20 best shows like It's a Free World... (2007)

As Pope Pius XIII hangs between life and death in a coma, charming and sophisticated moderate English aristocrat Sir John Brannox is placed on the papal throne and adopts the name John Paul III. A sequel series to “The Young Pope.”

Bleak House is a fifteen-part BBC television drama serial adaptation of Charles Dickens' novel Bleak House, which was originally published in 1852–53. Produced with an all-star cast, the serial was shown on BBC One from October to December 2005, and drew much critical and popular praise. It has been reported that the total cost of the production was in the region of £8 million.

A contemporary and culturally resonant drama about a young programmer, Elliot, who suffers from a debilitating anti-social disorder and decides that he can only connect to people by hacking them. He wields his skills as a weapon to protect the people that he cares about. Elliot will find himself in the intersection between a cybersecurity firm he works for and the underworld organizations that are recruiting him to bring down corporate America.

As widespread power outages cause chaos and threaten lives across the country, the COBRA (Cabinet Office Briefing Room) committee comprised of the UK’s leading experts and politicians, gathers to find a way to turn the lights back on.

The story of a group of inspirational women in a rural Cheshire community with the shadow of World War II casting a dark cloud over their lives. As the conflict takes hold and separates the women from their husbands, fathers, sons and brothers, the characters find themselves under increasing and extraordinary pressures in a rapidly fragmenting world. By banding together as the Great Paxford Women’s Institute, they help maintain the nation’s fabric in its darkest hour, and discover inner resources that will change their lives forever.

Daniel Demoys has gone from being an idealistic young man with a burning desire to make the world a better place, to a disillusioned and corrupt council official. His alcoholism has driven a wedge between him and his family. When Daniel wakes up after another drunken night, he realizes that he might be responsible for a murder. A dramatic act of redemption buys him public adoration, so much so that he has become a candidate in the race for Mayor, but as his public star rises ever higher and he tries to repair the damage done to his private life, he is painfully aware that it could all come crashing down at any moment.

Nessa Stein, the daughter of a Zionist arms procurer who as a child witnessed his assassination. Now an adult, Nessa inherits her father's company and changes course from supplying arms to laying data cabling networks between Israel and the West Bank. Her efforts to reconcile the Israelis and Palestinians lands her an appointment to the House of Lords and creates an international political maelstrom.

Ben Hur is a TV miniseries that first aired in 2010. Based on Lew Wallace's1880 novel, Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ, the series was produced by Alchemy Television Group in association with Drimtim Entertainment and Muse Entertainment in Montreal. It aired on Canada's CBC network on April 4, 2010, and aired later in 2010 on ABC in the United States. Ben-Hur was directed by Steve Shill, and stars Kristin Kreuk, Ray Winstone, Art Malik, Hugh Bonneville and Joseph Morgan as Judah Ben-Hur. The film was written by Alan Sharp.

Thousands of dead people have risen from their graves and nearly destroyed Britain. A cure has been found - but can the treated zombies be rehabilitated back into living society?

Two hundred years after the construction of the great cathedral, the medieval town of Kingsbridge is taken under siege by Queen Isabella. Caris, a visionary young woman, inspires her people to stand up for their rights and revolt against to the most powerful forces of her time, the Church and the Crown.

Powerful historical drama series, based on the lives of real people, telling the story of young 19th-century apprentices taking their lives into their own hands for the first time.

Secret State explores the relationship between a democratically elected government, big business and the banks.

The Hollow Crown is a series of British television films featuring William Shakespeare's History Plays. The first Season is an adaptation of Shakespeare's second historical tetralogy, the Henriad: Richard II, Henry IV, Part I and Henry IV, Part II (treated as one film in two parts in the series) and Henry V. The Second Season is subtitled "The Wars of the Roses" as a reference to its scope. It is based on Shakespeare's first tetralogy: Henry VI: Part I, Henry VI: Part II, Henry VI: Part III (treated as two films in the series) and Richard III.

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 worst thing Ben has ever done is, tonight, he takes his Dad's black cab out without his permission. But that's not why Ben ends the evening in a police cell. What looked to be a spontaneous evening of fun with a sexy stranger, Melanie, has culminated in a dead girl and Ben covered in her blood, holding the murder weapon. All the evidence points to Ben. There are no other leads. But he didn t do it. He can t remember all the events of the night, but he s sure he didn t. Ben is about to see what the criminal justice system does to someone who was in the wrong place at the wrong time

The life of Napoleon Bonaparte.

Follow Sugar into the underbelly of Victorian London seething with vitality, sexuality, ambition and emotion.

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?

Mayor Nick Wasicsko took office in 1987 during Yonkers' worst crisis when federal courts ordered public housing to be built in the white, middle class side of town, dividing the city in a bitter battle fueled by fear, racism, murder and politics.

Plague decimates late 16th century Seville, a crowded city where many have arrived to embark for the New World to seek their fortune.

Zen is a British television mini series produced by Left Bank Pictures for the BBC, co-produced with WGBH Boston for its Masterpiece anthology series, Mediaset and ZDF. It stars Rufus Sewell and Caterina Murino and is based on the Aurelio Zen detective novels by Michael Dibdin. The series was filmed on location in Italy, but the dialogue is in English. The series, which comprises three 90-minute films, was broadcast in the United Kingdom on Sunday evenings from 2 January 2011 on BBC One. The three films were based on the books Vendetta, Cabal and Ratking.

