Is Belgravia The New Downton?

Rustling petticoats, ringlets and bling jewels; dark secrets and afternoon romps. Lace up your corset for Belgravia, another addictive costume drama from the creator of Downton Abbey. Juliet Rieden goes behind the scenes.

- Juliet Rieden

There’s nothing like global anxiety to elicit a retreat into nostalgia, so the screening of new British TV period drama Belgravia is very timely. It’s from the pen of Downton Abbey creator Julian Fellowes and is consequently already creating quite a stir. While the plots and eras are different, like Downton, Belgravia boasts glittering locations, lush costumes and a story that unpicks the chasms between the classes.

“Belgravia is the sort of comedy of manners and upstairs-downstairs drama that Julian writes incredibly well,” says producer Colin Wratten, who spent 12 enjoyable months making the show. “But he also writes women incredibly well, and at its heart Belgravia is about two strongwilled matriarchs who are separated by a class divide but who are both suffering from the death of a child.”

“I was in Downton Abbey,” says veteran actress Dame Harriet Walter, the star of Belgravia, who plays one of those leading matriarchs, Lady Brockenhurst. “People will probably compare Belgravia with Downton Abbey, but this is very different from that series. Where it is similar [though] is in the fact that Julian creates characters on every level of the social order and has an equal amount of interest in all of them ... there is a lot going on between the lines. There is a delicacy and ambiguity about it.”