FAMILY AFFAIR:

Julian Fellowes: My family inspired Downton Abbey: (Richard Alleyne, 10 Sep 2011, The Telegraph)

Julian Fellowes, the creator of Downton Abbey, has told how the tragic experience of his own family during the First World War inspired the latest series.

The Oscar winner said that deaths of his grandfather Henry and great uncle Bertie in the conflict - and the profound effect they had on relatives back home - was a direct influence on the drama.

And he explained that the first series' dramatic ending - when a garden party is reduced to hushed silence - by the announcement "We are at war with Germany", was a direct memory from his father's childhood.

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