You could soon be pouring your morning milk from a Downton Abbey jug or lighting candles from a replica candelabra seen on the show’s set, after the makers behind Downtown Abbey have confirmed they are developing a range of merchandise.

Gareth Neame, managing director of Carnival Films, which produces the series for ITV1, told the New York Post: “We’re looking into merchandising. Homeware, crockery, pots and pans, kitchen items.

“Merchandising takes time. It’s a slow burner. But we’re not proud. We’re on message. We’ll even do household decorations like candlesticks.”

The products will doubtless be popular in America, where Downton Abbey has had an unprecedented success. Writer and creator Julian Fellowes said: “America’s big puff is the fascination with royalty and England’s caste system of tradition and heritage. They love romance, but it’s unsexy.”

The merchandising plans will mean more money in the pot for the Conservative peer, who says he plans to use his earnings to renovate his Elizabethan house in Dorset with his wife Emma Joy Kitchener, Lady in Waiting to HRH Princess Michael of Kent.