Julian Fellowes, creator of Downton Abbey, has been speaking to the Mail on Sunday, and he's had some interesting things to say about the BBC:
Fellowes says: ‘I have read that we went to the BBC with Downton and were turned down, but it’s not true.
'They were not, they are not, happy with dramas that do not reflect their own political and philosophical viewpoint.
'The great thing about making Downton Abbey with ITV was that they let us get on with it. The BBC wouldn’t have done that.’
Does he mean the BBC is too left-wing to have been sympathetic to the aristocratic Crawley family?
‘I do not want to be labelling in that way, they are just more interventionist. They do seem to live in a rather Seventies bubble.
'They do not seem to see their obligation to reflect the differing viewpoints of the entire population, only the viewpoints of the group of the population of which they approve.
‘I am not sure that is completely just given that the corporation is funded by public money.
'I would not wish to see the BBC become a Tory-supporting organisation instead of a Labour one, but I do think they should find a more polytheistic position than they have at the moment.’
