Period dramas are the bread and butter of England's entertainment industry and one of its most popular exports. From Pride and Prejudice to Downton Abbey, many period dramas also have all-white casts, which limits job opportunities for actors of color, who often have to leave the country to find substantive roles.

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All-white casts are also a form of erasure. There is archaeological and textual evidence that people of color lived in England as far back as the Tudor era, and the belief that black, brown, and Asian people did not exist in historical England is simply false. Even if it were historically inaccurate, a period drama made in the 2020s should reflect society as it currently is. Given the increasing diversity in Britain, it is high time for these stories to be told.

Belle

Dido Elizabeth Belle was a British heiress who played a role in the abolishment of slavery. Belle was born in the West Indies and brought to England in the 1800s to live with her father's relatives, Lord and Lady Mansfield. Unusually for the time, Belle was raised and educated as an aristocrat and became a close companion to her cousin, Lady Elizabeth Murray.

Gugu Mbatha-Raw stars as Belle in the 2013 feature film directed by Amma Asante. The film focuses on her romance with her uncle's legal apprentice and the case of Gregson v. Gilbert, regarding insurance claims for slaves killed in the Zong massacre. Belle helped her uncle with his correspondence and began sneaking letters to abolitionists to aid their cause. In both the movie and in real life, Lord Mansfield eventually ruled that the owners of the Zong were not due any insurance payments, and later on, that slavery was unsupported in English law.

Mr. Malcolm's List

Mr. Malcolm's List is a short film based on Suzanne Allain's historical romantic comedy book by the same title. It is a Regency romance loosely based on Pride and Prejudice, with Sope Dirisu starring as Mr. Malcolm, the bachelor with unattainable standards for a wife. Mr. Malcolm humiliates ambitious socialite Julia Thistlewaite (Gemma Chan) when she doesn't meet one of his qualifications. To exact her revenge, Julia invites her friend Selina (Freida Pinto) to London, but not everything goes according to plan.

Director Emma Holly Jones was excited to cast people of color in roles traditionally held by white actors. "It's nice to think that maybe we might make the day of the young people who studied the literature of the time...who imagine themselves to be the Mr. Darcy and Lizzie Bennet of our time, even though that hasn't been shown in art," she said. The short was a success and is being developed into a feature film.

Bridgerton

Yes, the author of the Bridgerton series, Julia Quinn, is American -- as is Shonda Rhimes, the showrunner of the upcoming Netflix show. However, these historical romance novels take place in Regency England and deal with the social warfare of high society matchmaking in the tradition of Jane Austen.

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The Bridgertons are a powerful London family whose progeny find true love and marry between 1813 and 1827. The series devotes one book to each of the Bridgerton siblings: Anthony, Benedict, Colin, Daphne, Eloise, Francesca, Gregory, and Hyacinth. The Netflix show is based on Daphne Bridgerton's book, The Duke and I, which is also the first book in the series. Regé-Jean Page will play Daphne's love interest, the Duke of Hastings and catch of 1813, Simon Bassett.

The Personal History Of David Copperfield

Armando Iannucci cast Dev Patel, a Londoner of Indian heritage, as David Copperfield, the Dickensian hero traditionally portrayed with blonde hair and blue eyes. The production also cast other actors of color in pivotal roles, including Benedict Wong as Mr. Wickfield and Rosalind Eleazar as Agnes, Copperfield's true love. In casting the best actors for the job regardless of ethnicity, Iannucci potentially changed the status quo in period piece casting and made a powerful statement about the nature of British identity.

Call The Midwife

The seventh season of the medical drama Call The Midwife introduces new midwife Lucille Anderson, who arrives at Nonnatus House after an earlier library career in Jamaica. She is the first and only black midwife at the convent, and although she finds acceptance among her fellow midwives, she is conscious that she is a curiosity to many of her patients. The show depicts Lucille's struggles with being the only black woman in her community and reflects the contributions of Caribbean women who were recruited into the National Health Service.

Mary, Queen Of Scots

Color-conscious casting is much more common in the theater world than in Hollywood. Josie Rourke, the director of Mary, Queen Of Scots, drew on her theater background when she cast Gemma Chan as Bess of Hardwick, a Caucasian advisor to Queen Elizabeth I. She also cast Adrian Lester as Lord Randolph and Israel Cruz Cordoba as David Rizzo.

"I was not going to direct an all-white period drama," said Rourke. It's not a thing I do in theater and I don't want to do it in film." In response to internet trolls, Gemma Chan asserted that "If John Wayne can play Genghis Khan, I can play Bess of Hardwick."

Les Miserables

A still from Les Miserables.

Although Les Miserables takes place in France, almost everyone in the 2019 BBC miniseries has a British accent, including David Oyewolo, who plays Inspector Javert. The Britishness of the production was noticeable to the point that some viewers complained about the Cockney accents used to convey lower socioeconomic status.

Regarding his casting and diversity in British film, Oyewolo says that "It's about telling the truth. People of color have been inherent in European life for centuries, and we have done a very bad job of representing that in television and film. I know for a fact that there were individuals high up in Napoleon's army. You never see that."

The Spanish Princess

The Starz historical drama, The Spanish Princess, devotes major screentime to the Moorish members of Catherine of Aragon's court, including Lina, one of her ladies-in-waiting. Director Emma Frost insists that this focus on the Moors is far from an anachronism. "Look at the parish records, all the research out there, there are countless books that show people of color lived in Tudor England," she noted.

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Stephanie Levi-John researched historical records to inform her portrayal of Lina, drawing on information about a tiny population of black people who were studying and teaching in Tudor London. She also noticed that the real Lina was Catholic, which was unusual for a Moor. This suggested that her parents were Moriscos who had denounced their Islamic faith and converted to Catholicism. "I took all of these experiences, all of these things, put them all together... there's Lina!" said Levi-John.

Sanditon

ITV's Sanditon is an adaptation of Jane Austen's final, unfinished manuscript. It introduces a West Indian heiress, Georgiana Lambe, whose wealth made her a major player in the marriage market. Austen passed away after completing only eleven chapters of her latest work, and she didn't get much farther than introducing the characters and the premise of her story. Whatever she had in mind, Georgiana was her first black character, and the Masterpiece Theater staple continues where Austen left off, exploring how Georgiana is received by the inhabitants of the quiet seaside resort of Sanditon.

Harlots

Hulu's Harlots is set in Georgian England and centers on rival brothels run by Margaret Wells and Lydia Quigley. It also spotlights the lives of black people living in London in 1763, the year the show is set.

The show features several black actors in major roles. Pippa Bennett Warner stars as Harriet Lennox, a sex worker who is determined to provide for her family at all costs. Her co-star Danny Sapani plays William North, Margaret Wells's partner in business and in bed. And Rosalind Eleazar plays Violet Cross, another sex worker who strikes up a romance with the daughter of a religious zealot.

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