Fasten your corsets, The Gilded Age has arrived on screen and will be the biggest period drama since Downton Abbey.
The series has been created by Lord Julian Fellowes, the genius behind worldwide smash Downton.
Set in late 19th century New York City, it stars Christine Baranski and Cynthia Nixon as unmarried sisters Agnes and Ada.
Their world changes when niece Marian Brook (Louise Jacobson) goes to live with them after her father dies, leaving her penniless.
Denee Benton, Morgan Spector and Carrie Coon are also in the nine-part Sky drama.
Downton fans will recognise many familiar themes, but The Gilded Age is no carbon copy.
The Gilded Age and Downton producer Gareth Neames says: “Downton was about the end of an era. But in The Gilded Age we see the beginning of the American Dream.”
Here we take a look at how the shows compare…
Lavish locations
From the opening scene as a statue is transported through Central Park to a carriage pulling up at a grand house in New York city, it’s clear this is a big budget production.
Set in America’s Gilded Age of the late 19th century, a period of immense economic growth, this series shows off the stunning townhouses, elaborate costumes and glittering banquets and balls.
While Downton gave us stately homes in the British countryside, this goes back half a century to the bustling city streets of America.
Two hundred cast members in period costumes shot the season over 162 days like a movie, with giant sets and real mansions, many in Newport, Rhode Island.
Executive producer David Crockett says: “We basically transformed a full city square and had five blocks fully dressed with horses, carriages and extras. It was pretty special.”
Prop master Michael Jortner adds: “We acquired a lot but we also built from scratch. The parasols and umbrellas were original, but we had to redo the canopies.
"The cookware was re-coppered to make it look new. We made all the police badges.” The hair, lighting, wardrobe and set design feel glossier than on Downton.
Costume designer Kasia Maimone said it was crucial to capture the display of wealth at the time, adding: “We’re used to big productions but never on this scale before.”
The orchestral musical score also lends a lavish feel to the show.
Dowagers & Dames
Dame Maggie Smith’s withering put downs and hilarious one liners as Dowager Countess of Grantham were a highlight of Downton Abbey.
But fear not, The Gilded Age has Christine Baranski, as the brilliantly cutting Agnes van Rhijn, who, just like Dowager Violet, right, hides a tender side.
Christine says: “She’s very authoritative. She’s absolutely certain that her decision is the right decision.
“But as I played her and got to know her, I came to really like Agnes. She has a dry, withering sense of humour.” Agnes is horrified by new money and won’t accept change.
She remarks: “Let them entertain their own sort, heaven knows there are plenty to choose from.”
The widow lives with her spinster sister Ada (Cynthia Nixon) who is a little simpering and keen-to-please, doing her sister’s bidding most of the time. It reminds us of the relationship between Downton’s Violet and Isobel Crawley (Penelope Wilton).
Other potential matriarchs to watch are Jeanne Tripplehorn, who plays the mysterious, shunned Sylvia Chamberlain.
Feisty heroines
Lady Mary (Michelle Dockery) was certainly a spirited heroine in Downton - there was that time a Turkish diplomat sneaked into her bedroom and died of a heart attack. Lady Sybil (Jessica Brown Findlay) ran away with the chauffeur and even ‘good girl’ Lady Edith (Laura Carmichael) had an affair with a married man and hid a pregnancy.
These thoroughly modern madams kept the plot pacing, and The Gilded Age certainly has plenty of feisty females too.
Leading lady Marian Brook, played by Meryl Streep’s daughter Louisa Jacobson, has been forced to move to New York to live with her formidable aunts, but she knows how to play the game.
Sneaking to a forbidden party, breaking boundaries and pursuing her own liberal views on class and race, Marian knows her role but has a rebellious streak.
Louisa, a huge Downton fan, says: “Marian wants to do something with her life. She wants to be fulfilled.”
Marian’s friend Peggy (Denée Benton) is another bright spark, an aspiring writer who’s not afraid to break the mould. “In New York, anything is possible,” says Peggy.
Dashing men
Downton’s men mostly strode around their land giving orders and worried about organising the occasional hunt or hiring a decent valet. Downstairs at the Abbey, other heroes were chauffeurs and butlers.
But The Gilded Age has a different type of man, with one of the main characters a ruthless railroad tycoon.
George Russell (Morgan Spector) has built an empire from scratch, an example of the nouveau riche that New York’s old money society hates.
His devotion and loyalty to his wife Bertha looks set to be a brilliant and shocking example of an equal marriage. Morgan says: “At home he’s an extremely conscientious husband and father. But in business, he’s utterly ruthless.”
Marian is not short of brooding love interests here. The Russells’ son Larry (Harry Richardson) runs in front of a carriage to save her puppy Pumpkin, and lawyer Tom Raikes (Thomas Cocquerel) would also like to win her heart.
We have high hopes for some Downton-esque scandal.
Social issues
Downton explored many early 20th century issues, from women’s rights to social mobility and homophobia.
The Gilded Age takes on all of these, but pushes the boundaries even further, tackling racism.
The central concern as the series kicks off is the class war between the old money elite, such as the van Rhijns, and the new money Russell family, who are deemed common and simply not welcome in the “club”.
There are rejected party invites, gossip, slander and the eyeing up of daughters for marriage. Bertha Russell represents the future, which scares the rest of society.
The Gilded Age delves into racial divisions, with Peggy unable to ride with white people on a train to New York.
Actress Denée says: “I could relate to Peggy. She must negotiate the politics of respectability at that time and what it meant to operate as a black woman in white spaces.”
In another sub-plot, Agnes’s son Oscar (Blake Ritson) is revealed to be in a secret homosexual relationship.
Gareth Neame says: “From income inequality to the racial divide to the shock of a new era, so many elements of the show are recognisable today.”
Upstairs, Downstairs
We were obsessed with the goings-on downstairs at Downton Abbey, with the lives of the servants just as thrilling as those of their masters and mistresses upstairs.
And it seems The Gilded Age will also delve into life below stairs.
Looking around the kitchen table at the Van Rhijn home, you can recognise every character from Downton – from the older cook and sweet young helper to the stern-but-fair head butler, buttoned-up housekeeper and opinionated young Irish lad.
At the Russells’, Bertha’s sly lady’s maid Turner (Kelley Curran) seems to be cut from the same cloth as evil O’Brien, and mystery surrounds George Russell’s valet Watson (Michael Cerveris).
Already we’ve seen racism from staff not impressed with new arrival Peggy and snobbery from staff at the Russell mansion.
Expect shady characters and scathing attacks. Julian Fellowes says: “When we recreate that period, we’re as interested in the people working below the stairs as we are in the people above it.
“It was an integral part of that life... I don’t see how you can tell those stories and not define the servant characters.”
* The Gilded Age, available on Sky and NOW TV.
