Period (Historic) Romance Films and TV
Well done period films or TV series.
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- StarsDaniela Denby-AsheRichard ArmitageTim Pigott-SmithNorth 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.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 adjust itself to the industrial town's customs, especially after meeting the Thorntons, a proud family of cotton mill owners who seem to despise their social inferiors. The story explores the issues of class and gender, as Margaret's sympathy for the town mill workers clashes with her growing attraction to John Thornton (Richard Armitage).
- CreatorBill GallagherStarsOlivia HallinanSarah LancashireJulia SawalhaAn adaptation of Flora Thompson's autobiographical novel "Lark Rise To Candleford", set in 19 century Oxfordshire, in which a young girl moves to the local market town to begin an apprenticeship as a postmistress.The series is set in the small Oxfordshire hamlet of Lark Rise and the wealthier neighbouring market town of Candleford towards the end of the 19th century. The story is seen through the eyes of a teenage girl, Laura Timmins (Olivia Hallinan), as she leaves Lark Rise to start a new life under the wing of her mother's cousin, the independent and effervescent Dorcas Lane (Julia Sawalha), who is Post Mistress at the local Post Office in Candleford. Through these two characters, viewers experience the force of friendship as Laura and Dorcas see each other through the best and worst of times.
- CreatorSue BirtwistleSusie ConklinStarsJudi DenchImelda StauntonJulia McKenzieIn 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.The story focuses primarily on the town's single and widowed middle class female inhabitants who are comfortable with their traditional way of life and place great store in propriety and maintaining an appearance of gentility.
- 2007–20091h 29mTV-148.2 (423)TV EpisodeDirectorSimon CurtisStarsJudi DenchClaudie BlakleyJulia McKenzieIt's August 1844 and Miss Matty knows only too well that faces will always come and go in Cranford, but for now she is happy that her dear brother, Peter is home from India and that Martha, Jem and baby Tilly make for a lively household. Lady Ludlow is awaiting the return of her son, Septimus, and young Harry Gregson is about to start his education at Shrewsbury, benefiting from the moral support of Miss Galindo. Then there's news that wealthy widower, Mr Buxton has returned to live in Cranford, bringing with him his charming ward, Erminia and his handsome Eton-educated son, William. Whilst at nearby Thorn Cottage, Peggy Bell tries to make the best of things caring for her mother and brother Edward. Elsewhere, the world continues to change, but for now the railway has stopped five miles outside Cranford in spite of the efforts of Captain Brown. All too soon life in Cranford will change in some very unexpected ways.Sequel to Cranford.
- StarsColin FirthJennifer EhleSusannah HarkerWhile the arrival of wealthy gentlemen sends her marriage-minded mother into a frenzy, willful and opinionated Elizabeth Bennet matches wits with haughty Mr. Darcy.Jane Austen's masterpiece.
- DirectorAdrian ShergoldStarsSally HawkinsAlice KrigeAnthony HeadAnne 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?Another of Austen's works.
- DirectorAng LeeStarsEmma ThompsonKate WinsletJames FleetRich Mr. Dashwood dies, leaving his second wife and her three daughters poor by the rules of inheritance. The two eldest daughters are the title opposites.Another of Austen's works.
- StarsRomola GaraiMichael GambonJonny Lee MillerEmma Woodhouse, 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 lifeAnother of Austen's works. Basically, everything by Jane Austen is a favorite of mine.
- DirectorClive DonnerStarsAnthony AndrewsJane SeymourIan McKellenParis, 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.One of my favorite movies and books, this is set during the Reign of Terror following the start of the French Revolution. The feel of this film is different from the one's above with a mood of secrecy and thrilling adventure.
- StarsZelah ClarkeTimothy DaltonCarol GilliesA young governess falls in love with her mysterious employer, but a terrible secret puts their happiness at risk.A classic. This story revolves around a young orphan girl.
- CreatorPatricia GreenStarsKellie MartinStewart Finlay-McLennanTyne DalyChristy tells the story of an idealistic nineteen year old who leaves the comforts of her city home to teach school in the impoverished Appalachian community of Cutter Gap, Tennessee in 1912.American period drama series which aired on CBS. Christy Huddleston, a new teacher arriving to the fictional Appalachian village of Cutter Gap, Tennessee, in 1912. The villagers have old-fashioned ways. For example, they maintain rules and vengeances similar to the Highland clans of old Scotland. They also have a strong belief in folk medicine. At the same time many of their ways are portrayed in an idealized fashion as well.
