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 😟

Was going to suggest this. Did it for A Level English, and really enjoyed it. I moved schools (and country) half way through first A Level year and the English teacher suggested I watch this in lieu of reading the book to catch up.

...although the movie is great too, not least for the costumes.

The best one for costumes is Emma.

Dd and l watch it all the time. We become so obsessed with the clothes we’re still not fully sure of the story.

Just watching the first episode of To Serve Them All My Days on YouTube. Noticeable that viewers were expected to have much longer attention spans back then - no jumping around from one scene to another. And I think I might have spotted a young Nicholas Lyndhurst among the schoolboys.

Another excellent school story adaptation was Goodbye Mr Chips with Martin Clunes.

The struggle is real! Haven't seen Emma since the Gwyneth Paltrow version was on at the cinema though.

This one’s got Anya Taylor Joy in it.

The costumes are off the scale.

So much this. I just watched the first episodes of The Forsytes and it's given me the rage. They've made Irene a dancer (what?) and put in major characters that aren't in the book.
Debbie Horsfield (see also her Poldark travesty) seems to think that adaptation means riding roughshod over the (Nobel prize winning) novels.

The Forsyte novels were pure... gossip? Chit-chat? Like reading a soap opera in book form.Very readable but hardly literature with a capital L.

Oh, yes - it’s the only Austen I have never re-read.

In case nobody else has mentioned it, The Way We Live Now, TV adaptation of what is often considered Trollope’s masterpiece. John Suchet is utterly brilliant as the anti-hero Melmotte, ditto Shirley Henderson as his daughter.

Fans of Persuasion, do any of the tv versions include the scene where Wentworth removes the little boy when he is climbing all over Anne? Its such a small act, but it is still quite chivalrous somehow, I love that scene in the book.

I think the Cieron Hinds version does, but I've read the book and seen the film so many times they blend a little. It is a really lovely scene.

I know what you mean and that scene isn't in the Ciaran Hinds one unless there is an extended version I havent seen. It is otherwise so nearly faithful in all those little moments. It does include his asking his sister to take Anne home in her carriage from the walk as an early sign of his concern for her despite his best attempts to remain indifferent.

It is overall extremely faithful, bar an out of place kissing scene, and changing the motives and backstory of Mr Elliot in pursuing Anne- for reasons of brevity I assume, but it made him seem less definitely villainous.

Almost perfect version otherwise. Amanda Root is Anne.

Amanda Root is amazing. She's fantastic in the 2002 Forsyte Saga too. Such an underrated and under used actress.

Cranford, Bleak House, Lark Rise to Candleford

Thank you EVERYONE. I have a wonderful list - some are still available on one streaming platform or another.
Currently watching David Copperfield. It's excellent!

Yes yes. If I see Amanda Root in a cast list I'll give the film/series a go just for her.

I avoided that reboot of the Forstye saga but never realised she was in it. I will definitely give it a try!

I loved Dickensian on the BBC - an interweaving of several novels.

She plays Soames sister Winifred and makes a wonderful double act with Ben Miles. The new one is so awful it makes me want to go back and watch it again.

She plays Soames sister Winifred...

Winifred was played by Margaret Tyzack in the original, wasn't she. MT was of the same generation as Dames Maggie, Eileen and Judi, but never achieved a DBE herself.

I've been watching more of To Serve Them All My Days on YouTube. Not only were viewers expected to have a longer attention span than a goldfish, they were also expected to be literate! Characters talk about poets and quote poetry!

My problem is where to find a lot of these - @Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g and @leporello I'm desperate to watch Barchester Chronicles with Alan Rickman having just read the book but I can't find it streaming anywhere!

Usually I have good luck on Justwatch.com to find where things are streaming but a lot of these period dramas are hard to find.

The Barchester Chronicles are on DailyMotion it seems. NB I haven't watched them but the videos seem prima facie right.
www.dailymotion.com/video/x9cueva

Ah, I wish I could help @Xiaoxiong but I bought Barchester Chronicles on DVD years ago...not sure if it's still available in that format.

I have searched endlessly for Joanna Trollope’s adaptions and have only found ‘The Choir’ on YouTube.

If anyone can point me in the right direction I would be grateful.