Period Drama

Period drama is a genre of prestige and pleasure, realism and fantasy, spectacle and intimacy. It is embedded in national pasts but speaks to the present, tracing connections, continuities, and change. It reconstructs and reimagines the spaces and places of the past and considers how lives were shaped by the classed, raced and gendered structures of society. Period drama is invested in the bodily and emotional experience of the past, it delights in the intricacies and textures of clothing, the erotics of the gaze and moments of touch. It is often viewed as a genre of escape, nostalgia and traditionalism. Yet it has the potential to challenge dominant cultural narratives and explore under-represented histories, helping to reshape our understandings of our own histories.

This book maps out the dominant debates surrounding television period drama. Through a series of themed programme case studies it charts the genre’s investments and preoccupations, considering its place within television industries and contemporary culture.