As I mentioned before, ITV are showing a season of Jane Austen adaptations very soon, starting with Billie Piper in Mansfield Park this Sunday. To celebrate, then, we thought we’d take a look back on some of the period dramas that have graced our screens over the years.

Now, to save it from being all corsets and fainting (ie. all Austen and Dickens) I’ve been, well, a little *free* with the definition. So while the top five are pretty serious, numbers ten to six are not your standard costume dramas – but interesting, I hope.

10) Sharpe: Ah Richard Sharpe. Good looking fella, isn’t he? But, clearly, that’s not all there is/was to this ITV series based on the books by Bernard Cornwell. Always exciting, and interesting politically, it was great to have the show back last year, and there’s talk of more to come. To see its influence, just take a look a look at Kasabian’s video for Empire…

9) Band of Brothers: Quite a recent ‘period’ admittedly, but if you like your period dramas huge, worthy, and with a Hollywood budget, then look no further than this mini-series co-produced by Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg. My slightly-irrelevant fact for this one, is that it brought together Spaced’s Simon Pegg and David Schwimmer for the first time, who have worked together on several occasions since.

Tipping The Velvet: This is the first of our Andrew Davies adaptations, and while I wasn’t a massive fan, it can be praised for doing something different with period drama. As the heterosexual marriage plot is integral to many romantic novels, concentrating on lesbian desire is certainly to subvert the genre, and therefore worth a mention.

7) Life on Mars: Am I pushing the definition a bit too far with this one? Well maybe, but if I didn’t put it in, my colleague John would hate me forever, and I don’t want that. A huge part of the appeal is how brilliantly the ’70s are evoked and so while it’s certainly not strictly a period drama, the period *is* the heart of the show. Not to mention how funny and gripping it is, of course.

6) Casanova: I can’t think about this three-parter without breaking out into a massive grin. Russell T. Davies really is the master when it comes to funny, sweet, touching scripts, then add in Peter O’Toole, David Tennant, and some fabulously stylised sets and costumes, and you’ve got something incredibly special.

5) Jane Eyre: Ah, a bone fide period drama, I told you we’d get there eventually! Last year’s version looked stunning, and was brilliantly realised – every scene, from the Red Room of Jane’s childhood onwards, had a darkness and strangeness to it which captured exactly the mood of the book. The series was also complemented by BBC Four’s prequel, Wide Sargasso Sea.

4) Bleak House: Dickens’ novels first appeared in periodicals, and as such he certainly knew how to write a cliff hanger. It was a stroke of genius, then, for the BBC to show Bleak House in half-hour chunks. He had excellent source material, clearly – you can’t go wrong with spontaneous combustion – but Andrew Davies worked his magic again, and there were some wonderful central performances from Anna Maxwell Martin and Gillian Anderson.

3) Pride and Prejudice: Well, it’s the one that all Austen adaptations have to live up to, isn’t it? There’s not much left to say about this, but yes, it’s number three for Andrew Davies and, of course, the ‘lake scene’ has become a defining moment in television of any genre.

2) I, Claudius: Well it’s nice to have something in the top five which doesn’t include a single empire line. Actually, the empire line comes from Roman dress, doesn’t it? Anyway. You just have to look at the cast to know how utterly wonderful this series – sporadically shown on BBC Four – really was: Derek Jacobi in the lead, John Hurt, Brian Blessed, Patrick Stewart… does it get any better?

1) Brideshead Revisited: Here we are, number one, and it’s the daddy of them all, ITV’s masterful production of Evelyn Waugh’s novel which mourns the loss of Edwardian England, of innocence, after the First World War. This was quality television on a huge scale, apparently costing up to £11 million, and every penny showed. Nowadays we think of BBC as the only channel which can do beautiful period drama, but we clearly have short memories, so there’s no reason why ITV’s new season can’t channel a little of the magic of this wonderful production.

Remember, there’s plenty on classic novels and their adaptations over at our sister blog Trashionista!

Mansfield Park: ITV1, Sunday 18 March, 9pm
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