Best tv shows like Birdsong
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
As an English soldier fights in the horrific trenches of northern France, he is haunted by the memories of his forbidden love affair with a French woman.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Drama, Romance, War
Country: UK
Duration: 165 min
Plot tags: emotional, realistic, epic, serious, stylized, historical drama, romantic drama, period drama, masterpiece
Best tv shows and movies like Birdsong (2012):
Similar in 85%
Any Human Heart (2010)
Plot Summary:
A novelist's life ricochets from 1920s Paris to '50s New York and '80s London. Along the way he meets Ernest Hemingway, Ian Fleming and the Duke and Duchess of Windsor - the exiled British king and his mistress Wallis Simpson.
IMDB Rating: 7.8
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: UK
Duration:
Plot tags: stylized, serious, realistic, sentimental, historical drama, romantic, touching, captivating, costume drama, period drama
Similar in 88%
Quiet Flows the Don (2006)
Plot Summary:
With World War I, the Bolshevik Revolution, and the Russian Civil War as backdrop, it's an old-fashioned, blood-and-guts narrative, filled with earthly humor and a wealth of colorful characters. The story concerns the fluctuating fortunes of Grigory Melekhov, a young Cossack who is both a hero and a victim of the uprising.
IMDB Rating: 4.8
IMDB Votes: 565
Genere: Drama, History, Romance, War
Country: UK, Russia, Italy
Duration: 176 min
Plot tags: epic, family saga, captivating
Similar in 81%
The Cinder Path (1994)
Plot Summary:
Tale of a farmer's son who gets involved with two sisters, then goes to fight in the trenches in WW1.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 481
Genere: Drama, Romance, War
Country: UK
Duration: 145 min
Plot tags: costume drama, serious, realistic, period piece, period drama
Similar in 76%
Deadline Gallipoli (2015)
Plot Summary:
Three journalists, Charles Bean, Ellis Ashmead Bartlett and Phillip Schuler, arrive at Gallipoli with the invading British and Allied troops in 1915. They will report the war but are prevented from getting out the true story of an unfolding disaster. From encampment in Cairo to Anzac Cove to the evacuation, this is the story of journalists who will not accept that truth be the first casualty. This is the story of the men who will not shut up. The actions of these men will help change the course of the campaign, ensure that a strategic disaster becomes a legend of human heroism, and leave an impregnable mark on each of their lives.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 854
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Australia
Duration: 197 min
Plot tags: tense, serious, captivating, realistic, historical drama, period drama
Similar in 81%
War and Peace (2007)
Plot Summary:
War and Peace delineates in graphic detail events leading up to the French invasion of Russia, and the impact of the Napoleonic era on Tsarist society, as seen through the eyes of five Russian aristocratic families. Portions of an earlier version of the novel, then known as The Year 1805,were serialized in the magazine The Russian Messenger between 1865 and 1867.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, History, Romance, War
Country: Italy, France, Germany, Russia, Poland
Duration: 394 min
Plot tags: captivating, stylized, epic, emotional, contemplative, romantic, historical drama, fairy tale, period piece, costume drama
Similar in 83%
Flambards (1979)
Plot Summary:
In the early 1900s in England, young Christina is orphaned and goes to live with her Uncle Russell, who owns the country estate of Flambards, and has two sons. Mark, the elder, is a wastrel, a roue and, like his father, loves to hunt. The younger son, William, lives to fly aeroplanes. Christina finds herself struggling with the ideas of classism as she falls in love with country life, the hunt, and one of her cousins. But after their impulsive marriage, when her husband is called away by the First World War, Christina must keep Flambards afloat by herself.
IMDB Rating: 8.3
IMDB Votes: 477
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 780 min
Plot tags: serious, captivating, emotional, realistic, period drama
Similar in 80%
Gallipoli (2015)
Plot Summary:
As dawn breaks on April 25, 1915, ANZAC troops go into battle on the beaches of the Gallipoli peninsula. Landing in the dark chaos, Tolly, Bevan and their mates struggle to establish a tenuous foothold on the treacherous slopes and deep ravines. They endure the next eight months on the peninsula learning lessons of survival. By the time of the final evacuation they have also learned the skills of combat and what it means to be a young man in war.