- CreatorJulian FellowesStarsHugh BonnevillePhyllis LoganElizabeth McGovernA chronicle of the lives of the British aristocratic Crawley family and their servants in the early twentieth century.The series, set in the fictional Yorkshire country estate of Downton Abbey between 1912 and 1925, depicts the lives of the aristocratic Crawley family and their domestic servants in the post-Edwardian era—with the great events in history having an effect on their lives and on the British social hierarchy.
- DirectorMervyn LeRoyStarsJune AllysonPeter LawfordMargaret O'BrienThe four daughters of a New England family fight for happiness during and after the Civil War.In the small town of Concord, Massachusetts, during the Civil War, the March sisters — Meg (Janet Leigh), Jo (June Allyson), Amy (Elizabeth Taylor), and Beth (Margaret O'Brien) — live with their mother in a state of genteel poverty, their father having lost the family's fortune to an unscrupulous businessman several years earlier.
- StarsMegan FollowsColleen DewhurstRichard FarnsworthAn orphan girl, sent to an elderly brother and sister by mistake, charms her new home and community with her fiery spirit and imagination.Canadian television mini-series drama film based on the novel of the same name by Canadian author Lucy Maud Montgomery
- StarsMegan FollowsColleen DewhurstMarilyn LightstoneAnne Shirley accepts a teaching position at a girls boarding school in a town dominated by a rich and belligerant family determined to make her life miserable.It is a sequel to the 1985 Anne of Green Gables miniseries.
- DirectorAgnieszka HollandStarsKate MaberlyMaggie SmithHeydon ProwseA young, recently-orphaned girl is sent to England after living in India all of her life. Once there, she begins to explore her new, seemingly-isolated surroundings, and its secrets.Mary Lennox is a troubled, sickly, and unloved 10-year-old girl born in India to selfish, wealthy British parents. Eventually her parents die, leaving Mary in the care of Archibald Craven, an uncle she has never met, at his home called Misselthwaite Manor. At first, Mary is her usual self, sour and rude, disliking her uncle's large house, the people within it, and, most of all, the vast stretch of moor, which seems scrubby and grey after the winter. She is told that she must stay confined to her two rooms and keep herself amused without much attention. Martha Sowerby, a good-natured maid, tells Mary a story of the late Mrs. Craven and how she would spend hours in a private walled garden growing roses.
- StarsAnna Maxwell MartinCarey MulliganDenis LawsonA suspenseful tale about the injustices of the 19th Century English legal system.The longstanding estate battle of Jarndyce v Jarndyce hangs over the heads of many conflicting heirs, confused by multiple wills. Possible beneficiary John Jarndyce of Bleak House welcomes orphaned cousins Ada Clare and Richard Carstone — also potential heirs — as his wards.
- DirectorOliver ParkerStarsRupert EverettJulianne MoorePeter VaughanLondon 1895: Cabinet minister, Sir Chiltern, and bachelor, Lord Goring, are victims of scheming women.Sir Robert Chiltern is a successful Government minister, well-off and with a loving wife. All this is threatened when Mrs. Cheveley appears in London with damning evidence of a past misdeed. Sir Robert turns for help to his friend Lord Goring, an apparently idle philanderer and the despair of his father. Goring knows the lady of old and the plot to help his friend has unintended consequences.
- DirectorBobby RothStarsCari ShayneBrigitta DauPaul Anthony StewartA 19th-century woman, companion to a blue-blooded New England girl, falls for an aristocrat.Those who like period pieces will very much enjoy this made for television movie, which is loosely based upon Louisa May Alcott's novella of the same name.
- StarsDouglas HodgeJuliet AubreyTrevyn McDowellMiddlemarch is a story of provincial life on the brink of momentous change and a deeply moving saga about a group of people striving to give meaning and value to their lives during the Industrial Revolution.In this version of the novel, Dorothea Brooke (Juliet Aubrey) attempts to satisfy her underdeveloped intellect through marriage to the Reverend Edward Casaubon (Patrick Malahide), a man twice her age. The marriage proves unsatisfying and ends with Casaubon's unexpected death. Dorothea eventually meets Will Ladislaw (Rufus Sewell), an event which leads to further complications.
- DirectorMichael Landon Jr.StarsKatherine HeiglDale MidkiffCorbin BernsenA young woman on her way to a new life in the 1800's suddenly finds herself a widow. Now she must live with a recently widowed young man and his daughter. Can any of them find love again?Marty Claridge (Katherine Heigl) has just moved out to the West with her husband Aaron Claridge (Oliver Macready), who dies in a riding accident shortly after. Expecting her late husband's baby, Marty has nowhere to go and needs a place to stay through the winter. Desperate, she accepts the proposal offered by widower (Dale Midkiff) Clark.
