Downton Abbey, Series 3 Scripts (Official)

by Julian Fellowes

  43 I’ve made it quite clear that there are strings, namely that Mason sees her as taking over the farm. If she wants a different future, then in a way she is morally bound to tell him, so that he has the option of not making her his heir. That will be a spike that she is on, but much later.

  44 This was inspired by my grandmother. She was not a very progressive, nor indeed particularly intelligent, woman, but she decided her daughters should learn how to cook. They had a cook then called Carrie and she agreed to give cooking lessons to the three girls. So they all trooped down to the kitchen and solemnly learned how to make pastry or whatever. My grandmother’s friends found out about it and thought it was a ridiculous idea. They argued that it made extra work for Carrie and, if it caught on, it would threaten people who needed the work. Obviously, as things turned out, the fact that they had learned how to cook – although not, in my mother’s case, particularly well – would be a saving grace after the war.

  45 I was sorry we lost the line about Bates having a killer’s instinct, as I always like to keep a slight question mark hovering in the air above Bates’s head. Bates is not above using his aura that he’s capable of anything. I don’t think it’s a statement of truth when he says that he is a killer, but even I am not sure, and I wrote it. I suspect he was a ruthless killer in the Boer War, for instance.

  46 Mrs Hughes says kinder, Carson says weaker and less disciplined. Again, that’s a Downton moment, because we agree with both of them.

  47 We often have these moments where Carson and Mrs Hughes recognise each other’s rights in the pecking order. Mrs Hughes may be trendier and more informal, but she knows how the system works, and she’s certainly prepared to tell Carson. She tells him off earlier for dressing down Mrs Patmore. And here Carson knows he cannot forbid her to go to the house. She is not under his authority in that sense. But, of course, he doesn’t mind showing his displeasure.

  48 I think it is important in a family drama to contrive moments where only two members of the family are present, because once you have more than two of them there, the quality of intimacy changes; most people don’t, on the whole, confide in a group. But also Mary is, in a sense, Robert’s eldest son. He has invested her with that. And he doesn’t mind revealing himself to her as having been disappointed in his own behavior, which he probably wouldn’t say to Edith. We also have a little remembrance of Sybil. It always annoys me in a drama when characters leave and nobody ever talks about them again. It’s as if the earth has swallowed them. I always make a point of their referring to Sybil every so often, or later to Matthew, just to make sure that we can’t be accused of that.

  49 The bonding of the young ones becomes one of the themes in the following series. I was sorry this went.

  50 Mrs Patmore’s demand that Ivy washes off the rouge is unfair, because by the early 1920s, as I have said, great ladies were beginning to wear lipstick that was quite clearly lipstick, and not a slightly pink balm, but this moment was inspired by an incident in The Edwardians, by Vita Sackville-West, when they look out at the servants walking to church across the park, and one of the maids is wearing a flower in her hat. She will be dismissed for this piece of frivolousness, when the hostess and her friend, Lady Roehampton, are both sleeping with their lovers under the same roof and the bedrooms have been arranged to make this easy. Vita Sackville-West is commenting on the disparity between the morals expected of the working class and the morals lived by the upper class. Here, this exchange can be seen as a similar case.

  51 All of us, or all of us when young, have found this situation difficult at some point. You hesitate to object because you’re not quite sure that they are making a pass, yet it feels inappropriate and so you’re stuck. When you’re older, you just chuck their hand off your knee, but when you’re young and people are standing slightly too close, it is very uncomfortable. We hear so much about inappropriate behaviour in the office now, but in my youth it was very difficult for a young woman to object to a man leaning over her when she was copying or pressing into her in a queue, because then he’d say, ‘Ooh, pardon me for living,’ and the woman would be made to feel a fool. For me, a straight pass – ‘Would you like to come out for dinner and sleep with me?’ – is infinitely preferable to a hand slithering down the side of your leg. But Jimmy is on to him by now. O’Brien, of course, is trying to encourage Thomas to cross the line, which she will use.

  52 Alfred’s desire to get Daisy to teach him the foxtrot is rather shameful. We should feel that he is wrong in the way he is using her affection for him. And it reminds us of the last time Daisy was dancing with a man she was in love with who wasn’t in love with her, when she did the grizzly bear with Thomas in Season One. So she has a hard time of it.

  53 I was sad we lost this, but the plot seems to have survived its excision. O’Brien is going in for the kill here by talking of Jimmy’s crush on Thomas. She knows exactly what she’s doing.

  54 We know how Murray has got the statement and it wasn’t very pretty. I like those moments in a narrative drama where the audience knows something that the characters don’t. Mrs Bartlett has been frightened to death by Craig and others from the prison, but Anna, Mary, Matthew and Robert just think it’s Murray’s being cleverly persuasive.

  55 Ethel is taking the bull by the horns. By coming to the house with flowers, she is fighting back from the humiliation that Robert has put her through. I don’t think we should see her as an innocent victim of Carson’s bullying, though. She is strong in her way and she has decided to take him on. In fact, Carson is the one who loses.

