Emma Thompson, Alan Rickman, Kate Winslet and Hugh Grant star in this captivating romantic comedy that swept the Ten Best Lists and was named the Best Picture of the Year by the Golden Globes®. Based on Jane Austen's classic novel, SENSE AND SENSIBILITY tells of the Dashwood sisters, sensible Elinor (Thompson) and passionate Marianne (Winslet), whose chances at marriage seem doomed by their family's sudden loss of fortune. Rickman, Grant and Greg Wise co-star as the well-intentioned suitors who are trapped by the strict rules of society and the conflicting laws of desire.

The Swedish King Gustav III is bold and courageous regarding government. He is to marry a Danish princess. But when it comes to love and courtship, the king feels lost. Therefore he asks the loyal and experienced Captain Munck for assistance.

Shaka Zulu: The Last Great Warrior is the true story of the legendary African warrior and his struggle to unite his people against the largest empire in the world.

Napoleon, exiled, devises a plan to retake the throne. He'll swap places with commoner Sergeant Eugene Lenormand, sneak into Paris, then Lenormand will reveal himself and Napoleon will regain his throne. Things don't go at all well. First, the journey proves to be more difficult than expected, but more disastrously, Lenormand enjoys himself too much to reveal the deception. Napoleon adjusts somewhat uneasily to the life of a commoner while waiting, while Lenormand gorges on rich food.

In pre-Revolutionary France, a young aristocratic woman left penniless by the political unrest in the country, must avenge her family's fall from grace by scheming to steal a priceless necklace.

A younger boy falls in love with a tragic girl who flirts with, and manipulates, her older suitors in 1800's Russia.

During the French Revolution, a Scottish aristocrat and her former lover, the Duke of Orleans, find themselves on opposite sides of the conflict.

Friendship and betrayal between two poets during the French Revolution.

Hornblower and the other officers of the Renown must return to Jamaica to face a court-martial and possible execution for their actions in relieving their unstable captain.

In a Napoleonic era insane asylum, an inmate, the irrepressible Marquis De Sade, fights a battle of wills against a tyrannically prudish doctor.

In 1817, a young Spanish aristocrat, Tessa Alvarado, returns to Spanish California after the death of her father and finds her home in ruins, her father's manservant reduced to stealing. The town where she was born is run by a militaristic governor who abuses his power, resulting in the miscarriage of justice and the poor living conditions of his subjects. Upset about the state of her birthplace and the murder of her father, Tessa's path is revealed to her in a mysterious dream where her father comes to her and talks of his murder, his hidden gold, and of his "Avenging Angel". She will take up arms to protect the people from the town's governor and to avenge her father's death. Tessa will do this in disguise behind a mask, becoming that "Avenging Angel", The Queen of Swords.As the Queen of Swords, Tessa becomes a vision of hope for the people who live in her long oppressed town.

Peaceful farmer Benjamin Martin is driven to lead the Colonial Militia during the American Revolution when a sadistic British officer murders his son.

Epic television miniseries exploring the complicated relationship of Thomas Jefferson and slave Sally Hemings, who conducted a 38 year love affair, spanning an ocean, ultimately producing children, grandchildren, and lots of controversy.

Within the long history of civilization are great eras of struggle, triumph, and loss. These periods are reflective of the best and worst of humanity: explosive creativity, ultimate depravity, the use and abuse of power, and war.

In 19th century New Orleans creole Henriette must choose between love and devotion to the church. Neither choice is going to be easy, as there is great opposition to her ideas of breaking traditions.

American spy Jack Stiles is sent by Thomas Jefferson to the tiny East Indies island of Palau Palau, where he teams up with British agent and inventor Emilia Rothschild to thwart the efforts of Napoleon and France in that region of the world. While acting as Emilia's man servant, Jack dons the mask garb of the legendary Daring Dragoon and fights the local French governor as well as thwarting various other schemes against America.

A dramatization of George Washington's perilous gamble of crossing the Delaware River and attacking the Hessian forces at Trenton.

