We see that the man is Doctor Clarkson, who hurries through the house and up the stairs, his medical bag in hand.
2 INT. SYBIL’S BEDROOM. DOWNTON. NIGHT.
Cora is in there, with Mary and Edith, all in dressing gowns, while Doctor Clarkson examines Sybil. He seems confident.
CLARKSON: The pains have stopped. Nothing will happen yet.
They all smile.1
3 INT. BEDROOM PASSAGE. DOWNTON. NIGHT.
Robert, Matthew and Branson are waiting, also in dressing gowns, as the doctor and Cora emerge.
CLARKSON: Everything is fine.
ROBERT: You mean it was a false alarm.
CLARKSON: Not exactly. These early labour pains show that the womb is preparing itself for birth.
Robert looks rather stunned.
CORA: Doctor Clarkson, I’m afraid Lord Grantham doesn’t enjoy medical detail. The point is, can we all go back to bed?
CLARKSON: You can. And so can I.
MARY: I’ll see you out.
ROBERT: Sir Philip Tapsell will be here tomorrow.
CLARKSON: Of course. If you think it advisable.
Clearly, this is a slightly touchy subject. He starts for the stairs with Mary. Branson comes after him.
BRANSON: There really is nothing wrong?
CLARKSON: Nothing at all. She’s a healthy young woman going through a very normal and natural process.
BRANSON: Thank you, Doctor.2
4 INT. SERVANTS’ HALL. DOWNTON. DAY.
The servants are having breakfast, waited on by Ivy.
IVY: I think I’d rather be in a city if I were having a baby. Where they’ve got all the modern inventions.
ANNA: Far away from everyone you know and trust? I don’t think I would.
MRS PATMORE: What are you talking about having babies for, Ivy? I think we can leave that for a little further down the menu, thank you.3
She has arrived in the doorway.
JIMMY: It’s always an idea to be prepared.
THOMAS: I expect you’re always prepared.
JIMMY: I try to be, Mr Barrow.
CARSON: I don’t like the direction this conversation is taking. Could we all begin the day’s tasks, please? And remember, Lady Sybil is in a delicate condition, so no noise on the gallery.4
IVY: It’s exciting, though, isn’t it? To have a baby in the house.
DAISY: It won’t make much difference to you. Now, get back in the kitchen and do as you’re told.
Her tone is harsh. Ivy leaves. She hands Cora’s tray to O’Brien.
O’BRIEN: Well, I think that message got through.
5 INT. CORA’S BEDROOM. DOWNTON. DAY.
Robert, dressed, is talking to Cora, who’s in bed. The door opens and O’Brien appears with the breakfast tray.
ROBERT: We can’t risk her welfare to soothe Clarkson’s feelings.
CORA: I know.
ROBERT: I like the old boy. But he did misdiagnose Matthew, and he did miss the warning signs with Lavinia.
CORA: Thank you, O’Brien.
O’Brien puts her tray on her lap.
CORA (CONT’D): Is that fair? He didn’t want to get Matthew’s hopes up when it wouldn’t make any difference, and with Lavinia, the disease could move like lightning.
ROBERT: I know, I know. But even so.
CORA: And he’s treated Sybil since she was a girl. Sir Philip Tapsell may have delivered many lords and royal highnesses, but he doesn’t know us.
ROBERT: I’ll ask him to include Clarkson in his deliberations. Will that satisfy you?
CORA: I suppose so. Thank you, O’Brien.
We leave the bedroom with the maid.5
6 INT. KITCHEN STAIRS AND PASSAGE. DOWNTON. DAY.
O’Brien is coming downstairs when she sees Jimmy.
O’BRIEN: You look a bit puzzled.
JIMMY: I am. Mr Carson’s asked me to wind the clocks.
O’BRIEN: You must be doing well. In this house that marks you out as First Footman more than anything could.
JIMMY: That’s just it. I said ‘thank you’ and ‘right away’, but I know nothing about clocks. Lady Anstruther’s maid always wound them.
O’BRIEN: You’d better ask Mr Barrow.
JIMMY: Do I have to?
O’BRIEN: He’s the clock expert. He used to wind them, but of course it’s quite wrong for a valet to do it. Or a maid. And Mr Carson’s trying to get back to normal.6
JIMMY: Mr Barrow won’t mind?
O’BRIEN: Oh, no. I can see he likes you and that’s good. Since he’s got the ear of his lordship.
