50 A Wilde-ism, so not an original. I have always felt a sort of ownership of Oscar Wilde. His wife, Constance Lloyd, was my grandfather’s cousin, not that I knew this early on. From my boyhood, I was told about the governors of Bombay, the rear admirals and the generals in my family tree, but I was never told that Constance was a cousin, and when I was quite grown up, in my thirties, I was having a drink with a relation and looking at his collection of family portraits. One was of a group of children with their mother and when I asked who they were, he said, ‘This little girl might interest you. She married Oscar Wilde.’ I was absolutely astonished. When I wondered if they had been close, he replied that Constance and my great-grandmother were like sisters. But apparently, once the scandal happened, that was it. Cut off. It gave me such a window on how tough they were. They kept their world going by never bending the rules. There was no such thing as an innocent party when it came to a scandal. After her husband’s arrest, Constance began those sad peripatetic journeys drifting around Europe from spa to spa, because nobody would receive her, until she died at thirty-nine.
51 The one thing people didn’t want was a servant that the other servants detested, because it made for a jangled and unpleasant household. So the impression you were always expected to give as a servant was that everything was going swimmingly, rather like an American today. If you ask an American about their career or their life, everything is always fabulous. They never say, ‘God, I should never have left my last job.’ That would weaken them in their own eyes and therefore (they believe) in yours, and it is, in fact, a mark of great intimacy and a real compliment from an American when they tell you their life’s going to hell. Thomas immediately has to recover from his complaint and blame it all on people liking ‘a little joke’. This gives permission to Robert to go on being angry without having to worry that Thomas is making trouble downstairs.
52 I wanted a fire and I just had to accept that I was never going to be able to have a fire in the main part of the house, because the Carnarvons, the real-life owners, would not conceivably tolerate it. So it had to be in an element of the set that was not at Highclere. We could have a fire in the kitchen because it is a standing set at Ealing Studios. Although, actually, this wouldn’t be the last fire at Downton.
53 Bootlegging had just begun, following on from Prohibition, which became law in the United States in 1920. The English thought Prohibition was mad because it would push the alcohol trade underground, and for Robert to make fun of it would have been completely standard for the period. For us, it was exactly the same as trying to make prostitution illegal, which at certain points in our history has come up. So far, the government of the day has always rejected the measure because a law would push it further underground and encourage the criminal element. But the American Government did not see that, or they persuaded themselves otherwise. In fairness to them, certain states had already outlawed alcoholic drinks and it seemed to work. Kansas had been dry since 1881.
54 My little joke. Because in my head Violet knows, of course, it is Robert.
55 I’d just been working with Lesley Manville on Romeo and Juliet, where she played the Nurse wonderfully, so the name is a tribute to her. We gave the part to Sarah Crowden, daughter of the marvellous Graham Crowden, who is an old friend, and who has raised herself to the honour of Dame Sarah Crowden in our address book.
56 The bright young things, the bright young people. In 1920 they had just begun to appear in the news. Their influence would grow and finally 1926 was proclaimed ‘The Year of the Charleston’, but not before. People tend to think that on 2 January 1920 everyone was doing the Charleston, but of course they weren’t. It was a gradual process of loosening up.
57 Music by Leo Friedman, lyrics by Beth Slater Whitsun and first published in 1910. Much recorded down the years by, among others, Bing Crosby, Bette Midler, Stan Laurel and Ethel Merman.
58 One of the problems for a cook of a household like this is that you always had to be thinking double – you were catering for upstairs and downstairs all the time. And so we try to make that point every so often.
59 I don’t blame Strallan. He’s been more or less forced into this situation by Edith, and suddenly he’s got a lovely life coming with this young and adoring wife instead of being alone and sad. He can’t be expected to fight beyond a certain point.
60 Fast was a Victorian word, normally employed to describe women. It could be used in a variety of ways. You wouldn’t call a prostitute fast. It had to be someone who was more or less respectable but pushing the limit. There was a clear distinction between someone who was fast, and someone who was actually immoral.
