Call it the Bridgerton effect, but the period drama is having something of a moment. Several new shows and seasons hit our screens in 2024, and many more follow ups are planned for next year, so there’s no better time to catch up on the best period dramas than during the lull between Christmas and NYE. From The Crown and Wolf Hall to The Hardacres and Franklin, allow yourself to be absorbed in the upstairs-downstairs drama while sipping mulled wine in front of a roaring fire. And if you’ve already binged all the best new hits, then what better reason to return to old classics like Call the Midwife and Downton Abbey? May 2025 be our Lady Mary era.

Bridgerton, Netflix

If you’re yet to see what all the fuss is about, or just missed the latest instalment over the summer, then Bridgerton hits every note when it comes to decadent, frock-filled frivolity. One of Netflix’s all-time most popular English-language TV shows, the colourful Bridgerton ballroom follows a slew of debutantes as they grapple with the societal expectations, pressures, and scandals of Regency-era high-society. Set between 1813 and 1827, expect ruffled petticoats, reputations, and fortunes, as well as one breakthrough wallflower who finds herself embroiled in a double life.

Wolf Hall, BBC iPlayer

With Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light having just premiered on BBC One and iPlayer last month, with new episodes still streaming weekly, now is the time to catch up on your Tudor history, from the very beginning. Mark Rylance and Damian Lewis star as Thomas Cromwell and King Henry VIII in the stunning adaptation of Hilary Mantel’s novels, the first instalment of which aired nearly a decade ago. Power games, sabotage, intrigue and scandal: it’s survival of the fittest, in bloomers.

Franklin, Apple TV+

Starring Michael Douglas and Noah Jupe, this eight-part mini-series, which first aired in spring 2024, explores the high-stakes career of one of America’s greatest presidents, and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. The drama follows 70-year-old Benjamin Franklin as he outmanoeuvres British spies and French informers, while simultaneously orchestrating the Franco-American alliance of 1778. One of the most prominent thinkers of his time, his influence can still be felt today.

A Gentleman in Moscow, Paramount+

Set in 1922, Ewan McGregor stars as Russian aristocrat Count Alexander Rostov, who is spared from death and put on house arrest as the Bolshevik Revolution blazes through Russia. Bolted behind the grand doors of the Metropol, a majestic hotel just across the street from the Kremlin, he is banished to the attic, where he is forced to look inward and examine his own emotional turmoil. Based on the classic book by Amor Towles, this is a tale that celebrates the profound triumphs of the human spirit over authoritarianism and tyranny. Released in March 2024, it’s a revolutionary revelation.

We Were the Lucky Ones, Disney+ and Apple TV+

If you missed this adaption of Georgia Hunter’s New York Times-bestselling novel back in March, then catch up with the incredible series now, which was inspired by the true story of a Jewish family separated at the start of WWII. A poignant account of survival, strength, and struggle, it follows the family as they scatter across Europe, trying desperately to reunite with one another while avoiding the invading Nazis.

The Hardacres, Prime Video and My5

Based on books one and two of the best-selling series of novels The Hardacre Family Saga by CL Skelton, this new show, which first aired in October 2024, follows the plight of a working-class family in 1890s Yorkshire as they pick up sticks and move from a filthy fish dock to a sprawling country estate. As they grapple with the realities of their newfound rags-to-riches lifestyle, they are forced to deal with society’s upturned nose, and the expectations that come with their new position.

Call the Midwife, Netflix

With the fourteenth season set to premiere next spring, (the show's Instagram account recently revealed: “We'll be with you soon… pinky promise”), this beloved British drama is inspired by Jennifer Worth’s memoir of the same name. Detailing her time as a nurse and midwife in the 1950s East End, the heartwarming series centres around a group of midwives, nurses and nuns who work at Nonnatus House in Poplar. Drama, emotions, and laughs run high, with the show itself now an annual festive tradition with a new Christmas special premiering on the big day itself.

Downton Abbey, Prime Video

With the first episode airing on ITV in 2010, Julian Fellowes’ classic historical drama gave the nation, and the world, six seasons of pure upper-crust joy. Following the loves and losses of the well-to-do Crawley family (and their staff) as Britain’s entrenched class system first begins to teeter, Hugh Bonneville, Jessica Brown Findlay, Michelle Dockery, Maggie Smith and Samantha Bond are all timeless in their performances. With the third film in the franchise scheduled for release in September 2025, one must remember the wise words of the ever-cutting Dowager Countess: "At my age, one must ration one's excitement.” 

The Gilded Age, Prime Video

With the much-anticipated third season scheduled for autumn next year, now’s the time to head back to 1880s New York and catch up with the nouveau riche Russell family and their old money neighbours, the van Rhijns. Another Julian Fellowes classic, it traces the clashing class mentalities and ever-jostling power players during the city’s great industrial boom. Starring Carrie Coon, Louisa Jacobson, Christine Baranski, Morgan Spector and Cynthia Nixon, you’ll feel yourself transported to 19th century Fifth Avenue.

The Crown, Netflix

While the final series, which aired last year, followed the tumultuous, paparazzi-filled lives of Princess Diana and Prince Charles, this elegant British drama started out as a period classic, with Claire Foy, Olivia Colman and Imelda Staunton all starring as Queen Elizabeth II during various points in her life. From a fresh-faced newlywed charged with fronting the world's most powerful monarchy, while navigating her relationships with the men in her life, The Crown offers a (lightly fictionalised) peek inside the life of Elizabeth II as she is forced to deal with a declining British Empire and the dawn of a new political and social era. Heavy is the head…

Read more: The most festive Christmas films to stream in 2024