The best BBC dramas, period.

Almost every year, the BBC’s actors don their corsets and cravats for an adventure into the world of the Regency, Victorians or a more far-flung era. Their period dramas are an invaluable resource for lovers of spectacular costumes and struggling English students (those 800-plus Victorian tomes are a lot more accessible in the form of a four-hour TV series). But what about just for fun?

It can be difficult to find a place to start with their period dramas because there are just so many – countless adaptations of the big classics like Great Expectations and Pride and Prejudice, as well as many more obscure or unusual works such as Tipping the Velvet or He Knew He Was Right. After watching a vast selection of shows, I bring you six of my personal favourites. Whether it’s their perfect performances, luxurious locations and costumes, most scintillating dialogue or simply the pure entertainment factor, these dramas all make a great introduction into the world of the BBC period drama.

• Jane Eyre (2006)

This book has been adapted more times than anyone could possibly count, but the 2006 TV series captures the heart of Charlotte Bronte’s novel in my opinion. Then-newcomer Ruth Wilson (who went on to act in Anna Karennina and Saving Mr Banks) brings a slow-burning strength of character as the plucky heroine, and Toby Stephens’ performance as the brooding owner of Thornfield is pitch-perfect.

This production emphasizes the gothic horror of the novel, meaning that there are lots of shots of dark passageways and flickering candles. But it goes much beyond that, capturing Jane’s journey to maturity which is at the centre of the story. Try not to be distracted by occasional weird jerky camera movements or Mr Rochester’s bizarre hunting costume which makes him look like Rupert Bear.

• North & South (2004)

Before Richard Armitage was everyone’s favourite broody dwarf in The Hobbit, he was everyone’s favourite broody mill owner, Mr Thornton, in this tale of love across the social divide. Feisty Margaret Hale is uprooted from her idyllic life in the country and taken by her father to the heavily industrialised town of Milton. In this Pride and Prejudice with a social agenda, she is initially hostile to Mr Thornton’s world of no-nonsense business, but eventually gets caught up in the desperate power struggle between mill workers and masters.

This is both a great love story and a fascinating look at the class conflicts of the Victorian period. And if you’re a Richard Armitage fan, there is also plenty of brooding and smouldering for your enjoyment.

• Vanity Fair (1998)

At once the personal story of one woman’s fight for survival and the epic narrative of a nation at war, Vanity Fair is dramatic and deliciously cynical. Penniless orphan Becky Sharpe has only her smarts and charms to make her way in the world, and make her way she does. She is a magnificent character, superbly played by Natasha Little, at turns pragmatic, vulnerable and conniving, and she can and does manipulate almost every person she meets. But as well as this, Vanity Fair is a bitterly funny yet scathing portrait of a superficial and materialistic society. Perhaps one that is not as far removed from our own as we might think.

• Poldark (1975-7)

This wonderfully seventies take on Winston Graham’s endless bestselling series is set in the copper mines in eighteenth-century Cornwall. That may sound about as interesting as watching paint dry, but bear with me. Ross Poldark is a soldier who returns from America to find his beloved fiancée, believing him to be dead, engaged to another man. Too proud to admit defeat, Ross devotes his energies to rebuilding his family’s neglected mines, facing stiff competition from the detestable Warleggan clan.

Plots soon compound on more plots, putting Ross at the centre of political and romantic intrigue. With big hair and bigger acting, this is soap opera on its grandest scale. It has everything you could possibly ask for – love, death, betrayl, sex and possibly the most dramatic opening credits of all time, with the swirling tides and crashing waves of the beautiful Cornish coast.

The BBC are remaking this series with The Hobbit’s Aiden Turner as Ross, but check out the original before it’s released. I think you’ll find it has a certain charm the new version won’t be able to replicate.

• Clarissa (1991)

Infamous rake Robert Lovelace is determined to bed the beautiful Clarissa Harlowe, a young woman famed for her morality and firm principles. She is absolutely confident in her ability to resist him, but when circumstances force her to seek his help she finds herself in more danger than she could have imagined. What begins as a game of seduction gradually evolves into an obsession which threatens to destroy them both.

This series boasts powerhouse performances from the leads, and it’s worth trying out for the acting alone. Sean Bean is by turns charming, brutal and despicable and Saskia Wickham’s change from level-headed but spirited innocent to broken woman is pitch-perfect. In our modern age of victim-blaming and slut-shaming, it’s interesting that this eighteenth-century tale of violence and seduction reveals a far more sophisticated understanding of sexuality and agency than many modern shows.

• The White Queen (2013)

During one of the bloodiest and most brutal wars in English history, three women fight for survival and sacrifice everything for power. Beautiful commoner Elizabeth Woodville entrances the new king and is made queen, but her rise to power infuriates the king’s trusted advisor Lord Warwick. His daughter Anne has known nothing except a life of privilege, but is thrust into a world of corruption and violence when her father betrays the king and makes a pact with his deadliest enemies. And bitter Margaret Beaufort engages in some fanatical scheming to get her son on the throne and restore the fallen house of Lancaster to its former glory.

This ten-part series is a complex web of intriguing plots, and is some of the best storytelling the BBC has put on offer in recent memory. The three lead actresses are all superbly convincing, and there are some stand out performances from the supporting cast particularly Janet McTeer as Elizabeth’s sassy mother and Aneurin Banard as Richard III, England’s most notorious king. As it’s based on one of the most famous wars in English history, you may very well already know how it will end. But it’s how it happens that will keep you on the edge of your seat.