And now that we’re in the mood for a good corset and bustle, we take a look back at some of the best costume dramas to gorge on – once we’ve binged the Bridgerton prequel, that is.
Gosford Park
Julian Fellowes has, of course, long since become a screenwriting megastar after penning the toweringly successful Downton Abbey. While we, like everyone else, fell for that series – most especially its superior first two series – we will always love Fellowes’ original upstairs-downstairs screenplay most of all. Gosford Park, which came out in 2002 and was directed by Robert Altman, boasted the starriest of casts. Michael Gambon, Maggie Smith, Hellen Mirren, Jeremy Northam, Kristen Scott Thomas, Richard E Grant, Stephen Fry, Derek Jacobi, Emily Watson, Charles Dance, Tom Hollander, Kelly MacDonald, Clive Owen and Ryan Philippe all appear; in other words, an embarrassment of riches. A 1930s-set country house shooting party turns into a murder mystery, and every detail is just about perfect. As Peter Bradshaw wrote at the time, ‘former actor Julian Fellowes has composed for him a muscular, ambitious script, crammed with sparkling lines and terrific cameo turns for a star-studded cast.’ Watch it on Netflix here.
The Crown
Everyone has a take on The Crown. Some adore it for its lavish sets, exceptional costumes and for the opportunity to examine in detail how characters that are as familiar to us as family are played. Others loathe it for its elastic relationship with the truth. And another subset – typically anti-monarchists – ignore it totally on principle. We enjoy it thoroughly while taking it all with a liberal pinch, or indeed shovel, of salt. If you haven’t watched it, do treat yourself to the whole lot, from season one, which looks at the early days of Queen Elizabeth’s long reign, to season five, which charts how close The Firm came to collapse in the Diana years. Watch it on Netflix here.
Pride & Prejudice
There are few costume dramas that can rival Andrew Davies’ 1995 adaptation of Jane Austen’s Pride & Prejudice for sheer joy. Starring Jennifer Ehle and Colin Firth in his breakout role, the nation caught Mr Darcy fever that year – not least thank to the iconic scene in which he dives into a lake at his resplendent Pemberley estate. We love the comic turns just as much as the romantic ones, notably of Alison Steadman as Mrs Bennett – complete with her ‘nerves’ – and of David Bamber as the toadying Mr Collins, with his well-rehearsed flatteries. Watch it on Amazon here.
Brideshead Revisited
They have tried to remake Evelyn Waugh’s Brideshead Revisited since 1981. Nothing, however, has ever come close to the perfection of this piece of television. After a faltering start with a John Mortimer-penned screenplay, they went back to the drawing board and came back with a new, triumphant version courtesy of Derek Granger, and directed by a young Charles Sturridge. ‘Virtually flawless performances,’ eulogised The New York Times at its release and, over forty years later, we ardently concur. Simply, Anthony Andrews is Sebastian Flyte and Jeremy Irons is Charles Ryder. Set between the 1920s and 1940s, it follows the life and loves of the young Ryder as he befriends and is beguiled by the Flytes, an English Catholic family who live at Brideshead, stood in for here by Castle Howard. When in 2015 The Telegraph listed it as its number one television adaptation, it extolled how, ‘Brideshead Revisited is television's greatest literary adaptation, bar none. It's utterly faithful to Evelyn Waugh's novel yet it's somehow more than that, too.’ Watch it on Amazon here.
A Room With A View
This 1985 Merchant Ivory classic is as dreamy as costume drama gets. Starring Helena Bonham Carter, Julian Sands, Maggie Smith and Daniel Day Lewis, it is based on the EM Forster novel, set in Florence and was the first ever movie from James Ivory – whose oeuvre later became a byword for a stately period dramas of manners. Lucy Honeychurch (Bonham-Carter) is on a Baedeker tour of the city with her fastidious cousin (Smith) when they encounter the free-thinking Mr Emerson (Denholm Elliott) and his son, George (Sands). When the latter passionately kisses Lucy in a cornfield, something is awakened in her – none of which will do, so she is promptly whisked back to England, where she becomes engaged to the starchy, pompous and repressed Cecil Vyse. Writing in The Guardian, Cartherine Shoard praises it to the skies, reminding us that ‘this is incredibly fresh and arresting film-making: moving and amusing, swooningly romantic and socially ferocious – nothing less than a full-frontal (in every way) assault on your soul.’ Watch it on Amazon here.
Love In A Cold Climate
Call us purists, but the recent Emily Mortimer-penned and directed, Lily James-starring adaptation of The Pursuit of Love left us cold. Rather, the 2001version, starring Rosamund Pike as the devoted if dowdy Fanny, is our preferred Nancy Mitford adaption – even if it does yoke together her two most famous books: Love In A Cold Climate and The Pursuit of Love. Pike is perfect, as is Sheila Gish as the crashingly snobbish Lady Montdore, Anthony Andrews as the weak and lascivious Boy (or the ‘lecherous lecturer’ as he’s known) and Frances Barber as The Bolter. But hands down our favourite performance comes from Alan Bates as the eccentric and irascible Uncle Matthew. No one could play him better. Watch it on Amazon here.
Mapp & Lucia
EF Benson’s deliciously arch Mapp & Lucia series is brought to sparkling, frothy life in this adaptation, which is faithfully set in Rye (Benson fictionalises it as Tilling, but it is, recognisably, the East Sussex town in which he lived.) Anna Chancellor and Miranda Richardson star as the vying queens of the town, whose barely veiled contempt for one another leads them to absurd levels of one-upmanship. A delight. Watch it on Apple TV here.
Harlots
Set in London in the 1700s, this drama about warring brothels features a magnificent cast of leading female characters; byzantine plots with long-held grudges between battling bawds; and an inventive use of lusty language. It also happens to showcase a couple of truly sublime performances, both from Downton alumnus Jessica Brown Findlay and the always-superb Lesley Manville. If you missed this when it first aired in 2017, you have binge-worthy treat in store. Watch it on Amazon here.
By Nancy Alsop
May 2023
