Best tv shows like Great Expectations
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
Mini-series based on the novel by Charles Dickens.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 174
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 30 min
Plot tags: period drama
Best tv shows and movies like Great Expectations (1981):
Similar in 79%
Great Expectations (2023)
Plot Summary:
The coming-of-age story of Pip, an orphan who yearns for a greater lot in life, until a twist of fate and the evil machinations of the mysterious and eccentric Miss Havisham shows him a dark world of possibilities. Under the great expectations placed upon him, Pip will have to work out the true cost of this new world and whether it will truly make him the man he wishes to be.
IMDB Rating: 5.3
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama, History
Country: UK, USA
Duration:
Plot tags: period piece, period drama
Similar in 89%
Iron Road (2009)
Plot Summary:
A poor but feisty Chinese woman, disguised as a boy, joins the railroad crew in the Rocky Mountains to search for her long-lost father, and falls in love with the son of the railroad tycoon.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 555
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada, China
Duration: 180 min
Plot tags: multicultural, period piece, period drama
Similar in 85%
All Passion Spent (1986)
Plot Summary:
his three-part miniseries begins with elderly Lady Slane (Wendy Hiller) sitting watchfully by the deathbed of her husband. Tended by her equally aged French maid Genoux (Eileen Way), who has served her faithfully for a lifetime, Lady Slane deals with a succession of advice from her large flock of middle-aged children. The family is chagrined by, but honors, her choice to live a modest country retirement at some distance, in Hampstead Heath. Lady Slane competently comes to terms to lease and restore a crumbling house, aided by an aging land agent Gervase Bucktrout (Maurice Denham). Once settled, an acquaintance from 50 years past, Mr. Fitzgeorge (Harry Andrews), visits the cottage to rekindle memories of their brief, deep, but unfulfilled brush as soul-mates in colonial India when Lady Slane was a devoted young wife and mother. Great-granddaughter Deborah (Jane Snowden), who has been trapped by a socially desirable but passionless engagement, regularly visits to confide and seek wisdom.
IMDB Rating: 7.9
IMDB Votes: 243
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 158 min
Plot tags: period drama
Similar in 83%
Madame Bovary (1975)
Plot Summary:
Would you risk everything to achieve your dreams? For beautiful young Emma Bovary, a life of passion and excitement is worth any price. Like a moth drawn to flame, she is entranced by the exotic worlds of romance and adventure found in her favorite novels. Experience her story of illicit passion, ultimate betrayal and heartbreaking tragedy in Gustave Flaubert’s classic Madame Bovary.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 113
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 220 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, serious, realistic, gloomy, period drama
Similar in 80%
Teresa Raquin (1980)
Plot Summary:
In order to be together, lovers Therese and Laurent plot to kill Therese's husband, Camille, but find themselves haunted by their deeds and Madame Raquin's silent judgment.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 226
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 173 min
Plot tags: period piece, period drama
Similar in 90%
The Secret (2000)
Plot Summary:
A tale of suspense and intrigue set in 19th century Tyneside, 'The Secret' is based on Catherine Cookson's only thriller novel. Freddie Musgrave's life is in turmoil when a letter implicates him in murder, things are further complicated by his feelings towards his bosses daughter, Belle, who is married to a madman.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 315
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 180 min
Plot tags: humorous, captivating, entertaining, historical drama, period piece, costume drama, period drama
Similar in 81%
Body & Soul (1993)
Plot Summary:
A nun, played by Kristin Scott Thomas, leaves the convent temporarily to help save her family knitting mill from bankruptcy following the death of her brother. Outside the convent she becomes a fairly shrewd businesswoman and feels attracted to one of the men who work at the mill, and thus begins to feel conflict about her religious vows.
IMDB Rating: 8.0
IMDB Votes: 322
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 300 min
Plot tags: period drama
Similar in 89%
Emily of New Moon (1998)
Plot Summary:
Emily of New Moon is a Canadian television series, which aired on CBC Television from 1998 to 2000. The series originally aired in the United States on the Cookie Jar Toons block on This TV and it is currently seen in Canada on the Viva, Bravo! and Vision TV cable channels. The series, produced by Salter Street Films, was based on the Emily of New Moon series of novels by Lucy Maud Montgomery. The series consisted of three seasons of thirteen episodes and one season of seven episodes, for a total of forty-six. The executive producers were Micheline Charest, Michael Donovan, and Ronald Weinberg. The series starred Martha MacIsaac as the titular orphan Emily Starr. Susan Clark and Sheila McCarthy played Emily's aunts Elizabeth and Laura, who had taken on the responsibility of raising Emily following her father's death, and Stephen McHattie played her cousin Jimmy. Susan Clark left the series after the first season when her character, Elizabeth, was killed off. Recurring cast included Chip Ciupka as Mr. Carpenter, Peter Donaldson as Ian Bowles, Richard Donat as Dr. Burnley, Kris Lemche as Perry Miller, John Neville as Uncle Malcolm, Jessica Pellerin as Ilse Burnley, Shawn Roberts as Teddy Kent, and Linda Thorson as Cousin Isabel.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 515
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 60 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, period drama
Similar in 77%
The Awakening Land (1978)
Plot Summary:
Frontierswoman Sayward Luckett's struggles in Ohio during the late 18th-century and early 19th-century.
