An unlikely TV hit makes us all fools for true love June 28, 2012 OPINION (THE AGE.COM.AU)

A class apart ... what differentiates Downton Abbey from melodrama is the ability of key characters to deliver power without saying a word.

One can only hope that Julian Kitchener-Fellowes, also known as Baron Fellowes of West Stafford, also Lord Fellowes, Conservative member of the House of Lords, will eventually relent and allow some loves to be fulfilled and not go unrequited, thwarted, dashed, barren or broken.

Because unrequited love, thwarted opportunities, barren bonds, dashed hopes and broken hearts is the steady diet he continues to serve up to we innocents who consume what he presents in Downton Abbey, approaching the climax of its second series here.

The ratings can be more than 1.5 million viewers, but they don't reflect the passion of its audience. And the exasperation. Advertisement: Story continues below So great is the lovelorn pain Fellowes dishes out to any character who is selfless and decent that I have taken to calling it Downcast Abbey, or Downturn Abyss. Unrequited love, dashed hopes, barren marriages and fraudulent emotions are not the raw material of hope for we the audience.

We do need some relief and happy resolutions in our diversions. But no enduring romantic victories have so far been allowed to the characters in Fellowes's addictive creation, even though he himself is the beneficiary of a long and enduring love.

For 22 years he has been married to a woman he fell in love with in 1989, falling so hard that he proposed to her on the same day. She married him the following year. He wooed and won Emma Kitchener, niece of Earl Kitchener, great-great niece of Kitchener of Khartoum, lady-in-waiting to Princess Michael of Kent, and a leggy brunette.

Why can Fellowes not allow any of his characters to sit at the table of enduring love, especially those of the serving class, to whom he is especially cruel? Many elements cohere to make Downton Abbey work so well: the dialogue, Fellowes's knowledge of the aristocratic world, superb casting, photography, attention to detail, the use of dramatic historic events, and the depth of quality of the ensemble of British character actors brought together by the Academy Award-winning pedigree of Fellowes's vision.

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