Period Movies

In the 1840s, Cranford is ruled by the ladies. They adore good gossip, and romance and change is in the air, as the unwelcome grasp of the Industrial Revolution rapidly approaches their beloved rural market-town.

North and South is a four-part adaptation of Elizabeth Gaskell's love story of Margaret Hale, a middle-class southerner who is forced to move to the northern town of Milton.

The daughter of a country doctor copes with an unwanted stepmother, an impetuous stepsister, burdensome secrets, the town gossips, and the tug on her own heartstrings for a man who thinks of her only as a friend.

While the arrival of wealthy gentlemen sends her marriage-minded mother into a frenzy, willful and opinionated Elizabeth Bennet matches wits with haughty Mr. Darcy.

When Elizabeth Bennet meets the handsome Mr. Darcy, she believes he is the last man she could ever marry, but as their lives become intertwined, she finds herself captivated by the man she has sworn to hate forever.

The arrival of wealthy bachelors in town causes an uproar when families with single daughters aggressively seek engagements, including the Bennet family, with five eligible daughters.

Rich Mr. Dashwood dies, leaving his second wife and her three daughters poor by the rules of inheritance. The older two daughters are the title opposites.

While matchmaking for friends and neighbours, a young 19th Century Englishwoman nearly misses her own chance at love.

Emma Woodhouse is a wealthy young woman living in the early 19th century, whose misplaced confidence in her matchmaking abilities occasions several romantic misadventures, which leads her into deeper meanings of love and life.

Faithful, enchanting adaptation of Jane Austen's 19th-century tale of Emma Woodhouse, a clever young woman whose mischievous matchmaking schemes nearly end up jeopardizing her own shot at romance.

Anne Elliot is convinced to break off her engagement to Frederick Wentworth. When her father rents the family estate to Admiral Croft, Anne is forced to accompany Frederick. Will he and Anne rekindle the old flame?

Anne was in love with Frederick, who was rejected by her snobby parents 8 years ago. They've now hit hard times and rent out their mansion to his brother-in-law. He returns a Royal Navy captain. Will he remember Anne?

Theatrical film of "Persuasion" with Ciaran Hinds and Amanda Root. Directed by Roger Michell.

A young governess falls in love with her mysterious employer, but a terrible secret puts their happiness at risk.

A mousy governess who softens the heart of her employer soon discovers that he's hiding a terrible secret.

After a harsh childhood, orphan Jane Eyre is hired by Edward Rochester, the brooding lord of a mysterious manor house, to care for his young daughter.

Intertwining tales of love, greed, and secret identities in Charles Dickens's 1860s London.

A suspenseful tale about the injustices of the 19th Century English legal system.

A humble orphan suddenly becomes a gentleman with the help of an unknown benefactor.

The Dorrits are a family whose life revolves around the Marshalsea, a debtor's prison. Amy Dorrit's kind nature brings the family into contact with a wide swath of English society, from the poorest to the richest, and back again.

A humble orphan boy in 1810s Kent is given the opportunity to go to London and become a gentleman, with the help of an unknown benefactor.

An elderly miser learns the error of his ways on Christmas Eve.

Beginning with the forced marriage of Glencora (Susan Hampshire), the lives of the friends and children of this couple are the subject of study. The backdrop is the House of Commons in England as we watch the comings and goings and loves and tragedies of the powerful and not-so-powerful.

Paris, 1792: After France becomes a republic, aristocrats are guillotined. The English Sir Percy tries to save as many as he can as The Scarlet Pimpernel in disguises.

A noblewoman discovers her husband is The Scarlet Pimpernel, a vigilante who rescues aristocrats from the blade of the guillotine.