IMDB Rating: 7.9
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, History, War
Country: Australia
Duration: 44 min
Plot tags: rough, serious, captivating, emotional, realistic, stylized, period drama
Similar in 87%
Parade's End (2012)
Plot Summary:
In the years before the First World War, three Britons are drawn into fraught and ultimately tragic relations: Anglican Christopher Tietjens, second son of the lord of the manor of Groby, Yorkshire, who is a disconsolate, Tory statistician in London; Catholic Sylvia Satterthwaite, his promiscuous and self-centered socialite wife who has married him only to hide the fact that their son is not really his; and freethinking Valentine Wannop, a young suffragette and daughter of a lady novelist, who is torn between her idealism and her attraction to "Chrissy". As the war works a profound change on Europe, and Chrissy is badly wounded in France, the conflict shatters and rearranges the lives of all three principals, as well as virtually everyone else in their elite circle.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 11000
Genere: Action, Drama, Romance, War
Country: UK, Belgium, USA
Duration: 287 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, clever, period piece, costume drama, romantic drama, retro, historical drama, stylized, period drama
Similar in 86%
A Woman of Substance (1984)
Plot Summary:
A Woman of Substance charts the life of Emma Harte, from kitchen maid at the beginning of the 20th Century, to respected business woman and Grandmother in the 1980's. From humble beginnings Emma Harte starts her business with a small shop, but over the next twenty years she expands her stores and invests in the growing textile industry in Leeds. By the time of World War 2, Emma is the head of a major retail and manufacturing empire, but she has struggled all her life to find love. After an illegitimate daughter and two marriages, she finally meets the love of her life, Paul McGill, but their affair is cut short by a tragic accident, leaving Emma with his daughter. In the 1980's Emma faces one of her biggest tests - her children's attempt to remove her as head of her company, but Emma is far from the senile old woman they think she is - she is determined to stop them at all costs. Written by Stacey Mitchell.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: UK
Duration: 300 min
Plot tags: costume drama, romantic drama, historical drama, serious, captivating, emotional, realistic, stylized, period drama
Similar in 87%
The Jewel in the Crown (1984)
Plot Summary:
The British Raj: though their position seems secure, thoughtful English men and women know that "their" time in India is coming to an end. The story begins with an unjust arrest for rape, and the consequences of this echo through the series. Questions of identity and personal responsibility are explored against a background of war and personal intrigue.
IMDB Rating: 8.4
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, History, Romance, War
Country: UK
Duration: 778 min
Plot tags: sincere, captivating, emotional, serious, realistic, costume drama, historical drama, epic, atmospheric, stylized
Similar in 87%
Ryan's Daughter (1970)
Plot Summary:
World War I seems far away from Ireland's Dingle peninsula when Rosy Ryan Shaughnessy goes horseback riding on the beach with the young English officer. There was a magnetic attraction between them the day he was the only customer in her father's pub and Rosy was tending bar for the first time since her marriage to the village schoolmaster. Then one stormy night some Irish revolutionaries expecting a shipment of guns arrive at Ryan's pub. Is it Rosy who betrays them to the British? Will Shaugnessy take Father Collin's advice? Is the pivotal role that of the village idiot who is mute?.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 10000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: UK, USA
Duration: 200 min
Plot tags: sentimental, epic, emotional, touching, realistic, romantic, scenic, serious, captivating, erotic
Similar in 76%
Doctor Zhivago (2002)
Plot Summary:
Young and beautiful Lara is loved by three men: a revolutionary, a mogul, and a doctor. Their lives become intertwined with the drama of Russian revolution. Doctor Zhivago is still married when he meets Lara. Their love story is unfolding against the backdrop of revolution which affects the doctor's career, his family, and his love to Lara.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: UK, Germany, USA
Duration: 226 min
Plot tags: emotional, serious, captivating, realistic, heartbreaking, period piece, costume drama, historical drama, epic, romantic drama
Similar in 89%
Till We Meet Again (1989)
Plot Summary:
Judith Krantz's Till We Meet Again was a 1989 TV mini-series based on the Judith Krantz novel, Till We Meet Again. Its stars included Mia Sara, Bruce Boxleitner, Hugh Grant and Courteney Cox.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 685
Genere: Drama, Romance, War
Country: USA, UK
Duration: 240 min
Plot tags: clever, serious, emotional, realistic, talky, period drama
Similar in 89%
Colditz (2005)
Plot Summary:
Three prisoners, Jack Rose, Tom Willis and Nick McGrade, embark on an heroic plan to escape from a World War Two POW camp. As Rose And Willis are recaptured by the Germans, McGrade manages to traverse their clutches and travels to London to inform Rose's girlfriend of his capture. So begins a complex love story.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: UK
Duration: 240 min
Plot tags: realistic, serious, touching, exciting, tense, historical drama, period drama
Similar in 81%
World Without End (2012)
Plot Summary:
The English town of Kingsbridge works to survive as the King leads the nation into the Hundred Years' War with France while Europe deals with the outbreak of the Black Death.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 9000
Genere: Drama, Romance, Thriller
Country: Canada, Germany, UK
Duration: 374 min
Plot tags: epic, tense, realistic, stylized, serious, captivating, suspenseful, costume drama, historical drama, political
Similar in 82%
A Soldier's Tale (1989)
Plot Summary:
In the days following the D-Day invasion in Normandy, France, a British platoon leader named Saul (Gabriel Byrne) and his corporal (Paul Wyett) reach an isolated farmhouse and encounter a beautiful French girl named Belle (Marianne Basler). Love blooms between Saul and Belle, but the grim realities of war catch up with them when a French Resistance trio claims that Belle is a Nazi collaborator. Judge Reinhold appears briefly as the token Yank.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 263
Genere: Drama, Romance, War
Country: New Zealand
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: realistic, tense, serious, emotional
Similar in 88%
Anzac Girls (2014)
Plot Summary:
The unique, and rarely told true stories of Australian and New Zealand nurses serving at Gallipoli and the Western Front during the First World War.
