There was no upper class or working class at last night's official launch of Downton Abbey: The Exhibition, the world-travelling show commemorating the popular British period drama TV series.

But classiness characterised all the cast members who attended the red carpet event at Sands Expo and Convention Centre, as well as the show's creator Julian Fellowes.

Actors including Jim Carter, Michael Fox and Laura Carmichael, along with Fellowes, walked the red carpet and took pictures with about 100 fans of the show.

Fellowes, who was visiting Singapore for the first time, said: "The whole thing's surreal. I started out making a TV show and suddenly it becomes a world phenomenon, and this is such an expression of that."

The multimillion-dollar, five-year touring exhibition opened here to the public last Saturday and will run till July 31 before going to other cities around the world.

Among the exhibits are more than 50 costumes worn by the cast. The "fully immersive" exhibition also recreates rooms of Downton Abbey.

The show, which aired from 2010 to 2015, is set between the years 1912 and 1926, and depicts the lives of the aristocratic Crawley family and their servants in a fictional Yorkshire country estate of Downton Abbey.

Downton Abbey fan Evelyn Lai, 53, who was at the red carpet event, said: "Meeting the cast today was simply indescribable. I'll be visiting the exhibits next."