Anna Chancellor has revealed her new comedy-drama Mapp And Lucia was hit by a costume shortage, thanks to Downton Abbey.
The Four Weddings And A Funeral actress stars in a new BBC adaptation of EF Benson’s 1930s-set tale and said that ITV period series Downton filming at the same time caused a few problems in the wardrobe department.
She said: “Our French costume designer said to me, ‘There is nothing in London for you [to wear], Downton has it all’.”
Anna added that she had been wary of taking too much inspiration from Channel 4′s Eighties adaptation of Mapp And Lucia, which starred Geraldine McEwan and Prunella Scales, when making her version with Miranda Richardson which was adapted by Steve Pemberton.
She said: “I’m a huge fan of Geraldine. And you’re either going to be thinking, ‘Geraldine didn’t do it like that’, or, ‘Geraldine was so successful doing it like that’, that you’d always be pivoting towards or away from what someone else had done.
“It’s almost better to view it as new writing, a fresh thing, and I do think it has a freshness to it.”
Mapp And Lucia begins on BBC One on December 29.
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