The story of the Titanic is preparing to sail back onto our screens this month, as Downton Abbey creator Julian Fellowes unveils his latest period-drama big-budget offering.
It has the same beautiful detailed costumes, the same clashing class systems and the same Academy Award-winning screenwriter as Downton, so what stops ITV's new four-part drama Titanic becoming just 'Downton On Sea'?
Downton Abbey's creator even admitted yesterday, at the press launch of the series, that there was "a slight temptation" to put some of the characters from his country house drama on board the ship.
However, speaking with the cast, who claim they want to take Downton's "followers on to the sea", it became clear that Titanic also deserves recognition in its own right.
Geraldine Somerville, who plays First Class passenger Louisa, Countess of Manton, explained: "I think it's really different… It's a very international cast and an international story.
"The storytelling is completely different, you've got stories that are interwoven with each other and you sometimes see the same scene and you'll see it from different characters' points of view and it's a very ensemble piece, we are all in the backgrounds of each others' shots and scenes."
Meanwhile, her strong-minded daughter Lady Georginia Grex, played by Peredita Weeks, had a confession about the 'Downton On Sea' tagline: "That's what I was calling it, maybe I started it?"
The show, which was created to mark the hundredth anniversary of the world's most famous maritime disaster in April 1912, has an 18-strong lead cast, with no one character the focus of attention.
The boilermen, the First, Second and Third Class passengers, the officers, the stewards and stewardesses and the servants all have their stories told in a way that Fellowes hopes will give a rounded image of the ship in a way not previously seen.
And where there was one central love story of Jack and Rose as in the epic Titanic film, here instead there are various love stories running between the different decks. Probably the most similar romance to that of the famous film coupling is the one between Lady Georgiana Grex and Noah Reid, played by Harry Widener, the son of an immensely wealthy Philadelphia family travelling back to the US.
Georgiana is on board the ship, begrudgingly, in First Class with her parents - her father, Hugh, Earl of Manton, is played by Linus Roache - and her very proper mother (Somerville) is not taken by her daughter's choice of partner.
There will be exclusive HuffPostUK features on Titanic in the lead up to the show's debut later this month. Meanwhile, in the video above, some of the stars of Titanic, including Celia Imrie, who plays Grace Rushton a member of the new industrial class travelling with her husband and her Pekinese dog (Imrie's own pooch), and David Calder, who plays the ship's Captain Smith, react to the show being called 'Downton On Sea'.
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The story of the Titanic is preparing to sail back onto our screens this month, as Downton Abbey creator Julian Fellowes unveils his latest period-drama big-budget offering.
It has the same beautif...
The story of the Titanic is preparing to sail back onto our screens this month, as Downton Abbey creator Julian Fellowes unveils his latest period-drama big-budget offering.
It has the same beautif...
Downton Abbey is a great show, what not play up the writer's involvement? If they can do a good job with one kind of period drama, why not encourage them to tell another story in the same vein?
Nathan0316: Downton Abbey is a great show, what not play up
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First Posted: 2/03/2012 13:28 Updated: 2/03/2012 14:52