Best tv shows like Upstairs, Downstairs
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
Upstairs, Downstairs is a British television drama series originally produced by London Weekend Television and revived by the BBC. It ran on ITV in 68 episodes divided into five series from 1971 to 1975. Set in a large townhouse in Edwardian, First World War and interwar Belgravia in London, the series depicts the lives of the servants "downstairs" and their masters—the family "upstairs". Great events feature prominently in the episodes but minor or gradual changes are also noted. The series stands as a document of the social and technological changes that occurred between 1903 and 1930.
IMDB Rating: 8.4
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 60 min
Plot tags: realistic, serious, stylized, costume drama, period piece, social, historical drama, touching, period drama, vintage
Best tv shows and movies like Upstairs, Downstairs (1971):
Similar in 76%
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 78%
In the Club (2014)
Plot Summary:
In The Club follows six pregnant women and their partners as they get ready for the arrival of their babies at the local parenting class. Housewife Diane, schoolgirl Rosie, newlywed Jasmin, businesswoman Roanna, midwife Vicky and writer and teaching assistant Kim all have their own issues to deal with.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 550
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 60 min
Plot tags: sincere, touching, serious, realistic
Similar in 80%
Hotel Portofino (2022)
Plot Summary:
A classic whodunit mystery, as the characters go about their lives in 1920s Italy, when Benito Mussolini's brand of fascism was on the rise.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: UK, USA
Duration: 54 min
Plot tags: tense, captivating, disturbing, period drama
Similar in 82%
Berkeley Square (1998)
Plot Summary:
Three young women from very different backgrounds meet, become friends and share experiences when they all gain positions as nannies in the wealthy households of London's exclusive Berkeley Square.
IMDB Rating: 7.9
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 50 min
Plot tags: period piece, costume drama, historical drama, sentimental, clever, touching, serious, realistic, period drama
Similar in 89%
Grand Hotel (2011)
Plot Summary:
Grand Hotel is a Spanish drama television series directed by Carlos Sedes and starring Yon Gonzalez and Amaia Salamanca. It first aired on Antena 3 in Spain on 11 October 2011 and on Sky Arts 1 in the UK on 18 November 2012. The series, filmed at the Palacio de la Magdalena in Santander, is set in an early 20th century aristocratic hotel during the reign of King Alfonso XIII and is centered on the mysteries that involve the owner family and the hotel servants. Grand Hotel has received critical acclaim from television critics and won numerous accolades.
IMDB Rating: 8.3
IMDB Votes: 11000
Genere: Crime, Drama, History, Mystery, Romance
Country: Spain
Duration: 3098 min
Plot tags: stylized, captivating, serious, realistic, historical drama, heartbreaking, detective, hispanic, period drama, telenovela
Similar in 75%
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 89%
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 86%
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 82%
Lilies (2007)
Plot Summary:
Lilies is a British period-drama television series, written by Heidi Thomas, which ran for one eight-episode series in early 2007 on BBC One. The show's tagline was "Liverpool, 1920. Three girls on the edge of womanhood, a world on the brink of change." Due to lower than expected ratings, the BBC did not commission a second series.
IMDB Rating: 8.1
IMDB Votes: 801
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 60 min
Plot tags: touching, serious, realistic, sincere, retro, period piece, historical drama, sexual, sexy, period drama
Similar in 86%
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 88%
The Moth (1997)
Plot Summary:
This 1940s drama presents a story of class conflict and its influence on romance. Robert Bradley leaves the shipyards to work in his uncle's furniture business but soon finds himself at odds with the old man. So he becomes a servant for the destructive Thormans, and falls for the lady of the house, Sarah. But in 1913 this upstairs/downstairs romance can only lead to disaster.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 686
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 152 min
Plot tags: costume drama, sexy, historical drama, serious, realistic, period drama, tragic, hot
Similar in 78%
The Duchess of Duke Street (1976)
Plot Summary:
The Duchess Of Duke Street is a BBC television drama series set in London between 1900 and 1925. It was created by John Hawkesworth, the former producer of the highly successful ITV period drama Upstairs, Downstairs. It starred Gemma Jones as Louisa Leyton/Trotter, the eponymous "Duchess" who works her way up from servant to renowned cook to proprietrix of the upper-class Bentinck Hotel in Duke Street, St. James's, in London. The story is loosely based on the real-life career of Rosa Lewis, the "Duchess of Jermyn Street", who ran the Cavendish Hotel in London. When the show first aired, there were many people who still remembered her, as she lived until 1952. According to census returns, she was born in Leyton, Essex, to a watchmaker. In the series, Louisa's family name is Leyton, and her father is a clock-maker. The programme lasted for two series totalling 31 episodes, shown between 1976 and 1977. It was nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Limited Series in 1980. The theme music was composed by Alexander Faris.
IMDB Rating: 8.3
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA, UK
Duration: 50 min
Plot tags: costume drama, historical drama, sincere, realistic, stylized, semi serious, period drama
Similar in 88%
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 81%
The Forsyte Saga (1967)
Plot Summary:
Adaptation from John Galsworthy's novels.
IMDB Rating: 8.5
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: UK
Duration: 50 min
Plot tags: family saga, costume drama, stylized, spiritual, historical drama, touching, epic, serious, captivating, realistic
Similar in 86%
Upstairs Downstairs (2010)
Plot Summary:
Set in 1936, the show takes viewers, old and new, back to the lavish world of Belgravia, London. A new set of occupants reside at 165 Eaton Place and viewers see how external and internal influences of the tumultuous pre-war period shape and mould the lives of this wealthy family and their servants..
