When American director Robert Altman recruited him to create the characters for the film - which stars Dame Maggie Smith, Alan Bates and Helen Mirren - he knew he was picking the right man. Fellowes, 52, was born into a family that had firsthand knowledge of country estate life. He comes from a dynasty of distinguished naval and army officers and physicians; he went to Ampleforth and Cambridge; he is married to a direct descendant of Lord Kitchener, a lady-in-waiting to Princess Michael of Kent, and he has spent his life with the aristocr a cy. H e said: "I am grateful to Bob for all sorts of reasons, not least for the fact that I am the only writer of this film, which in contemporary Hollywood requires a man of mighty muscle. And it was his muscle - not mine - that ensured it."