61 I like this exchange because I’m always rather amused by these euphemisms, and Americans do go in for their loved ones being ‘taken’ and people ‘passing over’ and all of that stuff, but then so do some of the British. The upper classes never employ these phrases. They just say, ‘She’s dead,’ not ‘She’s left us,’ or anything like it. Violet is the one who gets to make the point.
62 Tom Mix was a popular star throughout the silent-film era. At this point, I now start using film-star names, because films were becoming more of a standard working-class entertainment, and in the end they would take over from music halls. Although, at this period, in the early 1920s, the music halls were still quite busy, while the cinemas were only just becoming so. The Wild West picture show is very much a period term. We refer to the cinema, but we also have ‘kinema’ and ‘the pictures’, but ‘the pictures’ was – and remained – essentially a working-class term. The word ‘movies’ hadn’t begun at all in England; it was completely American, and that was true until the 1970s. All of this was generational, really, and the cinema crept up on the upper classes slowly.
My parents were mad about films, but what was more unusual was that my grandmother loved films, and so my father went to lots of films when he was a little boy. Naturally, my grandmother’s brothers and sisters-in-law thought she was mad. Even in the Thirties (my parents were married in 1935) they took my father’s aunt to a film of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers and she simply couldn’t understand what she was doing there. She said afterwards that she felt as if she had been watching some servants dancing in a Belita competition.
63 A famous nineteenth-century shipwreck off Senegal, the subject of a painting by the French artist, Géricault.
64 When this scene was cut, I must say I was really sad, and so was Gareth Neame. It went for time considerations, like everything else, but it was the only one I really minded about. Carson and Violet are essentially allies. They don’t like the passing of the ordered world. Cora has mixed feelings and Robert, although I think he probably would have been happier if things had stayed the same, is going to make a reasonable effort to try and adjust to the new world, but Violet and Carson are really the Colonel’s lady and Rosie O’Grady when it comes to this stuff – sisters under the skin.
65 We felt at this stage we needed to give Bates a bit more of a prison plot. It wasn’t enough for Anna simply to turn up every so often and ask him what he thought of the show so far. We somehow needed more of a dynamic, and so we introduce the villain Craig and various other elements.
66 We do actually see Shirley MacLaine again – she comes back for the Christmas Special in the fourth series – but when I wrote this I thought it might be her goodbye, and she played it well. So did Hugh Bonneville as Robert explains that he feels like a creature in the wild whose natural habitat is gradually being destroyed. I believe the audience is sympathetic to him here. In a sense, we say goodbye to them nicely, as Nanny always says.
67 Carson is trying to come to terms with the style of the evening’s entertainment as he mourns the changing times, and in an exact parallel, Mrs Hughes is trying to come to terms with the prospect of cancer. In order for there to be an emotional arc that’s interesting, she needs to have her own relationship with her illness. We’ve seen her come through the fear when she can’t speak about it, and now she’s ar
rived at a kind of acceptance of her condition, which seemed a good ending for the episode.
ACT ONE
1 INT. GREAT HALL. DOWNTON. DAY.
The carpet is being taken away. Among the servants, Anna is finishing the flowers and tidying up. Edith walks downstairs, revelling in the preparations, as Violet comes in.
VIOLET: Oh, hello Edith, dear.
EDITH: Hello, Granny. Isn’t it exciting?
VIOLET: At my age, one must ration one’s excitement.
They walk into the drawing room.1
2 INT. DRAWING ROOM. DOWNTON. DAY.
Cora is arranging wedding presents as they enter.
VIOLET: See, I told her everything would come right, but she wouldn’t believe me.
EDITH: I still can’t. Something happening in this house is actually about me. The dress came this morning.2
VIOLET: I was rather sad you decided against Patou. I would have paid.
CORA: Lucile was safer. We don’t want her to look like a chorus girl.3
VIOLET: How’s Anthony? Excited, I hope.
EDITH: Desperately. Just when he thought his life would never change, he’s going right back to the beginning.
VIOLET: Ah. What an invigorating prospect.
