84. Lord Fellowes

Job: writer, actor, director Age: 63 Industry: broadcasting 2011 ranking: 78 Lord Fellowes's ITV1 drama Titanic sank with all hands. But the new series of Downton Abbey looks like a return to form . Starring Hugh Bonneville and Dame Maggie Smith, and with Shirley MacLaine joining the cast for its third outing, Downton Abbey is one of ITV's most reliable hits – up there with The X Factor and Britain's Got Talent – and when it was shown in the US scooped more nominations at the Emmys than any other British TV show in history. As well as being the nation's foremost contemporary chronicler of the English landed gentry, Fellowes cuts the mustard as an actor (Monarch of the Glen, Our Friends in the North), screenwriter (Young Victoria and The Tourist, although perhaps the less said about that the better ) and author of the best-selling novels Snobs and Past Imperfect. "He's a Tory peer so he also has political influence," our panel said – with a doff of the cap of course.