Best tv shows like The Lakes
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
Doom-laden but compelling BBC1 drama series embracing sex, death and Catholic guilt, set in a small community in the Lake District. The first four-part series centred on newcomer Danny Kavanagh; the second 10-part series featured other characters in the community.
IMDB Rating: 8.1
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 374 min
Plot tags:
Best tv shows and movies like The Lakes (1997):
Similar in 75%
Megantic (2023)
Plot Summary:
Mégantic is inspired by the events that occurred during the Lac-Mégantic rail tragedy in 2013. This fiction follows the destinies of Méganticois marked by bereavement and trauma, but also by solidarity, courage and heroism.
IMDB Rating: 8.3
IMDB Votes: 190
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 60 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 76%
Scattered Dreams (1993)
Plot Summary:
It is about a loving couple which trying to make a living in 1951 Florida. When they are arrested, for a crime they didn't commit. The pair are given long jail terms and ripped from their children, so they begin a stunning fight for justice that has them facing the ruthless sheriff responsible for their incarceration.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 293
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 89%
The Casual Vacancy (2015)
Plot Summary:
The Casual Vacancy centres on Pagford, a seemingly idyllic English village with a cobbled market square and ancient abbey. Behind the pretty façade however, is a town at war: rich at war with poor, teenagers at war with their parents, wives at war with their husbands, teachers at war with their pupils. Pagford is not what it first seems.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 180 min
Plot tags: humorous, realistic, semi serious, light, feel good
Similar in 84%
Jake's Progress (1995)
Plot Summary:
Jamie Diadoni was almost a rock star in the 60s but it never quite came together. Now, married to Julie, and redundant from his job, he stays at home with son Jake, aged 6 and takes him to the local playground, surrounded by admiring mothers.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 174
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 515 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 89%
The Charmer (1987)
Plot Summary:
The Charmer was a 1987 British television serial set in the 1930s, and starring Nigel Havers as Ralph Ernest Gorse, a seducing conman and murderer, Rosemary Leach as Joan Plumleigh-Bruce, the smitten victim widow and Bernard Hepton as Donald Stimpson, Plumleigh-Bruce's would-be beau, who vengefully pursues Gorse after he has conned her. It was made by London Weekend Television for ITV, and based on the 1953 novel Mr. Stimpson and Mr. Gorse by Patrick Hamilton, the second work in the Gorse Trilogy. The series was repeated in February and March 1990. ITV3 also repeated the series in full at 01:45am from 5 September 2009. Narrative repeats were on Mondays from 7 September 2009 at 10:05am.
IMDB Rating: 7.8
IMDB Votes: 243
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 312 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 85%
Rederiet (1992)
Plot Summary:
Rederiet was a long-running Swedish soap opera that aired on Sveriges Television between 1992 and 2002. The cast featured many popular and renowned Swedish actors, and the show has often been referred to as Sweden's version of Dynasty. The 45-minute episodes were broadcast weekly on Thursday nights on the public-service channel SVT1 and normally had between one and two million viewers. For ten years, Rederiet was the number-one rated show on Swedish television, along with the rival TV4 show Tre Kronor. The competition for viewers can be compared to that between Dynasty and Dallas. Rederiet also gained popularity in Finland on YLE TV2, and the show was a hit in Norway too on TV2. The first season of the show was also sold to Egypt. The later seasons of the series were produced in collaboration with YLE, which led most notably to Finnish actor Åke Lindman appearing in the series. Rapper Ken Ring also appeared as an extra in the show in 1996. On April Fools' Day 1993 SVT News announced that Mel Gibson was to play a lead role in the series. Gibson himself was interviewed and confirmed the information. It was later revealed that the whole event had been a joke.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: Sweden, Finland
Duration: 45 min
Plot tags: soap opera
Similar in 85%
The Street (2006)
Plot Summary:
The Street is a British television drama series created by Jimmy McGovern and produced by Granada Television for the BBC. The series follows the lives of various residents of an unnamed street in Manchester and features an all-star cast including Timothy Spall, Jim Broadbent, Jane Horrocks, Bob Hoskins and David Thewlis. The Street won both the British Academy Television Award for Best Drama Series and RTS Television Award for Drama Series twice, in 2007 and 2008. It also won two International Emmy Awards in November 2007 for Best Drama and Best Actor. The second series was nominated for the Best Drama prize at the 2008 Rose d'Or ceremony. Though it did not win, it received Special Mention from the jury. In November 2010, the third series won the International Emmy Award for Best Drama and Best Actor. The third series began airing on 13 July 2009 and concluded on 17 August 2009. This was the final series to be made due to cutbacks at ITV Studios in Manchester.
