Downton Abbey creator Julian Fellowes has attacked James Cameron’s blockbuster movie Titanic for its factual inaccuracies.
He says that his own four-part TV mini series about the 1912 disaster will ‘set the record straight’.
In an interview with the Radio Times, the 62-year-old said the 1997 Hollywood film unfairly vilified the ship’s first officer, William Murdoch, as a coward.
In the film, Murdoch – played by actor Ewan Stewart – is seen shooting terrified passengers before taking his own life.
But Lord Fellowes said: ‘That was very unfair how Murdoch was depicted. He wasn’t cowardly. He fired the pistol to stop a potential riot
‘It was suddenly getting out of hand, and he fired it into the air. That’s not being cowardly.’
In 1998, producers 20th Century Fox apologised to Murdoch’s 80-year-old nephew, also called William Murdoch, for misrepresenting his relative.
In his hometown of Dalbeattie, near Dumfries in Scotland, the officer is remembered as a hero who saved lives.
Murdoch, who went down with the ship when it sank after hitting an iceberg, was credited with launching the lifeboats.
Now Lord Fellowes has promised his own William Murdoch – played by Scottish actor Brian McCardie – will be truer to the real character.
‘I don’t think you can take someone who was moral and decent and make them do something immoral and indecent,’ he added.
The first episode of Titanic will be screened on ITV on Sunday.
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