Lunch with Matthew Weiner is not at any of the Midtown Manhattan watering holes frequented by characters from Mad Men, his acclaimed 1960s-set television series about New York advertising executives. Instead, he has chosen Café Boulud, a smart French restaurant on the Upper East Side near the corner of Madison Avenue. It is a mile or so uptown from the cradle of the US advertising industry but it feels appropriate to be so close to the long avenue that inspired the title of Weiner’s show (the Mad in Mad Men refers to Madison) and which continues to serve as home to many agencies.

A lunch true to the spirit of the show would involve us downing several martinis before staggering back to our respective offices for a nap. But the most I can do when Weiner arrives is to persuade him to have a glass of wine. Unlike his handsome hero, the advertising genius Don Draper, Weiner isn’t a hard drinker, nor does he appear to be emotionally broken. Today he is all smiles and rapid-fire chat. He introduces himself as Matt, and is a bundle of energy in a dark jacket, white shirt and a dark V-neck sweater, white flecks of stubble on his face.

We are meeting because Mad Men is coming to an end. On Sunday, eight years on from the first televised episode, the seventh and final season will air on the AMC cable channel in the US (the last episodes will be broadcast in the UK on Sky Atlantic from Thursday) and a chapter of television history will close.