
Available on Netflix
A Thousand Blows
Erin Doherty in A Thousand Blows
A "rollickingly good" drama set in London's East End, said The Times' Carol Midgley, "A Thousand Blows" is a "thieves-and-bare-knuckle-boxing" tale set in the 1880s with "excellent" performances throughout.
From the creator of "Peaky Blinders", Steven Knight, this series is "despite the violence (and there is much), very moreish". Erin Doherty ("Adolescence") is "captivating" as Mary Carr, the head of a female crime syndicate and a kind of "female Fagin but with a feminist creed", showing off her trademark "chameleonic skills".
Be warned, some of the fighting scenes are "quite horrific"; the "cracking of eye sockets and cheekbones is sickening." But the series brings to life "the grime, chaos, danger and cunning but also the sheer energy of the East End".
Available on Disney+
Dickensian
Anton Lesser as Fagin and Bethany Muir as Nancy in Dickensian
"Blessed with some delightful character acting", this 20-episode series is essentially writer Tony Jordan "mashing up minor Dickens characters into an ensemble drama", said The Telegraph's Michael Hogan.
A "modest gem" that is "ingeniously conceived and constructed", with themes of murder, fraud, slavery and snatched babies, it is "far darker than one might imagine" yet with a "lightness of touch". The finale was "pacy" and "rollicking" and left multiple plot lines "dangling", including the onset of Scrooge's haunting and Lady Dedlock's baby. Sadly the show was cancelled after one season.
Available on iPlayer