The elegant drama he crafted has become one of the most lauded and influential in an era of ever-more sophisticated television. Don Draper, his handsome, hard-drinking, philandering protagonist led the charge of on-screen anti-heroes, while the story of advertising executives in a Madison Avenue firm, set against the social upheaval of the Sixties, reinvigorated debates about gender, race and sexual politics. “I’m not a historian, but I’ve studied history for the past 10 years from an almost psychological point of view,” Weiner says. “And these things are cyclical. The world does not feel any cosier now than when I was a little kid.” It also brought the 49 year-old writer seven Emmy awards, three Golden Globes and two Baftas.