- DirectorVictor FlemingGeorge CukorSam WoodStarsClark GableVivien LeighThomas MitchellA sheltered and manipulative Southern belle and a roguish profiteer face off in a turbulent romance as the society around them crumbles with the end of slavery and is rebuilt during the Civil War and Reconstruction periods.On the eve of the American Civil War in 1861, Scarlett O'Hara lives at Tara, her family's cotton plantation in Georgia, with her parents and two sisters. Scarlett learns that Ashley Wilkes—whom she secretly loves—is to be married to his cousin, Melanie Hamilton, and the engagement is to be announced the next day at a barbecue at Ashley's home, the nearby plantation Twelve Oaks.
- DirectorMike BarkerStarsHelen HuntScarlett JohanssonTom WilkinsonA 1930s American socialite creates a scandal in the expatriate high society of the Amalfi Coast of Italy when she forms a secretive relationship with a wealthy American unbeknownst to his young wife.Set in 1930, the film opens in New York City, where femme fatale Mrs. Erlynne finds that she is no longer welcomed by either the high-ranking men she has seduced or the society wives she has betrayed.
- StarsFrancesca AnnisJustine WaddellBill PatersonThe 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.It focuses on Molly Gibson (Justine Waddell), the daughter of the town doctor, and the changes that occur in her life after her widowed father chooses to remarry.
- StarsDavid SuchetMatthew MacfadyenCillian MurphyAugustus Melmotte is a European-born city financier whose background is as mysterious as his business. Only weeks after his arrival in London, he announced a new venture and promises instant fortune.Augustus Melmotte is a foreign financier with a mysterious past. When he and his family move to London, the city's upper crust begins buzzing with rumours about him and a host of characters find their lives changed because of him.
- DirectorNicholas LaughlandStarsKeeley HawesJames MurrayTerry MortimerIn this lighthearted romance from Victorian novelist Thomas Hardy, the beautiful new village school teacher is pursued by three suitors: a working-class man, a landowner, and the vicar.The plot concerns the activities of a group of church musicians, the Mellstock parish choir, one of whom, Dick Dewy, becomes romantically entangled with a comely new school mistress, Fancy Day.
- DirectorJames CameronStarsLeonardo DiCaprioKate WinsletBilly ZaneA seventeen-year-old aristocrat falls in love with a kind but poor artist aboard the luxurious, ill-fated R.M.S. Titanic.In 1996, treasure hunter Brock Lovett and his team aboard the research vessel Akademik Mstislav Keldysh search the wreck of RMS Titanic for a necklace with a rare diamond, the Heart of the Ocean. They recover a safe containing a drawing of a young woman wearing only the necklace dated April 14, 1912, the day the ship struck the iceberg.[Note 1] Rose Dawson Calvert, the woman in the drawing, is brought aboard Keldysh and tells Lovett of her experiences aboard Titanic.
- DirectorShekhar KapurStarsCate BlanchettLiz GilesRod CulbertsonThe early years of the reign of Elizabeth I of England and her difficult task of learning what is necessary to be a monarch.In 1558, Queen Mary (Kathy Burke), the Catholic daughter of King Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon, dies of a cancerous tumour in her uterus. Mary's Protestant half-sister, Elizabeth (Cate Blanchett), whom Henry fathered with Anne Boleyn, becomes Queen of England.
- DirectorJean-Marc ValléeStarsEmily BluntRupert FriendPaul BettanyA dramatization of the turbulent first years of Queen Victoria's rule, and her enduring romance with Prince Albert.Princess Victoria of Kent is the heiress presumptive to the throne during the last years of the reign of her uncle King William IV and is subject to a political tug of war for influence over her. On the one side is her mother, the Duchess of Kent, along with the comptroller of the Duchess's household, Sir John Conroy, who tries to force Victoria to sign papers declaring a regency and giving him and her mother power.
- DirectorBrent ShieldsStarsKeri RussellSkeet UlrichMare WinninghamPregnant out of wedlock, an educated young woman is pressured by her father into an arranged marriage with a lonely farmer in this drama set during WWII.Olivia Dunne (Keri Russell) is a young woman of Denver who has become pregnant by a naval flight instructor on furlough during the war. Embarrassed by his daughter's out of wedlock pregnancy, her father decides to deal with the issue by quietly arranging her to marry.
