Best tv shows like The Secret River
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
In 1806, William Thornhill is sentenced to New South Wales for life where he is drawn into a terrifying conflict that will leave a bloody and indelible stain.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 662
Genere: Adventure, Drama, History
Country: Australia
Duration:
Plot tags: serious, captivating, realistic, stylized, historical drama, period drama
Best tv shows and movies like The Secret River (2015):
Similar in 81%
Against the Wind (1978)
Plot Summary:
Mary Mulvane, an 18 year old Irish girl, is transported to New South Wales for seven years for doing little else than protecting her own property. She must endure the horror of transport to Australia, and years of anxiety as a convict. Mary, her friends and her family fight out their battle against a lively historical backdrop - Irelands 1798 Rebellion. Australia's Castle Hill Rebellion of 1804 and the 1808 Rum Rebellion.
IMDB Rating: 8.2
IMDB Votes: 928
Genere: Drama, History
Country: Australia
Duration: 50 min
Plot tags: serious, captivating, emotional, realistic, gloomy, period drama
Similar in 87%
For the Term of His Natural Life (1983)
Plot Summary:
In 1830's England, a young man from a good but troubled family is unjustly convicted of stealing a watch. He's transported to Van Dieman's Land (Tasmania) where he suffers under the enmity of Lt. Frere while falling in love with Sylvia, the Warden's daughter. Meanwhile, back in England, an imposter lays claim to the young man's inheritance.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 227
Genere: Adventure, Drama
Country: Australia
Duration: 520 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic
Similar in 86%
Love Child (2014)
Plot Summary:
Love Child follows the lives of staff at the fictional Kings Cross Hospital and the wild streets of Darlinghurst in the 1960s. Joan Miller is a smart and sophisticated midwife who returns home from London to take a job at the Kings Cross Hospital. Dr Patrick McNaughton is a charismatic head of obstetrics at Kings Cross Hospital. Frances Bolton is the tough matron who also controls the running of Stanton House, a home for unwed pregnant young women.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Australia
Duration: 45 min
Plot tags: touching, serious, captivating, emotional, realistic, stylized, medical drama, period drama
Similar in 75%
Mrs Biggs (2012)
Plot Summary:
The true story of Charmian Biggs (née Powell), the rebellious product of a strict 1950s upbringing, and her whirlwind romance with Ronald Biggs leading to a descent into crime, most infamously 1963's Great Train Robbery.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 848
Genere: Crime, Drama, History
Country: UK
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: serious, emotional, stylized, touching, realistic, period drama
Similar in 75%
Jacquou the Rebel (2007)
Plot Summary:
In 1815, young Jacquou lives an idyllic peasant life with his parents in the Périgord region of France. But one day, his childhood happiness is cruelly ended when his father is arrested, after a dispute with the arrogant Count de Nansac. With both his parents dead, Jacquou is adopted by Bonal, a kind priest, under whose influence he grows into an assured, morally upright young man. Now an adult, Jacquou has one desire. To repay the Count de Nansac for the evil he once inflicted on his parents.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Adventure, Drama
Country: France
Duration: 140 min
Plot tags: sincere, realistic, atmospheric, serious, captivating, stylized, period drama
Similar in 87%
The Slap (2011)
Plot Summary:
The Slap is a bold, provocative television drama series that forensically examines the mores and morality of contemporary middleclass life. Based on Christos Tsiolkas’ bestselling novel, this 8–part drama serial traces the shattering repercussions of a single event upon a group of family and friends.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: Australia
Duration: 354 min
Plot tags: realistic, psychological, captivating, emotional, tense, serious, biting, suspense
Similar in 80%
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 78%
The Crimson Petal and the White (2011)
Plot Summary:
Follow Sugar into the underbelly of Victorian London seething with vitality, sexuality, ambition and emotion.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: UK
Duration: 274 min
Plot tags: costume drama, historical drama, serious, captivating, realistic, stylized, sexual, psychological thriller, rough, grim
Similar in 90%
Anna Karenina (2000)
Plot Summary:
To help her brother mend his failing marriage, young Russian beauty Anna Karenina - who's married to eminent nobleman Alexei Karenin - leaves St. Petersburg for Moscow, where she meets the dashing Count Vronsky. They soon fall madly in love, but the scandal of their illicit affair and Alexei's vengeance give rise to tragedy in this faithful adaptation of author Leo Tolstoy's immortal novel.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 598
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 360 min
Plot tags: touching, captivating, emotional, realistic, serious, historical romance, epic, gloomy, period drama
Similar in 90%
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 76%
A Place to Call Home (2013)
Plot Summary:
A mysterious woman is perched between the harsh legacy of World War II and the hope of a new life in Australia. A sweeping romantic drama set in 1950s rural Australia following the lives of the Blighs, a wealthy and complicated pastoralist family, who lives in Inverness, NSW.
