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Categories: Drama: Classic & Period

  1. The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro

    John Moffatt reads the classic tale of a butler's devoted service at a stately home

    BBC Radio 4 Extra

  2. Twenty Thousand Streets under the Sky

    Patrick Hamilton's tale of working-class emotions set between the wars in London

    BBC Radio 4 Extra

  3. Maggie O'Farrell - The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox

    The haunting story of a terrible family secret begins in the 1930s

    BBC Radio 4 Extra

  4. The Secret Agent

    London, 1886: A spy drags his family into a terror plot in this Joseph Conrad thriller

    BBC One

  5. Monsignor Quixote by Graham Greene (Omnibus)

    Comic take on a classic novel, with Bernard Cribbins

    BBC Radio 4 Extra

  6. Crown House

    Family saga set in the early part of the 20th century

    BBC Radio 4 Extra

  7. New Grub Street

    Christopher Douglas adapts George Gissing's 1891 novel.

    BBC Radio 4

  8. Jezebel by Irene Nemirovsky

    Drama set in 1900s France adapted from Irene Nemirovsky's novella about Gladys Eysenach.

    BBC Radio 4 Extra

  9. Close to the Enemy

    It is the end of WWII and Captain Callum Ferguson is assigned one final task for the Army.

    BBC Two

  10. My Mother and Other Strangers

    Drama series following the aftermath of a US military base being set up in a rural parish.

    BBC One

  11. Babette's Feast by Karen Blixen

    Sylvestra Le Touzel reads Karen Blixen's classic story.

    BBC Radio 4 Extra

  12. Disneyfied

    Phill Jupitus on the effect Disney had turning classic children's stories into films

    BBC Radio 4 Extra

  13. Jane Austen - Persuasion: Omnibus

    Jane Austen's tale about the changing fortunes of the Elliot family

    BBC Radio 4 Extra

  14. The House in Paris by Elizabeth Bowen

    Two young children meet after the First World War in the home of elderly Madame Fisher.

    BBC Radio 4 Extra

  15. Hearts of Gold

    Love story set in the South Wales valleys during the 1930s.

    BBC One

  16. Jane Eyre

    Six-part television serial adapted from Charlotte Bronte's classic novel.

    BBC

  17. David Copperfield

    Star-studded adaptation of the Dickens classic. With Bob Hoskins and Daniel Radcliffe.

    BBC One

  18. The Forsyte Saga

    Adaptation of John Galsworthy's novels of a prosperous English family from 1879 to 1926.

    BBC One

  19. Gormenghast

    Based on Mervyn Peake's novel, Gormenghast focuses on life in the eponymous castle.

    BBC Two

  20. Jane Eyre

    Dramatisation of Charlotte Bronte's romantic novel.

    BBC

  21. The History of Tom Jones: A Foundling

    Adaptation of the classic novel by Henry Fielding.

    BBC One

  22. Lorna Doone

    A tale of love, rivalry and revenge set in 17th century England.

    BBC One

  23. Love in a Cold Climate

    Dramatisation of Nancy Mitford's novels The Pursuit of Love and Love in a Cold Climate.

    BBC One

  24. Crime and Punishment

    Tony Marchant's gripping version of one of the world's great crime thrillers.

    BBC Two

  25. The Moonstone

    1990s adaptation by Kevin Elyot of the classic detective novel by Wilkie Collins.

    BBC Two

  26. Portrait Of A Marriage

    Drama set in 1918 about Vita Sackville-West and her husband Harold Nicolson.

    BBC Two

  27. Vanity Fair

    William Thackeray's satire of English society during the Napoleonic wars.

    BBC One

  28. War and Peace

    Dramatisation of Leo Tolstoy's epic story of love and loss.

    BBC

  29. Victoria Wood

    Six one-off situation comedies written by and starring Victoria Wood.

    BBC

  30. Penmarric

    The compelling story of the passionate loves and hatreds of a Cornish family.

    BBC One

  31. A Horseman Riding By

    Drama following the life of Paul Craddock, who was severely injured during the Boer War.

    BBC One

  32. Sense and Sensibility

    The story of two sisters with very different approaches to life and love, by Jane Austen.

    BBC One

  33. The Pickwick Papers

    Mr Pickwick, Tupman, Winkle, Snodgrass and Sam Weller begin their travels through England.

    BBC One

  34. Oliver Twist

    The 1985 adaptation of the novel by Charles Dickens.

    BBC One

  35. Madame Bovary

    Adaptation of Gustave Flaubert's novel.

    BBC Two

  36. The Moonstone

    Hugh Leonard's 1970s adaptation of the novel by Wilkie Collins.

    BBC

  37. Lorna Doone

    Dramatized screen adaptation of R. D. Blackmore’s classic novel.

    BBC One

  38. Madame Bovary

    Adaptation of Gustave Flaubert's novel.

    BBC

  39. Jude the Obscure

    Drama based on the Thomas Hardy novel.

    BBC

  40. The Old Curiosity Shop

    Drama adaptation of the novel by Charles Dickens.

    BBC One

  41. Fingersmith

    Drama set in Dickensian London adapted from the novel by Sarah Waters.

    BBC One

  42. David Copperfield

    David Copperfield is one of the greatest and most popular of Dickens works.

    BBC

  43. Byron

    Drama series based on the life of Lord Byron

    BBC Two

  44. The Portrait of a Lady

    The classic story by Henry James.

    BBC

  45. Charles II: The Power and the Passion

    Rufus Sewell stars in a four-part dramatisation of the life of the charismatic monarch.

    BBC One

  46. Dancing on the Edge

    An explosive 1930s drama following a jazz band in London at a time of huge change.

    BBC Two

  47. Death Comes to Pemberley

    A three-part adaptation of PD James's bestselling homage to Pride and Prejudice.

    BBC One

  48. The Crimson Field

    In an army hospital the staff heal the bodies and souls of men wounded in the trenches.

    BBC One

  49. The Casual Vacancy

    Pagford is charming, but what lies behind the pretty facade is a town at war.

    BBC One

  50. Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell

    With magic long since lost to England, two men are destined to bring it back.

    BBC One

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