In the eighteenth century, the only way to navigate accurately at sea was to follow a coastline all the way, which would not get you from Europe to the West Indies or the Americas. Observing the sun or stars would give you the latitude, but not the longitude unless done in conjunction with a clock that would keep time accurately at sea, and no such clock existed. After one too many maritime disasters due to navigational errors, the British Parliament set up a substantial prize for a way to find the longitude at sea. This movie's main story is that of craftsman John Harrison (Sir Michael Gambon). He built a clock that would do the job, what we would now call a marine chronometer. But the Board of Longitude was biased against this approach and claiming the prize was no simple matter. Told in parallel is the twentieth century story of Rupert Gould (Jeremy Irons), for whom the restoration of Harrison's clocks to working order became first a hobby, then an obsession that threatened to wreck his life.

At 10, Fanny Price, a poor relation, goes to live at Mansfield Park, the estate of her aunt's husband, Sir Thomas. Clever, studious, and a writer with an ironic imagination and fine moral compass, she becomes especially close to Edmund, Thomas's younger son. Fanny is soon possessed of beauty as well as a keen mind and comes to the attention of a neighbor, Henry Crawford. Thomas promotes this match, but to his displeasure, Fanny has a mind of her own, asking Henry to prove himself worthy. As Edmund courts Henry's sister and as light shines on the link between Thomas's fortunes and New World slavery, Fanny must assess Henry's character and assert her heart as well as her wit.

At a New Millennium Eve party, Blackadder and Baldrick test their new time machine and ping pong through history encountering famous characters and changing events rather alarmingly.

In the opulent St. Petersburg of the Empire period, Eugene Onegin is a jaded but dashing aristocrat - a man often lacking in empathy, who suffers from restlessness, melancholy and, finally, regret. Through his best friend Lensky, Onegin is introduced to the young Tatiana. A passionate and virtuous girl, she soon falls hopelessly under the spell of the aloof newcomer and professes her love for him.

A period film, set around an English country house whose owners want to arrange a marriage of convenience between their elder daughter and an aristocratic heir of a hard-up noble family. The planned marriage suffers a last-minute upset when the would-be husband switches affections to the bride's sister.

Francisco Goya (1746-1828), deaf and ill, lives the last years of his life in voluntary exile in Bordeaux, a Liberal protesting the oppressive rule of Ferdinand VII. He's living with his much younger wife Leocadia and their daughter Rosario. He continues to paint at night, and in flashbacks stirred by conversations with his daughter, by awful headaches, and by the befuddlement of age, he relives key times in his life, particularly his relationship with the Duchess of Alba, his discovery of how he wanted to paint (insight provided by Velázquez's work), and his lifelong celebration of the imagination. Throughout, his reveries become tableaux of his paintings.

Two robbers are persecuted by the law, whose servants are not much better and even worse.

Let Them Eat Cake is a BBC comedy set mostly in and around the Palace of Versailles in the year 1782. The series follows the intrigues of Colombine, Comtesse de Vache. Regarded as one of the most dangerous women in the court of King Louis XVI she is assisted by her faithful servant, Lisette, in uncovering all the dark secrets of the aristocracy. Meanwhile, her couturier, Bouffant struggles to keep the Comtesse and her Rubenesque figure at the forefront of 18th century French fashion.

Based on a true story, Aristocrats draws back the curtain on an 18th century English family near the summit of society, revealing a tapestry of romance, prejudice, infidelity, and revolution.

On his death bed in the 1820s, King Ferdinando I of Naples tries to escape the ghosts of his bloody kingship by remembering his younger days, when he was allowed to go hunting and have fun, and inventing love games. Then he was obliged to marry Mary Caroline of Austria, daughter of Empress Mary Theresa, in a political marriage: unexpectedly, they became happy lovers, until court power games divided them, and a different historical season arrived.

During the turmoil of the French Revolution, English aristocrat Percy Blakeney, often aided by his League of friends, secretly undertakes various daring missions as The Scarlet Pimpernel.

A behind-the-scenes look at the making of Pride and Prejudice (1995).

While Lt. Hornblower studies for his promotion examination, he is distracted by the serious supply problems that face his crew.

A perfect red-colored violin inspires passion, making its way through three centuries over several owners and countries, eventually ending up at an auction where it may find a new owner.

"I am poor and put upon", concedes Becky Sharp during the first episode of Vanity Fair, but it rapidly becomes clear that she intends to change this situation, scrambling up the social ladder by exploiting her guile, good looks and the gullibility of doting males. In the light of her selfish, single-minded resolve to achieve success, Sharp may be viewed as an optimistic dreamer, pragmatic schemer, proto-feminist or a coquettish combination of all three.

