Downton Abbey writer Julian Fellowes is on a mission to find the true stories behind the greatest of Britain’s great houses. Each week he uncover the personal stories hidden behind the walls of one great house and discovers that these are not just places for posh people to live in — they hold the history of us all. In these two, back to back episodes, he brings those stories to the screen.

“I’m on the hunt for the real Lord Granthams, the real Lady Marys, the real Bates and the real Annas; there are stories for all of us in houses like these!”
– Julian Fellowes

Episode One: Burghley House

At Burghley House in Lincolnshire, for over 500 years the home of the descendants of William Cecil first Lord Burghley — the political brain and the iron fist behind the throne of Queen Elizabeth the First — Julian discovers the story of how Mary Queen of Scots was executed, and the romantic tale of the Cottage Countess (a farmer’s daughter who married the tenth earl). He also traces the fate of a cook tragically framed to protect his master’s reputation, works out the real identity of a servant girl painted on the ceiling of a drawing room, and stumbles upon the heartrending story of Harriet Clarke, a dairy maid, tracking down her descendants.

Episode Two: Goodwood House

At Goodwood House in Sussex, for 300 years the home of the Dukes of Richmond, Julian discovers the story of how the house and the family owe their existence to a love affair between King Charles and a French spy. He uncovers an unpublished memoir written by a ladies maid in the 1920s and looks into the goings on at the house parties thrown for King Edward the VII. He discovers the very saw that cut off the Earl of Uxbridge’s leg at the battle of Waterloo and sits in Napoleon’s chair; he explores the world of the Goodwood House Party, where illicit affairs could be conducted even amongst royalty, and meets with the descendant of a servant who wrote a memoir about such ‘goings on’.