IMDB Rating: 8.3
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 60 min
Plot tags: anthology, sincere, realistic, emotional, serious, powerful, gloomy, vintage
Similar in 90%
Close to the Enemy (2016)
Plot Summary:
Set in a bomb damaged London hotel during the aftermath of World War II, Close to the Enemy is a thriller that follows British intelligence officer Captain Callum Ferguson. His last task for the Army is to ensure that Dieter, a captured German scientist develops cutting edge jet engine technology for the British. Such expertise is becoming vital to Britain as they try to maintain any kind of superiority in the emerging Cold War. Callum employs unorthodox methods in his attempt to convince Dieter to work for the British, eventually developing a friendship with him. A friendship which becomes threatened as those around him believe that the Dieter may have stood by as innocents in labour camps perished under the rule of the Nazi party.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 59 min
Plot tags: exciting, tense, captivating, suspense
Similar in 81%
Deep Water (2019)
Plot Summary:
A modern day look at family through the eyes of three women as they work to balance work and life pressures.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 60 min
Plot tags: psychological, sincere, captivating, disturbing, dramatic
Similar in 81%
The Grand (1997)
Plot Summary:
The Grand is a British television drama series first broadcast on ITV in 1997–1998. It was written by Russell T Davies and set in a hotel in Manchester in the 1920s. There are two series: eight episodes in the first series were broadcast from 4 April 1997 to 23 May 1997 and ten in the second series from 30 January 1998 to 3 April 1998. All 18 episodes were written by Russell T Davies. The cast included Susan Hampshire, Julia St. John, Tim Healy, Michael Siberry, Stephen Moyer and Mark McGann. The two series were novelised by Catrin Collier, under the pen name Katherine Hardy.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 669
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 60 min
Plot tags: costume drama, serious, realistic, sexual, sexy, period drama
Similar in 76%
Boys from the Blackstuff (1982)
Plot Summary:
Alan Bleasdale's hugely acclaimed mini-series echoes the misery and despair of long-term unemployment. Set in Liverpool, these profoundly moving human dramas follow in turn the attempts of five working-class heroes to survive.
IMDB Rating: 8.5
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 50 min
Plot tags: sincere, touching, bleak, serious, emotional, realistic, gloomy
Similar in 89%
Moving On (2009)
Plot Summary:
Moving On is a British television series set in contemporary Britain consisting of standalone dramas all sharing the theme of someone going through some kind of change in their life and moving on.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 497
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 45 min
Plot tags: sincere, serious, emotional, realistic, contemplative, gloomy
Similar in 77%
Clouds of Witness (1972)
Plot Summary:
Lord Peter's brother, the Duke of Denver is accused of murdering their sister Mary's fiancé. It's up to Lord Peter and his faithful man Bunter to untangle all the clues and the contradicting testimony of a cloud of witnesses to save Denver.
IMDB Rating: 8.0
IMDB Votes: 364
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration:
Plot tags: talky, detective, mind bending, clever, serious, realistic, suspenseful, witty, stylized
Similar in 79%
Granite Flats (2013)
Plot Summary:
It's the 1960s. The height of the Cold War. The rural town of Granite Flats, Colorado, suddenly becomes a hotbed for mystery and intrigue. Almost a year after Hershel Jenkins was released from jail, mystery is still a permanent resident in Granite Flats, Colorado. From small concerns plaguing the citizens of the small town to ongoing FBI investigations, Arthur, Timmy, and Madeline are eager to put their developing detective skills to the test. Their sleuthing goes further than ever before, and they may be biting off more than they can chew. And as it turns out, sleuthing is a family affair. The parents of all three miniature detectives have dipped their toes in the water. Chief Sanders works side by side with the FBI to find a citizen who is disloyal to the country, Beth is embroiled in the center of experimental work at the hospital, and the Doctors Andrews are the masterminds behind the shady experiments. This season, everyone has got a secret and nobody is ready to admit it.
