9 Forgotten PBS Masterpiece TV Series & Movies
Even if you don’t often tune your TV dial to PBS, you’re surely aware of some of the most widely-known Masterpiece productions — the Downton Abbeys, the Sherlocks, the Wolf Halls.
But even if you have followed Masterpiece since the drama anthology’s 1971 launch, we’re guessing you’ve forgotten these deep cuts. Keep reading to uncover lesser-known Masterpieces, including many with familiar faces.
The Railway Children
Jenny Agutter has now starred in four projects based on Edith Nesbit’s The Railway Children, including this 2000 television film. She played a mother of three forced to move her family from the city to the country, where the family befriends an aristocrat played by Richard Attenborough.
The Blue Boy
A pregnant woman in a flailing marriage goes with her husband to a Scottish hotel, the same hotel to which he brought his mistress. Worse yet, Emma Thompson’s protagonist is visited by the titular ghost — that of a young boy who drowned in the nearby loch — in this 1994 TV movie.
Bertie and Elizabeth
Before they were King George VI and Queen Elizabeth, the late British royals were Prince Albert and Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, whose relationship was the basis for this 2002 TV film. Fun fact: Eileen Atkins plays Queen Mary, just as she would years later in The Crown.
A Death in the Family
An autobiographic novel that earned James Agee a posthumous Pulitzer Prize inspired this 2002 TV film. Annabeth Gish plays a young widow in a family trying to move past and reconcile their faith with tragedy in 1910s Tennessee.
Summer's Lease
English thespian John Gielgud got the E of his EGOT when he won an Emmy for this 1989 production. Based on a John Mortimer novel and adapted by the author himself, the miniseries follows a London family that rents a Tuscan villa amid the mysterious disappearance of its owner.
Selected Exits
Excerpted from the British documentary series Bookmark, this 1993 TV special stars Anthony Hopkins as the Welch writer Gwyn Thomas, who believed “the beauty is in the walking.” And Thomas’ walk through life eventually included his work as a teacher, raconteur, playwright, novelist, and TV personality.
The Six Wives of Henry VIII
Keith Michell played Henry VIII of England several times on screen, but it was this 1970 TV show that earned him an Emmy and a BAFTA Award. The success of the series inspired the 1972 film Henry VIII and His Six Wives, with Mitchell again playing the oft-married monarch.
Boudica
Near the end of her ER run, Alex Kingston led the cast of this 2003 television film about the real-life warrior queen who led her British Iceni tribe against the Roman Empire and the mad Nero. A young Emily Blunt played a supporting role.
Memento Mori
Long before starring in Masterpiece’s Downton Abbey, Maggie Smith graced this 1992 TV movie. An adaptation of a Muriel Spark novel, Memento Mori tracks a group of elderly Londoners shaken by mysterious phone calls reminding them of their mortality.
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