Despite a few quibbles about its pacing, Belgravia’s sleek six episodes provide the TV equivalent of a beach read romp, one that is engaging and ultimately very satisfying.

“Belgravia” is gorgeously appointed, it’s romantic enough, it’s grounded in the manners of a far more delicate time when everyone stood six-feet apart lest they bump hands, and it does what Fellowes’s “Downton Abbey” did, in a deeper and more engaging way, as it explores the differences between the entitlement of old money and the scrappier personalities of new money.

Greig and Walter, stalwart veterans of British stage and screen, lead a compelling ensemble. ... If you can tolerate period dialogue peppered with modern idioms, you'll find a zippy and engaging soap in Belgravia.

"Belgravia" pretty much telegraphs where it's headed from jump to landing. Fellowes may be channeling the grim of Victorian tragedy but enough of his signature flair and a few anachronistic touches make Belgravia's bleaker elements palatable. ... The result is a lushly brocaded and silky affair that has its good points despite the murk in its tone, and the clutch players in the ensemble – Grieg, Walter, Glenister and the happy couple around which this world whirls – make palatable the slower stretches in the story.

One of the chief selling points of ‘Downton’s” early seasons was how it tread the fine line between soap opera and prestige drama. “Belgravia” errs on the wrong side of that divide, but it is so well-appointed that it is never less than beautiful to watch, just like “Downton.” For some, the finery will win out over refinement.

Belgravia has a similar dynamic to Downton and an upstairs/downstairs class obsession that included a deeply unsubtle expositional scene in the servants' quarters in which they bitched about their paymasters. Yet on the evidence so far I doubt it has the soul or soap-opera qualities that made Downton such opium for the masses.

Julian Fellowes has been typing again. It is the year flimpty plomp, the pasteenth century in days of yore. ... Smash cut to 26 years later. Afternoon tea has been invented, Sophia is dead, the titular London district of Belgravia has been built (by James, in partnership with Thomas Cubitt, dontcha know) and the script is even worse.