20 best shows like A Very British Scandal (2021)

A fresh look at the life and legacy of the iconic artist Leonardo da Vinci, positing that he was a gay outsider who used his work as a way of hiding his true self. Each episode will examine one of da Vinci’s artworks for hidden clues about a tortured artist struggling for perfection.

The story of Victorian serial killer Mary Ann Cotton, a poisoner whose methods leave no visible scars, allowing her tally of victims to mount, unsuspected by a Victorian society unable to conceive of a woman capable of such terrible crimes. Traveling around the North East, she insinuates herself into unsuspecting families, marrying and creating new families of her own - before killing them, taking their money and moving on.

Drama series set in the mid-sixties, in which a unit of Royal Military Police officers and their families deal with the challenges of politics, love and war in British-controlled Aden.

The story of Charles Ingram, a former British army major who caused a major scandal in the early 2000s after being caught cheating his way to winning £1 million on the game show Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? Ingram, his wife Diana and an accomplice, Tecwen Whittock, who was sitting in the audience, initially pulled off the on-screen heist before being caught and standing trial.

New Worlds is a gripping 4 part mini series dealing with love, loss and the human price paid for the freedoms and liberties we enjoy today. We follow the fortunes of four young people - Beth, Hope, Abe and Ned - from across both sides of the Atlantic, caught up in these turbulent times. We see them struggle as they are torn between love and ideals in the harsh reality of the changing world. In England, the restored monarchy of Charles II has betrayed its promises and reverted to tyranny. Behind the decadence of the Court, a terror machine is repressing the freedoms won for the people with so much blood during the Civil War of England when Charles I was executed. In America, the tentacles of state terror reach the English colonists of New England who are struggling to throw off the shackles of the English Crown. At the same time the colonists are ruthlessly staking their claim to the territories occupied by the Native American Indians, and shedding much of the American Indian's blood in the process - in a chilling echo of the tyrannical behaviour that they sought to escape from when they crossed the Atlantic

Epic drama set in the summer of 1932 where India dreams of independence, but the British are clinging to power. Set against the sweeping grandeur of the Himalayas and tea plantations of Northern India, the drama tells the rich and explosive story of the decline of the British Empire and the birth of modern India, from both sides of the experience. At the heart of the story lie the implications and ramifications of the tangled web of passions, rivalries and clashes that define the lives of those brought together in this summer which will change everything.

At its heart, Banished is a story of survival. Though it is set in the stark historical reality of the founding of the penal colony in Australia in 1788 after the arrival of the First Fleet, it is not the story of Australia and how it came to be. Rather, it is a tale of love, faith, justice and morality played out on an epic scale in a confined community where the stakes are literally life and death.

The true story of one of the worst man-made catastrophes in history: the catastrophic nuclear accident at Chernobyl. A tale of the brave men and women who sacrificed to save Europe from unimaginable disaster.

Camelot is a historical-fantasy-drama television series based on the Arthurian legend, was produced by Graham King, Morgan O'Sullivan and Michael Hirst.

The gripping, decades-spanning inside story of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and the Prime Ministers who shaped Britain's post-war destiny. The Crown tells the inside story of two of the most famous addresses in the world – Buckingham Palace and 10 Downing Street – and the intrigues, love lives and machinations behind the great events that shaped the second half of the 20th century. Two houses, two courts, one Crown.

It's the late 1960s, homosexuality has only just been legalised and Jeremy Thorpe, the leader of the Liberal party, has a secret he's desperate to hide.

A chronicle of four friends during a decade in which everything changed, including the rise of AIDS.

An anthology series of five stories looking at the lives of a group of friends and their families in London’s West Indian community from the late 1960s to the early 80s.

BLACK OPS travels the world to take viewers along on top secret special ops missions. The series reveals how elite special operations units in different countries carry out their high-risk/zero-recognition assignments and shares the inside story of some of the most dramatic military actions in recent history.When 40 Chechen terrorists armed with guns and bombs hold 800 theater-goers hostage, it's up to Russia's elite anti-terrorist force, Spetsnaz group "Alpha," to get the hostages out alive. Negotiation is not an option, and a siege would set off the explosives.The only way to save the hostages' lives is to use an untested top-secret knock-out gas.

The life of Napoleon Bonaparte.

The remarkable story of the chance meeting that transformed penniless, ostracised archaeologist Howard Carter into a household name following his discovery of the tomb of the boy-king, Tutankhamun.

