Downton Abbey (2010 series): Trailer, certificate and where to watch
Julian Fellowes's brilliant upstairs-downstairs tale
Year: 2010-2015
Certificate: 12
Like Upstairs, Downstairs before it, Julian Fellowes's tale of life at a Yorkshire country estate has become one of British television's great exports.
The series was inspired by Fellowes' script for the excellent film Gosford Park, and follows the story of the aristocratic Crawley family. It begins in superbly understated style in 1912, with a newspaper being ironed, the sinking of the Titanic and the sudden need for a male heir to carry on the line of the Earl of Grantham (Hugh Bonneville). Step forward distant cousin Matthew Crawley (breakout star Dan Stevens), and a 52-episode strong run of drama above and below stairs followed.
It could be soapy at times but Downton always looked fabulous, and was simply packed with excellent actors - towering above them all was the late Maggie Smith as Violet Crawley, the wonderfully pithy Dowager Countess. Violet's spirit lives on in the performance of Christine Baranski as old-money doyenne Agnes van Rhijn in The Gilded Age, Fellowes's American follow-up to Downton. (Six series)
