watch period drama movies online free

After 15 months of very strange times and having little more than our TV for entertainment, it's time for some fresh streaming options. While there's lots on offer on Netflix and Amazon Prime, there's one genre we just can't resist and that's the ever popular period drama. Here in the UK, it's something of a major national export and the world is now on board with our best work. There's the BBC's classic Pride & Prejudice on Netflix, as well as the 2005 film with Keira Knightley. There are newer pleasures to enjoy in the form of The Great via Channel 4 and Bridgerton, and old favourites such as Brideshead Revisited. We may have watched it enough times to be able to recite most of it by heart, but there are also some lesser-known options to luxuriate in, from Nancy Mitford's rakish tales of 1930s society to gritty industrial romance in North & South. And we have to say, there are some of TV's loveliest interiors on view (we're thinking of you, Downton Abbey). Scroll down to see our top picks...

The best period dramas to watch online

All4/Hulu: The Great

This wild, raucous and often raunchy take on Catherine the Great's rise to power aired on Channel 4 earlier this year and quickly garnered a huge fan base. Expect pastel hair, tiny waists in impeccable costumes, silly asides and fast-paced humour as Tony McNamara adds a fictional spin to Russia's longest reigning empress, played by Elle Fanning.
Amazon Prime: Brideshead Revisited

Few period dramas are as loved as the original Brideshead adaptation, starring Jeremy Irons and Anthony Andrews. Evelyn Waugh's classic novel was turned into eleven glorious episodes in the 1980s and all are now available on Amazon Prime for the ultimate binge watch.
Netflix: Bridgerton

Having taken the world by storm since Christmas Day, Bridgerton has made its mark on period drama fans and presented a new take on the genre. Bright, bold and racy, it's here to stay with a second season and more confirmed by Netflix.
Netflix: Pride & Prejudice

There are two camps when it comes to Pride & Prejudice; Colin Firth or Keira Knightley? The latter is a tour de force in Joe Wright's 2005 film adaptation, where the locations used add so much richness to an already gorgeous portrayal.
Amazon Prime: Jane Eyre

Jane Eyre has been adapted for TV and film countless times. Our top two of recent years are the 2006 BBC version starring Toby Stephens and Ruth Wilson, and Cary Fukunaga's 2011 film with Michael Fassbender (swoon) and Mia Wasikowska. Fassbender does an excellent line in craggy brooding, and Wasikowska perfects the title character's reticence and emotional turmoil.
Amazon Prime: Emma

Between this film, Sliding Doors, and Shakespeare in Love, there's no doubting the perfection of Gwyneth Paltrow's English accent. While Paltrow brings perhaps a little too much polish and archness to her portrayal of Emma Woodhouse, this 1996 film is visually dreamy (as is Jeremy Northam in the role of Knightley). Ewan MacGregor looks faintly ridiculous as Emma's love interest Frank Churchill, but there are delightful supporting turns from Greta Scacchi, Toni Collette and Alan Cumming.
Amazon Prime: Downton Abbey

Downton Abbey took the nation by storm when it appeared in 2010, and we laughed and cried our way through the Crawley family's ups and downs until it ended in 2015. Now we can relive the whole thing on Amazon Prime while we wait for the Downton Abbey film to be released, from Mary's mishap with the Turkish diplomat to Bates' unfortunate run-in with the law, via Sybil's scandalous trousers (oh, Sybil).
Netflix: Pride and Prejudice

The period drama that kicked off a generation's Jane Austen obsession and fuelled the romantic daydreams of millions. To this day, there's nothing to beat it. Jennifer Ehle's twinkling portrayal of Lizzie brought the character perfectly to life, and Colin Firth's slow journey from pompous disdain to unswerving devotion gets us breathless every time.
Netflix: Emma

The 2009 BBC version of Emma features a much more convincing turn from Romola Garai as the impulsive, spoilt, but ultimately sweet-natured title character, with Jonny Lee Miller as a charming, if slightly bad-boy-ish Knightley. Michael Gambon does his gruff, heart-of-gold act as Mr Woodhouse, and the whole thing has the usual BBC sumptuousness to it.
Netflix: North & South

A period drama that takes you away from the usual country house setting into the wilds of the industrial north. This adaption of Elizabeth Gaskell's 1855 novel features a young woman transplanted from the leafy south of England into the sooty fictional town of Milton, who gradually learns to love the self-made man John Thornton. Richard Armitage as Thornton presides over his factory as a sort of Mr-Darcy-with-a-Northern-accent, and Daniela Denby-Ashe is delightfully haughty as the wide-eyed and sincere Margaret Hale.
Netflix: Howard's End

The 2017 adaptation of Howard's End on the BBC was truly excellent, bringing E.M. Forster's novel to a new generation of fans, but the 1992 version has a special place in our hearts. Emma Thompson and Helena Bonham-Carter were going through their peak-period-drama phases - the former playing generous-minded Margaret Schlegel, and the latter the impulsive Helen, two artistic, intellectual sisters whose friendship with the straightforward Wilcox family has repercussions throughout their lives.
Netflix: Love in a Cold Climate

Nancy Mitford's tale of the lives and loves of the fictional Montdore family was adapted in 2001 for the BBC, featuring a young Rosamund Pike as Fanny Wincham, who narrates the eccentric goings-on. It's not the traditional period drama by any means, and the sort-of-happy ending is... unusual, to say the least, but as a portrait of the aristocracy between the wars, it's utterly fascinating.
Netflix: War & Peace

The BBC's 2016 adaptation of Tolstoy's epic novel was a must-watch, even if it struggled to pack the events of 1300 or so pages into its six parts. Still, it's enough to give you a decent idea of the adventures of sundry Rostovs, Bezukhovs, Bolkonskys and Kuragins as they love, hate, fight and die in the Russia of the Napoleonic Wars. Plus, the ballroom scene in episode 3 where Lily James' charming Natasha meets James Norton's dashing Prince Andrei is the stuff of dreams. No man has ever looked better entirely dressed in white.
Netflix: Daniel Deronda

This 2002 adaptation of George Eliot's novel was written by Andrew Davies, period drama creator par excellence, and is by turns sombre and utterly delightful. The intertwining stories of the spoilt Gwendolen Harleth (Romola Garai on excellent form) and the kind Daniel Deronda, who has fallen in love with a Jewish woman he rescued from drowning herself, are more morally serious than the usual fare, and ultimately make for a rewarding watch.