The legendary ball of the Duchess of Richmond, at which the entire leadership of the English military was present, took place in Brussels on June 15, 1815, which in retrospect turned out to be a rather inconvenient place and time for social entertainment.

On the one hand the Prussians withdrew, on the other the Napoleonic troops advanced.

They ate at one o'clock in the morning, shortly afterwards the marching orders came, quite a few officers went to war in dress uniforms while the last couple were still dancing.

The battle of Waterloo was fought three days later.

Andrea Diener

Editor in the features section.

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All of this is historically proven.

The fiction begins with the arrival of James (Philip Glenister) and Anne Trenchard (Tamsin Greig) along with their eighteen-year-old daughter Sophia (Emily Reid), who, although only merchants who have become wealthy without a title of nobility, were able to get an invitation to this event.

It was set up by Lord Edmund Bellasis (Jeremy Neumark Jones), the fictional son of the inviting Duchess and one of the most sought-after bachelors in London, who is very interested in Sophia.

The parents find this inappropriate connection somewhat uncomfortable, with the exception of father James, who is not very sensitive to social subtleties and speaks about business in any situation.

The secret of the past is well buried

Now the young Lord Bellasis does not return from battle. And Sophia is pregnant. This is the premise of the "Belgravia" series, like "Downton Abbey" from the pen of Julian Fellowes, an expert in rank and etiquette. He can build entire scenes around a misrepresented roast platter, which is only half amusing, because for the other half, exactly this label has been the pillar and right to exist of the British upper class for centuries. In one scene, Fellowes puts that into his Downton butler Carson's mouth almost exactly like that, and when he says it, it even sounds plausible. But the artillery that “Belgravia” unearths are less subtle than the brutalization of the presentation manners at dinner.

The action starts again 26 years after the ball.

James and Anne have become even more successful and wealthy, their somewhat clumsy son and ancestor Oliver has married the not very sympathetic Susan, both still live with the Trenchards.

Dinner together is no fun, especially not for the sensitive, warm-hearted mother Anne.

And daughter Sophia, as we learn from the first episodes, died in childbed, her son was entrusted to a pastor couple and lives somewhere in the north.

The secret of the past is well buried, the illegitimate child out of sight and actually no scandal in sight.

No end to nostalgia

It could stay that way if Anne did not allow herself to be softened by the feelings of others and a story should not be told here. At one of the Duchess of Bedford's newly fashionable tea parties, Anne meets the Duchess of Richmond again, who even remembers the incongruous guests from back then. However, she is gentle because she regrets that she has no biological offspring after the death of her only son. And so Anne dares to tell her about their illegitimate grandchildren at the next opportunity. He now lives under the name of Charles Pope as a capable, honest and aspiring cotton merchant nearby, thanks in part to James Trenchard, who has invested in the business. And of course Lady Richmond has a completely useless nephew who is supposed to inherit everything she deeply regrets.

How things will go on can be imagined after reading a nineteenth-century English novel or two. The useless sons will spy and intrigue, the able sons will in the end be rewarded or at least get married richly, and whatever unexpectedly emerges from the past can change everything overnight according to the laws of the well-oiled social scandal. "Downton Abbey" also afforded such plot elements. “Belgravia”, however, can by no means come up with such differentiated staff, especially the service staff seems to be in a hurry to put it on. And the wonderful leading actors Tamsin Greig and Philip Glenister cannot pull it all out alone, however bravely they try. Everything is nicely furnishedthat's well done - the trusted producers of Downton Abbey are back - but something is missing. Is it perhaps because “Belgravia” is based on a novel, while Downton was designed as a series from the start and can go more broadly with all the epic and all the intricacies?

Those who are now disappointed can comfort themselves with the fact that another Fellowes series is being filmed with “The Gilded Age” for HBO, in which, among others, Cynthia Nixon and Jeanne Tripplehorn in New York in the 1880s for a place at the Fighting sun of social respectability.

And the second "Downton Abbey" film will follow next spring.

An end to the Fellowes nostalgia in television and cinema is therefore not in sight for the time being.

Belgravia - Time of Destiny is

running on TVNow.