The best British period dramas
The top 3 according to 145 votes from people: Downton Abbey (2010-2015) · Call the Midwife (2012-) · Peaky Blinders (2013-2022). (Updated Apr 6, 2025.)
Country houses, bonnets, Tudors and Birmingham gangs: the finest British costume dramas on TV, based on Collider, The Silver Petticoat Review and The List.
Top 10
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1
Downton Abbey (2010-2015)
The Crawleys and their servants, from the Titanic to the 1920s.
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2
Call the Midwife (2012-)
Midwives in London's East End in the 1950s and 60s.
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3
Peaky Blinders (2013-2022)
Tommy Shelby's gang in post-war Birmingham.
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4
The Crown (2016-2023)
The reign of Elizabeth II, decade by decade.
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5
North & South (2004)
Elizabeth Gaskell's mill-town romance.
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6
Pride and Prejudice (1995)
Andrew Davies's adaptation, with Colin Firth's Mr Darcy.
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7
Wolf Hall (2015)
Thomas Cromwell at Henry VIII's court, from Hilary Mantel.
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8
Brideshead Revisited (1981)
Evelyn Waugh's aristocratic Oxford, tenth on the BFI TV 100.
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9
Upstairs, Downstairs (1971-1975)
The original masters-and-servants drama in Belgravia.
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10
Poldark (2015-2019)
A soldier back from war in 18th-century Cornwall.
Candidates
They don't make it into the top 10… yet. Vote for them to move them up.
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11
Bleak House (2005)
Dickens's endless lawsuit, with Gillian Anderson.
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12
Cranford (2007)
Gossip and change in a small Cheshire town.
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13
Victoria (2016-2019)
The young Queen Victoria and Prince Albert.
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14
Gentleman Jack (2019-2022)
Landowner and diarist Anne Lister in 1830s Halifax.
How is this ranking ordered? By people's votes: each ▲ adds a point and each ▼ takes one away. Anyone can vote and add what is missing.
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Comments (1)
North & South is criminally underrated, Richard Armitage at the train station, that's all I'll say.