IMDB Rating: 8.3
IMDB Votes: 471
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 333 min
Plot tags: historical drama, vintage, period drama
Similar in 80%
The Dwelling Place (1994)
Plot Summary:
Adaptation of Catherine Cookson's novel. Set in the 1830s, the film tells the story of 16-year-old Cissie Brodie after the death of parents, and the repossession of the family home. She finds a barren place to live and care for her younger brothers and sisters with the help of Matthew, a local carpenter, but her life becomes complicated when the aristocratic Fischel family take an unwelcome interest.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 405
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 180 min
Plot tags: period piece, period drama
Similar in 81%
Oliver Twist (1985)
Plot Summary:
Adaptation of the novel by Charles Dickens.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 354
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 360 min
Plot tags: period drama
Similar in 90%
Nicholas Nickleby (1977)
Plot Summary:
Adaptation of the Dickens novel.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 155
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 330 min
Plot tags: period drama
Similar in 75%
The Mayor of Casterbridge (1978)
Plot Summary:
In a drunken and disheartened state, Michael Henchard sells his wife at a fair. When he becomes sober again he realises what he has done, and though unable to find his wife and child, changes his ways. He becomes the Mayor of the town. Nearly twenty years later his past comes back to haunt him.
IMDB Rating: 7.9
IMDB Votes: 339
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 350 min
Plot tags: spiritual, tense, atmospheric, clever, serious, emotional, realistic, talky, period drama
Similar in 87%
David Copperfield (1974)
Plot Summary:
Adaptation of the Dickens novel.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 105
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 300 min
Plot tags: historical drama, period drama
Similar in 75%
The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby (1982)
Plot Summary:
Young Nicholas Nickleby sets out to make his fortune in order to prevent his mother and sister from depending upon his uncle, Ralph Nicklby. But he finds his first job as master at a Yorkshire school to be cruel, and runs away with one of the students. Meanwhile, Kate is subjected to the unwanted attentions of Sir Mulberry Hawk, aided by her uncle. Nicholas and his new friend, Smike, begin their adventures and eventually set out to rescue Kate, with the usual Dickensian twists, turns and asides.
IMDB Rating: 9.1
IMDB Votes: 541
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 540 min
Plot tags: sentimental, sincere, touching, serious, captivating, emotional, realistic, period drama
Similar in 77%
Martin Chuzzlewit (1994)
Plot Summary:
Martin Chuzzlewit is an old man with a large fortune and an even larger set of family and friends. A portrait of greed and selfishness, this magnificent adaptation of Dickens' comic masterpiece features an all-star cast.
IMDB Rating: 8.1
IMDB Votes: 938
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 385 min
Plot tags: costume drama, serious, captivating, realistic, stylized, period drama
Similar in 77%
Dickensian (2015)
Plot Summary:
Dickensian intertwines the realm of fictional characters in Charles Dickens’ novels—including Scrooge, Fagin and Miss Havisham—in half-hour episodes, as their lives intertwine in 19th century London. The Old Curiosity Shop sits next door to The Three Cripples Pub, while Fagin’s Den is hidden down a murky alley off a bustling Victorian street.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Adventure, Crime, Drama, Mystery
Country: UK
Duration: 60 min
Plot tags: costume drama, period piece, atmospheric, serious, captivating, stylized, historical drama, controversial, period drama
Similar in 82%
Oliver Twist (1999)
Plot Summary:
Based on Charles Dickens' novel, this adaptation traces the childhood of an orphan whose mother dies giving birth to him in an English work-house in the 1820s.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 829
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 386 min
Plot tags: costume drama, period piece, bleak, serious, emotional, realistic, gloomy, period drama
Similar in 79%
The Barchester Chronicles (1982)
Plot Summary:
When a crusade against the Church of England's practice of self-enrichment misfires, scandal taints the cosy community of Barchester when their local church becomes the object of a scathing, investigative report.