JIMMY: Yes. I suppose he would have.
O’BRIEN: I’d keep in with him if I were you. Let him think you like him back. He could be a big help.
JIMMY: I will. Thank you.
O’BRIEN: Think nothing of it.
7 INT. MARY’S BEDROOM. DOWNTON. DAY.
Anna has brought a breakfast tray for Mary. Matthew is there.
MATTHEW: Of course I’m not going to bother him until after the baby’s born.
MARY: But you are determined to shake things up.
MATTHEW: My darling, you want to stay here until you die, and for our children to live here after us. For that to have a chance of happening, I can’t let the whole thing disintegrate.7
Mary thinks about this. Then she turns to Anna.
MARY: When are you seeing Bates?
ANNA: Three o’clock, m’lady. I’ll be back before you want to change.
MARY: Will you ask why they stopped your visits?
ANNA: I’ll ask Mr Bates. I don’t want to get up the nose of the authorities.8
She smiles and leaves the room. Matthew nods.
MATTHEW: I’m going downstairs. And I swear not to start on Robert.
MARY: Poor Papa. He’s in such a state about Sybil. All fathers hate to think of any man touching their beloved daughters, and when they have a baby it’s a terrible proof that they have been touched.
MATTHEW: A terrible and a wonderful proof.
For a moment, it seems that Matthew is going to speak again.
MARY: What?
MATTHEW: Nothing.9
8 INT. SYBIL’S BEDROOM. DOWNTON. DAY.
Sybil is in bed. Mary is with her. A nurse fusses around.
SYBIL: I’m the size of a house, my back hurts, my ankles are swelling and my head aches. Honestly, I cannot recommend this to anyone.
MARY: I am listening, but of course I’m dying to start one of my own.
SYBIL: So you’re not waiting?
MARY: Waiting for what?
SYBIL: I don’t know. But I did wonder.
The nurse has gone and they are alone.
SYBIL (CONT’D): Mary, you know what I said about the baby being Catholic? I’ve just realised that the christening will have to be here, at Downton.
MARY: Blimey.
SYBIL: I wanted the whole thing done in Dublin, out of sight, out of mind. But we can’t wait for ever, and we can’t not christen it, poor thing.
MARY: You don’t have to do this. It’s your baby, too.
SYBIL: I don’t mind. I mean, I do believe in God, but all the rest of it — vicars, feast days and deadly sins — I don’t care about all that. I don’t know if a vicar knows any more about God than I do. And I love Tom, so very, very much.
The nurse comes back in with a look at Mary.
MARY: I’ll let you rest.
Mary stands.
MARY (CONT’D): And don’t worry. I’ll fight your corner with Travis if it comes to it.
9 INT. LIBRARY. DOWNTON. EVE.
Thomas has his hand on Jimmy’s, as they wind the clock.
THOMAS: There. You feel a slight increase in the resistance?
JIMMY: I think so.
THOMAS: That’s what you’re watching for. Never go past the point where the clock is comfortable.
JIMMY: You make it sound like a living thing.
THOMAS: Clocks are living things. My dad was a clock-maker. I grew up with clock
s. I understand them… Never wind them in the early morning before a room has warmed up, nor too late, when the night air cools them down. Find a time when the family is out of the room.
Throughout this, he lets his hand rest on Jimmy’s shoulder, until Jimmy is uncomfortable, but someone walks into the room and he removes it. The gong sounds.
THOMAS (CONT’D): There we go. Duty calls.10
10 INT. YORK PRISON. VISITING CELL. DAY.
Bates and Anna are with other prisoners and their wives. Officer Durrant is supervising. He watches them.
ANNA: You should have sent a message.
BATES: But I didn’t know. I’ve only just been given all your letters.
ANNA: But I don’t understand. Why was I kept away from you until now?
BATES: It doesn’t matter. Whatever the reason, it’s over. The point is, someone has to question Mrs Bartlett.
ANNA: I still don’t understand.
BATES: You wrote and said she saw Vera on the evening of the day of her death.
ANNA: That’s right. She’d eaten a pudding. She went for a walk. The door was open and she went in.
BATES: And she saw Vera scrubbing pastry from under her nails.
ANNA: I wrote that because it was such a strange detail for her to remember.
BATES: What was she making with pastry?
Anna is bewildered.
BATES (CONT’D): A pie. She was making the pie that she ate that night, when I was on the train back to Downton.