France, 1815. Jean Valjean, a common thief, is released from prison after having lived a hell in life for 19 years, but a small mistake puts the law again on his trail. Ruthless Inspector Javert pursues him thorough years, driven by a twisted sense of justice, while Valjean reforms himself, thrives and dedicates his life to good deeds. In 1832, while the revolution ravages the streets of Paris, Valjean and Javert cross their paths for the last time.

Britain is in the grip of a chilling recession... falling wages, rising prices, civil unrest - only the bankers are smiling. It's 1783 and Ross Poldark returns from the American War of Independence to his beloved Cornwall to find his world in ruins: his father dead, the family mine long since closed, his house wrecked and his sweetheart pledged to marry his cousin. But Ross finds that hope and love can be found when you are least expecting it in the wild but beautiful Cornish landscape.

The Caesars is a British television series produced by Granada Television for the ITV network in 1968. Made in black-and-white and written and produced by Philip Mackie, it covered similar dramatic territory to the later BBC adaptation of I, Claudius, dealing with the lives of the early emperors of Ancient Rome, but differed in its less sensationalist depictions of historical characters and their motives.

The beautiful Spanish princess, Catherine of Aragon, navigates the royal lineage of England with an eye on the throne.

Borgia is a French-German-Czech historical drama television series created by Tom Fontana. The show recounts the Borgia family's rise to power and subsequent domination of the Papal States during the Renaissance. Borgia debuted in Italy via Sky Italia on 10 July 2011, and in North America via Netflix on 2 October 2011. It was since renewed for a second season, which premiered on Canal+ on March 18, 2013. Season 3 is currently in Pre-Production, and will be the end of the series.

Shortly after the fall of Saddam Hussein, Iraqi ex-policeman Muhsin al-Khafaji has lost everything and is battling daily to keep himself and his sick daughter, Mrouj safe. But when he learns that his estranged elder daughter Sawsan is missing Khafaji is forced into a desperate search to find her.

This four-part historical drama follows the end of Catherine the Great's reign and her affair with Russian military leader Grigory Potemkin that helped shape the future of Russian politics.

The extraordinary rise of Livia Drusilla, who overcame adversity to become the most powerful woman in the world. Follow Livia’s journey from a naïve young girl whose world crumbles in the wake of Julius Caesar’s assassination, to Rome’s most powerful and influential Empress.

The Tudors is a history-based drama series following the young, vibrant King Henry VIII, a competitive and lustful monarch who navigates the intrigues of the English court and the human heart with equal vigor and justifiable suspicion.

A down-to-earth account of the lives of both illustrious and ordinary Romans set in the last days of the Roman Republic.

Three episode, fact based drama from the BBC, about the 2018 Novichok poisoning crisis in the city of Salisbury.

Cadfael is the name given to the TV series of The Cadfael Chronicles adaptations produced by British television company ITV Central between 1994 and 1998. The series was broadcast on the ITV network in the UK, and starred Sir Derek Jacobi as the medieval detective.

Belfast, 1909. The Harland and Wolff shipyard has been handed the greatest project in its history. It will build a great, unsinkable ship. And it will be called the RMS Titanic.

The early 17th Century story of three courageous, dynamic women who leave their dark pasts behind in England, and make the journey of a lifetime across the ocean for a new life in America.

Following the fact-based historical book of the same name, this drama follows the rise of Cromwell as he becomes Henry the VIII's closest advisor. England in the 1520s is a heartbeat from disaster. If the King dies without a male heir, the country could be destroyed by civil war. Henry VIII wants to annul his marriage of twenty years and marry Anne Boleyn. The Pope and most of Europe oppose him. Into this impasse steps Thomas Cromwell: a wholly original man, a charmer, and a bully, both idealist and opportunist, astute in reading people, and implacable in his ambition. But Henry is volatile: one day tender, one day murderous. Cromwell helps him break the opposition, but what will be the price of his triumph?

Inspector John Marlott investigates a series of crimes in 19th Century London, which may have been committed by a scientist intent on re-animating the dead.

Ancient Rome: The Rise and Fall of an Empire is a 2006 BBC One docudrama series, with each episode looking at a different key turning point in the history of the Roman Empire.

The story of Romulus and his twin brother Remus, in eighth century B.C. as seen through the eyes of three people marked by death, loneliness and violence.