Best tv shows like The Scarlet Pimpernel
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
A series of television drama programmes loosely based on Baroness Emmuska Orczy's series of novels, set in 1793 during the French Revolution. It stars Richard E. Grant as the hero, Sir Percy Blakeney, and his eponymous alter ego. The first series also starred Elizabeth McGovern as his wife Marguerite and Martin Shaw as the Pimpernel's archrival, Paul Chauvelin. Robespierre was played by Ronan Vibert. It was filmed in the Czech Republic and scored by a Czech composer, Michal Pavlíček.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Adventure, Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 540 min
Plot tags: costume drama, serious, realistic, suspenseful, heroic, period piece, period drama, weird
Best tv shows and movies like The Scarlet Pimpernel (1999):
Similar in 81%
The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling (1997)
Plot Summary:
A new adaptation of the classic novel by Henry Fielding of the life, loves and adventures of the charming rascal Tom Jones. A foundling child born of a serving wench but allowed to grow up in the privileged surroundings of Squire Allworthy's household. This position allows him to grow up with, make the acquaintance of and eventually fall in love with the beautiful daughter of his wealthy neighbour, Sophia Western. However, the path to true love rarely runs smooth and family pressure, the difference in their parentage and 18th century social custom prevent the young lovers from being together. Eventually both are forced out of their gentile, protected surroundings and into the great wide world to see what adventures real life might bring.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 869
Genere: Adventure, Comedy, Drama, Romance
Country: UK
Duration: 314 min
Plot tags: exciting, serious, realistic, witty, period piece, costume drama, period drama
Similar in 81%
Moonfleet (2013)
Plot Summary:
An adaptation of J Meade Falkner’s 1898 swashbuckling novel. A young man craving adventure joins a gang of smugglers in search of Blackbeard's diamond.
IMDB Rating: 5.5
IMDB Votes: 567
Genere: Adventure
Country: UK
Duration: 87 min
Plot tags: exciting, captivating, semi serious, humorous, epic, period piece, nautical, costume drama, period drama
Similar in 76%
Vanity Fair (1967)
Plot Summary:
Adaptation of William Makepeace Thackeray's novel. The first colour production from the BBC.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 67
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 50 min
Plot tags: costume drama, serious, captivating, realistic, stylized, period piece, period drama
Similar in 85%
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 81%
Sharpe's Company (1994)
Plot Summary:
Spain 1812 The Duke of Wellington plans to lay siege to Badajoz. A murderous figure from Sharpe's past uses a beautiful woman revenge himself on Sharpe, now the father of her child. Sharpe has reason to be happy, he holds his daughter for the first time and is given command of the Light Company again, together with his captaincy. But will his happiness be short lived?.
IMDB Rating: 7.8
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Action, Adventure, Drama, War
Country: UK
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: exciting, atmospheric, rough, serious, captivating, realistic, suspenseful
Similar in 77%
Sharpe's Sword (1995)
Plot Summary:
Sharpe is tasked to protect the most important spy in Lord Wellington's network, but domestic issues, a traumatized young girl, and possible French spies all threaten his success.
IMDB Rating: 7.8
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Action, Adventure, Drama, War
Country: UK
Duration: 101 min
Plot tags: exciting, atmospheric, serious, captivating, realistic, suspenseful
Similar in 86%
Sharpe's Siege (1996)
Plot Summary:
Sharpe, with his new commanding officer, is sent to capture a castle when news comes of locals who will rise against Bonaparte. However, he is somewhat distracted by thoughts of his wife whom he was forced to leave while stricken with fever.
IMDB Rating: 7.8
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Action, Adventure, Drama, War
Country: UK
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: exciting, suspenseful, serious, captivating, realistic, stylized
Similar in 85%
Sharpe's Honour (1994)
Plot Summary:
1813. Major Sharpe's old enemy, Major Ducos manipulates a beautiful young marquesa into falsely accusing Sharpe of rape. Her husband calls Sharpe out in a duel. But when the husband is found dead the next morning, Sharpe is arrested and brought before a court martial, and it seems not even Patrick Harper and the Chosen Men can save Sharpe from a hanging, or rescue his honour.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Action, Adventure, Drama, War
Country: UK
Duration: 101 min
Plot tags: exciting, tense, atmospheric, serious, realistic, suspenseful
Similar in 75%
Sharpe's Battle (1995)
Plot Summary:
When Sharpe is ordered to whip the King of Spain's Irish Royal Brigade into shape, he faces dissent from the men who believe the British are slaughtering their relatives in Ireland and a spy from within.
