If You Loved ‘Sanditon’, These Period Dramas Will Fill The Charlotte Heywood Void

Few cancelled period dramas have inspired the kind of relentless fan campaign that ‘Sanditon’ did. After ITV pulled the plug on the Jane Austen adaptation following its first season, viewers refused to let the seaside resort fade quietly into the tide, and Masterpiece eventually stepped in during May 2021 with a renewal that delivered both a second and third season. The third and final chapter wrapped up Charlotte Heywood’s story in 2023, leaving devoted viewers with a long-awaited happily ever after.

But that does not mean the longing has gone away. Whether fans fell hardest for Charlotte and Alexander Colbourne, the messy ambition of the Parker brothers, or the sharp tongue of Lady Denham, plenty of similarly swoony period pieces are ready to cushion the goodbye. The list below pulls together the strongest contenders for any ‘Sanditon’ devotee still mourning the seaside.

Regency Romance Picks That Capture The ‘Sanditon’ Spell

The most obvious sibling on any ‘Sanditon’ watchlist is ‘Bridgerton’, Netflix’s frothy adaptation of Julia Quinn’s novels set against the dazzling backdrop of high-society London. Soon after Bridgerton debuted, online viewers were openly comparing it to a flashier version of Sanditon, since both shows lean hard into corsets, balls, and scheming matriarchs.

Crucially for fans of the seaside saga, the renewed attention Sanditon received in Bridgerton’s wake actually played a major role in rescuing the PBS series from cancellation. For viewers who want the same Regency sandbox but with even more spectacle, the Shondaland production is the easiest pivot.

If something more classic appeals, the 1995 ‘Pride and Prejudice’ remains the gold standard, with Jennifer Ehle and Colin Firth playing out the original “hate at first sight” courtship that Charlotte and Sidney so clearly echoed. For a moodier alternative, Julian Fellowes’ ‘Belgravia’ explores the way a long-hidden pregnancy ripples through mid-19th century high society twenty-five years after the fact, with secrets unravelling at a delicious pace.

Jane Austen-Inspired Adaptations Worth Adding To The Queue

Since the show itself was born from Andrew Davies’s adaptation of Austen’s final, unfinished novel, leaning further into her world is the natural next step. ‘Becoming Jane’ offers a fictionalised romance between a young Austen and Tom Lefroy, and Anne Hathaway and James McAvoy share crackling chemistry, with a bittersweet finale that lands with the same ache as Sanditon’s first-season cliffhanger.

‘Belle’ belongs near the top of the list as well. Like Sanditon, the film confronts race in Regency Britain while delivering a swoony Austen-style love story with a remarkable ensemble cast, which makes it especially essential for viewers who connected most with Crystal Clarke’s Georgiana Lambe.

For something a little more genre-bending, ‘Death Comes to Pemberley’ picks up after the Bennet sisters have wed, blending Austen’s world with a murder-mystery atmosphere. It is a shorter watch than ‘Sanditon’ but scratches a similar itch when the seaside spell finally starts to fade.

British Period Drama Series With The Same Sweeping Romance

‘Poldark’ might be the closest spiritual cousin ‘Sanditon’ has on television. The series adapts Winston Graham’s novels and follows Ross Poldark, a former soldier who returns to Cornwall in 1783 only to find his father dead, his estate in ruins, and his first love engaged to his cousin. Aidan Turner and Eleanor Tomlinson anchor the windswept Cornish coast in much the same way Charlotte and Alexander anchored their fictional seaside town.

For something grander, ‘Downton Abbey’ and its successor ‘The Gilded Age’ provide the lavish costume drama experience at scale. The Gilded Age unfolds in 1880s New York with Christine Baranski and Cynthia Nixon leading a starry ensemble, digging into the friction between old-money families and new-money arrivals along with the constraints women faced in a patriarchal society. Both are masterminded by Julian Fellowes, whose ear for class friction is well established.

Speaking to PBS Masterpiece, Rose Williams reflected on closing out Charlotte’s arc, explaining that she had cared deeply about preserving those final scenes in Austen’s style and honoring her character above all else. That same Austen DNA runs through these big-canvas British dramas, which is why they so often feel like home for ‘Sanditon’ fans.

Underrated Costume Dramas For Devoted Fans

If the lavish hits are not enough, the genre has plenty of quieter gems. ‘The Paradise’ is adapted from Émile Zola’s 1883 novel Au Bonheur des Dames, was filmed inside a recreated Victorian department store in Scotland, and stars Joanna Vanderham and Emun Elliott. Its retail-driven ambition feels surprisingly close to the Parkers’ obsession with turning their fishing village into a fashionable resort.

‘Hotel Portofino’ moves things forward in time. The drama follows Natascha McElhone’s Bella Ainsworth as she opens a quintessentially British hotel on the picturesque Italian Riviera in the 1920s, juggling family, eccentric guests, and the rising shadow of Mussolini’s fascism. The seaside town turning into a destination resort is essentially the ‘Sanditon’ premise transplanted to Portofino.

‘Beecham House’ belongs on this list as well. Leo Suter, the actor behind Sanditon’s Young Stringer, leads as the secretive John Beecham, who arrives at a new Delhi mansion with a mixed-race baby and a long list of mysteries, and the show was cut short much like Sanditon itself. The shared trauma of premature cancellation alone may be reason enough for fans to give it a chance.

For viewers who specifically loved Charlotte’s independence, ‘Miss Scarlet & The Duke’ is the easiest sell. Eliza Scarlet inherits her late father’s detective agency and starts solving cases alongside Scotland Yard’s William “The Duke” Wellington. It carries the same headstrong-heroine spirit that made Charlotte Heywood worth fighting for in the first place.

After everything fans went through to keep the show alive, the seaside saga did get its Austen-style ending in the end. Did Charlotte and Alexander’s wedding-and-baby epilogue feel like the right close to her story for you, or are you secretly still hoping for a ‘Sanditon’ spin-off centred on Augusta or Georgiana somewhere down the line?