The epic saga of legendary seafaring hero Horatio Hornblower comes to swashbuckling life in these epic films based on C.S. Forester's classic novels. As the Napoleonic wars rage, Hornblower survives battle after battle, evades capture, and works his way up the ranks in the king's royal navy. With danger at every turn and unending adventures, Hornblower must use every ounce of his wit and courage to prevail.

Horatio Hornblower begins his naval career, but a deadly feud with a despicable mate is causing complications.

The Adventures of Swiss Family Robinson is a 1998 dramatic series that is based on the 1812 novel The Swiss Family Robinson, it follows the adventures of nine survivors of a shipwreck as they attempt to adapt to life on a deserted island.

A young thief (Antonio Banderas), seeking revenge for the death of his brother, is trained by the once great, but aged Zorro (Sir Anthony Hopkins), who also pursues vengeance of his own.

The spectacular scenery of Wessex and the Dorset coast provides the backdrop for this adaptation of a Thomas Hardy short story. Set in nineteenth century rural England, this is the story of forbidden romance between a German hussar serving with King George III's personal cavalry, Matthaus Singer, and the only daughter of a West country solicitor, Frances Groves. The German legion is encamped on the downs as the threat of war with Napoleon looms. Matthaus longs for his homeland and Frances is trapped in an interminable engagement to one of her father's business associates, Humphrey Gould. Illicit meetings between Frances and Matthaus flare into a passionate affair as each searches for escape and happiness. Were they to be discovered, she would be branded a soldier's whore and he a disgrace to his regiment...

Valjean, a former criminal, has atoned for his past and now finds himself in the midst of the French Revolution, avoiding a law-obsessed policeman hell-bent on capturing him.

A four-part drama, set against the background of the English slave trade.

Adaptation of the classic novel by Henry Fielding chronicling the life, loves and adventures of the charming Tom.

An overview of Richard Sharpe's career, from being raised in the ranks, to the battle at Waterloo, as depicted by fellow rifleman, Cooper.

Drama about the matrimonial disaster that took place 200 years ago between George, Prince of Wales and his wife Caroline of Brunswick.

The rise and fall of a beauteous actress. She rises from an impoverished background to become a favorite of the Sun King, Louis XIV.

In Wales, around 1800, Catherine Morgan is widowed young, her husband a war casualty whose unpaid gambling debts threaten both the loss of home and farm and destitution for her and her daughters Elen and Emily. Catherine hopes to save them by selling their cattle at a distant market. She must overcome the hardships of the cattle drive across the craggy Welsh countrysi...Read all

Based on the novel by Bernard Cornwell, "Sharpe's Waterloo" brings maverick British officer Lt. Col. Richard Sharpe to his last fight against the French, in June of 1815. Sharpe is assigned to the Prince of Orange's staff, and is rejoined with Sgt. Harper (retired) and riflemen Hagman and Harris at the famous battles of Quatre Bras and Waterloo. Not only must Sharpe deal with incompetent orders from the Prince of Orange, that lead to slaughter, he confronts his wife's lover, Lord Rossendale, in the midst of battle. The film climaxes as Wellington's small army 'holds the line' against Napolean's veteran Imperial Guard.

Returning to Yorkshire, Sharpe finds himself on the wrong side between corrupt employers and exploited workers.

Sharpe is framed as the thief who stole Napoleon's gold, and he must clear his name to avoid execution. Meanwhile, Jane - urged on by a friend - makes some questionable choices.

Lawyer Wakem takes away the mill on the river Floss from Edward Tulliver, whose ancestors owned it for 300 years, and becomes the worst enemy of Tulliver's family. When Edward's daughter, Maggie, grows up, she falls in love with Wakem's son Philip, but her brother Tom, true to the memory of their father, forbids her to meet him again. When she visits her cousin, Lucy Deane, Lucy's fiance Stephen Guest falls in love with Maggie at first sight, further complicating matters.

While matchmaking for friends and neighbors, a young 19th-century Englishwoman nearly misses her own chance at love.

Three-part adaptation of Anne Bronte's novel about a young woman who moves to Yorkshire with her son in the 19th century.

