Good news for fans of fancy old-timey British stuff: Julian Fellowes, the creator of Downton Abbey — a.k.a., your favorite Anglophile’s favorite Anglophilia — says he’s writing a prequel. Right now Fellowes is considering doing so in book form, although everyone seems to have gone ahead and assumed it’ll end up a TV show. With the highly anticipated third season on the way, he says any action on the prequel front won’t come until this present iteration is all done for. Speaking at a British Academy Film and Television Arts screenwriters’ lecture, Jules explained his plot:

I do actually have an idea of doing a prequel of the courtship of Robert and Cora, when all those American heiresses were arriving in London. They had a slightly troubled courtship, because she was in love with him before they married, as we know, and he married her entirely for her money. I sort of feel there’s something quite nice in there because he’s a decent cove, and so he feels rather guilty about this which has affected their marriage beyond that.

Also:

For me, any other books or plays or films should follow after the end of the television show. I don’t think you can continue a narrative in more than one area at once. I never really liked those Coronation Street Christmas specials where they all go to Haiti, and you don’t have to watch it. Somehow it doesn’t feel very organic.

A good cove! Coronation Street! I have almost no idea what this guy is talking about, but all of his charming Britannia is reminding me I should probably start watching Downton Abbey.