IMDB Rating: 7.9
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 50 min
Plot tags: realistic, serious, stylized, captivating, detective
Similar in 84%
Where the Heart Is (1997)
Plot Summary:
Where the Heart Is is a British television family drama series set in the fictional Yorkshire town of Skelthwaite. First shown in 1997, it was created by Ashley Pharoah and Vicky Featherstone, and focuses on the professional and personal lives of the district nurses who work in the town. The original leads were Sarah Lancashire and Pam Ferris, who played sisters-in-law and colleagues at the Skelthwaite Health Centre. Both actresses had left the series by 2000; however, the format of at least two female leads continued with various different actresses until the show's end. A typical episode would focus on one or two medical storylines interweaved with personal stories featuring one or both nurses. One of ITV's longest-running shows, Where the Heart Is was known for being what has been described as a haven for former soap stars, including Lancashire, Philip Middlemiss, Samantha Giles, Kerrie Taylor, Brian Capron and Shobna Gulati. In October 2006, the series was cancelled after nine years, despite viewing figures of well over 7 million. The theme song "Where the Heart is" was performed by Prefab Sprout. It was released as a single and appears on the band's 38 Carat Collection.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 540
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 50 min
Plot tags: sentimental, touching, serious, captivating, realistic, soap opera
Similar in 78%
A Dance to the Music of Time (1997)
Plot Summary:
Anthony Powell's 12 volume novel sequence "A Dance to the Music of Time" has been dramatised for television.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 507
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 416 min
Plot tags: serious, captivating, realistic, stylized, period drama
Similar in 84%
The Outcast (2015)
Plot Summary:
Set in post-war Britain, ten year-old Lewis Aldridge is grief-stricken as he struggles to cope with the death of his beloved mother. Left under the care of his emotionally distant father Gilbert, whom he barely knows and who quickly remarries, Lewis is forced to bury his feelings.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 179 min
Plot tags: touching, captivating, atmospheric, psychological, serious, realistic, gloomy, period drama
Similar in 89%
Casualty (1986)
Plot Summary:
Casualty, stylised as CASUAL+Y, is a British medical drama television series that airs weekly on BBC One, and the longest-running emergency medical drama television series in the world. Created by Jeremy Brock and Paul Unwin, it was first broadcast on 6 September 1986, and transmitted in the UK on BBC One. The original producer was Geraint Morris. The programme is based around the fictional Holby City Hospital and focuses on the staff and patients of the hospital's Accident and Emergency Department. The show has very few ties to its sister programme Holby City which began as a spin off from Casualty in 1999 and is set in the same hospital, but upstairs. The show's plots and characters occasionally crossover between the two programmes, but this is rare, and each show can easily be followed without having to watch the other. Casualty is shown weekly on a Saturday evening, which has been its time slot since the early 1990s.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 50 min
Plot tags: captivating, sincere, touching, serious, realistic, medical drama, soap opera, emotional, gloomy
Similar in 75%
Peak Practice (1993)
Plot Summary:
Peak Practice is a British drama series about a GP surgery in Cardale — a small fictional town in the Derbyshire Peak District — and the doctors who worked there. It ran on ITV from 10 May 1993 to 30 January 2002 and was one of their most successful series at the time. It originally starred Kevin Whately as Dr Jack Kerruish, Amanda Burton as Dr Beth Glover and Simon Shepherd as Dr Will Preston, though the roster of doctors would change many times over the course of the series. Cardale was based on the Staffordshire village of Longnor for the final series, but was previously based in the Derbyshire village of Crich, although certain scenes were filmed at other nearby Derbyshire towns and villages, most notably Matlock, Belper and Ashover.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 495
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 50 min
Plot tags: medical drama, touching, serious, emotional, realistic
Similar in 82%
Holby City (1999)
Plot Summary:
Drama series about life on the wards of Holby City Hospital, following the highs and lows of the staff and patients.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 60 min
Plot tags: sincere, touching, captivating, realistic, serious, medical drama, emotional, gloomy
Similar in 85%
The Royal (2003)
Plot Summary:
Follows the staff and patients of a Yorkshire cottage hospital in the 60s, embroiled in tangled love lives and bitter power struggles.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 60 min
Plot tags: medical drama, captivating, realistic, emotional, psychological, sincere, touching, serious, gloomy, period drama
Similar in 83%
A Passionate Woman (2010)
Plot Summary:
1950's, Leeds: Betty (Billie Piper) is a wife and mother, whose life is changed forever after falling hopelessly and dangerously in love with her charismatic Polish neighbour, Alex Crazenovski, better known as Craze . Against her principles, she soon abandons herself to a world of untapped thrills and passion, a world that has been so desperately missing from her own conventional and claustrophobic marriage. But 30 years later, an older Betty (Sue Johnston) comes to realise that her compulsive passion of the past and its consequences have created ripples that spill far into the future, finally reaching crisis point on her beloved son s wedding day.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 309
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: sincere, atmospheric, thought provoking, bleak, serious, emotional, realistic, gloomy, period drama
Similar in 79%
Small Island (2009)
Plot Summary:
In 1939 Hortense, illegitimate but intelligent and ambitious, is brought up on Jamaica with the family of charismatic, free-thinking Michael, who joins the Air Force when war breaks out and goes to England. After the war, Hortense, now a qualified teacher, makes a marriage of convenience to Gilbert Joseph, paying for his passage to England on condition he sends for her.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 180 min
Plot tags: touching, serious, captivating, realistic, family saga, saga, period drama
Similar in 90%
From There to Here (2014)
Plot Summary:
Created by Peter Bowker, From There To Here is set in the aftermath of the 1996 Arndale bombing and follows Daniel Cotton, a Manchester family man who is torn between the life he wants and the life he could have. The story spans the four years that changed Manchester and the country forever; from Footballs Coming Home in 1996, to New Labour sweeping to power in 1997, and finally to the hangover after the Millennium celebrations of 2000. Against the feel-good backdrop of Euro 96, it maps the emotional shockwaves generated by that bomb in the lives of two parallel families from different sides of the tracks.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 575
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 60 min
Plot tags: sincere, serious, touching, captivating, realistic
Similar in 90%
The Last Place on Earth (1985)
Plot Summary:
The Last Place on Earth is a 1985 Central Television seven part serial, written by Trevor Griffiths based on the book Scott and Amundsen by Roland Huntford. The book is an exploration of the expeditions of Captain Robert F. Scott and his Norwegian rival in polar exploration, Roald Amundsen in their attempts to reach the South Pole. The series ran for seven episodes and starred a wide range of UK and Norwegian character actors as well as featuring some famous names, such as Max von Sydow, Richard Wilson, Sylvester McCoy and Pat Roach. It also featured performances early in their careers by Bill Nighy and Hugh Grant. Subsequently Huntford's book was republished under the same name. The book put forth the point of view that Amundsen's success in reaching the South Pole was abetted by much superior planning, whereas errors by Scott ultimately resulted in the death of him and his companions.
