Poldark

Series Similar to Poldark

If you enjoyed Poldark, these series share similar themes, tone, and quality. Each recommendation is scored on genre overlap, tonal match, and critical acclaim.

1. War & Peace

   2016 · Drama, Romance, History · ended

   Recommended for similar Romance profile, highly rated (8), hidden gem, also on BBC One.

   In a new adaptation of Leo Tolstoy's timeless novel, three young people experience life, love and loss against the epic backdrop of Russia's wars with Napoleon.

2. The Pillars of the Earth

   2010 · Drama, Romance, History · ended

   Recommended for similar Romance profile.

   The Pillars of the Earth is a sweeping epic of good and evil, treachery and intrigue, violence and beauty. This sensuous, spirited and passionate story is set against a backdrop of war, religious strife and power struggles which tears lives and families apart. In that time, there rises a magnificent Cathedral in Kingsbridge.

3. Downton Abbey

   2010 · Drama, Family, Romance · ended

   Recommended for similar Romance profile, highly rated (8.7).

   The Downton Abbey estate stands a splendid example of confidence and mettle, its family enduring for generations and its staff a well-oiled machine of propriety. But change is afoot at Downton--change far surpassing the new electric lights and telephone. A crisis of inheritance threatens to displace the resident Crawley family, in spite of the best efforts of the noble and compassionate Earl, Robert Crawley; his American heiress wife, Cora his comically implacable, opinionated mother, Violet and his beautiful, eldest daughter, Mary, intent on charting her own course. Reluctantly, the family is forced to welcome its heir apparent, the self-made and proudly modern Matthew Crawley himself none too happy about the new arrangements. As Matthew's bristly relationship with Mary begins to crackle with electricity, hope for the future of Downton's dynasty takes shape. But when petty jealousies and ambitions grow among the family and the staff, scheming and secrets--both delicious and dangerous--threaten to derail the scramble to preserve Downton Abbey. Downton Abbey offers a spot-on portrait of a vanishing way of life.

4. Indian Summers

   2015 · Drama, Romance · ended

   Recommended for similar Romance profile, highly rated (8), hidden gem.

   Set against the sweeping grandeur of the Himalayas and tea plantations of Northern India, the drama tells the rich and explosive story of the decline of the British Empire and the birth of modern India, from both sides of the experience. But at the heart of the story lie the implications and ramifications of the tangled web of passions, rivalries and clashes that define the lives of those brought together in this summer which will change everything.

5. The Paradise

   2012 · Drama, Romance, History · ended

   Recommended for similar Romance profile, also on BBC One.

   An intoxicating love story set in England's first department store in the 1870s.

6. The Borgias

   2011 · Drama, Romance, History · ended

   Recommended for similar Romance profile.

   This expansive drama series stars Oscar winner Jeremy Irons in his Golden Globe-nominated role as Pope Alexander VI, the cunning, manipulative patriarch of the infamous Borgia dynasty, who builds an empire by bribing, buying and muscling his way into the papacy.

7. Versailles

   2015 · Drama, History · ended

   Recommended for similar Drama profile, hidden gem.

   Versailles, 1667. Louis XIV was 28 years old. To rise to the heights of the nobility and wield its absolute power, he launched the construction of Versailles... it proved to be a snare. Louis XIV is a young King haunted by childhood trauma, the Fronde civil, a rebellion of the nobility against his father, Louis XIII... It will prove be a strategic policy out of the ordinary, manipulative, Machiavellian, and he will "invent" Versailles for the nobles of Paris, to keep them under control, and gradually transform the castle into a golden prison. But how will Louis live as the greatest King in the world?Historical fiction of the court figures and the more humble villagers, guiding us in a world of betrayals and secrets, politicking and declarations of love.

8. Spartacus: Gods of the Arena

   2011 · Drama, Action, History · ended

   Recommended for similar Drama profile, highly rated (8.4).

   The mini-series features the bloody history of the House of Batiatus and the city of Capua before the arrival of Spartacus. Quintus Lentulus Batiatus becomes a lanista (manager) when he takes over his father's ludus of gladiators. He has ambitions of stepping out of his father's shadow by seeking recognition for his own name and achieving further greatness for his house. By his side stands his beautiful wife Lucretia who will help her husband achieve his ambitions, whatever the cost. Batiatus puts all his fortunes on the man who will gain him fame and glory. That would be his best gladiator, the Celt, Gannicus, a skilled warrior who wields dual swords with deadly purpose. Those who oppose Batiatus and his future champion(s) of Capua do so at their own peril.Purchased as an undisciplined and disheveled recruit in the first episode, Crixus the Gaul endures mockery and threats of death to become the champion after Gannicus. As Batiatus fends off repeated attempts by his professional rival Tullius to obtain Gannicus, his relationships with his father Titus and friend Solonius begin to suffer the strain of his relentless ambition. Former champion, Oenomaus, reluctantly becomes Doctore, while Syrian recruits Ashur and Dagan try to prove themselves worthy of being gladiators. Veteran gladiators Barca and Gannicus note the rising star of Crixus, as the machinations of Batiatus and Lucretia end in tragedy for several members of the household. Against all of this, the city's splendid new arena nears completion and with it the opening games that will make slaves into gods. When the arena opens, Batiatus' gladiators prevail in the contest. Gannicus again proves himself to be the champion of Capua and a god of the arena. By virtue of his win against Solonius' gladiators, he gains his freedom and Crixus becomes the new champion.

9. Chernobyl

   2019 · Drama, History · ended

   Recommended for similar Drama profile, highly rated (8.9).

   Chernobyl dramatizes the true story of one of the worst man-made catastrophes in history and tells of the brave men and women who sacrificed to save Europe from unimaginable disaster. The miniseries focuses on the heartbreaking scope of the nuclear plant disaster that occurred in Ukraine in April 1986, revealing how and why it happened and telling the shocking, remarkable stories of the heroes who fought and fell.

10. Gentleman Jack

    2019 · Drama, Romance, History · ended

    Recommended for similar Romance profile, also on BBC One.

    Gentleman Jack is a remarkable and unlikely love story set in the complex, changing world of 1832 Halifax - the cradle of the industrial revolution - just as it's all kicking off. The drama will explore Anne Lister's relationships at home with her family, her servants, her tenants and her industrial rivals, who will use any dirty tricks they can to bring her down. At its heart is her relationship with her would-be wife, the wealthy heiress Ann Walker. It has all the warmth, wit, humour and complexity that audiences have come to associate with Sally Wainwright's writing.