Julian Fellowes in conversation with John Miller Winchester Festival
The Guildhall

ACTOR, writer and director Julian Fellowes proved what a talented raconteur he also is as he entertained an audience in Winchester on Tuesday.

The quintessentially British Fellowes joined a diverse line-up of prestigious musicians, actors, artists and writers who have featured in this year’s Winchester Festival, which ends on Sunday with an appearance by “headline” star and festival president Dame Judi Dench.

In front of an audience several hundred strong, Fellowes (right) needed few prompts from his interviewer, the festival’s artistic director John Miller, to start talking about his new novel Past Imperfect.

Teased by Miller about the similarities between the book’s narrator and himself, Fellowes explained that writers tend to “rake over their own feelings” and stick to things they have a basic knowledge of, but that most portraits are drawn from a mixture of inspirations.

The novel – Fellowes’ second after international bestseller Snobs – jumps between a group of people doing “the Season” in 1968 and the same people in 2008, in their 50s.

The audience became privy to anecdotes from the writer’s own experiences of the season and a spontaneous reading from Past Imperfect.

Miller moved the conversation on to Fellowes’ recent screenplay for The Young Victoria, starring Emily Blunt and Rupert Friend, before discussing the story behind his Oscar-winning screenplay for Gosford Park, directed by the late Robert Altman.

Unusually, the writer was on set during filming and gave his eager Winchester crowd titbits of his experiences and an insight into where his inspiration for characters came from.

He gave a fascinating insight into Oscar pomp, where seat fillers – occupying chairs of anyone who has popped to the toilet or on stage – are not allowed to talk to other guests, and after which the swimming pool-sized car he was given became like a school bus as he picked up all his pals.

The hour-and-a-half passed quickly, but not without mention of the charming Fellowes’ directorial debut Separate Lies and his celebrated role as Lord Kilwillie in BBC’s Monarch of the Glen.

Miller was an admirable interviewer, never interrupting the flow of his guest and guiding the evening to cover Fellowes’ main achievements in an almost imperceptible way, ending with time for a few questions from the audience and a book signing.