IMDB Rating: 8.1
IMDB Votes: 439
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 396 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 84%
Everyday (2012)
Plot Summary:
This film charts the relationship between a man imprisoned for drug smuggling and his wife and is being shot over the course of five years, a few weeks at a time.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 834
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 106 min
Plot tags: realistic, serious, psychological, captivating, independent film, sincere, touching
Similar in 80%
House of Cards (1990)
Plot Summary:
Francis Urquhart is the chief whip of the Conservative party. When Margaret Thatcher resigns as leader, he remains neutral and after a general election where the conservatives are returned with a reduced majority, he fully expects the new Prime Minister, Henry Collingridge, to give him his just reward: a senior Cabinet post. When he's informed that he is to stay in his current position, he devises a plot to unseat Collingridge and ensure his own election as party leader which would make his Prime Minister.
IMDB Rating: 8.5
IMDB Votes: 15000
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 226 min
Plot tags: tense, witty, political, realistic, clever, serious, political thriller, biting, educational, intelligent
Similar in 90%
The Village (2013)
Plot Summary:
The Village is a BBC TV series written by Peter Moffat. The drama is set in a Derbyshire village in the 20th century. The first series of what Moffat hopes will become a 42-hour TV drama was broadcast in spring 2013 and covered the years 1914 to 1920. A second series has been confirmed for 2014 which will continue the story into the 1920s. Future series would be set in the Second World War, post-war Austerity Britain, and so on. The Village tells the story of life in a Derbyshire village through the eyes of a central character, Bert Middleton. Bert has been portrayed as a boy by Bill Jones, as a teen by Alfie Stewart, and as an old man by David Ryall. John Simm plays Bert's father John Middleton, an alcoholic Peak District farmer, and Maxine Peake plays Bert's mother, Grace. Peake is a preferred actress of the writer, who has called her "the best actress of her generation", and she has featured in two previous Moffat series, Criminal Justice and Silk. Writer Peter Moffat has spoken of wanting to create 'a British Heimat', alluding to Edgar Reitz's epic German saga Heimat, which followed one extended family in a region of Rhineland from 1919 to 1982. Unlike Downton Abbey, this version of history is a working-class history—"domestics are expected to face the walls when the master walks by".
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 60 min
Plot tags: realistic, serious, captivating, rough, costume drama, dark, grim, historical drama, stylized, epic
Similar in 76%
Fragile (2019)
Plot Summary:
Fragile tells the story of two diametrically opposite families: the wealthy, influential Bachands, and the salt-of-the-earth Coutures. It’s also the story of an unlikely friendship, that of Dominic Couture (Pier-Luc Funk) and Félix Bachand (Marc-André Grondin). The pair’s mysterious death sends shock waves through their families and community, exposing jealously guarded secrets, dangerous liaisons, and hidden agendas.
IMDB Rating: 7.8
IMDB Votes: 291
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 43 min
Plot tags: psychological, tense, captivating, suspense, disturbing
Similar in 76%
South Riding (2011)
Plot Summary:
Andrew Davies sparkling adaption of Winifred Holtby's acclaimed novel. Insightful, warm and full of memorable characters, South Riding tells a fraught love story and paints a panaromic portrait of a Yorkshire community in the long aftermath of the First World War.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration:
Plot tags: touching, captivating, emotional, realistic, historical drama, period piece, costume drama, serious, stylized, period drama