Which BBC miniseries adaptation of War and Peace premiered in 2016?

The BBC miniseries adaptation of War and Peace that premiered in 2016 was War & Peace. This six-part British historical drama adapts Leo Tolstoy’s 1869 novel and was written by Andrew Davies, with Tom Harper directing.

The series first aired on BBC One on 3 January 2016. Its principal cast included Paul Dano as Pierre Bezukhov, Lily James as Natasha Rostova and James Norton as Prince Andrei Bolkonsky. The production combines the novel’s aristocratic social world with the upheaval of the Napoleonic Wars.

The title can cause confusion because several screen versions share the same name. King Vidor’s major film appeared in 1956, while a Soviet film adaptation was released in 1966–67. The 2016 production is specifically the BBC television serial, not a film or an earlier television adaptation. In the United States, it was re-edited and broadcast as four two-hour blocks across A&E, Lifetime and History.