IMDB Rating: 7.8
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Action, Adventure, Drama, War
Country: UK
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: exciting, serious, captivating, realistic, suspenseful
Similar in 76%
Sharpe's Eagle (1993)
Plot Summary:
Sharpe is a Captain saddled with the South Essex, a battalion run by incompetents and filled with soldiers who have never been in battle. When the South Essex loses its colours (its regimental flag), Sharpe vows to save the honor of the regiment by capturing a French Imperial standard: an eagle.
IMDB Rating: 7.8
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Action, Adventure, Drama, War
Country: UK
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: exciting, serious, captivating, realistic, factual, suspenseful, period drama
Similar in 87%
Sharpe's Rifles (1993)
Plot Summary:
During the Peninsular War in Spain against the French, Sergeant Richard Sharpe saves the life of Arthur Wellesley, the future Duke of Wellington and is promoted to Lieutenant. In order to pay the troops Wellesley needs a money draft from the banker Rothschild, but fears he has been captured by the French and sends Sharpe behind enemy lines to find him. Sharpe is given command of a platoon of crack riflemen, led by the surly Irishman Harper and including Hagman and Harris, who resent Sharpe as not being a 'proper officer'.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Action, Adventure, Drama, War
Country: UK
Duration: 102 min
Plot tags: exciting, costume drama, realistic, serious, suspenseful
Similar in 76%
The Scarlet Pimpernel (1982)
Plot Summary:
During the French Revolution, a mysterious English nobleman known only as The Scarlet Pimpernel (a humble wayside flower), snatches French aristos from the jaws of the guillotine, while posing as the foppish Sir Percy Blakeney in society. Percy falls for and marries the beautiful actress Marguerite St. Just, but she is involved with Chauvelin and Robespierre, and Percy's marriage to her may endanger the Pimpernel's plans to save the little Dauphin.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Action, Drama, Romance
Country: UK
Duration: 142 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, entertaining, period piece, exciting, serious, realistic, suspenseful, period drama, baroque, eighties
Similar in 89%
Sharpe's Regiment (1996)
Plot Summary:
Told his battalion is to be split up due to lack of recruits at home, Sharpe and Harper return to England to investigate. What should have been a simple query turns politically explosive as they come nearer to exposing profiteering on the home front that could jeopardize the Wellington's war.
IMDB Rating: 7.8
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Action, Adventure, Drama, War
Country: UK
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: exciting, sincere, serious, captivating, realistic, suspenseful
Similar in 87%
Sharpe's Waterloo (1997)
Plot Summary:
Based on the novel by Bernard Cornwell, "Sharpe's Waterloo" brings maverick British officer Lt. Col. Richard Sharpe to his last fight against the French, in June of 1815.
IMDB Rating: 7.9
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Action, Adventure, Drama, War
Country: UK
Duration: 101 min
Plot tags: exciting, atmospheric, rough, serious, captivating, realistic, suspenseful, period drama
Similar in 80%
Sharpe's Peril (2008)
Plot Summary:
Our story begins at the end of Sharpe's Challenge. Sharpe and Harper are en route to Madras when they encounter a baggage train from the East India Company traveling through hostile territory. Chitu, a legendary bandit leader in control of the area, strikes fear in the members of the party. When an attack occurs Sharpe takes control of the situation, leading the group 300 miles through enemy territory and training the disorganized, rag-tag group to be proper soldiers. Despite all these responsibilities, Sharpe still manages to find time for a little romance.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Action, Adventure, Drama, War
Country: UK
Duration: 69 min
Plot tags: exciting, serious, captivating, disturbing, realistic
Similar in 77%
The Devil's Whore (2008)
Plot Summary:
Set between the years 1642 and 1660, "The Devil's Whore" charts the progress of the English Civil War through the eyes of the a 17 year old girl, the fictional Angelica Fanshawe.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Adventure, Drama, Romance, War
Country: UK, South Africa
Duration: 189 min
Plot tags: historical drama, serious, epic, captivating, realistic, stylized, costume drama, political, sitcom, period piece
Similar in 80%
Sharpe's Enemy (1994)
Plot Summary:
Portugal 1813. A band of deserters, including Sharpe's old enemy, Obadiah Hakeswill, have captured two women, one the wife of a high-ranking English officer, and are holding them hostage for ransom. Sharpe is given the 60th Rifles and a Rocket troop, as well as his majority to rescue the women. But while Sharpe may be able to deal with his old enemy, he has yet to face a newer threat, the French Major Duclos.
IMDB Rating: 7.8
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Action, Adventure, Drama, War
Country: UK
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: serious, captivating, suspenseful, exciting, realistic
Similar in 77%
Wives and Daughters (1999)
Plot Summary:
Elizabeth Gaskell's enchanting tale of romance, scandal, and intrigue in a gossipy English town comes to Masterpiece Theatre in a lavish four-part production of Wives and Daughters, adapted by celebrated screenwriter Andrew Davies.Davies, who wrote the scripts for such Masterpiece Theatre classics as A Rather English Marriage, Moll Flanders, the House of Cards trilogy, and Middlemarch, found Wives and Daughters to be perfect costume-drama material. It posed a rather interesting problem: Gaskell died just before completing the book. She was obviously aiming at a happy ending, and Davies has supplied the lost denouement with surprise and style.
