period drama tv to watch

Christmas 1954. Wealthy philanthropist Rachel Argyll is murdered at her family estate Sunny Point. Her adopted son Jack Argyll is arrested for her murder. He vehemently protests his innocence.

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.

Ex-convict Jean Valjean's pursuit of redemption and peace clashes with Javert's rigid enforcement of law. Their conflict impacts lives, including Fantine's daughter Cosette, against the backdrop of 19th-century France.

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.

Drama set within the fictional realms of Charles Dickens critically acclaimed novels, bringing together some of his most iconic characters as their lives intertwine in 19th century London.

A look at the lives of residents living in a Delhi mansion at the cusp of the 19th Century.

Becky Sharp's journey from obscurity to high society and subsequent fall is depicted against the backdrop of Regency England and the Napoleonic Wars.

Ten strangers are invited to an isolated island. But as the mismatched group waits for the arrival of the hosts the weather sours and they find themselves cut off from civilization. Very soon, the guests will start to die one by one.

Edmond Dantes is unjustly sent to prison for 18 years. He escapes to reclaim his fiancée Mercedes and revenge against his nemesis, Mondego.

A series of stories starring Sean Bean as Richard Sharpe, a fictional British soldier in the Napoleonic Wars as he fights both Napoleon's forces and the strong prejudice of British aristocracy.

In 1812, young British aristocrat Edmund Talbot travels by ship to Australia, and learns more about himself and about life than he had ever bargained for.

Jack Stiles, American spy stationed on a South Pacific island in the early 19th century, teams up with no nonsense British agent Emilia Rothschild to stop Napoleon's colonizing efforts. Jack's alter ego is the Zorro-esque Daring Dragoon.

Napoleon's tumultuous relations with Russia including his disastrous 1812 invasion serve as the backdrop for the tangled personal lives of five aristocratic Russian families.

The story of five aristocratic families in Russia during the Napoleonic Wars of 1812

After her father's mysterious death, a young woman returns to her home in California, where she becomes a symbol, the Queen of Swords, fighting for justice and trying to right the wrongs the colonel has done.

Epic story about the romance between the most powerful man in the world and the woman who conquered his heart.

A masterful soldier, tactician, and statesmen, Napoleon Bonaparte, with courage and love for his country, rises from an unpaid general consumed with ambition to the most powerful man in Europe. But his life ends with a fall and exile.

The story of a young woman who works in a department store and gets caught up in the charms of the modern world.

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.

Set in 1870s London, a young prostitute finds potential power and status after becoming the mistress of a powerful patriarch.

A political family drama set in Florence in the early fifteenth century. Cosimo de Medici finds himself at the helm of his banking dynasty when his father, Giovanni, dies suddenly.

A young woman moves in with her aunt and uncle and soon discovers unsavory happenings in her new home.

Set in Victorian London, Gwendolen Harleth is drawn to Daniel Deronda, a selfless and intelligent gentleman of unknown parentage, but her own desperate need for financial security may destroy her chance at happiness.

Penniless Mary Thorne grows up with her uncle, Doctor Thorne, and develops a friendship with the family at the nearby Greshamsbury Park estate.