- StarsToby StephensTara FitzgeraldRupert GravesAn adaptation of Anne Bronte's novel; a young widow takes her son and moves to Yorkshire.A mysterious young woman arrives at Wildfell Hall, an old mansion of Elizabethan era with a young son. She determines to lead an independent existence, but her new neighbours don't want to let her alone. Only one of them, a young farmer, Gilbert Markham, succeeded in revealing her secrets.
- StarsGemma ArtertonEddie RedmayneRuth JonesThe story of Tess Durbeyfield, a low-born country girl whose family find they have noble connections.Tess is the innocent but spirited protagonist of the story and the eldest daughter of a poor, rural Victorian family. She is sensitive, loyal and kind and tries to do the best for her loved ones. A "fine and handsome girl", Tess easily attracts the attention of admirers but her life is tragically undone by their misdeeds and misjudgements.
- DirectorTrevor NunnStarsHelena Bonham CarterCary ElwesJohn WoodThe story of Lady Jane Grey, who was Queen of England for only nine days.The death of King Henry VIII of England throws his kingdom into chaos as his heir, Edward VI, is both under-age and in poor health. Anticipating the young king's imminent death from consumption and anxious to keep England true to the Reformation by keeping the Catholic Mary from the throne, John Dudley, Lord President of the Council and second only to the king in power, hatches a plan to marry his son, Lord Guildford, to Lady Jane Grey, and have the royal physician keep the young king Edward VI alive—albeit in excruciating pain—long enough to get him to name Jane his heir.
- DirectorKari SkoglandStarsVanessa WilliamsGil BellowsKaren WilliamsIn 19th century New Orleans creole Henriette must choose between love and devotion to the church. Neither choice is going to be easy, as there is great opposition to her ideas of breaking traditions.Henriette Delille, a free woman of color, was born in 1813 into one of New Orleans' most prominent families. Her family assumed she would follow her mother and sister's path and become a mistress for a wealthy white man. However, Henriette had different plans for her life.
- DirectorJohn HoughStarsDiana RiggEdward FoxHelena Bonham CarterWhen compulsive gambler Sir Giles Staverley (Christopher Plummer) has lost his estate and all of his money playing dice, he realizes that he only has one thing left of value: his daughter Serena (Helena Bonham Carter). In a final game, he stakes his daughter's hand in marriage, convinced that this time he will not lose. Unfortunately, however, he does lose; to the evil Lord Harry Wrotham (Edward Fox). Unable to return home and tell his daughter that he has lost her in a game of dice, Sir Giles kills himself there and then. Lord Justin Vulcan (Marcus Gilbert), who has witnessed the events, takes pity on Serena Staverley, although they have never met. He challenges Lord Harry Wrotham to a game of dice in which the winner takes Staverley Court and Miss Serena. Lord Justin Vulcan wins and is simply pleased that he has saved someone from the nasty Wrotham, he thinks no more about the event. One evening, however, Vulcan's friend Lord Peter Gillingham (Robert Addie) insists upon them going to Staverley Court to take a look at Vulcan's "prize". When arriving there, Vulcan finds Serena Staverley more beautiful than he ever imagined.Compulsive gambler, Sir Giles Staverley, is tricked into gambling away his home by his old adversary Lord Harry Wrotham. As Staverley is distraught and desperate, Wrotham gives him one last chance - he will gamble everything Staverley has lost against Staverley's daughter's hand in marriage and her trust fund of 80,000 guineas. Staverley agrees and loses once again, but unable to face his daughter, Serena, he kills himself. Lord Justin Vulcan, a notoriously cool, clear-headed gambler, challenges Wrotham for the house and the girl and, much to Wrotham's disgust, wins. Justin now finds himself in possession of the house and Serena, but has no idea of what to do with them.
- StarsCarla GuginoAlison ElliottMira SorvinoFour American girls go to England to find husbands.The story revolves around five wealthy and ambitious American girls, their guardians and the titled, landed but impoverished Englishmen who marry them as the girls participate in the London Season. The plot follows Nan and her marriage to the Duke of Tintagel.
- DirectorJames IvoryStarsMaggie SmithHelena Bonham CarterDenholm ElliottLucy Honeychurch (Helena Bonham Carter) shares a brief romance with George Emerson in Florence. Yet as she tries to move on with her life and look for marriage elsewhere, can she truly forget the events of that summer?Miss Lucy Honeychurch is from an English village in Surrey and is on holiday in Italy with her much older cousin and chaperone, Charlotte Bartlett.
- DirectorOliver ParkerStarsRupert EverettColin FirthFrances O'ConnorIn 1890s London, two friends use the same pseudonym ("Ernest") for their on-the-sly activities. Hilarity ensues.It is a farcical comedy in which the protagonists maintain fictitious personæ to escape burdensome social obligations.