IMDB Rating: 8.1
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Drama
Country: UK, USA
Duration: 301 min
Plot tags: uplifting, period piece, costume drama, serious, historical drama, romantic drama, psychological, romantic, clever, spooky
Similar in 85%
St. Ives (1998)
Plot Summary:
In 1813, Capitaine Jacques St. Ives, a Hussar in the Napoleonic wars, is captured and sent to a Scottish prison camp. He's a swashbuckler, so the prison's commander, Major Farquar Bolingbroke Chevening, asks for lessons in communicating with women. Both men have their eyes on the lovely Flora, who resides with her aunt, the iconoclastic and well-traveled Miss Susan Emily Gilcrist. By chance, living close to the camp is Jacques's grandfather and brother, whom Jacques believes died years before. Jacques decides to escape, find his relatives, and win the hand of Flora; Major Chevening and an unforeseen enemy stand in his way. Can Miss Gilcrist contrive to make everything work out?.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 817
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: France, Germany, Ireland, UK
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: exciting, serious, captivating, stylized, costume drama, independent film, realistic, period drama
Similar in 75%
Sharpe's Challenge (2006)
Plot Summary:
Sean Bean is back as the swashbuckling hero in Sharpe's Challenge, an action packed mini-series to be shot on location in Rajasthan, India. Two years after the Duke of Wellington crushes Napoleon at Waterloo, dispatches from India tell of a local Maharaja, Khande Rao, who is threatening British interests there. Wellington sends Sharpe to investigate on what turns out to be his most dangerous mission to date. When a beautiful general's daughter is kidnapped by the Indian warlord, the tension mounts, leaving Sharpe no option but to pursue the enemy right into its deadly lair. Deep in the heart of enemy territory he also has to keep at bay the beautiful but scheming Regent, Madhuvanthi, who is out to seduce him. The fate of an Empire and the life of a General's daughter lie in one man's hands.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Action, Adventure, Drama, War
Country: UK
Duration: 69 min
Plot tags: exciting, serious, realistic, suspenseful
Similar in 81%
Kidnapped (1971)
Plot Summary:
Scottish orphan David Balfour (Lawrence Douglas) is betrayed by his wicked uncle Ebeneezer (Donald Pleasance), who arranges for David to be kidnapped and sold into slavery so that Unk can claim his inheritance. The boy is rescued and befriended by Alan Breck (Michael Caine), a Scottish rebel fighting on behalf of his country's independence from the British (did we tell you that the film takes place during late 18th century?) Both David and Alan undergo several exhilarating adventures before Alan comes to realize that the rebellion is doomed from the start, and David foils his uncle's greedy machinations. (AllMovie).
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Adventure, Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 107 min
Plot tags: serious, captivating, realistic, stylized, independent film, period drama
Similar in 87%
The Musketeers (2014)
Plot Summary:
Set in 17th century Paris, musketeers Athos, Porthos, Aramis and D'Artagnan are members of an elite band of soldiers who fight for what is just. They are heroes in the truest and most abiding sense – men that can be trusted and believed in to do the right thing, regardless of personal risk.
