Television series
Lillie
A lush 1978 drama about Lillie Langtry, the Victorian beauty who captivated society and royalty alike. Francesca Annis commands every frame as a woman who weaponizes her charm to escape a suffocating marriage and reshape her destiny. It's intimate and epic at once—scandal as character study, gorgeously shot, with the texture of lived experience rather than costume drama posturing.
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Poldark2015
A sweeping period drama with the same lush cinematography and emotional intensity. Robin Ellis anchors a story of passion, duty, and defiance in post-American Revolution Cornwall with genuine stakes and complexity.
But It's lengthy and demands patience; the narrative moves at a stately pace that won't suit anyone craving quick resolutions or constant plot momentum.
I, Claudius1976
BBC at its absolute peak: intricate court politics, layered performances, and a protagonist navigating power through intelligence and manipulation. The writing is sharper and the scheming more Byzantine, but the DNA is identical.
But Heavy on dialogue and statecraft; there's less romance and considerably more palace intrigue, which some find abstract compared to personal drama.
The Duchess of Duke Street1976
Another ITV gem about a woman who builds an empire from nothing, armed with intelligence and determination. Gemma Jones is magnetic, and the show captures that specific thrill of social ascension and scandal.
But It's gentler in tone and less interested in moral ambiguity—more celebration than interrogation of its heroine's choices.
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The wildcard
Something you would not have found on your own.
La traviata1982
Both track a woman navigating desire, social judgment, and the impossible choice between love and survival. Both understand that beauty is a currency that purchases everything except safety.
Zeffirelli's film opera: a woman of beauty and sensuality destroyed by a society that worships her and condemns her simultaneously. It's Lillie's story told in music and visual splendor, the emotional scaffolding laid bare in a way dialogue cannot reach.
But If opera feels like an obstacle rather than an art form, the sung dialogue and formal conventions will alienate rather than elevate. Also, the ending is devastatingly bleak.
More like this (8)
Upstairs, Downstairs1971
The template for literate British period drama. Set in a Belgravia townhouse across decades, it captures the same era with precision and warmth, watching characters navigate love, duty, and the slow crumble of old certainties.
But The ensemble focus means no single character gets the screen time Lillie does; it's more about the world than one woman's arc.
Tess of the D'Urbervilles2008
A BBC adaptation that understands tragedy as something lived in the body and face. Nastassja Kinski's Tess confronts similar questions about beauty, powerlessness, and moral judgment in a rigid society.
But It's darker and more fatalistic—Lillie has agency and wins; Tess does not. The emotional register is grief rather than exhilaration.
Brideshead Revisited1981
Another Granada production dripping with period detail and emotional sophistication. It traces a life through beauty, desire, and spiritual crisis with the same luxurious cinematography and attention to psychology.
But It's concerned with faith and sin in ways Lillie never is; the pacing is slower and more meditative, almost religious in its deliberation.
The Affair2014
A modern show that asks identical questions about marriage, infidelity, and how desire reshapes identity. It lacks the period setting but captures that same sense of a woman claiming her own narrative against social judgment.
But Contemporary setting and handheld aesthetic will feel jarring if you came for velvet and gaslight; the tone is bleaker and less romantic.
Vanity Fair1998
Minnie Driver as Becky Sharp in a sharp, clever adaptation of Thackeray. It shares Lillie's DNA—a beautiful woman manipulating society, the question of whether she's victim or villain, costumes that matter.
But Becky is more ruthlessly unsympathetic; there's less of the romantic idealism that makes Lillie tragic rather than merely calculating.
The Crown2016
If you're drawn to stories of power, beauty, and the personal cost of dynasty, this sprawls across the same historical moment with production values to match. It shares an obsession with how individuals survive within rigid institutions.
But It's an ensemble; no single character dominates like Lillie does. Also, if you're tired of the royal family as narrative subject, this won't change your mind.
Lola Montès1955
Lillie Langtry is Lola Montès' spiritual cousin: a woman whose historical existence is inseparable from scandal, beauty, and the male gaze. Both films understand that their subject's life is a kind of performance staged for others.
Max Ophüls' masterpiece about a historical beauty presented as circus spectacle. Formally dazzling—told partly in flashback, partly as a degenerate cabaret—it asks what remains of a woman when her beauty fades and society discards her.
But It's formally experimental in ways that can feel cold; the narrative structure is deliberately fragmented, and there's a melancholy that never lifts. Also genuinely difficult to find in decent prints.
The Killing of a Chinese Bookie1976
Both Lillie and Cassavetes' protagonist are women using what they have—beauty, charm, cunning—to navigate systems stacked against them. Both interrogate the line between victim and architect of one's own life.
Cassavetes' character study about a woman operating within systems designed to exploit her, filmed with intimate, naturalistic intensity. Strip away the noir trappings and it's about agency, survival, and what you'll do to stay afloat.
But It's American, contemporary, and morally murky in ways Victorian drama avoids. Cassavetes' style is deliberately rough and sometimes feels shapeless. It's a hard watch, not a pleasure.
