New Edwardian drama for ITV

 

ITV has commissioned a new seven-part Edwardian drama from the Oscar winning writer of Gosford Park, Julian Fellowes.

 

ITV has commissioned a new seven-part Edwardian drama which will be set in a country house. The series is bound to be compared to the hugely popular 1970s series Upstairs, Downstairs which was created by Jean Marsh and Eileen Atkins. The LWT produced series fan for five years on ITV and was set in a London house focusing on the lives of the servants and their masters, the Bellemay’s – it was a huge ratings success for LWT and was also very popular in America. ITV have commissioned Oscar winning writer Julian Fellowes, who wrote period drama Gosford Park, to write the new series.

 

The series will focus on the Crawley family and their servants and while some are loyal to the house hold others are not and will try to improve their status within it. Laura Mackie and Peter Fincham have commissioned the new series and undoubtedly both will hope the series will be able to re-create the success of Upstairs, Downstairs – many shows have tried since but few have succeed. The opening instalment will be 90 minutes long with further episodes being 60 minutes long.