Masterpiece Theatre brings its four-hour fling with a scandalous 18th century heroine, in a broadcast of Moll Flanders. A costume drama which follows the fortunes of Moll Flanders in 18th Century England. Her determination to reach a secure place in society results in incest, bigamy, adultery, wealth and poverty. Based on the novel by Daniel Defoe.

Ross Poldark returns from war to right wrongs and reunite with the love of his life.

While Louis XV had just ceded New France to the English through the Treaty of Paris, the life of the intrepid Marguerite Volant, the youngest daughter of Lord Claude Volant, was turned upside down by a series of dramatic events. The English settled in the seigneury, his mother died, his brother-in-law was murdered and his father committed suicide. In a desperate gesture, Marguerite brandishes a pistol in the face of English captain James Elliot Chase, who is secretly in love with her. Immediately arrested for attempted murder of an officer of His Majesty, she has no other solution than to flee.

Emma Woodhouse is a congenial young lady who delights in meddling in other people's affairs. She is perpetually trying to unite men and women who are utterly wrong for each other. Despite her interest in romance, Emma is clueless about her own feelings, and her relationship with gentle Mr. Knightly.

Sharpe is teamed with a Colonel he helped promote and they are tasked to destroy a powder magazine, but an alliance with the French may threaten their success. Meanwhile, Jane is wearying of the army life and Harper and Ramona are at odds.

To get royal backing on a needed drainage project, a poor French lord must learn to play the delicate games of wit at court at Versailles.

Sharpe, with his new commanding officer, is sent to capture a castle when news comes of locals who will rise against Bonaparte. However, he is somewhat distracted by thoughts of his wife whom he was forced to leave while stricken with fever.

Told his battalion is to be split up due to lack of recruits at home, Sharpe and Harper return to England to investigate. What should have been a simple query turns politically explosive as they come nearer to exposing profiteering on the home front that could jeopardize the Wellington's war.

In this romanticized biography, a small German principality's inexperienced princess, Catherine, becomes the bride of czarevitch Peter, the mad and abusive nephew and heir of the Russian czarina Elizabeth. From Elizabeth she learns the cynical ropes of wielding absolute imperial power at any cost, including sacrificing her lover, young guards officer Saltykov, who must give her an heir that Peter can't and is then sent abroad. After Elizabeth's death, she quickly moves to seize power with military and court support. She then works to enlarge and modernize the empire, again putting statesmanship ahead of her lover, a military genius who defeats the Ottomans and governs the conquered territories for her.

Gulliver's Travels is an adaptation of the famous novel by Jonathan Swift, English traveler Lemuel Gulliver travels to the lands of Lilliput and Brobdingnag and encountered the strange residents. When he returns and describes what he encountered, he is dismissed as insane and locked up.

Rich Mr. Dashwood dies, leaving his second wife and her three daughters poor by the rules of inheritance. The two eldest daughters are the titular opposites.

When Scottish young gentleman David Balfour's father dies, he leaves school to collect his inheritance from uncle Ebenezer, who in turn sells the boy as a future slave to a pirate ship. When staunch Stuart dynasty supporter Alan Breck Stewart accidentally boards the ship, he takes David along on his escape back to Edinburgh. They part and meet again repeatedly, mutually helpful against the Redcoats and respectful, although David is loyal to the English crown, but learns about its cruel oppression. Both ultimately face their adversaries.

Eight years earlier, Anne Elliot, the daughter of a financially troubled aristocratic family, was persuaded to break off her engagement to Frederick Wentworth, a young seaman, who, though ...

Re-live the romance and drama of Andrew Davies' lavish adaptation, starring Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle.

An "inspirational" saga of a pioneer woman who is abducted by Shawnee Native Americans.

When Sharpe is ordered to whip the King of Spain's Irish Royal Brigade into shape, he faces dissent from the men who believe the British are slaughtering their relatives in Ireland and a spy from within.

In the beginning of the 19th Century, many white Americans are settling in the Mexican province of Texas. As the years go by, political conflicts between the settlers and the Mexican government are escalating which would lead to war and Texan independence.

Sharpe is sent on a mission to exchange rifles for deserters with a strange band of Spanish guerillas. He also has to chaperone two women looking for their missing husband.