She and Cora exchange a brief glance.
3 INT. SERVANTS’ HALL. DOWNTON. DAY.
Anna comes in, carrying her coat. Thomas walks down the hall, with O’Brien and Alfred behind.
O’BRIEN: I hope you’ve got your shirt ready for tonight.
THOMAS: In case you’re interested, I’ve hidden a couple, so I won’t be caught out that way again.
O’BRIEN: Why should I be interested?
THOMAS: That goes for you, too.
ALFRED: What have I done?
O’BRIEN: Take no notice.
They pass Anna in the hall.
MRS HUGHES (V.O.): Anna, are the flowers done?
ANNA: Yes. I’ll check them on Saturday morning and lose anything that’s going over. I’ve kept back a few in bud.
MRS HUGHES: So, are you away now?
ANNA: I’ll be home for the dressing gong.
MRS HUGHES: Oh, we’ll manage.
Anna leaves as Mrs Patmore arrives. Mrs Patmore talks in a low voice to Mrs Hughes.
MRS PATMORE: Still no word from the doctor?
MRS HUGHES: I’d have told you if there was.
MRS PATMORE: By heck, they don’t mind stringing it out. Shall we go and see him?
MRS HUGHES: Why? I’m sure if he knew anything, he would have said.
Unbeknownst to them, Carson has heard all this.
4 INT. OLD DAY NURSERY. DOWNTON. DAY.
This was a nursery, but it has not been used for years. There is a fireguard and a rocking horse, etc. Mary is with Sybil.
SYBIL: I haven’t been in here for years.
MARY: Nor me. But we can talk without being interrupted every two seconds. What did you want to say?
SYBIL: Tom wants the baby to be Catholic.
MARY: Golly. Can we please not tell Papa until after Edith’s wedding?
Which makes them both laugh a little.
MARY (CONT’D): Will you mind?
SYBIL: I don’t think so. Anyway, I’ve got worse than that to contend with… Tom’s getting deeper and deeper into the resistance to the Treaty.
MARY: But won’t it recognise an Irish free state?
SYBIL: Yes. But it divides the country and accepts the Crown —
MARY: Surely it’s a start.
SYBIL: I agree, but Tom doesn’t.
MARY: Remember what Talleyrand said: Surtout, pas trop de zèle.
SYBIL: Don’t tell me, tell him.4
5 INT. BEDROOM PASSAGE. DOWNTON. DAY.
Thomas comes out of a door and sees Molesley.
THOMAS: How are you today, Mr Molesley?
Molesley is puzzled by such friendliness and drops a jacket that he was carrying on the floor. Thomas picks it up for him.
MOLESLEY: Er… very well, thank you.
THOMAS: You were talking the other night about your friend’s daughter. Is she still looking for a place?
MOLESLEY: She is. You read about the servant shortage in the newspapers, but she can’t find a situation for a lady’s maid. Not one. She’ll end up as a housemaid if she’s not careful.
THOMAS: Oh, we can’t have that, Mr Molesley. But if I were to tell you something, you must promise not to breathe a word of it downstairs. Miss O’Brien doesn’t want it known.
6 INT. VISITING ROOM. YORK PRISON. DAY.
Anna is with Bates.
ANNA: I’m going to London tomorrow.
BATES: Wouldn’t she have answered your letter if she had anything to say?
ANNA: On the contrary. I think if she had nothing to tell me, she’d have written and said so.
BATES: Maybe. So what else is happening?
ANNA: Lady Edith’s wedding, mainly. Lady Sybil’s back. And Mr Branson.
BATES: Is it funny having him upstairs?
ANNA: To be honest, I think he finds it more awkward than we do.
BATES: Has Mr Carson relented?
ANNA: I don’t think Mr Carson’s very big on relenting.
Which makes them both laugh.
7 INT. LIBRARY. DOWNTON. DAY.
Robert is with Cora, Matthew and Branson.
CORA: How will they advertise it?
ROBERT: I don’t know exactly. ‘Desirable nobleman’s mansion with surrounding estate and properties.’
