“Downton”: Season 2 Approaches
September 18 is not only the date when “Downton Abbey” will find out its Emmy Awards fate but also the date when the series’ second season begins airing in the U.K. (American viewers unskilled in downloading will have to wait until January 8.) Julian Fellowes, who created the show, spoke recently about how the program would have been made in different decades. “If it had been done in the ‘50s, the family would all have been incredibly gracious and charming and the servants would all have been comedic,†he said. “If it had been done in the ‘90s, the servants would all be gallant and downtrodden and the family would all be horrible, mendacious, slimy, and selfish. But we’ve gone a different way, really. They’re just a group of people who are living in this house and working, and some of them are nice and some of them are less nice, some of them are funny and some of them aren’t, and so on. But there is no automatic division between the two groups in the house.â€
