Set in 1920, Series 3 is due to begin on Sunday 16th September on ITV1.

Fellowes commented: “[Series 3] is really about that moment after a crash when you feel your body to see how many bones are broken. I think society was going through that in 1919 and 1920 – just how much of the old life was coming back? Were people prepared to do those jobs? How much more money were they going to want and so on? You had some people thinking that the old ways were probably over and others thinking things didn’t seem to be as different as all that.”

He continued: “Gradually over the next two decades many houses were let go, and by the 40s and 50s it really was the coup de grace for that way of life. So the 20s and 30s always strike me as being a rather nebulous, febrile period. In some ways it was very exciting – there were all the new dances, aeroplanes and movies, and more and more people having cars and so on. But in another way it was also full of fear because nobody quite knew what the new world would be.”

Are you looking forward to Series 3? Let us know below…

> Buy the Series 2 boxset on Amazon.

Watch a teaser trailer for Series 3…