IMDB Rating: 7.8
IMDB Votes: 24000
Genere: Adventure, Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 55 min
Plot tags: exciting, historical drama, costume drama, realistic, serious, tension, suspense, period piece, epic, stylized
Similar in 90%
Crossbones (2014)
Plot Summary:
It's 1715 on the Bahamian island of New Providence, the first functioning democracy in the Americas, where the diabolical pirate Edward Teach, a.k.a. Blackbeard, reigns over a rogue nation of thieves, outlaws and miscreant sailors. Part shantytown, part marauder's paradise, this is a place like no other on earth - and a mounting threat to international commerce. To gain control of this fearsome society, Tom Lowe, a highly skilled undercover assassin, is sent to the buccaneers' haven to take down the brilliant and charismatic Blackbeard. But the closer Lowe gets, the more he finds that his quest is not so simple. Lowe can't help but admire the political ideals of Blackbeard, whose thirst for knowledge knows no bounds - and no law. But Lowe is not the only danger to Blackbeard's rule. He is a man with many villainous rivals and one great weakness - a passionately driven woman whom he cannot deny.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Action, Adventure, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 60 min
Plot tags: exciting, serious, stylized, historical drama, realistic, period drama
Similar in 85%
On Guard (1997)
Plot Summary:
The Comte de Gonzague schemes against his cousin, the Duc de Nevers, even though he is the Duke's heir and will inherit his estates. The Count has kept secret the existence of the Duke's bastard, recently born. When the Duke learns of his child, he journeys to wed the mother, a baron's daughter, in her father's isolated chateau. The occupants of the castle are surprised and murdered by the Count and his men. The only ones to escape are the Duke's friend, the skilled swordsman Lagardère, and the infant, a girl, now the rightful heiress to the Duke's vast fortune. The Count believes the pair to have drowned, when in fact they have been concealed by a travelling troupe of Italian players. Twenty years pass. The Count has discovered that the two survive and seeks to have them slain. But Lagardère gains the confidence of the Count, and employment as his bookkeeper, through his clever disguise as a hunch-back.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Adventure, Drama
Country: France, Italy, Germany
Duration: 128 min
Plot tags: funny, mesmerizing, exciting, epic, serious, realistic, stylized, baroque, period drama
Similar in 85%
The Count of Monte-Cristo (1975)
Plot Summary:
A TV adaptation of the classic Alexandre Dumas novel. Edmond Dantes is falsely accused by those jealous of his good fortune, and is sentenced to spend the rest of his life in the notorious island prison, Chateau d'If. While imprisoned, he meets the Abbe Faria, a fellow prisoner whom everyone believes to be mad. The Abbe tells Edmond of a fantastic treasure hidden away on a tiny island, that only he knows the location of. After many years in prison, the old Abbe dies, and Edmond escapes disguised as the dead body. Now free, Edmond must find the treasure the Abbe told him of, so he can use the new-found wealth to exact revenge on those who have wronged him.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Adventure, Drama, History
Country: UK, Italy
Duration: 119 min
Plot tags: fairy tale, feel good, period piece, action adventure, tense, serious, captivating, realistic, suspenseful, contemplative
Similar in 90%
Aristocrats (1999)
Plot Summary:
Based on a true story, Aristocrats draws back the curtain on an 18th century English family near the summit of society, revealing a tapestry of romance, prejudice, infidelity, and revolution.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, History
Country: UK, Ireland, USA
Duration: 300 min
Plot tags: period piece, captivating, serious, historical drama, realistic, stylized, costume drama, romantic drama, historical romance, period drama
Similar in 77%
Ivanhoe (1997)
Plot Summary:
This grand six-part adaptation of Sir Walter Scott's rousing adventure of the Middle Ages tells the epic tale of the idealistic young knight Ivanhoe (Steven Waddington) and his battle against the evil Templar Bois-Guilbert (Ciarán Hinds. Caught between the rivalries and religious struggles are Ivanhoe's betrothed Rowena (Victoria Smurfit) and the brave, beautiful Jewess healer Rebecca (Susan Lynch), who wins Ivanhoe's heart with her courage. Set against the historical backdrop of a Britain straining under the corrupt rule of Prince John while Richard the Lionhearted fights in the Crusades.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Adventure, Drama, Romance
Country: UK, USA
Duration: 270 min
Plot tags: fairy tale, costume drama, exciting, epic, serious, captivating, realistic, stylized, period drama
Similar in 86%
Hornblower: The Even Chance (1998)
Plot Summary:
The Hornblower series is based on C.S. Forester's classic maritime adventures - the story of one young man's struggle to become a leader of men. Set against the back drop of the 18th century Anglo-French wars, the bloodiest time in British naval history. Spithead, Portsmouth, 1794. Under thundery skies and in lashing rain, a 17 year old midshipman takes the first tentative steps of his naval career, but a deadly feud with a despicable mate is causing complications.
IMDB Rating: 8.1
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Adventure, Drama, War
Country: UK
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags: exciting, costume drama, serious, realistic, road movie, feel good, period piece, historical drama, period drama, masterpiece
Similar in 89%
Hornblower: Loyalty (2003)
Plot Summary:
Hornblower is given a dangerous mission to deliver an emigre French nobleman to a secret rendezvous near Brest while coping with enemy agents in his own ranks.
IMDB Rating: 8.0
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Adventure, Drama, War
Country: UK
Duration: 125 min
Plot tags: rough, serious, captivating, realistic, suspenseful, exciting, feel good, period drama
Similar in 82%
Horatio Hornblower: The Wrong War (1999)
Plot Summary:
The Hornblower series is based on C.S. Forester's classic maritime adventures - the story of one young man's struggle to become a leader of men. Set against the back drop of the 18th century Anglo-French wars, the bloodiest time in British naval history.Lt. Hornblower and his mates are sent to accompany a doomed royalist invasion of revolutionary France.
IMDB Rating: 7.9
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Adventure, Drama, War
Country: UK
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: feel good, period piece, exciting, rough, serious, realistic, period drama