5 things to know about Belgravia, the TV costume drama from Downton Abbey’s creator – a great escape if you’re on coronavirus lockdown

Belgravia, the new lavish costume drama by Downton Abbey creator Julian Fellowes, based on his bestselling novel of the same name, is just the sort of television indulgence we need right now.

A co-production between British television network ITV and American cable network Epix, the series features an ensemble cast of impressive British actors including Tamsin Greig, Philip Glenister, Alice Eve, Harriet Walker and Ella Purnell (“baby monster” in the Sweetbitter TV show). Fellowes’ story follows the upwardly mobile Trenchard family from the Duchess of Richmond’s legendary ball on the eve of the Battle of Waterloo in 1815 to London’s grandest new neighbourhood, Belgravia, in the 1840s.

The Trenchards’ beautiful young daughter Sophia falls for the dashing Lord Bellasis, who is several rungs above her on the social ladder, in the heady days before Waterloo in Belgium.

A few decades later, the families become entwined again as they move to the newly fashionable Belgravia, where old and new money live side by side, though not necessarily in harmony. Here’s five things to know:

1. The story combines fictitious and real characters

Fellowes details the lives of the fictitious (newly wealthy) Trenchards and the (aristocratic) Brockenhursts interspersed with real historical figures including the aforementioned Duchess of Richmond, pioneering builder Thomas Cubitt, who created the Belgravia area of London, and the Duchess of Bedford, who invented the concept of afternoon tea.

2. This exclusive enclave was created from scratch on swampland