# A Tale of Two Cities (2026)

> Two lookalike men, a French aristocrat and a drink-sodden English lawyer, both fall for the same woman as the French Revolution tears through Paris and London.

Canonical page: https://ember.film/tv/1105129

## Facts

- Seasons: 1
- Episodes: 4
- Episode runtime: 60 min
- Status: Ended
- Genres: drama, history, mystery
- Created by: Daniel West
- Network: MGM+
- Cast: François Civil, Mirren Mack, Kit Harington, Sharon Duncan-Brewster, Guillaume Gallienne, Fehinti Balogun, Théo Costa-Marini, Roxane Duran
- TMDB rating: 6.1/10
- IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt38128417/

## Ember's analysis

- Pacing: measured
- Intensity: strong
- Complexity: accessible
- Violence: moderate
- Tone: melancholic, tense, sombre, romantic, brooding

## Synopsis

A Tale of Two Cities (2026) is a US-produced four-episode historical miniseries created by Daniel West for MGM+, adapting Charles Dickens's novel. Its central figures are the French aristocrat-turned-exile Charles Darnay (François Civil) and the disheveled English lawyer Sydney Carton (Kit Harington), lookalikes whose lives tangle over Lucie Manette (Mirren Mack), a woman both men love. Guillaume Gallienne plays her father Alexandre Manette, whose buried past carries weight into the present, while Sharon Duncan-Brewster's Hester Lorry and Fehinti Balogun's CJ Stryver round out the principal cast. The engine is simple and painful: each man wants Lucie and must reckon with the revolutionary turmoil closing around them, where a ledger of old injustice and vengeance threatens to consume everyone. Set in the 1780s across London and Paris, the story moves through candlelit salons, cramped debtor prisons, and crowded streets where the mob grows restless. The series unfolds as one continuous four-episode arc, a limited series that trades in romance, moral debt, and sacrifice. Its tone is melancholic and tense, with a sombre, literary register and an undercurrent of dread. Fans of Outlander, Bridgerton and Marie Antoinette will find resonance in its costume-heavy period texture and romantic upheaval.

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