Well, a British survey has found that of the women who watch them, 39 per cent aged 16-to-34 say they shape their romantic expectations!

Psychotherapist and relationship counsellor Melissa Ferrari says many of us want to watch period dramas to "escape into a fantasy world of love and passion".

"As much as we push against it in an age of equality, that desire to be swept off our feet by a handsome hero and whisked off into the sunset is still within us," Ferrari told Body and Soul. 

And despite modern sensibilities, many women still want a handsome hero to whisk them off into the sunset.

University of Wollongong English Literature lecturer Dr Ellie Crookes also told Body and Soul that the obsession with period romances is not a new phenomenon. 

"This trend goes even further back," Dr Crookes says.

"In the 19th century, for example, a vast swathe of novels, poems and artworks were published, which centred [on] romanticised representations of the past."

"I think this impulse is very much the same when it comes to the appeal of the period drama today – it is all about fantasy and escapism," Dr Crookes says. 

Ferrari added that watching period romance dramas can help us reflect on our own relationships, adding that we need to remind ourselves that it is only fiction and not reality. 

"If we are single, we long for that connection; if we are in a relationship which feels a little jaded, it can have us long for that feeling of love and passion we had when we first met someone."

"It is entertainment, and the real strength of a relationship is what happens when those 'feel good' love hormones have settled and we are building a long-lasting relationship built on love, trust and being there for each other," she said.