Period Dramas on Netflix and Amazon Prime Video in April: My Watch List

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While we’re all staying home and practicing social distancing, I’ve made a list of period dramas on Netflix and Amazon Prime Video to watch in April if you need a good distraction. Period dramas are pretty much all I watch, other than the occasional detour to a more lighthearted episode of Younger or The Good Place. Everything from the beautiful costumes and set design to the romance and mystery makes watching a period film or series feel like an escape from the real world.

I just finished season 1 of Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries that was available on Amazon Prime Video through March. Now I’m trying to decide whether to begin a free 30-day trial of Acorn TV to binge watch seasons 2 and 3 or start something new. Thankfully, there are plenty of options for period dramas to watch on Netflix and Amazon Prime Video. When I’m not trying to finish a book on my reading list, baking a retro recipe or disinfecting surfaces, I’ll be watching one of these top-rated period dramas on the streaming services.

Grab the popcorn! Here’s what’s on my Netflix and Amazon Prime Video watch list for April. Let me know what’s on your watch list in the comments!

Period Dramas on Netflix in April: My Watch List

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society (2018)

My hubby actually recommended this film to me—he knows me well! Lily James stars in this British period drama set in 1946 London, based on a novel by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows published in 2008. James plays a writer who connects with members of a book club that formed during the WWII German occupation. There’s drama, there’s romance and there are other familiar Downton Abbey faces in the Netflix film including Jessica Brown Findlay, Matthew Goode and Penelope Wilton.

Self Made (2020)

Self Made is a Netflix limited series about the life of Madam C.J. Walker, an African American woman who rose from poverty to become a successful entrepreneur with her own line of beauty products in the early 20th century. The phenomenal Octavia Spencer plays the self-made business owner, so I have high hopes for this series!

Outlander (2014)

I have heard SO. MUCH. about this show. I’ve also heard the books the series is based on are amazing. You probably know all about this show already, so I don’t feel the need to provide a description. I jumped on the Downton Abbey train much too late so I need to go ahead and start watching Outlander, especially now that seasons 1 through 3 are now on Netflix.

A Secret Love (2020)

A Secret Love is a new Netflix documentary premiering April 29. The film tells the story of two women falling in love in 1947: Terry Donahue, who played in the women’s professional baseball league that inspired A League of Their Own, and Pat Henschel. It begins with how they met, what their personal lives in Chicago were like and reveals the prejudice they faced throughout their 65-year relationship. Together they endured hardships like coming out to their conservative families, illness and deciding whether or not they should get married.

Grand Hotel (2011)

Also called Gran Hotel, this Spanish drama set in 1906 has been called “the Spanish Downton Abbey.” The period drama series revolves around a man named Julio Olmedo who infiltrates a luxury hotel to solve the mystery of what happened to his sister, head chambermaid at the hotel who went missing. Side note: Eva Longoria produced a modern remake set in Miami that ran for one season on ABC in 2019.

Alias Grace (2017)

Alias Grace is a Netflix limited series based on Margaret Atwood’s novel of the same name published in 1996. Set in 19th-century Canada, the series focuses on a woman named Grace Marks who is accused of murdering her employer and his housekeeper, while a psychiatrist decides Grace’s fate. Even more intriguing is that the events are based on a true story.

Call the Midwife (2012)

I started season 1 of this British period drama about a year ago and every now and then I come back to it when I feel like a good cry. The series follows a group of young midwives in 1950s East London. They learn a lot from the citizens of the impoverished community where they work and from the sisters at the convent where they live. It’s a sweet, funny and heartwarming show that usually brings a tear to my eye!

The Crown (2016)

This is another British period drama that’s received so much attention, I’m almost worried I’ll be let down when I start watching. I’m also not much into political dramas, but the Netflix series about Queen Elizabeth II has won Emmy, Golden Globe and SAG awards, so I think it’s worth a try.

More period dramas on Netflix in April:

I’ve got plenty on my watch list as it is, but here are a few more you can watch!

Elizabeth (1998)
The Duchess (2008)
The Tudors (2007)
The Borgois (2011)
Mad Men (2007)

Period Dramas on Amazon Prime Video in April: My Watch List

The Aeronauts (2019)

This Amazon Original stars two incredible actors, Felicity Jones and Eddie Redmayne, and seems like just the kind of adventure film I could use right now. Jones plays Amelia Wren, a wealthy widow, and Redmayne plays the scientist James Glaisher. The year is 1862 and the daring duo depart on a risky balloon journey in the hopes of setting a record for flying higher than anyone in history.

Marshall (2017)

This film based on one of Thurgood Marshall’s first major cases has an all-star cast that includes Chadwick Boseman, Sterling K. Brown, Josh Gad, Kate Hudson and Dan Stevens. Boseman stars as Marshall before he became the first African-American Supreme Court justice, when he was an NAACP lawyer defending a black man accused of sexually assaulting his employer, a white woman.

Sweet Land (2006)

Somehow this film slipped under my radar until recently. Set in 1920, Elizabeth Reaser plays a German woman named Inge who travels to rural Minnesota to marry a farmer with Norwegian roots named Olaf—oh, and they’ve never met. The locals aren’t keen on welcoming Inge into their community, as memories of the war are fresh on their minds, and the minister won’t allow the marriage. The couple decides to make it work and live together anyway, inevitably falling in love.