Beyond bodice rippers: How the period drama got with the times

eriod dramas have long been at the heart of the UK screen industries, from Dickens film adaptations to Sunday night ITV series. In recent years, however, a subgenre of period drama has appeared that is less obsessed with being a historically accurate reflection of the time period and more about bringing together the old and the new. That’s not to say this has never been done before – think 1988’s Dangerous Liaisons with its contemporary plot or TV comedy Blackadder and its current language and humour. But these days, more and more bodice-rippers seem to finally chime with modern times.