EXCLUSIVE: Doctor Thorne is NOT the new Downton Abbey, says creator Julian Fellowes
DESPITE featuring inheritances, social climbers and romance, Julian Fellows has said that his new series Doctor Thorne is not the new Downton Abbey.
Rebecca Front and Tom Hollander in Doctor Thorne
The three-part drama, which will be starting this Sunday, has been adapted by the Academy Award-winning writer from Anthony Trollope’s novel of the same name and has discernibly similar themes to Downton.
“It worries me slightly when I see ‘Doctor Thorne is the new Downton’ because it isn’t. It’s a little piece, it’s a little three-parter, a love story for spring to enjoy and watch and cry at the end,” the 66-year-old Gosford Park writer said.
He continued: “It’s a smaller thing. I love that kind of television and I don’t want people to think this is the next Downton and that we’ll still be here in seven years’ time because we just won’t."
Doctor Thorne follows Tom Hollander’s eponymous lead as he tries to navigate through English society in the idyllic setting of the fictitious county of Barsetshire, and securing the fortunes of his niece Mary, played by rising star Stefanie Martini.
Doctor Thorne - Sunday at 9pm - ITV
Tom Hollander and Stefanie Martini in Doctor Thorne
Tom Hollander and Rebecca Front in Doctor Thorne
Julian, who was speaking at a screening for Doctor Thorne, went on to talk about the themes that made the 1858 novel relevant to contemporary audiences - particularly the focus on money.
He said that Anthony Trollope understood the “romance of the aristocracy” and that if there was a lack of money, then the upper classes were “no good”.
“I think it gives it a rather modern ring to these stories because we live in an era - rather celebrity than grandeur but nevertheless - and money, that’s the other big factor,” he explained.
Downton Abbey creator Julian Fellowes
Julian said that money was still so important to our society and even cited a newspaper article he had read in which a person’s salary was mentioned.
“You think: ‘What’s that got to do with anything?’ But it somehow does in our consciousness, there’s always this awareness of money and I think [Anthony] did have this very ambivalent attitude to society.”
The Downton Abbey creator also mentioned that he wanted to do a big screen version of the critically-acclaimed costume drama but said it was dependent on the cast’s availability.
Doctor Thorne is on ITV on Sunday at 9pm.