Where is the real Elgar to be found – in his boisterous self-portrait at the end of the Enigma Variations, the warm, feminine sentiment of the Violin Concerto and the First Symphony’s Adagio, or the nightmares of the Second Symphony? No doubt in each of them, and more. John Bridcut’s painfully sensitive documentary hones in on the private, introspective Elgar, the dark knight of "ghosts and shadows", always with the music to the fore. And by getting the good and great, young and old of the musical world not just to talk but to react to the works as they hear them, he may have broken new ground.

Defying predictions that there would be no audience for a period costume drama set in an Edwardian country house, Downton Abbey has become the TV event of 2010. Episode one notched 11.6 million viewers (including repeats and ITV Player viewings), while episode two edged up to 11.8 million.

Downton Abbey was judged a risk when ITV cleared Sunday nights to accommodate it. It cost a good deal, and harked back to a world and an era which, it might be supposed, a modern television audience would no longer wish to visit. But aside from the pedigree supplied by Julian Fellowes, who had already helped to create one country house in Gosford Park, it had two things going for it: the quality of the cast and the quality of the costumes. On the assumption that its devotees will now be entering a period of mourning, theartsdesk celebrates both in a gallery of images from the set of Downton Abbey.

Downton Abbey was judged a risk when ITV cleared Sunday nights to accommodate it. It cost a good deal, and harked back to a world and an era which, it might be supposed, a modern television audience would no longer wish to visit. But aside from the pedigree supplied by Julian Fellowes, who had already helped to create one country house in Gosford Park, it had two things going for it: the quality of the cast and the quality of the costumes. On the assumption that its devotees will now be entering a period of mourning, theartsdesk celebrates both in a gallery of images from the set of Downton Abbey.

With the BBC still in the middle of shooting their revival of Upstairs, Downstairs, ITV1 have nipped in ahead of them with Julian Fellowes's spiffing new sundown-on-the-aristocracy drama. In a battle of the stage dames, the Beeb has bagged Eileen Atkins, whereas ITV has signed up Maggie Smith as Violet, Dowager Countess of Grantham. So far she has not been called upon to say, "A handbag?"