Television series

Mr. Selfridge

Name: Mr. Selfridge
Genre: Drama
Released: 2013
Cast: Jeremy Piven, Tom Goodman-Hill, Trystan Gravelle, Ron Cook, Amanda Abbington

Period drama

Mr. Selfridge charts the rise of London's most audacious department store through the eyes of its visionary founder. It's a sumptuous, character-driven drama that luxuriates in Edwardian excess while exploring ambition, scandal, and the human cost of empire-building. Perfect for anyone who loved Downton Abbey but wants to shift focus from the country house to the city below.

TVMaze rating

3.8

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you love period dramas built around a driven, charming entrepreneur and the messy business of making a bold idea work, with a gleeful sense of how dazzling the modern age felt.

Skip it if you want a tight plot that barrels forward, since this is a leisurely, sprawling soap of shop floor rivalries and romance threads that can feel episodic and overstuffed.

What it asks of you: Forty hour-long episodes across four seasons, so it demands a long commitment and patience with a slow build, where the glitter comes from accumulated detail rather than sharp turns.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Downton Abbey2010

Both are period dramas about the machinery of a world built on hierarchy, class, and duty, but told with wit and genuine affection for their characters across every social stratum.

But If you're tired of British period drama altogether, this won't convert you. The formula is familiar.

The Knick2014

A fever dream of ambition set in 1900s New York, with a protagonist—a surgeon played by Clive Owen—driven by the same manic genius and moral compromise that defines Selfridge. Darker and more urgent in tone.

But Significantly grittier and more violent. The medicine is graphic and the emotional register is bleaker throughout.

Penny Dreadful2014

Victorian London rendered as a lush, dangerous playground for morally compromised visionaries. Like Selfridge, it finds baroque beauty in human weakness and the price of wanting too much.

But Gothic horror isn't for everyone. If you want elegance without the supernatural dread, look elsewhere.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Mr. Selfridge

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Call Me by Your Name2017

Both films examine the tension between personal desire and social duty, using a period setting to explore how rules and expectations shape the interior life.

Set in a beautiful Italian villa in the 1980s, it's a film about desire, mentorship, and the weight of propriety. Like Selfridge, it understands how social class and circumstance shape who we can be.

But A queer coming-of-age romance. If you want costume drama without the intimate same-sex narrative, this will feel like a genre shift.

Parade's End2012

A four-part miniseries about the collision between old and new worlds, with the same attention to period detail and the slow demolition of certainty that makes Selfridge rewarding.

But Emotionally austere and sometimes static. The payoff is intellectual rather than dramatic.

The Miniaturist2017

Another story about a merchant's world—17th-century Amsterdam—where commerce, obsession, and dark secrets intertwine. The same sense of a closed world with its own rules and hierarchies.

But More genuinely unsettling and less interested in charm. The pacing is slower and the tone more claustrophobic.

The Crown2016

Both are concerned with power, duty, and the personal cost of living in a world of ritual and expectation. Superb production design and ensemble acting across multiple seasons.

But Much longer and more sprawling. If you want something tighter and more focused on one character's arc, this is too big.

North & South2004

A romance woven through industrial drama, with the same attention to class dynamics and the way business and emotion collide. Beautifully crafted four-part miniseries.

But The romantic plot dominates more than you might want if you're primarily interested in the historical/commercial backdrop.

Belgravia2020

From Julian Fellowes, the Downton Abbey creator. A scandal spreads through high society London, told with the same ensemble skill and attention to period manners.

But Feels like a lighter Downton Abbey rerun. Less fresh and more by-the-numbers than Selfridge.

Call the Midwife2012

A different slice of Edwardian and post-war Britain, grounded in real lives and the texture of everyday experience. The ensemble cast work with the same warmth and skill.

But Entirely different tone—gentler, more sentimental. If you want ambition and moral darkness, this isn't it.

The Killing of a Sacred Deer2017

Both center on a brilliant, charming man whose professional success is rooted in a kind of violence. Both suggest that the person you present to the world may be a careful fiction.

A contemporary psychological thriller about a surgeon whose life is methodically destroyed by a stranger. Like Selfridge, it's interested in how much damage ambition and obsession can do, and how charisma masks moral emptiness.

But Modern-day, slow-burn horror with a devastating final act. Nothing like period comfort drama—this is actively upsetting and unsettling.