So bar one last Christmas special, and a final ratings story, it’s a sad farewell to Downton Abbey.
It was fitting, then, that Peter Fincham, ITV’s director of television, should choose to honour creator and writer Julian Fellowes with a special award at the broadcaster’s 2016 programming bash at the London Palladium.
But what to give the man who has delivered a much-loved ratings juggernaut for ITV’s sunday night schedule over six seasons, not to mention a bunch of Christmas specials?
A gold watch, retro to fit with the period drama, perhaps? Or a bronze statue for the foyer of ITV towers?
No, oh no, the man of the hour received a hunk of concrete for his efforts. To steal a line from a beer commercial: ITV doesn’t do concrete, but if it did, it’d probably be the best, er, concrete in the world. And so it was.
Fellowes is an out-and-out Coronation Street fan. His gift: a piece of the hallowed pavement from the soap.
“I am an addict, I admit it freely,” said Fellowes, accepting his award in front of a packed auditorium of 2,000 stars and advertising executives.
He had kind words to say to Fincham and his team for taking what at the time was a risk in commissioning the hit drama.
“Seven years ago, the general opinion was that period drama was dead. ITV believed in the show from the start. I read in the papers that we took it here, we took it there. Nonsense. We took it straight to ITV.”
