Downton Abbey

Downton Abbey a Period drama. Created by Julian Fellowes. Written by Julian Fellowes, Shelagh Stephenson and Tina Pepler.

Directed by: Brian Percival
Ben Bolt
Brian Kelly
Andy Goddard
James Strong
Ashley Pearce

Starring:
Hugh Bonneville
Jessica Brown-Findlay
Laura Carmichael
Jim Carter
Brendan Coyle
Michelle Dockery
Siobhan Finneran
Joanne Froggatt
Thomas Howes
Rob James-Collier
Rose Leslie
Phyllis Logan
Elizabeth McGovern
Sophie McShera
Lesley Nicol
Amy Nuttall
Maggie Smith
Dan Stevens
Penelope Wilton

Downton Abbey is a television series, co produced by Carnival Films in the UK and WGBH Boston in the US. The series is set on the fictional estate of Downton Abbey in the North Riding of Yorkshire, and premiered on ITV on 26 September 2010 and on PBS on 9 January 2011.

Ratings were high and the first series won many awards and nominations after its initial run. It has become the most successful British costume drama since the 1981 television serial version of Brideshead Revisited, and in 2011 it entered the Guinness Book of World Records as the "most critically acclaimed English-language television show" for the year, becoming the first co-produced US/British show to be so recognised by the Guinness Book of Records.

Highclere Castle in Hampshire was used for exterior shots of Downton Abbey and most of the interior filming. The servants' living areas were constructed and filmed at Ealing Studios.

The village of Bampton in Oxfordshire was used for filming outdoor scenes, most notably St Mary's Church and the library, which serves as the entrance to the cottage hospital. The Yorkshire towns and cities of Easingwold, Kirkby, Kirkbymoorside, Leeds, Malton, Middlesbrough, Ripon, Richmond, Thirsk and York.

We begin the story by meeting the Crawley family and their staff, the day after the sinking of the Titanic in April 1912. The family is very concerned about finding a male heir to the Grantham estate and Lady Mary finding a suitable husband.

The family is near financial ruin and the family fortune was saved only when Earl, married a rich American heiress. The earl, had three daughters and no son, and arranged for his eldest daughter to marry her cousin, keeping both title and estate in the family. Both heirs were lost in sinking of the Titanic. The family brings in a distant cousin, from Manchester, to inherit everything.

I just started watching this series and so far, I have really enjoyed the story, costumes, characters, beautiful scenes and the grand detail in the social graces of the period..