Anna gasps. They stare at each other as the penny drops.
ANNA: So Vera planned this. She meant for you to be imprisoned. She meant you to be hanged. For her suicide. It was her revenge.
BATES: And what a revenge. For both of us.
Anna has a horrible thought.
ANNA: They’ll say you poisoned the milk or the flour or something. To catch her after you’d gone.
BATES: They tested everything in the kitchen. They said it was in the pastry, where I couldn’t have put it.
ANNA: Oh, I hope she’s burning in hell —
BATES: Don’t go down that road. Once you do, there’s no way off it.11
11 INT. HALL. CRAWLEY HOUSE. DAY.
Mrs Bird opens the door to Ethel.
MRS BIRD: You, again.
ETHEL: That’s right, Mrs Bird. I’ve been asked to call on Mrs Crawley.
Mrs Bird nods brusquely towards the drawing room door.
MRS BIRD: She’s in there.
12 INT. DRAWING ROOM. CRAWLEY HOUSE. DAY.
Isobel Crawley is with Ethel.
ETHEL: Oh, I thought there might be news of Charlie… But that’s not why you asked me to come?
ISOBEL: No… I’ve been thinking about you since we last met, and wanted to know how you were living…
ETHEL: I’ve not gone back to… doing what I was doing, if that’s worrying you. I’ve no Charlie to feed, so now if I starve, I starve alone. And I’d rather starve than do that.
ISOBEL: But I know how hard it will be for you to find employment.
ETHEL: They want nothing to do with me. Not when they hear what I am. What I was… And I won’t lie.
ISOBEL: You see, I thought you might work here for a while. Helping Mrs Bird. It would mean that when you moved on you will have had a respectable job, with a respectable reference.
ETHEL: Here?
ISOBEL: Poor Mrs Bird is having to manage everything with one kitchen maid, now Molesley’s gone, and I think she finds it very hard.
ETHEL: Hard or not, she won’t want me.
ISOBEL: Oh, I think she will. When I’ve spoken to her.
ETHEL: Are you sure you’ve thought about this, ma’am? What will Mrs Hughes’s reaction be, or Lady Grantham’s? And old Lady Grantham? Can’t wait to hear what she has to say about it.12
ISOBEL: Don’t you want to come?
ETHEL: It’s not that, ma’am. You’re offering a return to a wholesome world, and I am very, very grateful.
ISOBEL: Well, then.
ETHEL: But I think it’s going to be a lot more complicated than you allow.
ISOBEL: Then we shall have to face those complications together, shan’t we?
13 INT. YORK PRISON. NIGHT.
It is lock-up. The prisoners are going back to their cells.
DURRANT: You look chirpy, Bates. There’s quite a spring in your step.
BATES: Thank you, Mr Durrant.
He enters his cell, together with a new prisoner. It is locked. Durrant sees Craig, who is being shepherded by another warder, and goes to him.
DURRANT: I’ll take it from here.
WARDER: Sir.
DURRANT: Bates seems very cheerful.
CRAIG: Is he? He had a visit from his wife earlier. She must have brought him some good news.
DURRANT: Hardly seems fair, does it? You’ve got an extra year on your sentence, I’ve got a formal reprimand, and Mr Bates, who’s done it all, who’s made all the trouble for us, gets good news. What do you think it is?
CRAIG: Well, she can’t be pregnant. He was arrested a year ago.
DURRANT: Well, she might be. But he wouldn’t be very happy about it.
CRAIG: So what do you want to do?
DURRANT: Ooh, that’ll need some thought. But first, what does this good news consist of? When you shared with him, where did he keep his letters?
14 EXT. FARMYARD. DOWNTON ESTATE. DAY.
This is a ruinous place. The sheds are open to the elements, the machinery weed-clogged and rusting. Matthew is with Mary.
MATTHEW: Quite a few of the cottages have been renovated —
MARY: Thanks to you.
MATTHEW: Maybe a little thanks to me, but many of the farms have been left entirely to their own devices.
He looks around him.
MATTHEW (CONT’D): Coulter hasn’t farmed this properly for twenty years. He struggles to pay the rent, which is too low, anyway. There’s been no investment.
MARY: Papa would say you can’t abandon people just because they grow old.
MATTHEW: I agree. But it would be cheaper to give him a free cottage and work this land as it should be worked.
MARY: I see. And you don’t think Papa understands that?
