All historical dramas are not period dramas, although all historical dramas are, by necessity, “of a period.” For today’s purposes, let us agree that “period dramas” must take place somewhere between the “swashbuckling” era and the Edwardians. Set your drama any earlier than the swashbucklers (which I take to cover global historical eras of piracy and the English Civil War) and it exits the period drama genre. This is a difficult call, of course, and necessarily excludes some otherwise-strong contenders for entry into the canon like