IMDB Rating: 8.3
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Drama
Country: Australia
Duration: 60 min
Plot tags: emotional, captivating, serious, stylized, realistic, saga, period drama
Similar in 89%
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 83%
Huckleberry Finn and His Friends (1979)
Plot Summary:
Huckleberry Finn and His Friends was a 1979 television series documenting the exploits of Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer, based on the novels The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by American writer Mark Twain. The series was made up of 26 episodes and was a Canadian/German coproduction. Huckleberry Finn is played by Ian Tracey who is also the narrator. Tom Sawyer is played by Sammy Snyders. Directed by Jack B. Hively and Ken Jubenvill, this mini-series was broadcast in many countries such as Germany, UK, Australia, Canada, South Africa, Venezuela and many other Latin American nations. The series was re-shown many times during the 1980s to early 1990s and has grown somewhat of a cult following. Even though Mark Twain originally wrote the books The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn as separate units, this mini-series conjures up both literary works as only one story. Therefore, it places greater importance on Huckleberry's character without putting aside Tom Sawyer's. In 2007, the complete series was released as a 4 DVD box set by Fabulous Films in the UK. It contains many extras including a 12 page color booklet and a 30 minute 'making of' documentary featuring interviews with many stars of the series including Sammy Snyders, Ian Tracey, and Blu Mankuma.
IMDB Rating: 8.1
IMDB Votes: 542
Genere: Adventure, Drama
Country: Canada, West Germany
Duration: 60 min
Plot tags: exciting, sincere, uplifting, serious, captivating, realistic
Similar in 90%
Jamestown (2017)
Plot Summary:
The early 17th Century story of three courageous, dynamic women who leave their dark pasts behind in England, and make the journey of a lifetime across the ocean for a new life in America.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Drama, History
Country: UK
Duration: 60 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, suspense, realistic, costume drama, disturbing, historical drama, period piece, captivating, melancholic, period drama
Similar in 89%
The Wingless Bird (1997)
Plot Summary:
On the eve of World War I, Agnes Conway manages both the business and the problems of her troubled family. She finds the strength to break class barriers and help her sister Jessie marry a good boy from a family of dockside toughs. Is she strong enough to break them again when Charles Farrier, a gentleman, courts her over his parents' opposition? Agnes faces an added dilemma when she finds her heart divided between Charles and his soldier brother Reginald.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 540
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 180 min
Plot tags: sentimental, touching, serious, realistic, period piece, costume drama, period drama
Similar in 80%
The Mill (2013)
Plot Summary:
Powerful historical drama series, based on the lives of real people, telling the story of young 19th-century apprentices taking their lives into their own hands for the first time.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 60 min
Plot tags: realistic, serious, captivating, stylized, psychological, rough, period piece, costume drama, grim, historical drama
Similar in 78%
Poldark (1975)
Plot Summary:
Period drama series about the brooding rivalry between former soldier Ross Poldark and local industrialist George Warleggan, and the two women in their lives. Based on the books by Winston Graham.
