Downton Abbey creator Julian Fellowes was back on good form as love and money, marriage and murder were the themes in Doctor Thorne, by Jim Shelley 

Adapted from Anthony Trollope’s novel by Julian Fellowes, Doctor Thorne was not so much ‘the new Downton Abbey’ as it had been labelled as Downton Abbey in miniature - i.e. a distinct improvement.

There was more plot for a start, with storylines that whilst not dissimilar were more intriguing, more subtlety, and were more juicy.

Less time was devoted to posh beauties with all the personality of ventriloquist dummies who shall remain nameless (Lady Mary) endlessly having their hair combed for them or giving us stilted history lessons about advances in crop rotation. 

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Great potential: Adapted from Anthony Trollope’s novel by Julian Fellowes, Doctor Thorne was not so much ‘the new Downton Abbey’ as it had been labelled as Downton Abbey in miniature - i.e. a distinct improvement

There was only one scene featuring ladies taking tea in the grounds of their stately home simply to show off the scenery (and not actually drinking any).

As for that notorious symbol of the chocolate box costume drama (bonnets), one exchange suggested Julian Fellowes was clearly relishing his newfound freedom and enjoying himself.

‘Do you ever wish we had money?’ Doctor Thorne asked his niece, Mary.

‘I wouldn’t mind a bonnet,’ she admitted.

‘Do you care about bonnets?’ he questioned.

‘Why shouldn’t I?!’ she insisted, on behalf of her evidently defensive-but-defiant creator.

It's complicated: Doctor Thomas Thorne's niece Mary had a back story that would make Jeremy Kyle wince

There were other hallmarks of a period piece set in the 19th century in ‘Rochester, England’ (as opposed to Rochester, Italy): eligible ladies carrying parasols even when it wasn’t sunny, gliding across the croquet lawn like Daleks made of lace; ruddy-faced wenches in Taverns roaring with laughter; and gentlemen in frockcoats whose sideburns were seemingly made of moss spreading across their face.

The evening meal was announced by ‘the dressing gong’ – with Fellowes’ subtext obviously ‘those were the days.’

The settings of the aristocrats’ homes Greshambury Park, De Courcey Castle, and Boxall Hill made Downton Abbey look pokey.

As previous Trollope adaptations The Way We Live Now and He Knew He Was Right showed his books are meatier than the insipid flotsam of Fellowes’ own creations.

Having condensed the novel into only three instalments, so, unlike Downton, happily Fellowes set off at a cracking pace.

Top-drawer performance: Ian McShane was in his element as Sir Roger Scratcherd, growling away uproariously like an aristocratic Oliver Reed

The murder pivotal to the plot was committed in the first minute.

Storylines concerning various suitors’ wealth and social standing, the doomed romance between the hero (Frank Gresham) and the heroine (Mary Thorne), and the mystery of her real identity were all established before the first ad break.

The calibre of acting was a cut above Downton too.

Tom Hollander (in the title role) and Rebecca Front (as Lady Arabella Gresham, Doctor Thorne’s adversary regarding his niece Mary) continued their recent strong Sunday evening showings in The Night Manager and War And Peace respectively.

Ian McShane was in his element as Sir Roger Scratcherd, growling away uproariously like an aristocratic Oliver Reed.

Trollope’s novel may have been closer to Dickens than Downton (set in 1836) but Fellowes was perfectly at home with the themes of love and money meeting in the matter of marriages arranged by families most concerned with the prospects of inheritance and social standing.

As in Downton, snobbery raged.

‘Whoever heard of going to Paris in September?’ one belle carped about her cousin’s honeymoon. The shame of it...

A staple of the genre: There was only one scene featuring ladies taking tea in the grounds of their stately home simply to show off the scenery (and not actually drinking any)

‘Rank has its drawbacks as well as its privileges,’ Lady Alexandrina De Courcey warned, a line that could have been one of the Dowager’s leftovers.

Rebecca Front enjoyed herself enormously as Lady Arabella Gresham, clutching a pug like a potential weapon, determining to foil the burgeoning love between Mary Thorne and her son Frank. She had other plans for him to alleviate the family debts by marrying him off to a wealthy American by the unlikely name of Miss Dunstable – a gal less inclined to tiptoe around things, telling Frank ‘we both know it is not my beauty but my dollars which renders me lovely in their sight.’

Lady Arabella’s objection – and tactic – concerned the question of Mary’s illegitimacy.

‘If she were a Miss Thorne of Ullathorne it would be a different matter. But who is Mary Thorne ? And how precisely is she related to the family at Ullathorne? She is called his niece. That is all.’

Fellowes wasted no time in spelling things out by having Mary join in the debate too.

‘Be honest with me uncle. Am I a Thorne? Am I your niece?’ she asked the Doctor.

On the defensive: Mary defiantly replied 'why shouldn't I?' when her uncle questioned whether she cared about bonnets

‘Mary I would spare you this if you’d let me,’ he demurred – for about ten seconds, before telling her everything (well nearly everything).

The plot quickly unfolded.

Mary’s mother was a village girl and not his brother’s wife as she’d been told. Her father (the doctor’s brother) had seduced her mother and her mother’s brother (now Sir Roger Scratcherd) had murdered her father (the doctor’s brother).

It was a family history that even Jeremy Kyle would struggle with.

Her mother was still alive, in Australia where she had gone for a new life, reluctantly leaving Mary behind.

‘She came to me and I offered you a home,’ the good doctor explained before correcting himself. ‘But that’s wrong. It’s you that have made a home for me, for 20 happy years.’

Revelling in her role: Rebecca Front enjoyed herself enormously as Lady Arabella Gresham

Violins nearly drowned him out as he continued: ‘to me you are my daughter. And any man who has the honour of your love shall be the envy of the world.’

Tom Hollander was terrific as Doctor Thorne, as different from his character in The Night Manager over on the other side as he could be: noble, gentle, loving.

He was though caught in a dilemma – or several – and his decisions about Mary and her future were the crux of the plot.

He was both the executor of Sir Roger’s will and the intermediary negotiating loans to pay the Greshams’ debts incurred by Frank senior’s gambling.

It transpired that if Sir Roger’s son Louis died before the age of 30, he wanted his estate to pass to his sister’s eldest child.

What he didn’t know that this was Mary.

An impressive beginning: There was more plot than Downton, with storylines that whilst not dissimilar were more intriguing, more subtlety, and were more juicy

Doctor Thorne told him that his sister’s daughter (fathered by the doctor’s brother) had not died as he’d been told while he was in prison for manslaughter.

He told him ‘I know your sister’s eldest child’ – but not that she was Mary.

Scatcherd insisted on seeing her – ‘to make my peace’ – but the Doctor would not promise.

He then told Mary that the man who killed her father was ‘in the area’ and looking for her but not who he was or that she was his heir.

The money would of course remove all obstacles to her marrying Frank Gresham – including Lady Arabella’s objections.

With Sir Roger, Mary, and Tom wanting to be brought together it seemed a perfect storm.

It was up to Doctor Thorne to decide how to steer them through it and to judge the consequences.

After the increasingly ponderous, ludicrous events in Downton Abbey, it made a change to see Fellowes have something meaty and morally complicated to work with and was good to have him back so soon. Bonnets and all. 

Grand settings: The settings of the aristocrats’ homes Greshambury Park, De Courcey Castle, and Boxall Hill made Downton Abbey look pokey