Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell (Season 1)

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell (2015) is a BBC fantasy series based on Susanna Clarke's 2004 novel — watch all seven episodes online on iFILM. The setting is Napoleonic-era England, in an alternate history where magic is real but has lain dormant for centuries. Mr. Norrell is about to change that.

Norrell hoards knowledge and shares none of it. Jonathan Strange, his eventual student, is the opposite: restless, inventive, willing to cast spells on an active battlefield. Eddie Marsan and Bertie Carvel make this a character study as much as a fantasy — the friction between a cautious hoarder and a reckless innovator drives the story as surely as any plot device. The catch is that Norrell already made a deal with something from the other side, and the fallout neither man can control.

Director Toby Haynes keeps the pacing deliberate, the period detail dense. This is fantasy that earns its magic by treating it seriously — not as spectacle, but as a discipline with rules, records, and practitioners who disagree. Stream Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell online on iFILM.