List of historical dramas

This is a list of  selected  historical dramas that tries to cover the entire span of the Human race existence on Earth.

The list was first created in 2006 by PagliaSite admin Andres Contos, aka Sid-Vicious, and has been growing ever since. It soon became part of the Insane Projects developed by the Paglia Community; since 2021, it has been included here as part of the "A World of Straw Bales" Fandom Wiki.

The Project
The "historical drama", or "period drama", is a film and television genre in which the stories are set in a specific past time of the world's history. Some are biographies of more or less notorious historical individuals; some are fictionalized tales based or inspired by actual events; some are docu-dramas, with great attention given to historical accuracy; others are totally fictional stories using a specific historical period as their setting.

The author manages similar lists on iMDB. "This particular list is different though, because it's extremely detailed. It means that I tried, whenever possible, to specify the time period covered by the story, sometimes up to the specific day or month (this is particularly true for the last part, covering the 20th/21th century). In this way I was able to identify the time setting of single episodes of many television series and miniseries. By watching the selected productions in the order presented in this list, you can get the feeling of witnessing history year after year, century after century, like a sort of time travel. It's very history-geeks oriented, been myself one".

Of course, viewers must always remember that historical dramas, in most of the cases, are not accurate and many productions take a lot of artistic licenses in the way they depict actual historical events or specific time periods; quite commons are also goofs, anachronisms and continuity errors.

The list follows a chronological order based on the historical setting of every single production taken into consideration. "For the most past, these are films and television series that I've watched and evaluated. In those cases where the setting remains uncertain, I tried to approximate it as much as possibile, following the clues provided by the stories and my own personal historical knowledge. Some of the calendar dates used here may be subjects to future corrections, especially in regards to those films and tv series that I haven't watched in a long time".

The project has always been directed by Andres Contos: "It's clearly based on my personal assessments. For this reason, I haven't included all the films or the television series in existence, but only those that I found to be worthy or peculiar (e.g. good screenplays, great production values, historical accuracy, cinematic impact, etc.). The list follows a European, or, more generally, a Western point of view when it comes to the productions selected to be included. This is simply because that is where I live; in no way this decision want to imply a belief in pre-eminence of Western culture".

By the author own words, this list is not intended to include every kind of film or tv series, but just a selected few. This rules still applies on this wiki and cannot be changed. Users however are free to use the list as a reference if they wish to create their own version: "My list mainly covers British, American and Italian productions. There are some Asian works, but limited to those I had the chance to see. Indian, Russians, or productions from Arabic or Spanish-speaking countries are mostly absent; the same applies for non-English European works (e.g., French or German ones), with few exceptions".

As of July 2021, only active, registered members from this wiki or the PagliaSite Community are allowed to edit the list. Random, anonymous visitors can leave comments in the appropriate section if they wish make suggestions, discussions, signalling mistakes or whatever the reason.

Legend

 * Titles in Italic type: theatrical releases and television films
 * Titles in roman type: television and digital series/miniseries

Prehistory

 * Main article: List of historical dramas set in prehistoric times

Ancient History (3000 BCE-500 CE)

 * Main article: List of historical dramas set in Antiquity

Middle Ages (500-1500)

 * Main article: List of historical dramas set in the Middle Ages

Early Modern Period (1500-1765)

 * Main article: List of historical dramas set in the Modern Period

Age of Revolutions (1776-1849)

 * Main article: List of historical dramas set in the Age of Revolutions

The Great Divergence (1850-1913)

 * Main article: List of historical dramas set during the Great Divergence

First World War (1914-1918)

 * Main article: List of historical dramas set during the First World War

Interwar Period (1919-1938)

 * Main article: List of historical dramas set during the Interwar Period

Second World War (1939-1945)

 * Main article: List of historical dramas set during the Second World War

The Paranoia Years (1946-1959)

 * Main article: List of historical dramas set during the Paranoia Years

The 1960s (1960-1969)

 * Main article: List of historical dramas set in the 1960s

The 1970s (1970-1979)

 * Main article: List of historical dramas set in the 1970s

The 1980s (1980-1989)

 * Main article: List of historical dramas set in the 1980s

The 1990s (1990-1999)

 * Main article: List of historical dramas set in the 1990s

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