As in Downton Abbey, the inhabitants of Upstairs Downstairs are finding the decorum of aristocratic life rudely interrupted by war During the chasm between seasons one and two of Game Of Thrones, I’ve tried several other flavours of television drama and found them sorely wanting. All those actresses with...
Will you be watching international phenomenon Downton or its sumptuous, painstakingly accurate BBC1 rival? Or both? It’s an obsession Downton Abbey’s Cousin Violet (Dame Maggie Smith) would describe as “frightfully middle class.” But there is no escaping the question of whether Upstairs Downstairs is going to be better than...
This year saw more hits than misses. There were surprises too – Spy, Jack Whitehall’s acting and the end of Shooting Stars Without even a sniff of Peep Show, 2011 still managed to be a strong year for comedy. No honestly, it has. Here follow my own choices for...
British drama had an ambitious but somewhat uneven year – while the Scandanavians produced a surprise hit. But what were your favourites? It would be pushing it to suggest that 2011 was a landmark year for drama but viewers were certainly not badly served, with some fine new work...
Julian Fellowes goads historians with some upstairs-downstairs mixing, but the Christmas special was still a return to form Since Prince Edward left the television industry, Julian Fellowes, a lord married to one of the Queen’s ladies-in-waiting, is the closest British TV has to royalty. And so it’s fitting that,...
A clutch of awards, a peerage and a Christmas Day Downton Abbey special made this a dream year for the programme’s creator Like all writers, Julian Fellowes sometimes dreamed of a year like this one, in which he has won not only four Emmys for his series Downton Abbey,...
ITV period drama featuring Elizabeth McGovern, Hugh Bonneville and Maggie Smith faces competition from The Hour Downton Abbey has bagged four nominations for Golden Globe awards as America’s love affair with British period drama shows no sign of abating. The ITV1 drama series, filmed at Highclere Castle, Berkshire, is...
He spends all his time in Wales, has no social life and he’s just broken up with Daisy Lowe. But as Doctor Who returns, Matt Smith tells Euan Ferguson why he’s the luckiest man on TV I don’t think Matt Smith has an unenthusiastic bone in his body. True,...
Ludicrous storylines, underdeveloped plots and hammy dialogue have characterised this series. Has it been warped genius? What are we to make of Downton Abbey? Over the past few weeks ITV’s costume drama “masterpiece” (cough) has morphed into a very different beast. A beast that lives on a farm, goes...
Misfits … you begin to care about the characters. Photograph: Todd Anthony The weird dude who hands out the superpowers to the community service kids in Misfits (E4, Sunday) is having to be quite imaginative, given that this is now the start of series three, and they require new powers. So Kelly becomes a...
