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 😟

Dickensian was brilliant!

The House of Eliott.
Robin of Sherwood (only the Michael Praed ones.)

The Forsytes has just started on (I think) BBC. First episode was last night. I watched that and enjoyed it (not least because the guy playing Jolyon is easy on the eye). Mind you even if it was crap I’d feel honour bound to watch it because my DH is in it. - as an extra not an actual character.

That's why I want to rewatch it. I thought it was atmospheric but it was hard to watch as it was very dark.

As well as the Hitchcock Rebecca, there's a 70s (I think) TV version with Charles Dance and Diana Rigg as Mrs Dancers.
The recent one with Armie Hammer (gawdhelpus) and Lily James was appalling.

Definitely watch War and Peace. One of my all time favourites. And although I'm not a huge Kiera Knighley fan both Atonement and Anna Karenina were great watches too (films though)
There's also a tv adaptation of East Lynne out there.

Agree with a lot of these. Bleak House, Mayor of Casterbridge and Upstairs Downstairs were all good.

If you want films, A Passage to India and The Wings of the Dove are great films.

Another vote for Vanity Fair.

It's exquisite, isn't it (W&D)? All the little interpersonal relationships are just spot on.

Tom Hollander describing his beloved is one of those quiet scenes which will stay with me forever.

Seeing Penmarric mentioned reminded me of a Horseman Riding By as well.

The Onedin Line was great at the time but I think using Dartmouth for 19th century Liverpool and the Dart as the Amazon goes too far! I liked it when I watched it in the very early Noughties but I think times and mores have moved on and it is more than a bit racist in parts (has white actors blacking up for example). Very well acted and some good lines if you accept it for being of its time.

Tenko
Foyles War
Home Fires
World on Fire
The Cazalets
Vanity Fair

Brideshead Revisited is the best TV programme ever made - just wonderful, and faithful to the book.

The Jewel in the Crown is also excellent.
The acting in I, Claudius us so good that you can ignore the fact that it's all studio-shot.

Obviously, 1995 Pride and Prejudice
Middlemarch
The Camomile Lawn
Little Dorrit, with a very young Clare Foy

That was the 1997 version. The 1979 (and best IMHO) version was with Jeremy Brett and Joanna David.

The Lily James one was dreadful.

Great thread, I am making a list!

The Grand.

Love Mansfield Park - the 1999 film with Frances O'Connor. A dramatic reimagining rather than a faithful adaptation (and all the better for it, otherwise Fanny is unbearable).

Also it has Alessandro Nivola as Henry Crawford. One of the rare occasions I could be tempted to run off with an Austen wrong 'un! (See also: Matthew Goode as Wickham in Death Comes To Pemberley.)

@TressiliansStone yes agree W&D lovely. The love between some of the characters has always stuck with me too - Mollie’s devotion to her father, her father’s affection for her, the fondness the squire has for Roger, the way the squire’s wife is devoted to him etc. And of course there’s all the painful relationships too, but all very well done. I’m tempted to make a cuppa and stick the DVD on now!

Fanny is unbearable

We had Mansfield Park for A Level. None of us could bear Fanny, thought she was a total drip. We didn't think much of Edmund either.

DVD from eBay

North and South is just sublime ❤️

Can you tell me if the Trollope adaptions are still available please? I’m not having much luck.

Ooh, just remembered To Serve Them All My Days. Based on a wonderful RF Delderfield book and it made me fall in love with John Duttine.

Ooh, just remembered To Serve Them All My Days. Based on a wonderful RF Delderfield book

Oh yes that was brilliant - as were most tv adaptations of books in the past. They stuck (mostly) to the book, instead of what the adapter thought the author should have written or meant to write; the characters looked like they were supposed to; the actors were cast for their ability, not their looks, and spoke properly instead of mumbling; and they were not filmed in semi-darkness.

There were several RF Delderfield adaptations - A Horseman Riding By was another (Nigel Havers), but I liked TSTAMD better.

These are great suggestions.

The Amanda Root Persuasion is the best Austen adaptation ever. Though the Jennifer Ehle Colin Firth P&P is a close second. And the original Brideshead adaptation with Jeremy Irons is way better than the more recent one.

Other ones I remember being good are BBC (I think) adaptations of Tale of Two Cities, Martin Chuzzlewit, Vanity Fair, The Way We Live Now, Little Dorrit and the gorgeous Cranford with Judi Dench.

It always mystified me why they chose Austen's only boring novel as an A level text. Fanny is so dreary and judgemental. Every other Austen novel is funny and moving and has a heroine who you care about.

David Suchet in The Way We Live Now was utterly brilliant. And it has a young Matthew McFadyen in it too if you like that sort of thing.