Convincing costume dramas - which ones really work?

[sethstarkaddersmummyreturns]

On a thread on the pile of shite that is the new tv adaptation of Pillars of the Earth, someone asked if it is actually possible to do a convincing medieval drama.

WDYT?

also other periods - what dramas have convinced?
I have never been able to buy into a Roman one, even I Claudius; they all look so silly and the dialogue always feels wrong.

some of the Jane Austens worked for me, specially the brilliant Persuasion.

which are the best/crappest in your opinion? and which eras are hardest to do and why?

I think both Holy Grail and Life of Brian were very authentic looking, aprt from the comedy and singing and everything IYSWIM.

Downton is divine and perfect IMHO.

I enjoyed Rome - I think that was fairly convincing. Pride & Prejudice (Colin Firth version) was true to the period, so far as I can judge of course! Also Sense & Sensibility(Emma Thompson).

Medieval - does Cadfael count? I enjoyed some of those, though they didn't always get the attitudes of the time as well as the books.

That one set in the English Civil War a while back wasn't too bad. Devil's Whore?

Trouble with medieval ones is that all the ooh she's a witch stuff gets pretty wearing. Whereas Jane Austen is a lot closer to our own way of thinking.

Upstairs Downstairs to me has always been perfect. I get toally involved in it.

I caught a few episodes of When The Boat Comes In on Yesterday a few months ago - same era as Upstairs Downstairs - and that was good too.

MIL forced me to watch The Onedin Line and that was not bad too, except these 70s ones always look like the sets are made of cardboard.

anyone watch How We Used To Live when they were at school in the 70s? I remember that as being superb but not sure how much taste I would have had as a 7 year old!

LOL @ 'all that ooh she's a witch stuff'. Know exactly what you mean.

arent they redoing upstairs downstairs. -read somewhere that they were. Will see if I can find a link?

and agree that the older you get the further back - love to see some roman stuff (but for every rome you get you get an awful lot of stuff that is like up pompeii)

they are ..good but its got keeley hawes in it

upstairs downstairs redone

Loved the recent adaptation of Persuasion until it ended with the heroine running through the streets of Bath, catching the hero and having a full scale snog in the street.
Just as you think you're watching a good adaptation that respects the period and literary source it breaks out into mad anachronisms.
Mind you, nothing can be as bad as the recent film of Vanity Fair, with Becky Sharp tranformed (and reduced) into being misunderstood and a good mother after all.

I LOVED the Forsyte Saga adaptation with Rupert Graves, Damian Lewis and Gina McKee.
Beautifully re-created and acted.

The problem with the Emma Thompson Sense and Sensibility was that she was clearly too old for the part.

Merlin's pretty good....

I'll watch the new Upstairs Downstairs but nothing could compare to the original. There's no Simon Williams either & he was dreamy. (OK his character died so he couldnt have been in it either) They should give him a part in Downton Abbey. He has the most gorgeous voice.
What I don't understand is that they are getting Jean Marsh back to play Rose, but the new series starts 5 years after the original ended. Surely even the best make-up artist in the world couldn't pass 35 years of ageing away as 5 years! And if she could I want her details!