'Belgravia: The Next Chapter' Will Explore the Original Series' Legacy of Secrets

Sometimes you really can go home again. Or, at least, to someplace reasonably close to it. This is, essentially, the promise at the heart of Belgravia: The Next Chapter, a sequel series that seems to be working overtime to try and correct the flaws of its predecessor. Based on creator Julian Fellowes's (Downton Abbey) book of the same name, Belgravia originally aired as a limited series in 2020, but it struggled to find an audience. Part of the reason for this is that, despite its A-list pedigree and a delightful cast that included such luminaries as Harriet Walter (Killing Eve) and Philip Glenister (Steeltown Murders), the drama simply wasn't very good. (Its story somehow managed to make infidelity, secret pregnancies, and long-lost children dull, a feat I would have never believed Fellowes capable of.)

Set in the affluent London district for which the series is named, the original Belgravia followed the dramatic aftermath of the Duchess of Richmond's ball in 1815, an event which in real life famously occurred the night before the Battle of Quatre Bras and which, in the world of the series, kicked off a decades-long story of secret marriage and hidden child. This second installment will jump several decades forward in time to follow the lives of several of the descendants of characters from the original series --- and check in on a few familiar faces.

This shift offers the show a unique chance to start over, complete with a new cast, a fresh focus, and hopefully a better understanding of what worked the first time around and what didn't. The series' setting among the upper echelons of London society still offers plenty of opportunities for fascinating storytelling, and perhaps the show can get the story of a secret illegitimate parentage right the second time around.