Classic Period Dramas

[MonsteraAddict]

I'm going through a bit of a phase of watching period dramas - ideally book adaptations...
I love Dickens, Hardy - a bit of Austen.
What are you favourites?

I have loved The Mayor of Casterbridge, Little Dorrit, Great Expectations etc
I wondered if you had any more classic drama adaptations to suggest? I've been looking for the old Tom Jones but it's only paid for on Prime 😟

Our mutual friend was good.

The ITV adaptation of Brideshead Revisited with Jeremy Irons and Anthony Andrews is just perfect. There's a BBC adaptation of Persuasion with Ciaran Hinds and Amanda Root which is wonderful. The BBC adaptation of North and South with Richard Armitage. The BBC adaptation of Clarissa with Sean Bean and Saskia Wickham. I'm not often a fan of classic novel adaptations but I love these ones.

Oh and I really enjoyed the BBC's Cranford. Especially the bit with the cat.

The BBC versions of Bleak House and Little Dorritt (with Claire Foy) and wonderful. I also really like the 2002 version of The Forsyte Saga 9the less said about the new version the better).

And even though it's not exactly faithful to the novel, I do enjoy the old film version of Jane Eyre with Orson Welles and Joan Fontaine. Ditto the David Lean versions of Oliver Twist and Great Expectations. And, of course, the Alfred Hitchcock version of Rebecca.

Yes to all the Gaskell, and here's another: the 1999 BBC adaptation of Wives & Daughters.

2016 adaptation of Trollope's Doctor Thorne is also very well done with a fabulous cast.

The whole Palliser series - about 24 episodes, perfect for long winter nights! Adaptation of all 6 of Trollope’s novels, Susan Hampshire in a starring role. The first episode is a bit slow to start, but the series has everything - an heiress more or less forced into a marriage she doesn’t want, a scheming little gold digger helping herself to a £10k (then!) diamond necklace, and among others, politics and a murder thrown in.

All 6 novels could stand alone, each had its own plot. But a good many of the characters run through the entire series.

Would Upstairs Downstairs suit? It’s available on ITVX.

Bbc adaptation of Sense and Sensibility or Emma

Another vote for The Pallisers here. Wonderful series. Also the original 1960s version of the Forsyte Saga with Nyree Dawn Porter as Irenie and Eric Porter as Soames. It was filmed in black and white and the costumes and settings are far more correct than in later versions. Its available on U Tube.

I liked Cranford as well

Lark Rise to Candleford

Middlemarch

The House of Elliott

There's a list here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/genres/drama/classicandperiod/all

The 1995 Persuasion with Ciaran Hinds and Amanda Root is on youtube. Love it.

I also love the Gwyneth Paltrow film version of Emma from about 1996 but I think I'm in the minority there

Yes, BBC Middlemarch with Juliet Aubrey and Rufus Sewell was great.

BBC Trollope and Dickens adaptations always used to be good. Martin Chuzzlewit had an excellent cast. Forget now whether it was The Warden or Barchester Towers (or both) but that was also very well done.

More recently, the BBC did a Christmas adaptation of And Then There Were None, which I thought was terrific. Most of the other recent Agatha Christie adaptations have been disappointing and have strayed too far from the original. We watched the repeats of the Joan Hickson Miss Marple adaptations recently on BBC4, possibly still available on iplayer. Some stood up better than others but Joan Hickson herself was always marvellous.

Flambards
mayor of casterbridge

Just finished watching Penmarric from 1979 - found it in a charity shop for £2 and worth every penny!

I, Claudius.
Bleak House with Anna Maxwell Martin
are my top two

It's a film, but I watched A Room With a View yesterday. Lovely film.

Cranford is my favourite. I even have it on DVD!

I, Claudius is the best ever, followed by Barchester Chronicles with Alan Rickman stealing every scene as Obadiah Slope. Of the Dickenses Bleak House is my favourite and I also loved Our Mutual Friend and Little Dorrit. Cranford, Middlemarch and North and South all wonderful and I enjoyed The Way We Live Now with David Suchet as the villain and Matthew McFadyen as an excellent cad.

Where did you watch flambards?

Tenant of Wildfell Hall is good.

I now buy DVDs again as so often series are on for a while then disappear. They're usually 20p each at charity shops.

My DD loves the Catherine Cookson TV series.

Anne of Green Gables! 🥰😍

Bit more recent (the 90s but set during the war and in the 80s) I think - I recently enjoyed the Camomile Lawn