Downton Abbey is one of those shows that captured our hearts for a variety of reasons. Now you’ll need to find something just a little similar to the series. After all, there’s nothing quite as good as this British period drama!
The show follows the lives of those who live in Downton Abbey. This includes the upper class owners of the estate and the lower class staff members who work there. One of the great things about the series is that we see how class affects situations, but we also see how the upper class needed to adapt in the 1910s and 1920s or face the loss of everything.
What do you watch when you’ve worked through the seasons and the movies again? Here are five shows like Downton Abbey that you need to give a chance.
Upstairs Downstairs
Before Downton Abbey, the British television producers brought us something else that focused on the lives of the upper class and the lower class. Upstairs Downstairs is a must-watch. The original series ran in 1971, and then there was a revival series years later which picks up years after the events of the OG show. While there aren’t too many episodes to get through, the storylines are just what you need to get a feel of Downton Abbey.
The OG series is set at 165 Eaton Place in Belgravia, Central London between the years 1903 and 1930. We follow the decline of the British aristocracy, focusing on events like the Great War, the Wall Street crash, and more. We got to see how the aristocrats had to adapt if they wanted to survive, but not everyone managed that. The revival follows Rose, one of the servants from the OG series, as she returns to serve the new owners of the house just before the Second World War.
Get both the original series and the revival on BritBox.
Jamestown
We head back to the 17th century for this next series. It’s time to follow the first settlers in Jamestown. The series follows Alice, Verity, and Jocelyn, three women arriving ready to marry the men of the colony. These men paid for their arrival to the Colony, but it’s n clear that there is a power struggle.
In a world where women are only property, the three need to join forces together and rely on each other for survival. We get to see how the development of a colony could play out, with people itching for power and the need to deal with forces around them trying to prevent them from setting up life in the New World.
Jamestown is available to stream on PBS Masterpiece and Prime Video.
A Place to Call Home
If you like to see the world of the rich and the poor colliding with each other, then you need to turn to an Australian period drama. A Place to Call Home is a beautiful tale of Sarah Adams, who returns to New South Wales after decades away from her home country. She quickly runs into the issue of the Bligh matriarch, who wants to find out all of her secrets.
While Sarah certainly has her secrets, she also has a heart. She wants to help the people around her, rich or poor. As her past comes out, she fights to gain control while also helping the Bligh family with their own issues and problems, and that’s before she starts to fall for George Bligh, the son of the busybody matriarch.
A Place to Call Home is available to stream on Acorn TV.
Little Fires Everywhere
Not everything has to be a period drama (unless you count the 1990s as a period drama now) to get the feel of Downton Abbey. The next show on our list is Little Fires Everywhere, which is based on the book of the same name be Celeste Ng.
The series is set in Shaker Heights, Ohio in the 1990s. The Richardson family seems to have the perfect life. When a mother and daughter move into the area and rent from the Richardsons, all their lives end up intertwined. The Warren family have moved a lot, and there are plenty of secrets involved. Can Mia protect her secrets from the nosey Elena Richardson, or will she have to face consequences of her past? Will Elena be able to keep her own secrets, or will family troubles spill out in the neighborhood?
Little Fires Everywhere is available on Hulu.
The White Queen
Do you like the love stories mixed into Downton Abbey? What about the threat to the way the upper class live? The White Queen offers all of that and more. This series is set in the late 1400s, following the fall of King Henry VI and the rise of King Edward IV. Well, at first. There is plenty of betrayal, shifts in power, and murder.
The White Queen is focused on three women from different backgrounds. We follow Elizabeth Woodville, who is the widow of a man who fought against King Edward. She asks for support from the king, who quickly falls in love with her. Then there’s Margaret Beaufort, a woman who is trying to succeed for her son, who she believes is a rightful king. Finally, we follow Anne Neville, the daughter of The Kingmaker, who is used as a pawn for her father’s own gain only to find her life at risk for a while because of her father’s actions.
The White Queen is available to stream on STARZ.