If you’re among the millions who’ve already devoured all eight episodes of Bridgerton’s candy-coloured, extravagantly costumed and frustratingly withholding second season, you may find yourself longing for another Regency-era romance to fill the hole in your heart. But, you can rest easy: 2022 looks set to be a bumper year for star-studded period dramas, on both the big and small screen. These are the period dramas you just can’t miss.
1 / 7
Downton Abbey: A New Era
Highclere Castle’s hallowed halls are playing host to a film crew (with Dominic West as a moustachioed leading man, no less) in Simon Curtis’s long-awaited sequel. As the Crawleys contend with their rapidly modernising world, expect quips and pure, unadulterated escapism.
Out 29 April in cinemas.
2 / 7
The Essex Serpent
Screenwriter Anna Symon and director Clio Barnard are translating Sarah Perry’s lush Victorian fable into an evocative six-part series starring Claire Danes and Tom Hiddleston. She is a widow who becomes obsessed with a mythical serpent, and he a sceptical vicar.
Out 13 May on Apple TV+.
3 / 7
Babylon
With a cast that includes Brad Pitt, Olivia Wilde, Jean Smart and Margot Robbie – the latter as silent screen siren Clara Bow—Damien Chazelle’s glittering ode to 1920s Hollywood will examine the industry’s transition to talkies. It could very well dominate at the 2023 Oscars.
Out 25 December in cinemas.
4 / 7
The Wonder
Set in the misty valleys of 19th-century Ireland, Sebastián Lelio’s adaptation of Emma Donoghue’s beguiling thriller centres on a nurse (Florence Pugh) who travels to a remote village to witness a miracle: a girl who’s been fasting for months. But is she a saint or a fraud?
Expected this year on Netflix.
5 / 7
Persuasion
Dakota Johnson’s Anne Elliot yearns for Cosmo Jarvis’s Frederick Wentworth in Carrie Cracknell’s playful reimagining of Jane Austen. Watch it for the sumptuous costuming and supporting performances from Richard E Grant, Henry Golding and Suki Waterhouse.
Expected this year on Netflix.
6 / 7
Lady Chatterley’s Lover
After embodying Princess Diana in The Crown and an Anna Delvey-inspired scammer in Anna X, Emma Corrin will transform into another fascinating and divisive heroine in Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre’s sweeping love story: DH Lawrence’s free-thinking noblewoman who has an affair with her gamekeeper (Jack O’Connell).
Expected this year on Netflix.
7 / 7
Emily
Emily Brontë, who died aged 30, just a year after the publication of Wuthering Heights, is the subject of Frances O’Connor’s ambitious directorial debut. With Emma Mackey in the titular role, it imagines her tumultuous coming of age as a reclusive rebel in the Yorkshire moors.
Expected this year in cinemas.
