Why Downton Abbey’s 1930s wardrobe is its best yet
While most of the Crawleys travel to Antibes, Lady Mary stays behind with the staff to oversee the transformation of Downton into a film set, and to…
Obituary: Violet Crawley, the Dowager Countess of Grantham
For 30 years, Violet Crawley, the Dowager Countess of Grantham was the indomitable chatelaine of one of England’s great country seats, Downton Abbey in Yorkshire. She continued…
Downton Abbey: A New Era, review: plenty of surprises and an iconic moment to savour
As last words go, they’re almost Wildean. Fixing her snivelling lady’s maid with a stare, the dowager Countess of Grantham puffs out one final poison dart –…
The best TV shows on Amazon Prime Video UK, from American Gods to Utopia
Genre: Documentary comedy Creator: Gavin Whitehead Cast: Jeremy Clarkson, Kaleb Cooper, Gerald Cooper, Charlie Ireland Cert: 15 Series: 1 (2021) In recent years Jeremy Clarkson has been…
The best TV shows on Amazon Prime Video UK, from American Gods to Utopia
Genre: Documentary comedy Creator: Gavin Whitehead Cast: Jeremy Clarkson, Kaleb Cooper, Gerald Cooper, Charlie Ireland Cert: 15 Series: 1 (2021) In recent years Jeremy Clarkson has been…
How scary, sweary soprano Nellie Melba ‘put Australia on the map’
Disdaining mealy-mouthed modesty, Nellie Melba liked to claim she had “put Australia on the map”. Such bravado wasn’t baseless: this opera soprano, born Helen Mitchell in Melbourne…
How scary, sweary soprano Nellie Melba ‘put Australia on the map’
Disdaining mealy-mouthed modesty, Nellie Melba liked to claim she had “put Australia on the map”. Such bravado wasn’t baseless: this opera soprano, born Helen Mitchell in Melbourne…
Tuppence Middleton: ‘The doctors didn’t know what was wrong with me…’
‘You never really stop looking for the secrets some houses keep,” says Tuppence Middleton. Mystery certainly swirls around the homes at the heart of both her new…
How ‘Gosford Park’ changed my life – and opened the door to ‘Downton Abbey’
We had chosen to set our film in November 1932 because I wanted shooting, Altman didn’t want Christmas, and neither of us wanted the Nazis. Since they…
What’s the difference between sticking to a winning formula and being lazy?
Unfortunately, having only placed a fish fork because they were copying an illustrious predecessor, some of them fail to realise that you also have to serve up…
Hotel Portofino, review: 1920s period drama tries, and fails, to copy Downton and The Durrells
If Netflix commissions content by algorithm, BritBox does it by scribbling the names of popular shows on the back of an envelope and asking if someone has…
Ava, review: Elizabeth McGovern is a splendid screen siren, but the play’s a drag
In the late 1980s, with money tight and her health wrecked by much smoking, drinking and a stroke that had left her partially paralysed, former Hollywood goddess…
The Gilded Age, review: Julian Fellowes delivers his best TV drama since Downton
Julian Fellowes’s long-awaited new series is a gritty take on life in a council block in Luton. Just kidding! The Gilded Age (Sky Atlantic) is, obviously, a…
Americans can be as snobby about class as Brits – we just hide it better
Downton Abbey has a whole new accent. In his new series The Gilded Age, Downton creator Julian Fellowes tackles 1880s New York, a period as aswirl with…
‘The Gilded Age shows it’s not just the British who have great historical stories’
If you are counting the days until Bridgerton returns, then period drama salvation is coming in the form of Julian Fellowes’s latest corseted delight, The Gilded Age,…
The hidden treasures from location scouts – and where to plan a stay
Berkeley Castle reopens to visitors on April 3, in time for the Easter school break. In the meantime, those looking to get ahead of crowds could book…
Smashed antiques, ripped oil paintings and the perils of letting a film crew into your stately home
When a fleet of white lorries made its way to Highclere Castle in Hampshire early last year, bearing the crew for the new Downton Abbey film, Fiona,…
Elizabeth McGovern: my daughters helped me understand sexism in Hollywood
Aged 19, in 1980, before she’d even graduated from New York’s Juilliard School, McGovern was cast in Ordinary People, directed by Robert Redford, which she views as…
Elizabeth McGovern: my daughters helped me understand sexism in Hollywood
Aged 19, in 1980, before she’d even graduated from New York’s Juilliard School, McGovern was cast in Ordinary People, directed by Robert Redford, which she views as…
The secrets of running the real Downton Abbey
Today’s custodians live in a modest house a few feet from Highclere’s back door, but stay in the castle frequently. It’s a big house, with around 300…