Romanticism and Popular Culture

This evolving bibliography collects media that represent Romantic-era works and historical figures in fictional contexts. We welcome feedback and additions from the RC community.

Television

Director:

Date:

1974

See the sketch "Victorian Poetry" on YouTube.

Monty Python's Flying Circus poster

Director:

Publication Information:

BBC

Date:

1974

Episode 41, entitled "Michael Ellis," of Monty Python's Flying Circus features a sketch about Victorian/Romantic poetry with all the poems modified to be about ants.

Once and Again DVD box

Director:

Publication Information:

ABC

Date:

2000

In 2000, the TV show Once and Again aired an episode entitled "Ozymandias 2.0."

Poster for Penny Dreadful

Publication Information:

Showtime, Sky Atlantic

Date:

2014

"Penny Dreadful is a British-American horror drama television series...[that] draws upon many characters from 19th-century Irish and British fiction, including...Victor Frankenstein and his monster from Mary Shelley's Frankenstein." -Wikipedia

Additionally, in an NPR interview, series creator John Logan cited William Wordsworth's poetry as the inspiration behind the series. Multiple episodes of the show reference or quote works from different Romantic writers.

Director:

Date:

2014

In this episode, character Vanessa Ives (Eva Green) quotes “Darkling I listen; and, for many a time / I have been half in love with easeful Death, / Call’d him soft names in many a mused rhyme, / To take into the air my quiet breath.”

Director:

Date:

2014

“Immortality Ode” is quoted in this episode. 

Director:

Date:

2014

“Adonais” is quoted in this episode: “Do you believe in fate? I don’t mean justice. I mean retribution. Facing the consequences of your actions that have produced catastrophe. A sin that is everlasting, one that you have made immortal. There is a line from Shelley that haunts me, a single line from Adonais. I cannot get it out of my head. ‘No more let life divide, what death can join together.’”

Director:

Date:

2016

This episode includes a character named John Clare who quotes extensively from “I Am.”

Pride and Prejudice TV promo poster

Director:

Publication Information:

BBC

Date:

1995

"Pride and Prejudice is a six-episode 1995 British television drama, adapted by Andrew Davies from Jane Austen's 1813 novel of the same name. Jennifer Ehle and Colin Firth starred as Elizabeth Bennet and Mr Darcy." -Wikipedia

Red Dwarf TV show poster

Director:

Publication Information:

BBC

Date:

1997

"In the 1997 episode of science fiction comedy Red Dwarf entitled 'Beyond a Joke,' the crew of the space ship relax in a virtual reality rendition of 'Pride and Prejudice Land' in 'Jane Austen World.'" -Wikipedia

Regency House Party DVD cover

Director:

Publication Information:

Wall to Wall, PBS, Channel 4

Date:

2004

"Regency House Party is a historical reality television programme made by Wall to Wall/Channel 4 in 2004....In the series a group of five men and five women, accompanied by four older female "chaperones," are given the identities of Regency-era singles. Participants received instruction in the upper class courtship rituals of the time and were charged with seeking out a suitable marriages within the group." -Wikipedia

Slacker Cats promo image

Director:

Publication Information:

ABC Family

Date:

2007

In 2007, the TV show Slacker Cats featured an episode entitled "Ozymandias."

Director:

Publication Information:

20th Century Fox

Date:

2013

One of Blake's illustrations of the Great Red Dragon was used on the October 7, 2013 episode of the Sleepy Hollow television show to illustrate a demon antagonist, Moloch. -Wikipedia

Director:

Date:

1967

This episode was written by Gilbert Ralston and Gene L. Coon, and directed by Marc Daniels. A 2013 fan produced sequel, "Pilgrim of Eternity", continued the allusion, by using the title given to Byron in the poem.

Supersizers Go

Date:

2007

The television show Supersizers Go... (2007-2009) features two episodes set in the Romantic period: season 1, episode 6, "The Supersizers Go...Regency," mentions Jane Austen and Lord Byron within an examination of typical Regency-era cuisine; season 2, episode 3, "The Supersizers Eat...The French Revolution" covers France from 1785-1795.

Director:

Date:

2013

On Season 7 Episode 4 of The Big Bang Theory ("The Raiders Minimization"), Sheldon Cooper (Jim Parsons) attempts to “ruin” the plot of his girlfriend’s favorite novel in retaliation for her criticisms of Raiders of the Lost Ark but cannot; he claims that “Amy’s beloved Pride and Prejudice is a flawless masterpiece. He’s got too much pride, she’s got too much prejudice -- it just works.”

External link to Youtube

Director:

Date:

2016

In season 4, episode 4 of The Crown (2016-), Prince Charles (played by Josh O'Connor) tells his mother, Elizabeth II (Olivia Coleman) that his new home, Highgrove House, is his "own little Shangri-La, Xanadu" and quotes several lines from Coleridge's "Kubla Khan":

And there were gardens bright with sinuous rills,
Where blossomed many an incense-bearing tree;
And here were forests ancient as the hills,
Enfolding sunny spots of greenery.

Date:

2015

The Frankenstein Chronicles (2015-2017) follows a murder investigation in 1827 London. Mary Shelley, William Blake, and Ada Lovelace are prominent characters, and Frankenstein is of course heavily featured, as are the works of William Blake.

The Lizzie Bennet Diaries Poster

Director:

Publication Information:

Pemberly Digital

Date:

2012

"The Lizzie Bennet Diaries is an American drama web series adapted from Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice where the story is conveyed in the form of vlogs. It was created by Hank Green and Bernie Su and stars Ashley Clements, Mary Kate Wiles, Laura Spencer, Julia Cho and Daniel Vincent Gordh." -Wikipedia

The series is hosted on YouTube with supplemental content on other social media platforms. Spinoffs include a book adaptation of the web show and the web series Emma Approved, an adaptation of Austen's novel Emma.

Director:

Publication Information:

Primrose Hill Productions, Warner Bros. Television

Date:

2010

In "Red Sky in the Morning", the May 2010 second-season finale of The Mentalist, the hero Patrick Jane's nemesis Red John quotes Blake's poem "The Tyger". "Red Sky at Night", which opened the third season in Sept. 2010, finds Jane reading a text-only version of Blake's Songs of Innocence and of Experience, specifically the poem "The Divine Image". The Songs collection contains both poems. In Season 6 of The Mentalist Patrick Jane discovers a conspiracy of corrupt police officers and law enforcement named after William Blake that call themselves "The Blake Association" -Wikipedia

Director:

Publication Information:

Primrose Hill Productions, Warner Bros. Television

Date:

2010

"Red Sky at Night", which opened the third season in Sept. 2010, finds Jane reading a text-only version of Blake's Songs of Innocence and of Experience, specifically the poem "The Divine Image". The Songs collection contains the poems.

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