Julian Fellowes, the creator of TV drama Downtown Abbey has said that portraying happiness in drama is the hardest feat for a writer to pull off. Fellowes killed Matthew Crawley, a popular character in the series played by Dan Stevens, after Stevens decided to quit the show. Crawley, who up until that point been happily married to Lady Mary, died in a car crash in the Christmas Day episode just after the couple had celebrated the birth of their first child.

Fellowes said that their marital bliss provided a dramatic dilemma and that "actually, nothing is harder to dramatise than happiness. When two people are happy, that's it." He added: "That's why in the old movies, they don't kiss and marry in the middle – they kiss and marry at the end, because in a way that's it."

Fellowes' remarks echo those of the French writer Henry de Montherlant, remembered for his aphorism "Happiness writes in white ink on a white page". Do you agree that on-screen happiness is a dull thing to watch and can you share your favourite onscreen depictions of happiness?