One of the obsessive speculations in American history is whether Thomas Jefferson, in the years before he became president, had an affair with (and fathered a child with) his 15-year-old slave Sally Hemings. JEFFERSON IN PARIS follows Jefferson to France (as the U.S. ambassador to the court of Louis XVI), following the death of his wife his friendships and flirtations with the French, his relationship with his daughters and slaves from home (especially Sally), against the backdrop of the beginning of the French Revolution.

When young Nell Trent's (Sally Walsh's) grandfather (Sir Peter Ustinov) loses the investment money of wharf owner Daniel Quilp (Sir Tom Courtenay) with cards, Quilp develops an everlasting urge to get him put in the madhouse. Nell and her grandfather flee the city.

Young Fiona lives with her grandparents in a small fishing village where she takes an active role to unravel the mysterious secrets.

The life and death of the legendary Ludwig van Beethoven. Besides all the work he is known for, the composer once wrote a famous love letter to a nameless beloved, and the movie tries to find out who this beloved was--not easy, as Beethoven has had many women in his life.

Aging King George III of England (Sir Nigel Hawthorne) is exhibiting signs of madness, a problem little understood in 1788. As the monarch alternates between bouts of confusion and near-violent outbursts of temper, his hapless doctors attempt the ineffectual cures of the day. Meanwhile, Queen Charlotte (Dame Helen Mirren) and Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger (Julian Wadham) attempt to prevent the King's political enemies, led by the Prince of Wales (Rupert Everett), from usurping the throne.

Farinelli is the artistic name of Carlo Broschi, a young singer in Handel's time. He was castrated in his childhood in order to preserve his voice. During his life he becomes a very famous opera singer, managed by his mediocre brother (Riccardo).

The further adventures based on characters created by James Fennimore Cooper. Hawkeye the woodsman meets a brave English woman trying to free her husband from the French. Set during the French and Indian War in the area of the Hudson Valley.

A mysterious young woman speaking a strange language shows up in an English village, where she is taken in by aristocrats who assume she is a foreign princess

1813. Major Sharpe's old enemy, Major Ducos manipulates a beautiful young marquesa into falsely accusing Sharpe of rape. Her husband calls Sharpe out in a duel. But when the husband is found dead the next morning, Sharpe is arrested and brought before a court martial, and it seems not even Patrick Harper and the Chosen Men can save Sharpe from a hanging, or rescue his honour.

Portugal 1813. A band of deserters, including Sharpe's old enemy, Obadiah Hakeswill, have captured two women, one the wife of a high-ranking English officer, and are holding them hostage for ransom. Sharpe is given the 60th Rifles and a Rocket troop, as well as his majority to rescue the women. But while Sharpe may be able to deal with his old enemy, he has yet to face a newer threat, the French Major Duclos.

Spain 1812. After Ciudad Rodrigo, Teresa tells Sharpe that they have a baby daughter. In Badajoz, the next siege target. Meanwhile, a new commander has taken over the South Essex, along with the murderous Sgt. Obadiah Hakeswill, an old enemy of Sharpe's from India days. But a new commander means a captain trying to turn the Rifles into red-jackets, and Sharpe's only hope to command his company again is the Forlorn one.

The 18th-century Viennese medical establishment is threatened by the radical yet successful healing methods of Austrian physician Franz Anton Mesmer. Blind pianist Maria Theresa Paradies, daughter of a well-to-do businessman, becomes Mesmer's patient after he calms her seizure at a concert. As the two are drawn into an intimate relationship, the situation is used as an excuse to banish Mesmer from Vienna. Undaunted, he moves on, becoming a court favorite in Paris.

Ewan McGregor stars in this BBC adaptation of Stendahl's classic novel.The handsome young Julien Sorel (Ewan McGregor) believes that he has a better chance of furthering his position in society if he chooses to enter the church (the black) rather than the army (the scarlet), and is found a position by his mentor Father Chélan as tutor to the children of the powerful Monsieur De Rénal. Julien finds favour with the children, rapidly becoming a beloved member of the household. However, when his relationship with Madame De Rénal (Alice Krige) goes beyond the professional, Julien's future is dramatically altered.

