20 best shows like When Father Was Away on Business (1985)

Invisible Heroes tells the heroic tale of young Finnish diplomats in Chile during 1973’s infamous military coup. Finnish diplomats Tapani Brotherus and Ilkka Jaamala along with Tapani’s wife Lysa Brotherus helped over 2000 left-wing Chileans escape the military junta’s persecution. The Finns acted without official authorization while Swedish ambassador Harald Edelstam was the most visible defendant of human rights with the backing of Sweden’s Prime Minister, Olof Palme.

The rise and fall of Fox News founder Roger Ailes, focusing primarily on the past decade in which Ailes arguably became the Republican Party’s de facto leader, while flashing back to defining events in his life.

Colognian commissioner Gereon Rath moves to Berlin, the epicenter of political and social changes in the Golden Twenties.

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 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.

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?

The First Lady of Mexico has big plans to improve conditions for the country. As she starts to lose faith in her husband, President Diego Nava, she finds herself at a crossroad where she will need to find a way to deal with a great challenge.

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.

1787, France. While investigating a series of mysterious murders, Joseph Guillotin - the future inventor of the world famous ‘Guillotine’ - uncovers an unknown virus: the Blue Blood. The disease quickly spreads amongst the French aristocracy, driving them to murder ordinary people and soon leads to a rebellion.

As a chief of staff in the National Assembly, Jang Tae-jun influences power behind the scenes while pursuing his own ambitions to rise to the top.

A behind-the-scenes drama and espionage thriller in Cold War-era England that centers on a journalist, a producer, and an anchorman for an investigative news programme.

In the 1960s, Israeli clerk-turned-secret agent Eli Cohen goes deep undercover inside Syria on a perilous, years-long mission to spy for Mossad.

Hidden from the view of the public - and even from the President - there is a top secret agent who is trained and ready to serve, deployed only at the careful discretion of the Vice President.

A team of talented Australian and American intelligence analysts work together to ensure global stability in one of the world's most important and secretive joint intelligence facilities... Pine Gap. But the relationship between the Australian and American intelligence analysts working at Pine Gap isn’t always rosy.

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.

The TV show is about the Godunov family, which covers the period from the reign of Ivan the Terrible to the accession of Mikhail Romanov to the throne.

Picking up where the Emmy-winning miniseries The Kennedys left off, The Kennedys – After Camelot provides a fascinating look into the modern era of America’s royal family. Based on the best-selling book of the same name by J. Randy Taraborrelli.

The life pages of a man who changed the world but paid back everything he had. Leon Trotsky is being interviewed in Mexico city of the year 1940 by Canadian journalist Frank Jackson. During eight days they have eight interview sessions revealing the true face of Comrade Trotsky.

A behind-the-scenes look at the people who make a nightly cable-news program. Focusing on a network anchor, his new executive producer, the newsroom staff and their boss, the series tracks their quixotic mission to do the news well in the face of corporate and commercial obstacles-not to mention their own personal entanglements.

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.

In a utopia whose perfection hinges upon control of monogamy and privacy, members of the collective begin to question the rules, putting their regimented society on a collision course with forbidden love and revolution.

Set in present day Washington, D.C., House of Cards is the story of Frank Underwood, a ruthless and cunning politician, and his wife Claire who will stop at nothing to conquer everything. This wicked political drama penetrates the shadowy world of greed, sex and corruption in modern D.C. House of Cards is an adaptation of a previous BBC miniseries of the same name, which is based on the novel by Michael Dobbs.

Politician Peter Laurence's private life is falling apart. Shamelessly untroubled by guilt or remorse, he seeks to further his own agenda whilst others plot to bring him down. Can he out-run his own secrets to win the ultimate prize?

Powerhouse lawyer Jessica Pearson adjusts to the dirty world of Chicago politics.

