Elizabeth McGovern, Maggie Smith, Penelope Wilton, et al. to Star in Downton Abbey Series

Maggie Smith, Penelope Wilton and Elizabeth McGovern will star in the new U.K. series Downton Abbey, according to a report on the website for the U.K. magazine The Stage. The series, written by Julian Fellowes, is scheduled to bow in the fall on ITV in England.

Set in an Edwardian country house in 1912, Downton Abbey will portray the lives of the Crawley family and the servants who work for them. The cast for the series will also include Hugh Bonneville, Phyllis Logan, and Joanne Froggatt.

Smith has appeared on Broadway four times, winning the Tony Award for Lettice and Lovage and receiving Tony nominations for Private Lives and Night and Day. She has won two Academy Awards, for The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie and California Suite. She is also well known for her work in the Harry Potter movies, in which she plays Minerva McGonagall.

Wilton’s stage credits range from the original company of The Philanthropist on Broadway and Hamlet opposite Jude Law at the Donmar Warehouse. Academy Award nominee McGovern recently starred in a revival of David Mamet’s The Shawl at the Arcola Theatre in London.