Television series
Poldark
Poldark is a lush, wind-battered Cornish saga about a soldier who comes home to nothing and rebuilds it out of pure stubbornness. It's a slow-burn romance wrapped in class warfare and tin-mine economics, gorgeously shot and unabashedly horny in its own repressed way. Watch it for the scenery, the scything, and Aidan Turner's cheekbones doing narrative work.
If you liked this
North & South2004
If you want the same brooding-hero-meets-strong-willed-woman tension but swap Cornish tin for Northern cotton mills, this BBC miniseries is the gold standard — Richard Armitage's Thornton is basically Ross Poldark with a factory instead of a mine.
But Only four episodes, so the slow burn ends fast, and the industrial setting is grimier and less scenic than Cornwall.

Outlander2014
Same sweeping landscapes, same headstrong heroine caught between duty and desire, same sense that history is basically an excuse for gorgeous costumes and combustible chemistry — just add time travel and a Scottish accent.
But The time-travel mechanics and later seasons' plotting get baggier than Poldark ever does; commitment required.

Downton Abbey2010
For the class anxiety and estate politics minus the pitchforks — a gentler, more mannered look at old money versus new that still makes you weirdly invested in who inherits what.
But It's cosier and less physical than Poldark; nobody's scything a field or nearly drowning.

The wildcard
Something you would not have found on your own.
Deadwood2004
Both are, underneath the costumes, stories about a mining town's soul being fought over by a self-made man and an entrenched capitalist — Warleggan and Hearst are the same monster in different coats.
Same engine as Poldark — an outsider trying to build something honest inside a lawless economy run by one venal rich man — but transplanted to a filthy gold-rush camp with Shakespearean profanity instead of drawing-room manners.
But It's far more violent and vulgar, and the dense, theatrical dialogue takes real patience to tune into.

More like this (8)
Victoria2016
A young woman thrust into power, navigating love and duty against political intrigue and gorgeous frocks — Jenna Coleman gives it the same stubborn spark Demelza has.
But It's set decades later in a palace rather than a farmhouse, so the class stakes feel more rarefied.

Far from the Madding Crowd2015
Another fiercely independent woman running her own land against Victorian expectation, another love triangle, another wind-scoured English countryside doing emotional heavy lifting — Carey Mulligan is magnificent.
But It's two hours, not sixty, so the slow accumulation of longing Poldark specializes in gets compressed.

Sanditon2019no page yet
Austen's unfinished novel turned into a seaside romance with class tension, scheming relatives and a heroine who refuses to know her place — same coastal energy, sunnier disposition.
But It's frothier and more comic than Poldark; don't expect mining disasters or existential brooding.
The Paradise2012no page yet
Ambition, class-climbing and a will-they-won't-they romance set against Britain's first department store — smaller stakes than Poldark but the same appetite for melodrama and moral compromise.
But Only two short seasons, and the shopgirl setting is far cosier than Cornish clifftops.
Jamaica Inn2014no page yet
Same Cornish coastline, same smugglers-and-secrets atmosphere, same sense that the landscape is one wrong step from killing everybody — du Maurier's novel adapted by the BBC with real menace.
But It's bleaker and more claustrophobic than Poldark, with less romance to soften the dread.
Lark Rise to Candleford2008
A gentler, more communal slice of rural English life a century later — less romance-plot, more village ensemble, but the same fascination with how a small place survives hard times.
But It's warmer and lower-stakes than Poldark; nobody's storming a mine or duelling over inheritance.

Jean de Florette1986no page yet
Same bones as Ross's story: a man returns to reclaim something broken, pits stubborn hope against a hostile community, and discovers the land itself keeps its own accounts.
A French classic about an outsider who inherits neglected land and tries to make it bloom against the quiet, ruthless hostility of his neighbours — gorgeous, mournful, and just as obsessed with land as destiny.
But It's subtitled, unhurried, and considerably sadder than Poldark; there's no rescuing romance to soften the ending.
The Wicked Lady1945no page yet
It's the genre's own ancestor — the swaggering, sexually charged bodice-ripper that Poldark's Ross-and-Demelza chemistry ultimately descends from, just with the trashiness turned all the way up.
Before Poldark there was this gloriously trashy Gainsborough melodrama about a highwaywoman terrorising the English countryside in a corset — all the smouldering, scandalous costume-drama DNA, decades before it got tasteful.
But It's melodramatic and dated by design, with acting pitched several notches above naturalistic.
People
Cast
Writing
- Debbie HorsfieldCreator
Production
- Damien TimmerExecutive Producer
- Debbie HorsfieldExecutive Producer
- Eliza MellorExecutive Producer
- Karen ThrussellExecutive Producer
- Polly HillExecutive Producer
- Rebecca KeaneExecutive Producer
- Michael RayProducer
Recommended by
Victoria, Downton Abbey, Bridgerton, The Gilded Age, Outlander, Wuthering Heights, The First Churchills, The Forsyte Saga, Versailles, Far from the Madding Crowd, Outlander: Blood of My Blood, Taboo, Reign, The White Queen, Miss Scarlet