‘Downton Abbey’ creator Julian Fellowes takes on Trollope for TV

Julian Fellowes, the British novelist best known for creating the television sensation “Dowton Abbey,� is turning next to Anthony Trollope.

Fellowes will adapt Trollope’s “Doctor Thorne� for television, the BBC reports. Published in 1858, “Doctor Thorne� tells the story of a doctor and his niece in an English village and the families of wealth (and misfortune) who hope to find stability through marriage. There are dark secrets -- drinking! affairs! violence! -- and the doctor holds the key.

Calling himself a “lifetime devotee of Trollope,� Fellowes explained that he is his “favorite among the great 19th century English novelists and certainly the strongest influence over my work that I am conscious of.� Fellowes “could not be more delighted� to adapt “Doctor Thorne.�

Although the book clocks in at more than 500 pages, Fellowes plans to boil it down to a three-part series.

Of the book, Trollope himself wrote, “The plot ... is good, and I am led therefore to suppose that a good plot -- which, to my feeling, is the most insignificant part of a tale -- is that which will most raise it or most condemn it in the public judgment.�

“Doctor Thorne� is being writtten for ITV.

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