MATTHEW: Maybe he harks back to a time when money was abundant and there wasn’t much need to keep on top of it. I think he equates being business-like with being mean or, worse, middle class… Like me.
He smiles to show he is not hurt, just frustrated.
MATTHEW (CONT’D): But the middle classes have their virtues, and husbandry is one.13
MARY: We ought to get back. Sir Philip Thingy’s due on the seven o’clock train, and you ought to be there to hold Tom’s hand.
MATTHEW: Poor fellow. He’s so terrified but so thrilled at the same time. As I would be… As I will be.
He gives Mary a slightly nervous smile, and they walk away.
END OF ACT ONE
ACT TWO
15 INT. DINING ROOM. DOWNTON. NIGHT.
The family and Violet are with Sir Philip Tapsell, a very grand specialist from London.
VIOLET: The dear Duchess of Truro is full of your praises, Sir Philip, but then of course you know that.
SIR PHILIP TAPSELL: She had quite a time when she was first married. But I said to her, never fear, Duchess, I’ll get a baby out of you one way or another.
Robert does the nose trick while Carson closes his eyes in disgust.
VIOLET: And so you did.
SIR PHILIP TAPSELL: Three boys and, as a result, a secure dynasty, I am glad to say.
ROBERT: But you see no complications here?
SIR PHILIP TAPSELL: None at all. Lady Sybil is a perfect model of health and beauty.
CORA: We told our local doctor we’d send a message to him when it looks as if the baby’s coming.
MARY: Doctor Clarkson has known us all since we were girls.
SIR PHILIP TAPSELL: Yes. What’s needed here, Lady Mary, is a knowledge of childbirth, nothing more, but if it sooth
es you, then of course he is most welcome.14
16 INT. KITCHEN STAIRS AND PASSAGE. DOWNTON. NIGHT.
Mrs Hughes approaches the stairs, where Thomas talks to Jimmy. The latter is holding a tray of coffee things.
JIMMY: How d’you keep your shoes so clean? Is there a trick to it?
THOMAS: I thought you were going to ask how I keep my nose clean. ’Cos I can show you that an’ all.
He laughs as she draws alongside. Jimmy seems awkward.
MRS HUGHES: Mr Barrow, I hope you’re not keeping James from his duties.
THOMAS: Course not.
He walks away into the servants’ hall. Mrs Hughes hesitates.
MRS HUGHES: You mustn’t let Mr Barrow take up too much of your time, James… Now, get that tray up to Mr Carson.
17 INT. HALL. DOWNTON. NIGHT.
The men come out of the dining room. Anna is lurking in the shadows as Branson starts upstairs.
BRANSON: I’m going to check on Sybil.
ROBERT: Anna?
ANNA: I’m sorry to trouble you, m’lord, but I wondered if I might have a word.
ROBERT: Come into the library. Matthew, will you take Sir Philip to the drawing room.
He walks away with the maid, leaving the other two alone. Sir Philip waits but Matthew does not move.
SIR PHILIP TAPSELL: Shall we go in?
MATTHEW: As a matter of fact, Sir Philip, I was rather hoping to have you to myself for a moment… Do you know that I was injured during the war?
SIR PHILIP TAPSELL: I think I did hear something about it from Lady Grantham.
MATTHEW: My spine was very severely bruised, and for a time it seemed I had lost the use of my legs and… everything else.15
SIR PHILIP TAPSELL: But the bruising reduced and you recovered? Yes, I have heard of this. Well… How relieved you must have been.
MATTHEW: Yes. But I wonder now whether the injury might have affected my… I suppose I mean my ‘fertility’. If it might have limited my chances of fathering a child.
SIR PHILIP TAPSELL: Is everything working as it should?
MATTHEW: Oh, yes.
SIR PHILIP TAPSELL: Then why do you think there may be a problem?
MATTHEW: We are anxious to start a family. But we’ve been married for a few months without any… results.
SIR PHILIP TAPSELL: My dear Mr Crawley, may I point out the word that gives you away? ‘Anxious.’ Anxiety is an enemy to pregnancy. Don’t, whatever you do, feel anxious. Six months is nothing. I know all men spend their youth terrified of making a girl pregnant if they so much as look at her, but I assure you the process is often slow. I can run a test if you wish, but I would urge you not to bother for some time yet.
Downton Abbey, Series 3 Scripts (Official) Page 27