Main content

Categories: Drama: Classic & Period

  1. Victoria and Abdul

    Abdul, a clerk, is taken from his job at a prison to present a coin to Queen Victoria.

    BBC Two

  2. Crossriggs by Jane & Mary Findlater

    The sleepy Scottish village of Crossriggs is not the place for an unconventional woman.

    BBC Radio 4

  3. The Elephant Man

    An ambitious surgeon encounters a disfigured sideshow freak and takes him under his wing.

    BBC One

  4. Electric Decade

    Classic titles that influenced and characterised the Jazz Age of the 1920s.

    BBC Radio 4

  5. Tracy Chevalier - Girl with a Pearl Earring

    Tracy Chevalier's much-loved novel about the unknown model in Vermeer's famous painting.

    BBC Radio 4

  6. Darkest Hour

    Churchill must decide whether to negotiate with Hitler or fight for the greater good.

    BBC One

  7. The Luminaries

    An intricately woven, suspenseful tale of love, murder, magic and revenge.

    BBC One

  8. Emma by Jane Austen

    Jane Austen's classic comedy of young love and romantic meddling, read by Eve Best.

    BBC Radio 4

  9. On Chesil Beach

    Graduates from different social classes get married, but the honeymoon proves a challenge.

    BBC Two

  10. Arthur Conan Doyle - Micah Clarke

    Arthur Conan Doyle's historical novel set in 1685.

    BBC Radio 4 Extra

  11. Harlots

    Sex sells like nothing else in grimy, decadent Georgian London.

    BBC Two

  12. A Suitable Boy

    In 1951, in newly independent India, student Lata is torn between family duty and romance.

    BBC One

    Show available episodes

  13. Dangerous Liaisons

    Two 18th-century French aristocrats play a cruel game of seduction.

    BBC One

  14. The Optimists

    Russian drama set in the 60s during the Khrushchev era and at the height of the Cold War.

    BBC ALBA

  15. The Guardians

    France 1915. A mother and her daughter take over when their men leave for the front.

    BBC Four

  16. Black Narcissus

    A group of nuns travel to a Himalayan palace with a dark past.

    BBC One

  17. The Good Soldier by Ford Madox Ford

    The ‘saddest story ever told’ is how Edward Ashburnham left lives in ruins.

    BBC Radio 4

  18. The Mercy

    Amateur sailor Donald Crowhurst (Colin Firth) attempts to circumnavigate the globe alone.

    BBC Two

  19. The Happy Prince

    Biopic about the final years of playwright Oscar Wilde.

    BBC Two

  20. The Mystery of Edwin Drood

    Written by Charles Dickens, adapted by Mike Walker. Stars Pippa Nixon as Kate Dickens.

    BBC Radio 4

  21. Joan Aiken - The Wolves of Willoughby Chase

    At stately Willoughby Chase, Sylvia and Bonnie battle to escape their evil governess.

    BBC Radio 4 Extra

  22. Tea with Mussolini

    Florence 1935. Luca, part-raised by English ladies in Florence, re-enters their lives.

    BBC Two

  23. Blood and Milk by Gregory Evans

    By Gregory Evans. Thriller set in 1890s Whitechapel.

    BBC Radio 4 Extra

    Show available episodes

  24. Tarka the Otter by Henry Williamson (Omnibus)

    The adventures and perils of an otter born in North Devon.

    BBC Radio 4 Extra

  25. Jules Verne

    Fantastical adventures by the 19th Century French novelist, Jules Verne.

    BBC Radio 4 Extra

  26. The White Crow

    Russian ballet dancer Rudolf Nureyev arrives in Paris to perform with the Kirov Ballet.

    BBC Two

  27. The Eve of St Agnes by John Keats

    Michael Maloney and Robert Glenister star in a gothic fantasy.

    BBC Radio 4 Extra

  28. Heinrich Mann - Berlin

    The rise and fall of poet Andrew Zumsee, out to make a name for himself in Berlin society.

    BBC Radio 4 Extra

  29. The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind

    A 13-year-old boy living in rural Malawi builds a windwill to save his family's farm.

    BBC Two

  30. The Pursuit of Love

    Longing for love and obsessed with sex, Linda is on the hunt for the perfect lover.

    BBC One

  31. Colette

    Colette writes her semi-autobiographical tales, which become a sensation.

    BBC Two

  32. The Disappearance of Pato

    Vigata, 1890 - a man vanishes after performing in the town's annual Easter play.

    BBC Four

  33. George Bernard Shaw - The Man of Destiny

    1796: a mysterious lady is drawn into a battle of wits with Napoleon

    BBC Radio 4 Extra

  34. George Eliot

    Dramatisations of the novels of Mary Anne Evans, known by her pen name of George Eliot.

    BBC Radio 4 Extra

  35. England, Their England by AG Macdonell

    Injured in the Great War Donald Cameron writes a book on the curious habits of the English

    BBC Radio 4 Extra

  36. Melissa Murray - The Other World

    A barrister's wife is poisoned. Thriller set in Victorian England with Claire Price.

    BBC Radio 4 Extra

  37. Bullfight by Yasushi Inoue

    Inoue's 1949 novella. A newspaper editor in postwar Osaka agrees to sponsor a bullfight.

    BBC Radio 4

  38. Animal Farm by George Orwell

    The landmark allegory about hypocrisy and corruption of power.

    BBC Sounds

    Show available episodes

  39. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

    The great American novel of the Jazz Age, read by Kyle Soller

    BBC Sounds

    Show available episodes

  40. The King Must Die

    A new dramatisation of Mary Renault's classic book, telling the story of Theseus.

    BBC Radio 4

    Show available episodes

  41. Pride and Prejudice

    The Bennet daughters react in very different ways to the arrival of their new neighbour.

    BBC Two

  42. The Great Gatsby (2000)

    Flamboyant millionaire Jay Gatsby pursues the love he lost while serving in World War I.

    BBC Two

  43. The Great Scott

    Walter Scott's novels are dramatised for radio

    BBC Radio 4 Extra

  44.

    Animal Farm by George Orwell

    The landmark allegory about hypocrisy and corruption of power.

    BBC Radio 4 Extra

  45. Dangerous Liaisons

    Tanya Moodie, Nicola Coughlan and Ray Fearon star in this scandalously funny classic romp.

    BBC Radio 4

    Show available episodes

  46. Great Moments in Aviation

    Bound for England, a woman with dreams of becoming a pilot falls for a fellow passenger.

    BBC Four

  47. Paris Police 1900

    French crime drama set during the period of the notorious Dreyfus affair.

    BBC Four

  48. Ridley Road

    Drama about a young Jewish woman who goes undercover inside a fascist sect in the 1960s.

    BBC One

  49. The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald

    The great American novel of the Jazz Age. Read by Kyle Soller.

    BBC Radio 4 Extra

  50. Imperial Palace

    The 1930s goings on at London's luxury Imperial Palace hotel.

    BBC Radio 4 Extra

  2. 1
  3. …
  4. 13
  5. 14
  6. 15
  7. 16
  8. 17
  9. 18
  10. …
  11. 19