Follow three women as they each make life-changing mistakes regarding their children and husbands, which lead to unpredictable criminal consequences. Based on Paula Daly's best selling novel, Windermere.

A chilling and bloody legal thriller that explores the line between law and justice. Will Burton, a talented junior barrister of peerless intellect and winning charm, specialises in spiriting people out of tight legal corners. He is in high demand as he has never lost a case. But when his talents acquit the notorious prime suspect in an horrific murder trial, that brilliance comes back to bite him with unexpected and chilling results, not to mention a shocking twist.

Silk is a British television drama series produced by the BBC and first shown in 2011. Written by Peter Moffat, the series follows a set of barristers, and what they do to attain the rank of Queen's Counsel, known as "taking silk."

London's police force is in need of a public image revamp. And Chief Constable Richard Miller has found just the woman to do it...American visionary from the world of new media Liz Garvey, sets out to revolutionise the force's PR department just as an outbreak of violence erupts.

Father Brown is based on G. K. Chesterton's detective stories about a Catholic priest who doubles as an amateur detective in order to try and solve mysteries.

The story of a young woman who goes to present-day Israel/Palestine determined to find out about her soldier grandfather's involvement in the final years of Palestine under the British mandate.

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.

The story of a love triangle between a conservative English aristocrat, his mean socialite wife and a young suffragette in the midst of World War I and a Europe on the brink of profound change.

A sexy, suspense-driven legal thriller about a group of ambitious law students and their brilliant, mysterious criminal defense professor. They become entangled in a murder plot and will shake the entire university and change the course of their lives.

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.

Following a raft of shootings in an English market town, the crimes are retold in a nonlinear narrative structure through the eyes of a journalist and the tragedies' victims.

Amy Dorrit spends her days earning money for the family and looking after her proud father who is a long term inmate of Marshalsea debtors' prison in London. Amy and her family's world is transformed when her employer's son, Arthur Clennam, returns from overseas to solve his family's mysterious legacy and discovers that their lives are interlinked.

A drama dealing with the abduction and murder of a young black girl, soon to be adopted by her white foster family, and the trail of lies, blame, guilt and notoriety which follow.

Three-part crime thriller. When detective Marcus Farrow looks into a seemingly forgotten case, he has no idea of the chaos and heartache that will soon follow. He is found at the scene of a murder, and with all the evidence pointing towards him, he is arrested and charged.

A year after the disappearance of their son, Gabe and Eve Caleigh and their two daughters attempt to start anew, they head to Crickley Hall - a seemingly perfect countryside house. But when cellar doors start to open on their own, phantom children's cries are heard through the night and a frenzied cane-wielding specter rears its head - the Caleigh's realize the house comes with a lot more than they bargained for. Just as they're ready to move out, Eve Caleigh hears Cam's cries and all bets are off.

Dickensian intertwines the realm of fictional characters in Charles Dickens’ novels—including Scrooge, Fagin and Miss Havisham—in half-hour episodes, as their lives intertwine in 19th century London. The Old Curiosity Shop sits next door to The Three Cripples Pub, while Fagin’s Den is hidden down a murky alley off a bustling Victorian street.

The lives and loves of a 1930s Yorkshire town explored in a passionate tale of politics in small places. South Riding charts the story of Sarah Burton's homecoming to Yorkshire in 1934 after twenty years teaching in London and the Empire. After a fiery interview with a conservative interview panel, outspoken Sarah takes up her first headmistress-ship at Kiplington High School for Girls, determined to demonstrate to her new pupils that the future is theirs for the taking.

Raza, a young second-generation British-Pakistani man from London is coerced by Gabe, a counterterrorism officer, into informing.

The spirited and impulsive Charlotte Heywood moves from her rural home to Sanditon, a fishing village attempting to reinvent itself as a seaside resort.

Father Michael, a Catholic priest presiding over a Northern urban parish who is Modern, maverick, and reassuringly flawed; must be confidante, counselor and confessor to a congregation struggling to reconcile its beliefs with the challenges of daily life.

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.

Robyn, the sharp and witty publicity maven, is an expert at her craft but a complete self-saboteur when it comes to her personal life. Robyn’s work as a crisis PR strategist is fast-paced and unpredictable, as she counsels high-profile personalities in entertainment, fashion and sports.

Witty, heartfelt and unique interlinked stories covering different aspects of LGBT life, featuring the most exciting emerging talent.

The citizens of the small British town of Pagford fight for the spot on the parish council after Barry Fairbrother dies.

Fermanagh, Irish countryside, 1885. On her 23rd birthday, Beth, who lives on a remote farm with Billy Winters, her tyrannical stepfather, whom she can barely stand, prepares to flee from such a suffocating life with the help of the seductive Liam Ward, without being aware that her decision will unearth deeply buried secrets a long time ago.

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

An explosive 1930s drama following a jazz band in London at a time of huge change.

In Edwardian England, George and his partner Amy attempt to defy society and start a life together as they face the escalating terror of an alien invasion, fighting for their lives against an enemy beyond their comprehension.

Anna and Kitty. Two lives. One of desperate passion that ends in tragedy, the other, an existence made real through love. Two destinies that interweave, giving rise to two, so very different stories, yet lived in pursuit of the same desire- to find a love that lets them fully be themselves, to live without having to conform to society’s pretenses.