IMDB Rating: 8.3
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, History, Romance
Country: UK
Duration: 60 min
Plot tags: costume drama, spiritual, historical drama, serious, captivating, realistic, saga, period drama
Similar in 85%
Love in a Cold Climate (2001)
Plot Summary:
Adaptation of Nancy Mitford's novel.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 916
Genere: Drama
Country: UK, USA
Duration: 150 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, stylized, historical drama, costume drama, witty, period drama
Similar in 84%
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 76%
Anna Karenina (2013)
Plot Summary:
Anna and Kitty. Two lives. One of desperate passion that ends in tragedy, the other, an existence made real through love. Two destinies that interweave, giving rise to two, so very different stories, yet lived in pursuit of the same desire- to find a love that lets them fully be themselves, to live without having to conform to society’s pretenses.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 627
Genere: Drama
Country: Italy, France, Spain, Lithuania
Duration: 354 min
Plot tags: sentimental, captivating, emotional, stylized, serious, realistic, fairy tale
Similar in 80%
The Getting of Wisdom (1977)
Plot Summary:
The Getting of Wisdom is based on the 1910 novel by Henry Handel Richardson (born Ethel Florence Lindesay Richardson). Her novel is thought to be an account of her own schooldays at the Presbyterian Ladies College in Melbourne. The film is about a young girl, Laura Tweedle-Rambotham who grew up in the outback, and at around the age of 14, is sent off by her poor mother who has scrimped and saved for her to go to a prestigious women’s private college in Melbourne, the Presbyterian Ladies College.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 540
Genere: Drama
Country: Australia
Duration: 101 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, independent film
Similar in 81%
The Forsyte Saga (2002)
Plot Summary:
In 2002, the first two books and the first interlude of John Galsworthy's trilogy The Forsyte Saga were adapted by Granada Television for the ITV network. Additional funding for this production was provided by American PBS station WGBH, the 1967 BBC version having been a success on PBS in the early 1970s.
IMDB Rating: 8.1
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Drama, History, Romance
Country: UK
Duration: 276 min
Plot tags: period piece, family saga, realistic, costume drama, serious, saga, historical drama, touching, stylized, romantic drama
Similar in 80%
Edward & Mrs. Simpson (1978)
Plot Summary:
While still the Prince of Wales, the future Edward VIII meets the married American socialite, Wallis Simpson. Their relationship causes furor in the palace and in parliament, especially when King George V dies, Mrs. Simpson gets divorced, and King Edward announces his intentions to marry her.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 448
Genere: Drama, History, Romance
Country: UK
Duration: 350 min
Plot tags: costume drama, historical drama, serious, captivating, emotional, realistic, period drama
Similar in 75%
New Worlds (2014)
Plot Summary:
The 1680s bring a new king, Restoration and more tyranny. In Massachusetts, a robber's son falls for an anti-monarchist. In England, young lady falls for an outlaw.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, History, War
Country: UK
Duration:
Plot tags: captivating, emotional, realistic, tense, psychological, costume drama, historical drama, serious, stylized, period drama
Similar in 83%
Banished (2015)
Plot Summary:
At its heart, Banished is a story of survival. Though it is set in the stark historical reality of the founding of the penal colony in Australia in 1788 after the arrival of the First Fleet, it is not the story of Australia and how it came to be. Rather, it is a tale of love, faith, justice and morality played out on an epic scale in a confined community where the stakes are literally life and death.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Drama, History
Country: UK
Duration: 60 min
Plot tags: serious, historical drama, tense, realistic, captivating, costume drama, epic, period piece, period drama
Similar in 75%
Lillie (1978)
Plot Summary:
The story of Lillie Langtry.
IMDB Rating: 8.1
IMDB Votes: 664
Genere: Adventure, Biography, Drama, History, Romance
Country: UK
Duration: 52 min
Plot tags: costume drama, historical drama, serious, captivating, realistic, stylized, period drama
Similar in 89%
The Incredible Journey of Mary Bryant (2005)
Plot Summary:
A young woman is transported to the New South Wales penal colony in 1788.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Adventure, Drama
Country: Australia, UK
Duration: 480 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, captivating, suspense, historical drama, road movie, costume drama, period drama, tragic
Similar in 88%
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 90%
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
Similar in 78%
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