If you are not sure, here is a summary of episode one from the UK's ITV:
1855. When Doctor Thorne’s penniless niece, Mary, is excluded from the wedding preparations of her childhood playmate, she probes her uncle for the truth of her birth.
She is devastated to learn that she is the illegitimate child of his late brother. It seems she has neither breeding nor fortune. This is a problem, as Mary and the heir to the Greshamsbury Estate, Frank, have fallen in love.
Frank is under strict instructions from his over‐bearing mother, Lady Arabella, to save his family from financial ruin by marrying money. Frank’s mother schemes to separate the two lovebirds, encouraging her son to woo the wealthy American heiress, Miss Dunstable.
Meanwhile, Doctor Thorne acts as both physician and business advisor to railway millionaire, Sir Roger Scatcherd, in whose hands the fate of Greshamsbury lies, and who is rapidly drinking himself into an early grave.
I have enjoyed the series now available online, and I recommend it to fans of Fellowes. Sadly, the Anthony Trollope tale is in only four parts and then it is gone. Yet Trollope has more tales and Fellowes more energy, so we can hope for more.
Update: If you are more interested in a book from Mr. Fellowes, you can buy Belgravia next month and get a preview on a downloadable app. Here is more on his new story:
Julian Fellowes's Belgravia is the story of a secret. A secret that unravels behind the porticoed doors of London's grandest postcode. Set in the 1840s when the upper echelons of society began to rub shoulders with the emerging industrial nouveau riche, Belgravia is people by a rich cast of characters. But the story begins on the eve of the Battle of Waterloo in 1815. At the Duchess of Richmond's n0w legendary ball, one family's life will change forever.
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