Julian Fellowes’ long-awaited follow-up to Downton Abbey, The Gilded Age, will come to TV screens in 2019, after the US network NBC confirmed it has commissioned a 10-part series.
The show has been in development with the channel since 2012, but on Wednesday it was revealed we will see the period drama, set in the US in the 1880s, next year.
It will be set in New York and will focus on families who are having to evolve as an influx of new money comes into the city. “To write The Gilded Age is the fulfilment of a personal dream,” Fellowes said.
“I have been fascinated by this period of American history for many years, and now NBC has given me the chance to bring it to a modern audience. I could not be more excited and thrilled.
“The truth is, America is a wonderful country with a rich and varied history, and nothing could give me more pleasure than to be the person to bring that compelling history to the screen.”
During a webchat with the Guardian last year Fellowes confirmed he was committed to completing the project despite it having gestated for more than five years. “I’m trying to tidy my desk,” he wrote.
“As an actor, it’s hard to say ‘no’ to anything – and that continues as a writer. So I want to tidy my desk of commitments and move on with The Gilded Age – a new world and a new bunch of characters.”
He also said that the drama will look at the battle between the new-money social climbers who came to New York and the established families, including the Astors and the Vanderbilts, who were resistant to change.
“There was this woman, Caroline Astor, who came from old, original 17th-century settlers, and she felt this gave her the right to be the determiner of who was in and who was out,” he wrote. “She recognised that New York society had to expand – that there couldn’t be two rival societies side by side. She was very powerful. That’s the background of what The Gilded Age series will look at.”
Downton Abbey is the most-nominated non-US show in Emmy history with 69 nominations and 15 wins. Its finale in 2015 had 9.5 million viewers in the UK.
