'Belgravia' Episode 1 puts class politics front and center as the tragedy of Sophia Trenchard unfolds
The first episode of 'Belgravia' shows we are dealing with a very different beast than 'Downton Abbey' because of the time period. 'Downton Abbey' is set in the post-Edwardian era between 1912 and 1926, when the dominance of the aristocracy was waning and titled peerages were having to modernize or lose their land. Class, while important, could be superseded, even in marriage.
However, 'Belgravia', named after the neighborhood for the rich and elite, is set largely in the Victorian era just after the Industrial revolution. At the time, the British Empire and the aristocracy were both firmly entrenched institutions of England and powerful ones at that
While there was upward social mobility for men like James Trenchard (Philip Glenister), an astute businessman, the "nouveau rich" were still looked down upon by the blue bloods. The aristocracy and the ones who had come into their wealth very recently were separated by a very wide gulf, despite living in the same neighborhood.
The series also briefly showcases the Regency era as it kicks off with a key (and very real) ball in 1815 in Brussels hosted by the Duchess of Richmond on the eve of the Battle of Waterloo, with historical figures like Duke of Wellington, who commanded the troops against Napolean Bonaparte, in attendance.
This period had rigid mores and manners of address, class-based hierarchies and the rituals that came with it. Anne Trenchard (Tamsin Greig) is right to fear about her daughter Sophia's reputation after she catches the eye of Viscount Edmund Bellasis, who pursues her relentlessly in the "heady" atmosphere of a town on the brink of war. In that era, it was indeed laughable to think that a son of an Earl would ever marry a tradesman's daughter, for real.
But James Trenchard's ambition and Sophia's love blinds him to this reality, even though Anne continually tries warning them to be content with what they had built for themselves as tradespeople.
The show then cuts to twenty-five years after the Battle of Waterloo and Sophia's death, to the Victorian era of the 1840s. The action shifts to the newly built Belgravia enclave for the rich and elite. At "afternoon tea" (a new-fangled concept at the time) the hostess, Duchess of Bedford, accosts Anne Trenchard no less than three times for speaking directly to her "superiors", the Duchess of Richmond and her sister, Lady Brockenhurst.
Instead, she tries to get Anne to spend time with people who are from the same "nouveau rich" background with no titles or peerages. She is astounded that Anne was in attendance at the legendary ball before the Battle of Waterloo.
Even within the Trenchard household, the servants obviously do not respect the Trenchards because of their middle-class origins. They gossip endlessly about them and also disparage James' son Oliver, who wants a bigger house having been brought up as a "gentleman". He and Susan are in a better position to break the class hierarchies than James and Anne.
While Anne is very measured in her interactions with the aristocracy as a school master's daughter, her husband, James, is less circumspect about class because of how quickly he amassed wealth -- first by being the principal supplier to Duke of Wellington's soldiers during the skirmishes with Napolean. And then as a real estate developer with the Cubbit Brothers.
But his ambitions to leapfrog over class have already brought tragedy to their family, and he might lose all that he has built if the parentage of Charles Hope, Sophia's illegitimate son, is revealed in the later episodes of this six-part series.
'Belgravia' airs on 12 April 2020 on Epix.