ITV's head of drama Steve November on Victoria, the new series hoping to rival Downton Abbey

Queen Victoria 'was once young, vivacious and mischievous, a fun, excitable, character who led the most extraordinary romantic life'

Steve November: Viewers identify with characters from every era and class (Micha Theiner)

The passing of Downton Abbey will leave such a hole in the ITV schedule come the autumn that the broadcaster has gone to the lengths of building its own Buckingham Palace.

Like the mythical Downton, ITV’s Buck House is in rural Yorkshire; the aircraft hangers on former RAF base Church Fenton, outside Tadcaster is the site of the 100,000 square feet set for the epic series Victoria, which calls for a replica 19th-century palace. The ambitious project might salve the pain of British period drama fans when September comes – and Downton, which ended for good on Christmas Day , does not.

Viewers may have lost Michelle Dockery’s Lady Mary, but they will gain Jenna Coleman, the former Doctor Who star who plays the young queen. Coleman is one of several female leads cast by ITV this year as it contests television’s most competitive battleground: serial drama.

With the BBC, in its fight for its future, showcasing itself with War and Peace, and Netflix and Amazon waving dollars at Britain’s leading actors and writers, ITV must up its game. The broadcaster has been rocked by the sudden departure this month of Peter Fincham, its inspirational director of television for eight years. Fincham championed Downton Abbey and restored ITV’s confidence, although its main channel lags behind BBC1 in the ratings.

Fortunately, Steve November, ITV head of drama, has drawn up an impressive slate for 2016. Sitting in ITV’s 20th-floor boardroom overlooking the Thames near Waterloo, he explains the importance to ITV of strong “everywoman” characters.

Jenna Coleman plays the young queen (ITV)

“There’s a great love for intriguing, exciting, strong female leads – they work very well for our audience,” he said. His “everywoman” does not rule out an aristocrat or even a ruler. “We want characters who we can empathise with and have a relationship with, who feel on a level with us, so that leads towards the everywoman/everyman type,” he said.

“Victoria is about the most famous monarch and world leader ever, yet what makes it appealing is the common humanity in Victoria; we see her girlish excitement, we see her fall in love, we see her petulance and anger, and we empathise with it. It’s about the points where their lives touch ours.”

This would also go for Marcella, a Metdetective played by Anna Friel in an eight-part drama which November commissioned from Hans Rosenfeldt, writer of cult Scandi drama The Bridge. “He’s doing his first English language drama for us,” he said. “It has all the twists, turns and intrigue to keep people guessing.”

There is also an everywoman quality to Ellie Miller, Olivia Colman’s character in Broadchurch, which shoots its third series in the summer. Writer Chris Chibnall – recently signed up to script Doctor Who – is “sequestered away, writing furiously”, said November.

In Dark Angel, Joanne Froggatt (who played housemaid Anna Smith/Bates in Downton Abbey) stars as Britain’s first serial killer, the Victorian dressmaker Mary Ann Cotton.

November said audiences are drawn to 19th-century themes, but that Victoria herself has been under served by television. “We are all fascinated by the Victorians and what they did for us yet, although there’s a film, The Young Victoria, and a film of [her later life] Mrs Brown, we have never really seen Victoria on TV.”

He said the series was regarded as potentially one of many, documenting her 63 years on the throne. “I hate to jinx anything, but I hope we can return and take her through her reign,” he said. The series, created by Daisy Goodwin, will allow Coleman, to correct the idea that Victoria was dour. November said: “The widow Victoria that we know in all those portraits, the rather prudish older woman, is completely misleading – she was once young, vivacious and mischievous, a fun, excitable, character who led the most extraordinary romantic life.”

Many viewers, he said, would assume filming had taken place at Buckingham Palace: “I probably shouldn’t have said it’s a set, because I don’t think you would notice. It looks spectacular.”

November, who began his career in ITV soap operas Coronation Street and Emmerdale, is known in television as the Iceman, and his original surname was the similarly wintry Frost; he changed it to take the name of his wife and her daughter. He has also commissioned Brief Encounters, a “feel good and very funny” drama series about the early years of Ann Summers parties.

There are male leads too. Michael Gambon will star in Churchill’s Secret, about Sir Winston’s struggle to recover from a stroke in 1953. Rowan Atkinson will make a foray into straight acting as Georges Simenon’s detective in Maigret.

And if all this fails to fill the Downton void, November has one more ace up his sleeve. Julian Fellowes, creator of the Earl of Grantham and co, has handed in one of his passion projects, an adaptation of Anthony Trollope’s Doctor Thorne.

“If somebody had said ‘Do you want to do a Trollope adaptation?’ I wouldn’t have leapt,” admitted November. “But when you are offered the Julian Fellowes version of Trollope and you start reading the script, it’s a joyously easy decision.”