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 60 min
Plot tags: realistic, historical drama, stylized, costume drama, period piece, retro, social, serious, touching, period drama
Similar in 86%
Howards End (2017)
Plot Summary:
The social and class divisions in early 20th century England through the intersection of three families - the wealthy Wilcoxes, the gentle and idealistic Schlegels and the lower-middle class Basts.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: UK, USA
Duration: 240 min
Plot tags: costume drama, psychological, sentimental, romantic, captivating, period piece, historical drama, sincere, touching, disturbing
Similar in 78%
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 90%
32 Brinkburn Street (2011)
Plot Summary:
Drama moving between the lives, loves and lies of two generations of the same family who live at 32 Brinkburn Street in 1931 and 2011.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 95
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 45 min
Plot tags: realistic, captivating, serious, sentimental, suspense, period drama
Similar in 90%
To Serve Them All My Days (1980)
Plot Summary:
David Powlett-Jones has just returned to England from the trenches of WWI. He was injured and shell-shocked and, after a spell in hospital he gets a job teaching in a boys boarding school in S.W. England. He is not at all sure he can do the job, but the avuncular headmaster has faith in him. David, although well educated, is just a humble lad from the Welsh valleys at heart and has to fit himself and his ideas into the heart of the English establishment.
IMDB Rating: 8.5
IMDB Votes: 661
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 673 min
Plot tags: historical drama, clever, touching, serious, realistic, talky, period drama
Similar in 88%
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 78%
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 82%
The Way We Live Now (2001)
Plot Summary:
The Way We Live Now is a 2001 four-part television adaptation of the Anthony Trollope novel The Way We Live Now. The serial was first broadcast on the BBC and was directed by David Yates, written by Andrew Davies and produced by Nigel Stafford-Clark. David Suchet starred as Auguste Melmotte, with Shirley Henderson as his daughter Marie, Matthew Macfadyen as Sir Felix Carbury, Cillian Murphy as Paul Montague and Miranda Otto as Mrs Hurtle.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: UK
Duration: 300 min
Plot tags: period piece, serious, costume drama, realistic, captivating, historical drama, witty, biting, romantic drama, suspense
Similar in 80%
Desperate Romantics (2009)
Plot Summary:
Six-part drama series set in and among the alleys, galleries and flesh-houses of 19th-century industrial London, following the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, a vagabond group of English painters, poets and critics.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration:
Plot tags: costume drama, serious, realistic, stylized, sentimental, period piece, bleak, disturbing, sitcom, historical drama
Similar in 88%
Mr Selfridge (2013)
Plot Summary:
Mr. Selfridge recounts the real life story of the flamboyant and visionary American founder of Selfridge's, London's lavish department store. Set in 1909 London, when women were reveling in a new sense of freedom and modernity, it follows Harry Gordon Selfridge ('Mile a Minute Harry'), a man with a mission to make shopping as thrilling as sex. Pioneering and reckless, with an almost manic energy, Harry created a theater of retail where any topic or trend that was new, exciting, entertaining - or just eccentric - was showcased.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 17000
Genere: Drama, History
Country: UK
Duration: 45 min
Plot tags: stylized, captivating, costume drama, serious, realistic, period piece, dark drama, historical drama, period drama, vintage
Similar in 81%
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 84%
The House of Eliott (1991)
Plot Summary:
The House of Eliott is a British television series produced and broadcast by the BBC in three series between 1991 and 1994. The series starred Stella Gonet and Louise Lombard as two sisters in 1920s London who establish a dressmaking business and eventually their own haute couture fashion house. It was created by Jean Marsh and Eileen Atkins, who had previously devised Upstairs, Downstairs. The series was written by several writers including Jill Hyem, Peter Buckman, Deborah Cook and Ginnie Hole.
IMDB Rating: 8.1
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 50 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, costume drama, sincere, captivating, historical drama, period piece, period drama
Similar in 84%
Downton Abbey (2010)
Plot Summary:
A chronicle of the lives of the aristocratic Crawley family and their servants in the post-Edwardian era—with great events in history having an effect on their lives and on the British social hierarchy.
IMDB Rating: 8.7
IMDB Votes: 220000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: UK
Duration: 3110 min
Plot tags: captivating, realistic, serious, costume drama, period piece, historical drama, stylized, dramatic, erotic, romantic
Similar in 86%
The Paradise (2012)
Plot Summary:
An intoxicating love story set in England's first department store in the 1870s. The Paradise revolves around the lives of the people who live and work in the store, each bound in their own way by the power of the world they live in, and the pasts that follow them there. A love story, mystery, and social comedy all in one.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 12000
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 60 min
Plot tags: captivating, costume drama, stylized, realistic, period piece, serious, intellectual, historical drama, historical romance, period drama
Similar in 90%
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
Similar in 85%
Cranford (2007)
Plot Summary:
In the 1840s, Cranford is ruled by the ladies. They adore good gossip; and romance and change is in the air, as the unwelcome grasp of the Industrial Revolution rapidly approaches their beloved rural market-town.
IMDB Rating: 8.3
IMDB Votes: 10000
Genere: Drama
Country: UK, USA
Duration: 469 min
Plot tags: sincere, atmospheric, costume drama, clever, period piece, historical drama, sitcom, historical romance, realistic, stylized