‘Belgravia’ is up next for ‘Downton Abbey’ creator Julian Fellowes
The doors of Downton haven’t even shuttered yet and Julian Fellowes already has something in the works. The Downton Abbey creator/writer heads to the world of online for his next project, a new story in 11 episodes, published week by week, which will tell the story of Belgravia – London’s grandest postcode. Just in case Belgravia sounds familiar to you…
- Upstairs, Downstairs was set in the household of Richard Bellamy at 165 Eaton Place, Belgravia
- In Downton Abbey, Lady Rosamund Painswick, sister of Lord Grantham, lives in Belgrave Square
- Also from Downton Abbey, the lover of Lady Rose MacClare is said to live in Warwick Square, which Lady Edith Crawley describes as “Belgravia without the bustle”
Julian Fellowes’s Belgravia will tell the story of a secret. A secret that unravels behind the porticoed doors of the poshest of posh areas of London. The story behind this secret will be revealed in weekly installments complete with all the twists and turns and cliff-hanger endings you’d expect from a Julian Fellowes effort, all delivered to your mobile, tablet or desktop via a new app. With Julian Fellowes’s Belgravia, you can read it, listen to it, or switch between the two. This is SO 21st century, don’t you think? One can probably imagine what might be going through the Dowager Countesses mind given her thoughts on electricity and all those vapors circling around Downton….
Set in the 1840s when the upper echelons of society began to rub shoulders with the emerging industrial nouveau riche, Belgravia is peopled by a rich cast of characters. Opening on the eve of the Battle of Waterloo in 1815 at the Duchess of Richmond’s legendary ball, one family’s life will change for ever. Before the action moves to 1840s London. The novel will explore divisions in the upper echelons of society – familiar territory to those already acquainted with Fellowes’ work in Downton Abbey. It will be populated by a range of characters and focus on the frictions between the established gentry and the emerging industrial nouveau riche.
Fellowes said in a statement: “To marry the traditions of the Victorian novel to modern technology, allowing the reader, or listener, an involvement with the characters and the background of the story and the world in which it takes place, that would not have been possible until now, and yet to preserve within that the strongest traditions of storytelling, seems to me a marvelous goal and a real adventure.”
The app will launch in April 2016, with the first episode of Julian Fellowes’s Belgravia free to download. You can find out more at www.julianfellowesbelgravia.com on how to subscribe. In the meantime, don’t forget you still have 7 installments of Downton Abbey on PBS to cling to before the doors close for good.
