These TV Shows Like Bridgerton Are Proper Diamonds

Jane Austen's legendary six novels have been adapted time and time again into films and TV series. Sanditon, however, has not, in large part because she never finished writing it. The novel is only 24,000 words long and ends abruptly. ITV and PBS decided to bring Sanditon to life and give it what Austen was never able to: a complete narrative arc. Charlotte Heywood finds herself in the seaside resort of Sanditon after an accident and ingratiates herself with the tight-knit community's inhabitants. She also clashes with the Parker brothers, the stoic entrepreneur Tom and wild child Sidney, before becoming the focus of their eager courtships.

The Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Edith Wharton, writer of The Age of Innocence, never got to finish her final book The Buccaneers before her death in 1937. The incomplete manuscript was published posthumously the year later. Apple TV+ decided to expand upon the unfinished book with its historical drama, starring Alisha Boe and Kristine Froseth. In the 1870s, five young women from American nouveau riche families, known as the Buccaneers, are sent to London to participate in the city's legendary debutante season. The goal is to secure a husband with a title who can help them enter the elite of English high society. But they're also independent young women who don't want to be constricted by the culture clashes and sexist social codes of the time. Can they truly have it all?

Elizabeth Gaskell's classic Victorian novel North and South inspired one of the most beloved BBC miniseries of the 2000s. Margaret Hale is a young English woman who moves to the industrial town of Milton, Darkshire, in the north of England to avoid social scandal after her father leaves the clergy. The Hales struggle to fit into life in this busy town with its own customs and expectations. One of the local mill owners is the Thornton family, and they seem to Margaret and her family with disdain. John Thornton is especially brutish, but the more time Margaret spends with him, the more that the boundaries of class and gender begin to crumble. But will Margaret choose love over loyalty to the local workers who are under Thornton's employ?

Diana Gabaldon’s epic saga of love across time and history has enthralled readers for decades, and the Starz TV adaptation has proven to be equally beloved. Outlander is now into its eighth and final season, and a prequel series, Outlander: Blood of My Blood, premiered this Summer. In 1945, Claire Randall, an English nurse who served during World War Two, visits Inverness on her honeymoon. A visit to a stone circle leads to her being flung back in time to 1743, where a group of rebel Highlanders find her. One of them, Jamie Fraser, is wanted by the authorities. To protect Claire from the villainous Black Jack Randall, an ancestor of her husband, she must marry Jamie. The union will unite them over space and time.

Lady Jane Grey was known as the Nine Days Queen thanks to her family’s political scheming, and her reign ended in her beheading at the hands of her cousin, Mary I. The sparky teen historical fantasy series My Lady Jane gives her a very different alternate ending. As if courtly intrigue wasn't dramatic enough for the young Jane, she discovers that the world is secretly inhabited by Ethians, humans who can take animal form. The battle between humans and Ethians is also own for control of the crown, with Jane's new husband, Lord Dudley, being at the heart of the drama (and also he turns into a horse at night.)

Philippa Gregory is one of the most well-known authors of historical fiction, particularly for her stories centered on the Tudor dynasty, such as The Other Boleyn Girl. The White Princess is the story of Elizabeth of York, the daughter of Edward IV of England (played by Jodie Comer.) Her wedding to Henry VII helps to bring an end to the war between the houses of Lancaster and York, but the marriage is not one of love or trust. The battle for dominance in the War of the Roses continues between both the King and Queen and their respective mothers, and who will control the crown for the next dynasty.

In London of the 1760s, opportunities for women are limited. Either you marry well or hope your rich relative takes pity on you. For other women, there is the underground world of sex work, with the brothels of the capital run by enterprising women like Margaret Wells and Lydis Quigley. A "fallen woman" can do good business here, but as religious evangelicals seek to shut down the brothels and shame the women working in them, it's up to Margaret and Lydia to keep their businesses afloat. Catering to the affluent men of Georgian society is one way to do it, but that might put these two women in competition with one another...

Long before Bridgerton was sexing up history, The Tudors delved into the soap opera scandals of the infamous Henry VIII (historical accuracy not necessarily required.) Showtime's series, which ran for four seasons, certainly wasn't obsessed with fidelity to the past, but it did have an absolute blast dramatizing the endless political and romantic scandals of Britain's most notorious king. Expect sex, backstabbing, beheadings, great clothes, and a young, pre-Superman Henry Cavill!

The story of Anne Lister is one of the most fascinating in British Victorian history. She was a landowner who had power at a time when most women were banned from accruing it. She wore androgynous clothing, had love affairs with many women, and had an unofficial marriage to Ann Walker. Lister's diaries were written in a complex code that wasn't decrypted until long after her death in 1840. Her life was the inspiration for Gentleman Jack, which documents her work running her family's estate, fighting her neighbors for control over the region, and searching for a wife with whom she can spend her life.

Based on the historical novels by Winston Graham, BBC's second adaptation of Poldark (the first one premiered in 1975) was an instant hit with viewers. Aidan Turner played the titular Ross Poldark, a British Army veteran of the American Revolutionary War, who returns to his home in Cornwall to regain control over his family's estate following the death of his father. On top of that, his childhood sweetheart Elizabeth has gotten engaged to his cousin Francis. Poldark works overtime to rebuild his fortune with the help of Demelza, his maid with whom he slowly falls in love. If you like swoon-worthy historical romances with sweeping locales and a lot of shirtless Aidan Turner, this is the show for you!

Featured image: Netflix