- StarsMatthew RhysAnna Maxwell MartinMatthew GoodeElizabeth and Darcy, now six years married, are preparing for their annual ball when festivities are brought to an abrupt halt. An adaptation of PD James's homage to Pride and Prejudice.It is October, 1803, six years after the events in Pride and Prejudice which resulted in the marriage of Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy and Miss Elizabeth Bennet. One evening, on their way to Pemberley for a ball, an argument breaks out between George Wickham and Captain Denny in the carriage.
- DirectorAmma AsanteStarsGugu Mbatha-RawMatthew GoodeEmily WatsonThe biracial daughter, Dido Elizabeth Belle (Gugu Mbatha-Raw), of Royal Navy Captain Sir John Lindsay (Matthew Goode) is raised by aristocratic Great-uncle Lord William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield (Tom Wilkinson) in 18th century England.After the death of Dido's mother, Captain Lindsay takes Dido from the slums of the West Indies in 1765 and entrusts her to his uncle William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield, the Lord Chief Justice, and his wife, Elizabeth, who live at Kenwood House.
- CreatorDebbie HorsfieldStarsAidan TurnerEleanor TomlinsonJack FarthingRoss Poldark returns home after the American Revolutionary War and rebuilds his life with a new business venture, making new enemies and finding a new love where he least expects it.In the late 18th century, Ross Poldark returns to his Cornish tin mines after spending three years in the army to avoid charges of smuggling, leaving behind his sweetheart, Elizabeth. On his return, having fought in the American War of Independence, he finds his father dead, his estate in ruins, and Elizabeth engaged to his cousin Francis. He rescues a young woman, Demelza, from a beating, and takes her on as a kitchen maid and attempts to gain control of the mines sought after by a rival, the greedy and arrogant George Warleggan.
- DirectorJane CampionStarsHolly HunterHarvey KeitelSam NeillIn the mid-19th century a mute woman is sent to New Zealand along with her young daughter and prized piano for an arranged marriage to a farmer, but is soon lusted after by a farm worker.New Zealand drama film about a mute piano player and her daughter. Set during the mid-19th century in a rainy, muddy frontier backwater town on the west coast of New Zealand, it revolves around the piano player's passion for playing the piano and her efforts to regain her piano after it is sold.
- DirectorJames IvoryStarsAnthony HopkinsEmma ThompsonJohn HaycraftA butler who sacrificed body and soul to service in the years leading up to World War II realizes too late how misguided his loyalty was to his lordly employer.In 1950s post-war Britain, Mr. Stevens, the butler of Darlington Hall, receives a letter from Miss Kenton, a recently divorced former co-worker employed as the housekeeper some twenty years earlier. Lord Darlington has died a broken man, his reputation destroyed after he had been denounced as a Nazi-sympathiser in the Daily Mail, and his stately country manor has been sold to a retired American Congressman, Mr. Lewis.
- DirectorJames IvoryStarsAnthony HopkinsEmma ThompsonVanessa RedgraveSet in the early 20th century, class distinctions and troubled relations affect the relationship between two families and the ownership of a cherished British estate known as Howards End.The story takes place in Edwardian England and concerns three families who represent three social classes: the Wilcoxes are wealthy capitalists, the class that is displacing the aristocracy; the Schlegel sisters standing for the enlightened bourgeoisie; and the Basts, a young couple down on their luck, who may be traced to the lower middle class. (Forster is clear that the novel is "not concerned with the very poor".) The film asks the question "Who will inherit England?" and answers it through the ownership of the house, Howards End, as it passes from person to person.
- DirectorPaul A. KaufmanStarsJoanne WhalleySean Patrick FlaneryCotter SmithThe Story of a North Carolina woman and her daughter who take in a mysterious drifter to work their farm while the woman's husband is missing in action during WWII.
- DirectorGlenn JordanStarsGlenn CloseChristopher WalkenLexi RandallA single New England woman responds to an advertisement by a Midwestern widower in which he asks for a bride to help him raise his two children.
- DirectorBharat NalluriStarsFrances McDormandAmy AdamsCiarán HindsGuinevere Pettigrew, a middle-aged London governess, finds herself unfairly dismissed from her job. An attempt to gain new employment catapults her into the glamorous world and dizzying social whirl of an American actress and singer, Delysia Lafosse.
- DirectorGreta GerwigStarsSaoirse RonanEmma WatsonFlorence PughJo March reflects back and forth on her life, telling the beloved story of the March sisters - four young women, each determined to live life on her own terms.