Summer Enrichment: Advanced Level Romantics

If you (or your teenager) are studying Edexcel A Level after the summer, you might be tackling the full Romantics selection - or just Keats.  For AQA, OCR, or IB, one or more of these revolutionary poets are likely to appear.  These long holidays offer the perfect opportunity to deepen understanding without cracking open another anthology... just yet.

The Romantics didn’t write in a vacuum: they were dreamers, rebels, reformers - shaped by revolution, monarchy, industrial upheaval, and the power of nature. This guide offers a selection of films, books, podcasts, and dramas that bring that world vividly to life. Ideal for students who want to enrich their studies - and for parents who’d like to join the ride.

It All Starts with a Revolution

Watch: Les Misérables

Set in the wake of the French Revolution, this musical captures the tension between idealism and violence - especially relevant to Shelley’s political poetry.  It’s not just barricades and belting (out a tune): characters like Enjolras and Valjean express Romantic ideas of the revolutionary, the outsider, and the morally driven hero.

Watch: Hamilton

Yes, it’s about America - but King George III gets his moment as a campy tyrant with a catchy tune.  The real George ruled during the early careers of Blake and Wordsworth, and they were unimpressed.  Watching monarchy and revolution clash across the Atlantic reveals the radical energy behind Romantic disillusionment with Britain’s own establishment.

Watch: The Romantics – Liberty, Nature, Eternity (Peter Ackroyd)

This three-part BBC series may be a little grainy (we watched it on YouTube), but it does a superb job putting the Romantics in historical and political context.  Bonus: a young David Tennant plays the revolutionary philosopher Rousseau - complete with a memorably delightfully voiceover.  You won’t forget ‘Man is born free, but he is everywhere in chains’...

Romantic Energy

Read: Frankenstein – Mary Shelley

Written by a Romantic about Romanticism: a monster born of science, rejected by society, and cast into sublime landscapes.  Just you wait for the mountain scene where the monster becomes a symbol of Romantic selfhood - outstripping even those Romantic men around Mary Shelley in insight and drama (and she was only 19… just saying).

Read: Wuthering Heights – Emily Brontë

A stormy novel of obsession, isolation, and the wild.  Heathcliff is your archetypal Byronic hero; the moors are a sublime landscape in themselves.  A powerful insight into the Romantic clash between passion and reason.

Read: The Private Lives of the Romantics – Daisy HayThis group biography brings Mary and Percy Shelley, Byron, and their circle to vivid life. A fascinating mix of radical politics, emotional turmoil, and scandalous relationships—ideal for understanding the lives behind the literature.

Listen: Stealing Shelley’s Heart – BBC Radio 4

And the winner of the most Romantic death goes to… This macabre, moving radio drama explores the aftermath of Shelley’s death and the emotional chaos it left behind.  A compelling way to understand the legacy of Romantic ideals - and Romantic grief.

Watch: Bright Star – dir. Jane Campion

A quiet gem of a film, Bright Star tells the story of poet John Keats and his neighbour Fanny Brawne - not as a stuffy biopic, but as a portrait of love, loss, and poetry.  It’s beautifully shot, deeply felt, and quietly shows what it means to fall in love with a person and their words. 

Modern Takes with a Romantic Pulse

Podcast: You’re Dead to Me – The Romantic Poets

Historian Greg Jenner’s podcast is witty, fast-paced, and packed with insight.  A great introduction (or refresher) that covers the major players with clarity and humour.

TV: Doctor Who – The Haunting of Villa Diodati (S12E8)

It’s 1816.  Mary Shelley, Byron, and the Romantics are gathered by Lake Geneva.  Ghosts appear.  Time-travel chaos unfolds.  Packed with literary Easter eggs and surprisingly solid context - ideal for a shared watch.

Context Is Everything: Why This Matters

The best A Level essays don’t just quote nature and call it a day.  They explore the world the Romantics lived in and so develop the insight to write with confidence and depth.  And, of course, you have to hit the AO3 and AO5 requirements! 

These shared experiences are not only a window into your child’s course - they’re a brilliant way to spark dinner-table conversations that go far beyond ‘What did you do at school today?’