IMDB Rating: 7.9
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Action, Drama, History, Romance, War
Country: Australia
Duration: 60 min
Plot tags: captivating, emotional, realistic, serious, stylized, costume drama, medical drama, historical drama, gloomy, romantic drama
Similar in 77%
The Crimson Field (2014)
Plot Summary:
In a tented field hospital on the coast of France, a team of doctors, nurses and women volunteers work together to heal the bodies and souls of men wounded in the trenches.
IMDB Rating: 7.8
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: UK
Duration: 60 min
Plot tags: serious, period piece, emotional, realistic, melancholic, suspenseful, costume drama, historical drama, exciting, tense
Similar in 89%
Passchendaele (2008)
Plot Summary:
Sergeant Michael Dunne fights in the 10th Battalion, AKA The "Fighting Tenth" with the 1st Canadian Division and participated in all major Canadian battles of the war, and set the record for highest number of individual bravery awards for a single battle.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 9000
Genere: Drama, History, Romance, War
Country: Canada
Duration: 114 min
Plot tags: rough, serious, emotional, realistic, epic, erotic, romantic drama, historical drama, period drama
Similar in 79%
Our World War (2014)
Plot Summary:
During the First World War, British troops face the horrors of the Battle of Mons in 1914, internal strife in 1916 and innovative tank warfare in 1918.
IMDB Rating: 8.1
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Action, Drama, War
Country: UK
Duration:
Plot tags: serious, captivating, realistic, suspenseful, costume drama, stylized
Similar in 82%
The Passing Bells (2014)
Plot Summary:
At the outbreak of war, two teenage boys defy their parents to sign up.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: UK, Poland
Duration:
Plot tags: historical drama, epic, realistic, serious, captivating, psychological, costume drama, emotional, gloomy
Similar in 79%
Company K (2004)
Plot Summary:
Based on the popular World War I novel by author William March, director Robert Clem's COMPANY K follows a veteran of the first great conflict as he finishes a book about his wartime experiences and reflects on how a man's true character is revealed through his actions on the battlefield. From the German soldier who visits him in dreams to the camaraderie that is forged by fighting together and the true gravity of laying down your life for a greater cause, World War I veteran Joe Delaney will attempt to exorcise his demons through writing while struggling to readjust to small-town life following the trauma of war.
IMDB Rating: 5.3
IMDB Votes: 339
Genere: Drama, War
Country: USA
Duration: 102 min
Plot tags: psychological, epic, serious, captivating, disturbing, bleak, emotional, realistic
Similar in 82%
Private Peaceful (2012)
Plot Summary:
Set in the fields of Devon and the WW1 battlefields of Flanders, two brothers fall for the same girl while contending with the pressures of their feudal family life, the war, and the price of courage and cowardice.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: UK
Duration: 102 min
Plot tags: touching, serious, emotional, realistic, crying, weeping, period drama
Similar in 87%
Anzacs (1985)
Plot Summary:
Anzacs was a 1985 5-part Australian miniseries set in World War I. The series follows the lives of a group of young Australian men who enlist in the 8th Battalion of the First Australian Imperial Force in 1914, fighting first at Gallipoli in 1915, and then on the Western Front for the remainder of the war. It follows in the wake of Australian New Wave war films such as Breaker Morant, Gallipoli, and precedes The Lighthorsemen. Recurring themes of these films include the Australian identity, such as mateship and larrikinism, the loss of innocence in war, and also the continued coming of age of the Australian nation and its soldiers.
