01 Thomas Cromwell's rise through Henry VIII's court, told with cold, careful precision.
10 Best British Period Dramas
By Vlad Zakh · June 5, 2026
Downton Abbey and The Crown set the modern template, meticulous and soapy. Peaky Blinders takes the same genre somewhere grittier, and Bridgerton proved there’s a huge appetite for a lighter, romance-forward version of the format.
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02 An early template for the genre, following both a wealthy family and the servants running their household.
03 A young Queen Victoria navigating power, marriage, and the constraints of the crown.
04 A former soldier returning to Cornwall to rebuild his family's fortune and reputation.
05 A group of nurses and nuns delivering babies in London's poorest postwar East End.
06 A glossy, gossip-fueled Regency romance anthology following London's marriage-market elite.
07 The adaptation that defined Mr. Darcy for a generation, with Colin Firth in the role.
08 A Birmingham gangster family clawing its way up the criminal and political ladder after WWI.
09 A lavish dramatization of Queen Elizabeth II's reign across seven decades.
10 An aristocratic family and their servants navigating a rapidly changing early 20th century England.