IMDB Rating: 8.1
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 385 min
Plot tags: costume drama, historical drama, period drama
Similar in 81%
A Dinner of Herbs (2000)
Plot Summary:
Filmed on location in the North of England, A Dinner of Herbs is a film based on Catherine Cookson's novel about hardship, betrayal and family life in a 19th century working class town. Roddy and Hal have been friends since childhood, but their closeness is strengthened by the murder of their fathers by the same man. Mary Ellen is also in their circle of friends, but when she is rejected by Roddy after an affair that leaves her pregnant, she turns to Hal for security. Their lives spiral into an explosive and dramatic conclusion.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 362
Genere: Drama, Thriller
Country: UK
Duration: 286 min
Plot tags: touching, serious, emotional, realistic, period drama
Similar in 77%
Oliver Twist (2007)
Plot Summary:
Oliver is born into poverty and misfortune - the son of an unmarried mother, who dies shortly after his birth. He is soon delivered to the workhouse, where the cruel Mr. Bumble oversees children tormented by starvation and suffering. When Oliver dares to ask for more gruel, he finds himself cast out and forced to make his own way in the world.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama, History
Country: UK, USA
Duration: 176 min
Plot tags: costume drama, sentimental, touching, sincere, captivating, juvenile, historical drama, bleak, realistic, gloomy
Similar in 81%
The Mystery of Edwin Drood (2012)
Plot Summary:
An exploration of Charles Dickens's unfinished work in which the mystery of the murder of Edwin Drood is examined.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, Mystery
Country: UK
Duration: 120 min
Plot tags: tense, atmospheric, serious, captivating, psychological, historical drama, realistic, stylized, fairy tale, period drama
Similar in 87%
Vanity Fair (2018)
Plot Summary:
An adaptation of the 1848 novel by William Makepeace Thackeray.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Drama
Country: UK, USA
Duration: 60 min
Plot tags: stylized, atmospheric, costume drama, period piece, historical drama, witty, period drama
Similar in 79%
He Knew He Was Right (2004)
Plot Summary:
He Knew He Was Right was a 2004 BBC TV adaptation of the Anthony Trollope novel He Knew He Was Right. The mini-series portrays the failure of a marriage caused by the unreasonable jealousy of a husband exacerbated by the stubbornness of a wilful wife.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 240 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, stylized, historical drama, period piece, costume drama, romantic drama, period drama
Similar in 76%
Our Mutual Friend (1998)
Plot Summary:
Intertwining tales of love, greed, and secret identities in Charles Dickens's 1860s London.
IMDB Rating: 8.1
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 350 min
Plot tags: costume drama, period piece, historical drama, serious, captivating, realistic, period drama
Similar in 79%
David Copperfield (1970)
Plot Summary:
A made for TV movie of the Charles Dickens' classic novel, turns Dickens' picaresque tale into an extended flashback, with David Copperfield Robin Phillips as a young man, brooding on a deserted beach, recalling his youth. The characters are all trotted out in choppy flashbacks as David remembers his life as a young orphan, brought to London and passed around from relatives, to guardians, to boarding school.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 585
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 118 min
Plot tags: touching, serious, captivating, emotional, realistic, gloomy, period drama
Similar in 78%
Great Expectations (1999)
Plot Summary:
A young boy called Pip stumbles upon a hunted criminal who threatens him and demands food. A few years later, Pip finds that he has a benefactor. Imagining that Miss Havisham, a rich lady whose adopted daughter Estella he loves, is the benefactor, Pip believes in a grand plan at the end of which he will be married to Estella. However, when the criminal from his childhood turns up one stormy night and reveals that he, Magwitch, is his benefactor, Pip finds his dreams crumbling. Although initially repulsed by his benefactor, Pip gradually becomes loyal to him and stays with him until his death.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: UK, USA
Duration: 168 min
Plot tags: serious, emotional, sincere, captivating, period piece, costume drama, realistic, period drama, weird
Similar in 82%
Great Expectations (1989)
Plot Summary:
Phillip Pirrip, known as Pip, meets a convict or two in a graveyard and sets into motion a series of events that lead him from a comfortable life in his brother-in-law's forge to a mysterious inheritance and his acquaintance with the eerie Miss Havisham, her beautiful ward Estella, and the unusual lawyer Jaggers.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 456
Genere: Drama
Country: USA, UK
Duration: 303 min
Plot tags: historical drama, period drama
Similar in 81%
David Copperfield (1999)
Plot Summary:
Charles Dickens' haunting semi-autobiographical tale of a boy who is sent away by his stepfather after his mother dies but manages to triumph over incredible adversities.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Drama
Country: UK, USA
Duration: 185 min
Plot tags: costume drama, atmospheric, uplifting, touching, serious, captivating, emotional, realistic, spiritual, period piece
Similar in 77%
Great Expectations (2011)
Plot Summary:
'Great Expectations' opens with Pip as a boy (played as an young man by newcomer Douglas Booth, 'The Pillars of the Earth') on the marshes near his home, where he encounters the desperate escapee Magwitch (Winstone). Pip is coerced into stealing a metal file to break Magwitch's chains, but the boy willingly snares a piece of meat pie to feed the famished man. So begins a classic coming-of-age story about innate kindness and learned indifference. Young Pip expects no more from life than to join his brother-in-law Joe at the blacksmith's forge. But fate intervenes when the neighboring rich eccentric Miss Havisham (Anderson) seeks Pip out as a playmate for her adopted daughter, Estella (Vanessa Kirby, 'The Hour'). This sets Pip on a course that sees him tested in many ways, not least in being thrown into a wish-fulfillment paradise for a young man, where he has the pleasures of London at his disposal and true love - and great expectations - in his future. Or so he thinks.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 8000
Genere: Drama
Country: UK, USA
Duration: 60 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, historical drama, serious, captivating, emotional, realistic, costume drama, period piece, gothic, stylized