IMDB Rating: 8.1
IMDB Votes: 839
Genere: Drama, History, War
Country: Australia
Duration: 165 min
Plot tags: exciting, rough, bleak, serious, captivating, realistic, vintage, period drama
Similar in 81%
The Lost Battalion (2001)
Plot Summary:
Fact-based war drama about an American battalion of over 500 men which gets trapped behind enemy lines in the Argonne Forest in October 1918 France during the closing weeks of World War I. Based on a true story, The Lost Battalion is set in 1918 during the final months of WWI. Assigned to capture an enemy stronghold in Charlvaux at the height of the Argonne campaign, the men of the AEF 308th Battalion, 77th Division, are led by young American major Charles Whittlesey, an inexperienced but dedicated "citizen soldier." Totally cut off from the other allied troops, unaware of their vulnerability, and barraged by "friendly fire," the 500-plus men of the 308th bravely hold their position, suffering incredible losses and unspeakable deprivations in the process -- while the battalion's superior officers, far from the firing line, callously prepare to write off the men as expendable casualties.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 8000
Genere: Action, Drama, War
Country: Luxembourg, USA
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags: rough, bleak, serious, realistic, suspenseful, disturbing, philosophical, political, historical drama, gloomy
Similar in 81%
Dear John (2010)
Plot Summary:
Sergeant John Tyree is home on a 2 week leave from Germany. He meets Savannah after he dives into the ocean to retrieve Savannah's purse that had fallen off the pier. John falls in love with Savannah who is a student on spring break helping build a house for Habitat for Humanity. A romance occurs and Savannah falls deeply in love with John. She promises to write John overseas until he returns.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 156000
Genere: Drama, Romance, War
Country: USA
Duration: 108 min
Plot tags: romantic, sentimental, sweet, touching, emotional, romantic drama, teen, tear jerker, sad, realistic
Similar in 75%
Doctor Zhivago (1965)
Plot Summary:
Doctor Zhivago is the filmed adapation of the Russian novel by Boris Pasternak from director David Lean that was an international success and today deemed a classic. Omar Sharif and Julie Christie play two protagonists who in fact love each other yet because of their current situation cannot find a way be together.
IMDB Rating: 7.9
IMDB Votes: 81000
Genere: Drama, Romance, War
Country: Italy, UK, USA
Duration: 197 min
Plot tags: epic, atmospheric, emotional, romantic, scenic, costume drama, visual, sentimental, serious, realistic
Similar in 84%
Piece of Cake (1988)
Plot Summary:
The lives and loves of the men of RAF Hornet Squadron who are transferred to France at the outbreak of World Wat II in September 1939. For the most part the men are competent fliers but there is little action in the first several months. The men wile away their time with some engaging in dangerous stunts while others woo some of the local lasses. The phony war comes to an end in April 1940 and the Battle of Britain begins. By September that year, few of them are left and despite their success, few see themselves as heroes. (6 episodes).
IMDB Rating: 8.1
IMDB Votes: 774
Genere: Drama, War
Country: UK
Duration: 312 min
Plot tags: costume drama, exciting, serious, captivating, realistic, period drama
Similar in 85%
In Love and War (1996)
Plot Summary:
After teenage ambulance driver Ernest Hemingway (Chris O'Donnell) takes shrapnel in the leg during World War I, he falls in love with Agnes von Kurowsky (Sandra Bullock), a beautiful older nurse at the hospital where he's sent to recover. Their affair slowly blossoms, until Hemingway boldly asks Agnes to be his wife and journey to America with him. Richard Attenborough directs this drama based on the real-life experiences of the famed novelist.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 9000
Genere: Biography, Drama, Romance, War
Country: USA
Duration: 113 min
Plot tags: romantic, sentimental, romantic drama, sincere, sex comedy, atmospheric, serious, realistic, light, inspirational
Similar in 77%
Testament of Youth (2014)
Plot Summary:
Testament of Youth is a powerful story of love, war and remembrance, based on the First World War memoir by Vera Brittain, which has become the classic testimony of that war from a woman’s point of view. A searing journey from youthful hopes and dreams to the edge of despair and back again, it’s a film about young love, the futility of war and how to make sense of the darkest times.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 30000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History, War
Country: UK, Denmark, USA
Duration: 129 min
Plot tags: touching, period piece, serious, captivating, romantic, stylized, costume drama, factual, sad, historical drama