Boardwalk Empire is a period drama focusing on Enoch "Nucky" Thompson (based on the historical Enoch L. Johnson), a political figure who rose to prominence and controlled Atlantic City, New Jersey, during the Prohibition period of the 1920s and 1930s. Nucky interacts with several historical figures in both his personal and political life, including mobsters, politicians, government agents, and the common folk who look up to him. The federal government also takes an interest in the bootlegging and other illegal activities in the area, sending agents to investigate possible mob connections but also looking at Nucky's lifestyle—expensive and lavish for a county political figure. Primetime Emmy Award-winning screenwriter and producer Terence Winter adapted the show from Boardwalk Empire: The Birth, High Times, and Corruption of Atlantic City, a book by Nelson Johnson about historical criminal kingpin Enoch L. Johnson.

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

The personal and political struggles, setbacks and triumphs of a diverse family of LGBT men and women who helped pioneer one of the last legs of the U.S. Civil Rights movement from its turbulent infancy in the 20th century to the once unfathomable successes of today. The period piece tells the history of the gay rights movement, starting with the Stonewall Riots in 1969.

Four Republican senators share the same D.C. house rental, and face re-election battles, looming indictments, and parties -- all with a sense of humor.

In a tale of epic scale, French politician Philippe Rickwaert thirsts for revenge against his political enemies. Philippe’s political career is in shambles after he is sacrificed by the presidential candidate from the Left, Francis Laugier, in order to save his election. Step by step, Philippe plots against him and forges an alliance with his closest advisor, Amélie Dorendeu.

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.

After a devastating fire in 1897 Paris, three women find their lives upended by betrayals, deceptions and romantic turmoil. Inspired by real events.

A historical fiction drama and thriller set in the turbulent period of the late 1930s in the Balkans as a place where high politics, local interests, capital and crime all merge together.

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

A troubled war veteran is assigned to protect a controversial politician who may be the target of a terror plot.

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?

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.

Los Angeles. 1983. A storm is coming and it's name is crack. Set against the infancy of the crack cocaine epidemic and its ultimate radical impact on the culture as we know it, the story follows numerous characters on a violent collision course.

Lieutenant Erling Riiser is on his way back to Norway after a long stay in Afghanistan. Much has gone wrong, several soldiers are missing from the Hercelus-plane. After only one day in Norway, Erling receives a text message saying an old acquaintance from Afghanistan is in Oslo - which can mean only one thing: A woman's life is in danger

Years after a disastrous job in Baluchistan, a former Indian spy must confront his past when he returns to lead an unsanctioned hostage-rescue mission.

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.”

Max is a charismatic self-made American businessman with media outlets in London and around the world. When the self-destructive lifestyle of his 30 year-old son, Caden, spirals out of control, the devastating consequences threaten the future of the family, its empire, and a country on the brink of change.

The Company tells the thrilling story of Cold War CIA agents imprisoned in double lives, fighting an amoral, elusive, formidable enemy – and each other – in an internecine battle within the Company itself.

40-year old political leader Birgitte Nyborg secures her party a landslide victory through her idealism and huge effort, then faces the biggest challenge of her life: how most effectively to use the newly won seats, and how far she is willing to go in order to gain as much influence as possible.

Brilliant young actress Charlie strikes up an acquaintance with an intriguing stranger while on holiday in Greece, but it rapidly becomes apparent that his intentions are far from romantic.

Police detective Peter Wendel leads a cold case group. Based on an original idea by Leif GW Persson, one of Sweden’s most recognized criminologists.

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

The economic and cultural growth of town of Centennial, Colorado, through the intertwining lives of the brave men and women inhabiting it. Spanning two centuries from the settling of the area in the 1700s, to the late 1970s.

Boss is an American political drama television serial created by Farhad Safinia. The series stars Kelsey Grammer as Tom Kane, the mayor of Chicago, who has recently been diagnosed with dementia with Lewy bodies, a degenerative neurological disorder.

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.

The fight of Abdulhamid II to keep Ottoman Empire and caliphate alive.