Is Upstairs Downstairs aping Downton Abbey?
Photo: BBC/ITV
Upstairs Downstairs had been in the pipeline for three years before ITV came up with Downton Abbey, writer Heidi Thomas said.
The writers of period drama Upstairs Downstairs have denied the BBC production carries uncanny similarities to ITV rival Downton Abbey.
Fans of the lavish ITV drama, charting the fortunes of the family and staff of an aristocratic household in the years around the First World War, may see echoes of the ratings-winner in Upstairs Downstairs when it is broadcast next month.
The second six-part series, to be broadcast from Sunday February 19, will be set in the years leading up to the Second World War and, like Downton, will portray the changing relationships between the wealthy and their servants in wartime.
Other similar plot lines will include a police inquiry into the activities of a male servant, and a story line based on conscientious objectors.
But yesterday the show's writer denied she had taken inspiration from Julian Fellowes' ITV production.
"Downton have had 18 hours of drama now and we are barely out the starting blocks. I think this is a whole new chapter for us. We just don't reference Downton and I have only seen fragments of it myself," said Heidi Thomas, whose other credits include Call The Midwife and Cranford.
The first series, shown at Christmas 2010, was set in 1936. Miss Thomas told the Daily Mail: "If you are going to pick up the story, you don't have a choice about covering the war."
Indeed, she said Upstairs Downstairs, a revival of the 1970s drama set in a Belgravia home, had been in the works for three years when ITV devised Downton Abbey.
"It might be a coincidence, and I might be the Queen of Belgium," she said.
The series will take period drama into new territory by featuring a lesbian relationship between two aristocratic characters. Emilia Fox will play Lady Alresford, who has a relationship with Dr Blanche Mottershead, played by Doctor Who's Alex Kingston.
The rivalry between the shows was made clear earlier this month when Neil Jackson, who plays chauffeur Harry Spargo in the BBC series, claimed the actresses in Upstairs Downstairs were more attractive.
"The women in Downton Abbey don't compare to the women in Upstairs Downstairs. Ours are stunning. We've got Laura Haddock, Keeley Hawes, Claire Foy.. beautiful women.
He added: "There's more fraternising between downstairs and upstairs. The love scenes are as raunchy as you can go with the BBC at 9pm on a Sunday.
"From the little I've seen of Downton Abbey, that's a fairly sexless show."
- Matthew Holehouse