BRANSON: Where will you go?
ROBERT: We have some land further north, at Eryholme on the border with Durham. It came with my great-grandmother. The house is pretty, and we might make something of it. We could always rename it Downton Place.5
MATTHEW: Who lives there now?
ROBERT: A tenant, but we can come to an arrangement that keeps him happy.
CORA: Let’s take a picnic there tomorrow. Take a break from the wedding on Edith’s last day of freedom.
The door opens. Mary and Sybil enter.
MARY: Molesley’s in the hall. He wonders if he might have a word.
MATTHEW: I’ll come through in a minute.
MARY: Not with you, with Mama.
This is mysterious.
MARY: Molesley.
Molesley appears.
MOLESLEY: Your ladyship, may I have a word?
CORA: Of course.
MOLESLEY: M’lady, might I be allowed to put forward a candidate, as Miss O’Brien’s replacement?
CORA: What?
MOLESLEY: When the time comes?
ROBERT: Is O’Brien leaving?
MOLESLEY: I hope I’ve not spoken out of turn. Only I didn’t want to let it go and miss the chance. I thought you knew.6
CORA: Of course I know. Thank you, Molesley. I will be happy to listen to recommendations when, as you say, the time comes.
MOLESLEY: Thank you, m’lady.
He goes. They are all rather stunned.
ROBERT: Well, I must confess, I will watch her departure with mixed emotions.
MARY: Mine are fairly unmixed.
SYBIL: Did you have a clue?
CORA: Not a clue. How very disappointing.
ROBERT: But in a way, it raises the big question: when do we tell the staff that the end is nigh?
MARY: It makes it sound so final.
ROBERT: I’m afraid it is final.
MARY: Well, don’t spoil Edith’s day. Let us get through the wedding first, and then tell them afterwards.
8 EXT. HOSPITAL. DOWNTON VILLAGE. DAY.
Clarkson comes out, carrying his bag. Carson is waiting.
CARSON: Oh, Doctor Clarkson? Do you have a minute?
CLARKSON: Er, one minute, yes. Do you mind if we —?
CARSON: Only, I know Mrs Hughes is suffering from a condition and I wondered if there was anything I can do to help.
CLARKSON: You can help by lessening her duties. That’s really all I can say.
CARSON: But you can’t
tell me how serious it is?
CLARKSON: I’m afraid not. Even if I knew, which I don’t… yet. Good day to you, Mr Carson.
This, of course, conveys more information than he wished to.
9 INT. MARY’S BEDROOM. DOWNTON. EVE.
Mary is being dressed by Anna, while Matthew sits on the bed.
MARY: And it can’t wait until after the wedding?
Anna says nothing. Mary relents.
MARY (CONT’D): I’m sorry. Of course you must go.
ANNA: Thank you, m’lady… Right. I think that’s everything.
As Mary thanks her, Anna picks up some washing, and leaves.
MARY: Shall we go down?
MATTHEW: I had a telephone call from Charkham earlier.
MARY: Charkham?7
MATTHEW: Reggie Swire’s lawyer. It seems the death certificate has arrived from India. He wants to bring it here.
MARY: Well, can’t he send it?
MATTHEW: He wants to bring it. He was quite definite. I’ve told him he can come tomorrow. There’s nothing going on particularly, is there?
MARY: You know there is. We’re taking a picnic to Eryholme to see the house we have to move into. I’m surprised you of all people can forget that.
Matthew sighs but chooses not to rise to the bait.
MATTHEW: Well, he’s coming in the morning. I won’t put him off.
MARY: So this is the moment when you receive a huge fortune that could save Downton, and you give it away.
MATTHEW: Will you choose where to give it?
MARY: How can I? I’d give it all to Papa.
MATTHEW: My darling, I hope, in some small part of you, you can understand.
MARY: I’m trying. Really, I am. But I can’t pretend I’m doing very well.
10 INT. CORA’S BEDROOM. DOWNTON. EVE.
Downton Abbey, Series 3 Scripts (Official) Page 15