10 Upcoming Period Dramas/Historical Romances Releasing After Bridgerton (& Where To Stream
The enduring success of the Netflix series Bridgerton has amply demonstrated the continuing audience appetite for the period drama and for escaping into a world unlike the present. These series, which aim to sweep the viewer up into a bygone era, have been a prominent presence on television screens for the last decade, and it currently looks as if there are many more to come in the year ahead.
This is good news for fans of Bridgerton, who will have many other period dramas of various kinds to enjoy throughout 2022.
All Creatures Great and Small is the perfect feel-good series, focusing as it does on the adventures of James Herriot, Scottish veterinarian who goes to practice medicine in the north of England. Obviously much of the drama revolves around his various cases, but there is also a magical human element to the series that is key to its success. It repeatedly shows that there are people who are genuinely kind and loving and who want to do their part to make a better world.
There are few queens who have exerted quite as strong a hold on the popular culture imagination as Elizabeth I, and many iconic movies have been about her. Known as the Virgin Queen, she ruled England for several decades and managed to keep it safe from foreign invasion. The new series Becoming Elizabeth will focus in particular on her younger years, as she learns the perilous art of statecraft and of staying alive in the dangerous world of a Renaissance court. It is sure to join the ranks of the other great Starz costume dramas that have aired over the last decade.
Throughout its run, The Crown has demonstrated that it is one of the best series to have aired on Netflix. Consistently intertwining the fates of the Royal Family with that of the country they lead, it shows the tremendous price that the Crown as an institution takes on its human members. The upcoming fifth season will feature a new cast, including the formidable Imelda Staunton, who will portray the Queen as she confronts some of the gravest and most critical crises of her very long reign.
Gentleman Jack, a collaboration between HBO and the BBC, is rightly regarded as one of the best HBO series. It is also notable for the fact that it portrays an LGBT person in the past without falling victim to the queer tragedy problem that so often afflicts period dramas. Focusing in particular on Anne Lister, it shows how this extraordinary individual managed to live a life as a queer person in an era in which such relationships were almost universally frowned upon and condemned.
The immigrant experience is one that has been portrayed many times in movies and TV, and it is especially suited to the period drama genre. 1899, the forthcoming series from Netflix, is sure to partake of that tradition, focusing as it does on a group of European immigrants who set out for America.
However, it’s already clear that the series is going to have a number of other elements that will make it unique, including horror, as the immigrants encounter another ship that will make their lives a nightmare. Most notably, it will also be presented in multiple languages.
Marie Antoinette is another royal figure who has been represented in various movies and TV series. She is slated to appear in a forthcoming TV series, where she will be portrayed by Emilia Schüle, a German actress. Given that the series will be in eight parts, it will give an in-depth portrait of this tragic queen, whose life was brought to an abrupt end by the French Revolution. The series is created by one of the writers for the famous period drama, The Favourite.
There are, of course, many different kinds of period dramas, and one of the most compelling is the variant that manages to combine the pleasures of the past with the appeal of a procedural. That is exactly what is on offer in Miss Scarlet and the Duke. The series focuses on the bond between a female investigator Eliza Scarlet and the policeman known as “the Duke.”
The series immerses the viewer in the sinister world of late Victorian London, and the second season is slated to return in 2022.
Claire Danes has repeatedly shown that she is one of the most skilled actresses working in Hollywood, and she is set to bring her considerable skills to bear in The Essex Serpent. In this series, she is slated to portray the character of Cora Seaborne, who moves from London to Essex and becomes interested in the titular creature that might have returned to the area. The series will also feature Tom Hiddeston as Reverend William Ransome.
Along with Elizabeth I and Marie Antoinette, Catherine de Medici is one of the most famous royal women. She has only appeared sporadically in movies and TV, however, which makes her appearance in the new series, The Serpent Queen, all the more extraordinary. She will be portrayed by Samantha Morton, who is also known for having portrayed another royal, Mary, Queen of Scots (who, in real life, was the daughter-in-law of Catherine). It is slated to appear sometime in 2022.
The Georgian Era was one of the most opulent in the history of England. Thus, it makes an ideal setting for period dramas. The most recent of these is set to be The Confessions of Frannie Langton, which is based on the novel by Sara Collins. It will focus on the title character, who moves from Jamaica to Mayfair, where she encounters the scientist George Benham. It is slated to appear sometime in 2022.