What's new for 2011 in Period Drama?

The Three Musketeers coming October 2011

Well, now that The King's Speech is old news, along with Downton Abbey, Jane Eyre and Upstairs Downstairs, what do we Period Drama addicts have to look forward to?

Logan Lerman, Luke Evans, Ray Stephenson and Matthew Macfadyen in The Three Musketeers

The Three Musketeers with Matthew Macfadyen, Orlando Bloom and Milla Jovovich looks promising. I am old enough to remember the 1973 version with Michael York, who I thought was quite a hottie at the time. Now I am perfectly willing to see this one for Matthew Macfadyen alone let alone Luke Evans who I loved in Tamara Drewe. Looks a bit Matrix-y with bodies and swords flying in slow motion (and I'm never thrilled with 3-D) but I might even be able to drag one of my teenagers to this one!

Colin Firth and Gary Oldman in Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy

Tinker Tailor Soldier, Spy looks like it might be a better flick. "In the bleak days of the Cold War, espionage veteran George Smiley (Gary Oldman) is forced from semi-retirement to uncover a Soviet agent within MI6's echelons." Again, need I say more than Colin Firth? Or Gary Oldman? Mark Strong? Ciaran Hinds? Benedict Cumberbatch? And the involvement of one of my fave female comediennes, Kathy Burke (if you have never seen her as a teenage boy in Kevin and Perry, here is your link to YouTube) intrigues me!

Ones which are being talked about but not solid yet are Emma Thompson's redo of My Fair Lady. Also a new Wuthering Heights seems to be in the offing. And sketchier yet are Oscar Wilde's A Woman of No Importance and a possible new Middlemarch. Let's hope they all come through and are worth seeing!

South Riding with Anna Maxwell Martin concludes Sunday May 15, 2011 on PBS

Anyhoo, I'll be watching PBS Masterpiece again this Sunday night as South Riding wraps up and that's all for this season on Masterpiece. Waaaahhhhh!

Cheers, and let me know if there is anything else you have heard of and are looking forward to. And in the meantime, I'll keep trying to get some girlfriends together to see Water for Elephants. Or I could just keep checking the lists on Charleybrown's Enchanted Serenity of Period Films for old ones I haven't seen yet. There are a lot I haven't seen!