ITV has greenlit a new period drama series based on the novel “Belgravia,” which was written by Julian Fellowes, the creator of “Downton Abbey.”
The production company behind that period hit, NBCUniversal’s Carnival Films, is making the new series. Fellowes already has an NBC series, “The Gilded Age,” and other projects in the works for 2019.
Fellowes will adapt “Belgravia” for TV himself. The novel was first published in 2016. It is set in the titular upmarket area of London in the 1800s.
The story opens on the eve of Napoleon’s battle against the Duke of Wellington at Waterloo, at a high-society ball attended by many who will go on to lose their lives in the conflict, as well as Sophia Trenchard, the beautiful daughter of the duke’s chief supplier. It then follows events decades later when the emerging nouveau riche, including the Trenchard family, rub shoulders with London’s established upper classes, and when secrets from the past threaten to emerge.
It is not clear whether NBCUniversal’s international TV sales arm or ITV’s own ITV Studios Global Entertainment division will have the rights outside the U.K. Shooting will get underway within weeks.
Neither ITV nor Carnival would comment, but Variety confirmed the news, which was first reported by Deadline.