period drama

Old-school Sunday-night family viewing: ITV's Belgravia reviewed

21 March 2020 9:00 am

The world may be going to hell in a handcart but some things remain reassuringly unchanged: Julian Fellowes period dramas…

Deeply romantic and wildly sexy: Portrait of a Lady on Fire reviewed

29 February 2020 9:00 am

Céline Sciamma’s Portrait of a Lady on Fire is set on a remote, windswept Brittany island in the late 18th…

Extremely predictable and extremely dull: Downton Abbey reviewed

14 September 2019 9:00 am

The much-anticipated film version of Downton Abbey has arrived and I suppose you could describe it as the Avengers Assemble…

Good hats – shame about the film: Sunset reviewed

1 June 2019 9:00 am

Sunset is French-Hungarian writer-director Laszlo Nemes’s follow-up to his astonishing Oscar-winning debut, Son of Saul. This time round the film…

Better than the film deserves: Saoirse Ronan as Mary Queen of Scots

A slog – and why does Elizabeth look like Ronald McDonald? Mary Queen of Scots reviewed

19 January 2019 9:00 am

Mary Queen of Scots is a historical costume drama that, unlike The Favourite, does not breathe new life into the…

A large cast is mostly led by shouty men, who lead shouty meetings: Mike Leigh’s Peterloo

It’s like being trapped in an episode of Poldark: Peterloo reviewed

3 November 2018 9:00 am

Mike Leigh’s Peterloo is one of those films where you keep waiting for it to get good, and waiting and…

Sharp practice: Olivia Cooke and Claudia Jessie in Vanity Fair

Bad news for fans of good TV drama – there’s three more corkers to keep up with

8 September 2018 9:00 am

This week was bad news for fans of good television drama series — mainly because there’s now three more of…

Babylon Berlin is so brilliant I’d advise you not to start watching it

17 March 2018 9:00 am

Babylon Berlin (Sky Atlantic), the epic German-made Euro noir detective drama set during Weimar, is so addictively brilliant that I’d…

Sun readers will be disappointed – E.M. Phwoar-ster it is not: Howards End reviewed

18 November 2017 9:00 am

Any readers of the Sun who excitedly tuned in to Howards End on Sunday night with their pause button at…

Ivory towers

22 July 2017 9:00 am

Great novels rarely make great movies, but for half a century one director has been showing all the others how…

Why Deborah Ross wants to punch G.K. Chesterton in the head

28 May 2016 9:00 am

Love & Friendship is based on the little-known Jane Austen epistolary novella, Lady Susan, which was not published until after…

A bit silly: Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell reviewed

23 May 2015 9:00 am

BBC One’s 2015 choice of Sunday-night drama series is beginning to resemble the career of the kind of Hollywood actor…

Gardeners’ world: Alan Rickman (Louis XIV) and Kate Winslet (Sabine De Barra) at Versailles

A Little Chaos review: Kate Winslet emotes her little socks off

18 April 2015 9:00 am

A Little Chaos is a period drama directed by Alan Rickman and starring Kate Winslet as a woman charged to…