Writer Janet Mullany is from England, drinks a lot of tea, and likes Jane Austen, reading, and gasping in shock at costumes in historical TV dramas. Her household near Washington DC includes a badly-behaved cat about whom she frequently boasts.
PBS
“Hello, cowboy,” says Crown Princess Märtha of Norway (Sofia Helin) to her Stetson-wearing consort, Crown Prince Olav (Tobias Santelmann) as the new Masterpiece drama Atlantic Crossing kicks off. It’s 1939, and they’re aboard a train on a goodwill visit to the U.S., having lots of fun (and
PBS
Wolf Hall: The Mirror & the Light's final two episodes, called "Mirror" and "Light," respectively, portray the shocking downfall of Thomas Cromwell (Mark Rylance) as precipitated by his selection of Anne of Cleves (Dana Herfurth) as Henry's fourth wife. But in reality,
PBS
Wolf Hall is dominated by themes of marriage, pregnancy, and childbirth, a primary concern for the first two generations of Tudors, which only loomed larger as Henry started going through wives like tissue paper, as he does in The Mirror & the Light. The Church controlled marriages for centuries in
PBS
Wolf Hall’s spectacular settings are one of the joys of the series, both in the 2015 original and in Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light. However, viewers may wonder if every historic building used in the series is correct to the 1530s. The answer is no, that wouldn’
PBS
Historical accuracy in historical dramas is always a delicate subject, and audiences can and will take offense at what they perceive as inaccuracies or anachronisms. Here is a short selection of what people have objected to so far (let the pearl-clutching commence) since Wolf Hall debuted in 2015: Kate Phillips
AMC/AMC+
David Attenborough’s masterly BBC series Planet Earth: Asia, which concluded its run on BBC America and AMC+ in early March 2025, ends tentatively optimistic for the future. After Attenborough's guidance through remote, seemingly inhospitable parts of the world, where rare species adapt to harsh environments, it turns
BritBox
In 2013, actor Sir David Suchet hung up the mustache and accent and retired from the role of Belgian detective Hercule Poirot after twenty-five years of playing the character on screen. However, his enthusiasm for the Queen of Crime, author Agatha Christie (1890–1976) has never dimmed, and a decade
PBS
Make sure you have some tissues handy! The touching and emotionally charged Christmas episode of All Creatures Great & Small Season 5 has once again been tacked on directly onto the season itself by Masterpiece to serve as a holiday-themed finale. It’s now December 1942, and the course of
Acorn TV
If you enjoyed The Brokenwood Mysteries or Top of the Lake, you're in luck, as Acorn TV's latest series, the New Zealand-set thriller A Remarkable Place To Die, is about to debut in the U.S. Created and written by Philly de Lacey (The Gulf) it
PBS
This episode of All Creatures Great & Small was the original Season 5 finale in the U.K., but on this side of the pond, it's the penultimate episode with the Christmas Special airing next week. Siegfried, somewhat worse for wear after worming a 900# sow, returns to
PBS
It’s the little things in life that often give the greatest satisfaction. All Creatures Great & Small opens with Richard Carmody, who is thrilled to receive a box of goat droppings in the mail, which he shows to everyone at breakfast. He and Siegfried offered their clientele the chance
PBS
Tristan Farnon relates a hair-raising wartime encounter as All Creatures Great & Small reaches the season's halfway point. James and Helen listen enthralled to his story, which builds to a tense climax when he recounts how he felt a pistol at his back. But the notorious prankster has