Sharpe is a Captain saddled with the South Essex, a battalion run by incompetents, and filled with soldiers who have never been in battle. When the South Essex loses its colors (its regimental flag), Sharpe vows to save the honor of the regiment by capturing a French Imperial standard: an eagle.

Sean Bean is Sharpe, a troubled outsider who, following an heroic act of bravery, finds himself promoted to the rank of officer. In this definitive collection of the acclaimed drama, follow his breathtaking adventures commanding the King's Rifles during the Napoleonic Wars.

In the Peninsular War, a British sergeant is field promoted to a lieutenant in charge of a disrespectful rifle company.

Three trappers protect the daughters of a British Colonel in the midst of the French and Indian War.

In 1799 rural England emotions run high when two men, one rich and one poor love the same girl, driving the confused girl to drastic measures.

When a moody royal Prince's party of court brats pulls a few pranks too many in the woods, a mean fairy lays a cruel spell. She turns one into a frog, who can only become human again by a loving kiss. This alters several lives through relationships, some of dynastic relevance.

Clarissa is the story of a virtuous heiress who runs away from her family when they insist she marry a loathsome man for his money, only to fall into the hands of a handsome rake who only wants to get her into bed.

In the 1830's in northern England, Riah Millican, a widow with three children, takes a job as housekeeper to a reclusive former teacher, Percival Miller. Miller makes Riah the gift of a black velvet gown, and even educates her children. But when Riah discovers the reason behind Miller's gifts, she vows to leave his house, but Miller has a hold on her, even after his death, when he leaves his house to her on the condition that she never marry. Riah's daughter, Biddy, grows up and becomes a laundress in a large house where her education keeps her from fitting in and makes her a target. But it also catches the eye of a son of the house, and with Miller's legacies, Biddy may yet find her way to happiness.

In 1830s France, pianist/composer Frédéric Chopin is pursued romantically by the determined, individualistic woman who uses the name George Sand.

Lady Caroline Faye meets Lord Vane Brecon and is attracted to him. When she finds out that he is being accused of a murder he did not commit, she sets out to prove him innocent, and takes a position in his family castle as a companion to his mother. She discovers that the Brecon family is not only wealthy in land and fortune, but rich in secrets lurking behind the castle walls.

A German princess is chosen to marry the heir to the Russian Throne, but faces plots and intrigues against her.

In 1727, an Arab colt is born with the signs of the wheat ear and the white spot on his heel: evil and good. And thus begins the life of Sham. He is a gift to the King of France, through a ...

Zorro was set in Spanish California, this often-refilmed story chronicles the adventures of Don Diego de la Vega, a young nobleman who lives a double live as El Zorro ('the Fox'), protector of the people of the Pueblo de Los Angeles during the early 1800s. Hiding behind the mannerisms of a bookish fop, Diego keeps his second identity hidden from everyone but his servant, Felipe. Zorro's greatest enemy is always the Alcalde, who personifies the distant Spanish government in Los Angeles. Cantina-owner (and independent woman far ahead of her time) Victoria Escalante provides the love interest.

Set in Baroque France, a scheming widow and her lover make a bet regarding the corruption of a recently married woman. The lover, Valmont, bets that he can seduce her, even though she is an honorable woman. If he wins, he can have his lover to do as he will. However, in the process of seducing the married woman, Valmont falls in love. Based on the same novel as "Dangerous Liaisons."

A history of the French Revolution from the decision of King Louis XVI to convene the Etats-Generaux in 1789 in order to deal with France's debt problem. The first part of the movie tells the story from 1789 until August 10, 1792 (when King Louis XVI lost all of his authority and was put in prison). The second part carries the story through the end of the terror in 1794, including the deaths by guillotine of King Louis XVI, Marie-Antoinette, Danton, and Desmoulins.

Suspicion and espionage swirl amid look-alike suitors, unrequited love and the clash of the French Revolution in this Masterpiece Theatre adaptation of Charles Dickens's classic novel A Tale of Two Cities. When Charles Darnay is accused of spying, he's unexpectedly freed by a stranger who could be his twin. But in addition to their looks, the men share something else: their love for a beautiful woman.

An account of Baron Munchausen's supposed travels and fantastical experiences across late 18th-century Europe with his band of misfits.

A scheming widow and her manipulative ex-lover make a bet regarding the corruption of a recently married woman.