Daily Mail

Downton creator accuses England of living in the past

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HE WON an Oscar for the period drama Gosford Park and made a fortune when he created Downton Abbey, but Julian Fellowes is not afraid to bite the hand that feeds him.

The writer and Tory peer criticised the British for dwelling on the past. Speaking in America, Lord Fellowes compared this country unfavourab­ly with the U.S., which is far more focused on the future, he claims.

‘America is a very forward-looking society,’ declares Fellowes, who lives in a manor house in Dorset. ‘ It’s what’s coming [and] what’s next that inspires everyone.’

And he adds, witheringl­y: ‘England, really if anything, its fault is the other direction, that it’s too much in its own past and everyone is dwelling on the past all the time.’ Dwelling on the past has, of course, transforme­d Fellowes’ life.

He was best known for playing Kilwillie in the BBC’s Scottish drama Monarch Of The Glen when the celebrated Hollywood director Robert Altman asked him to write the screenplay for Gosford Park.

Altman chose him because Fellowes — who is married to a former lady-inwaiting to Princess Michael of Kent, Emma Kitchener — knew how country house life operated.

The film’s success inspired Fellowes to create another country house series, Downton Abbey, whose money- spinning success helped transform the fortunes of ITV.

Fellowes’s other period dramas include The Young Victoria, Titanic and Vanity Fair. This week, filming started at Twickenham Studios on his latest period offering, Belgravia.

Fellowes, who was elevated to the peerage by David Cameron in 2011, made the comments while promoting his new film, The Chaperone, a Twenties drama about the rise of actress Louise Brooks, which has just been released in the U.S.

Hollywood, the peer observes, ‘has this forward-looking dynamic. So, you know, if the price you pay is that you make less period drama, I don’t think it’s so high’.

REPLACED as Prince Philip by an older actor in the next series of The Crown, Matt Smith is already missing playing the Queen’s Consort. ‘I love him, and sort of always have,’ he admits. Teasingly, Smith adds of feedback from the Palace: ‘I think a few of them have seen it. There may have been a note. There may have been a text, but I’m not in a position to divulge such informatio­n.’ Spoilsport!

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