Oh my oh my, we're all back into period dramas

I know, I know - this is the show everyone from all generations seems to be watching. I am a very late fan. Having just watched the newly-launched Season 3, I am now going back to the first season. I wasn't a fan when the show first came out. I found the costuming superfluous, and the play on the Regency era toyed an annoying line between realistic and totally dream-like. I wanted the show to be either much more or much less. What I have found in returning to the show, though, is tat if you let go of your expectations for a historically-accurate period drama, it is just a really fun watch. It is romantic. The characters are likeable. The plot is steamy. I would not suggest watching this one with your parents or kids.

This biographical drama starring Judi Dench and Ali Fazal tells the story of Queen Victoria's closest confidant after she strikes up a friendship with a prison clerk from Agra. The queen is presented with a minted coin as a token of appreciation from British-ruled India and the story unfolds from there. This was an easy watch and I found it close enough to the truth that I was regularly Googling what was fictitious. It made me want to learn more after the movie - always a good sign. I enjoyed the costuming in this and wanted a sequel.

This isn't quite the "light and bright" vibe of other period pieces I am recommending and you need to be committed if you intend to strap in for all 13 seasons and counting. I love the way the characters grow in this show. You feel as if you're amongst them, with complex dynamics and interesting conversations. It's a great intergenerational watch - my mum and I talk about it regularly. Our old neighbour, who passed not long after the first season came out, told me it reminded her of growing up in London's east end. I think of her often when I watch it.

There is only one season of this show and I don't believe there is ever to be another - but there should be. The series is made my Julian Fellowes, director of Downton Abbey, and follows the origins of modern association football in England during the 1870s. It's a great watch for understanding the interconnections of working and upper-class life at the time. The characters are remarkably complex for an eight part series. You'll want to know more about their lives after the final scene.

I am recommending this film against my better judgement. It is so far removed from the book. The characters are two-dimensional at best and the whole thing feels a little simplistic. Yet, I saw a review that read: "a lovely little story about second chances, if you separate it entirely from the novel". This changed my mind. I am not one to pass up a Dakota Johnson movie and this is the perfect gateway drug of the period drama variety. it is simple, it is fun and it is bright. You could watch it with your children. Just don't think too much of Jane Austen and her reaction to such an adaptation as you do so.