As the creator of Downton Abbey, Julian Fellowes is a proven master of turning eccentricities of the English aristocracy and foibles of the downstairs servants into gripping television drama.
And as he prepares to start work on a US drama about two super-rich families vying for power in 1880s New York, he has explained the differences between the American and British upper classes enjoying the trappings of high society.
In his first interview since NBC announced that he would be writing The Gilded Age, the Conservative peer revealed that one of Downton's best-loved characters will make a guest appearance. Set 30 years before Downton, the American show will feature a young Violet Crawley - the Dowager Countess of Grantham played by Dame Maggie Smith in the ITV series - and her teenage children.
"It might be quite fun to have a young Violet getting into trouble, and her son, Robert, and daughter,...