By sticking to what he knows best, English screenwriter, actor and peer Julian Fellowes has created a perfect piece of old-world escapism for us commoners in Downton Abbey (right; Diva Universal, Thursdays at 11pm).
The deliciously addictive period drama, set between 1912 and 1914, walks and talks in upper-crust Edwardian but has a distinctively contemporary flavour and verve. We are swept into the lives of the aristocratic Crawley family and the cares and concerns of its servants, all of whom live at Downton Abbey, a sprawling estate with as many rooms as family secrets.
A modern age is dawning - heralded by electricity, the telephone and the threat of a world war - and the Crawleys must grapple with challenges to the traditions and values they hold dear while trying to find their place in a new world.
The series opens with Robert Crawley (Hugh Bonneville; Notting Hill), the benign Earl of Grantham, receiving a telegram about the sinking of the Titanic, which claims the lives of two heirs to the estate. The earl and his American wife, Cora (Elizabeth McGovern; Kick-Ass), have three daughters, who, being female, cannot inherit, meaning the estate must go to a distant cousin.
The earl's mother, Lady Violet (Maggie Smith; the Harry Potter series), must join forces with her daughter-in-law to secure the future of her eldest granddaughter, Mary. On one hand she must fight a restriction that prevents Mary from inheriting her mother's wealth and, on the other, she must convince her to find a suitable match. There may even be a way to keep everything in the family. Butler Carson (Jim Carter; The Golden Compass) and housekeeper Mrs Hughes attempt to keep a lid on things, but the plotting and scheming in the servants' domain downstairs is just as thick and furious as it is above.
A sublimely dramatic mix of speculation and spectacle, Downton Abbey is a period piece worth getting hooked on.