  56 Alfred behaves badly in that he doesn’t say, ‘It was me, I was dancing with her, and he was just trying to show us a step.’ I quite like, every now and then, to make an essentially ungenerous or unpleasant character, like Thomas or O’Brien, do someone a good turn. Similarly I think it’s good to have a sympathetic character do something wrong, like here, where Alfred is nervous of Carson and doesn’t want to forfeit his good opinion. That’s life.

  57 I thought they all played this scene fantastically well, and, for me, it is one of the best in the whole show. Clarkson has been induced by Violet to say that his suggested treatment would have made no difference. At least, he can’t quite say it, because he can’t bring himself to, but he reduces the chance to an infinitesimal one, in accordance with Violet’s instruction, thereby allowing Cora and Robert to be reunited. So Violet has her way. Of course, what Violet really wanted Clarkson to say is that he was completely wrong, that he read the wrong book, that Sybil didn’t have a chance and Tapsell was correct. But the Doctor is not prepared to do that, even for her. He wraps it up in as much lace and tinfoil as he can, but he’s not quite prepared to say he was wrong. Which is the truth. It wasn’t a big chance, it was a small chance, but it was a chance, whereas Tapsell’s refusal to accept the symptoms meant there was no chance at all.

  ACT ONE

  1 INT. YORK PRISON. DAWN.

  A warder opens a locked door and Bates, in hat and coat, walks through.

  1A EXT. YORK PRISON. DAWN.

  A car pulls up. Anna is sitting in the back.

  1B EXT. MAIN GATE. YORK PRISON. DAWN.

  Bates walks towards the main gate, which is opened for him.

  1C EXT. YORK PRISON. DAWN.

  Anna sits in the car with a chauffeur waiting in the cold, early light. At last a small door, set into the great wooden gate, opens and Bates emerges. Anna hurries out of the car. For a moment they stare at each other, and then Anna runs forward and they embrace.1

  ANNA: Thank God.

  BATES: Yes. Thank God. And you.

  They kiss.

  1D EXT. DOWNTON. DAY.

  Bates and Anna are in the car, approaching Downton.

  2 INT. SERVANTS’ HALL/PASSAGE. DOWNTON. DAY.

  The servants are all having breakfast.

  ALFRED: How do we speak to him?

  MRS HUGHES: Normally. How do you think you speak to him?

  JIMMY: But what about p
rison, or do we pretend it’s never happened?

  BATES: I don’t think that’ll be necessary.

  He is standing there with Anna. Everyone crowds round.

  CARSON: Welcome back, Mr Bates. I have waited a long time to say that.

  BATES: Thank you, Mr Carson.

  MRS HUGHES: Too long. Now come and sit down.

  MOLESLEY: Give us yer coat.

  MRS HUGHES: Mrs Patmore, can you find something for Mr Bates to eat?

  MRS PATMORE: I certainly can. Daisy! Ivy! Stir your stumps and get some breakfast for our returning hero!

  ANNA: Can’t I have some?

  BATES: Who’s Ivy?

  ANNA: The new kitchen maid.

  Bates sees Thomas standing there.

  BATES: Thomas. Still here, I see.2

  THOMAS: Mr Barrow, now, Mr Bates. And yes, I’m still here. And busy as a bee.

  CARSON: There have been some changes since… since you’ve been away. You will have heard about Lady Sybil.

  BATES: Yes, I’ve heard. Anna took a letter from me to her ladyship.

  MRS PATMORE: There we are.

  She puts some food before Bates.

  BATES: Thank you, Mrs Patmore.

  MOLESLEY: Can we all have one of those?

  They all laugh.

  DAISY: Welcome back, Mr Bates.

  BATES: Thank you, Daisy.

  We hear Carson introduce the new faces as Anna walks into the passage and removes her coat to hang it. Mrs Hughes follows.

  MRS HUGHES: Anna, we’ve always skirted round the subject, but I hope Mr Bates knows how very sorry I was. To be used in that way at the trial.

  ANNA: To be quite honest, Mrs Hughes, he forgave you long before I did. He knew you only said what was true.

  MRS HUGHES: Even so, to see justice done at last takes a weight from my mind.

  3 INT. DINING ROOM. DOWNTON. DAY.

  Robert, Matthew, Branson and Edith are having breakfast. Robert feeds Isis while Edith is reading a letter.

  MATTHEW: Something nice?

  EDITH: The editor’s written back, repeating his offer.

  ROBERT: He knows he’s on to a good thing.

  EDITH: He wants to meet me. He asks if I’m ever in London.

  MATTHEW: Why not? You could see Rosamund and buy some new clothes.

  ROBERT: He only wants to persuade you to write for his horrible paper.

  EDITH: Still, I think I will go. It seems rude not to, in a way, and I haven’t been to London for ages. Excuse me.

  She stands and leaves. Robert looks at Matthew.

  ROBERT: Please don’t encourage her.

  MATTHEW: But I think it’s a good idea.

  Robert clearly does not agree. He also stands.

  ROBERT: I gather you’ve trapped poor old Jarvis into a meeting.

  MATTHEW: It won’t take long. But he is the agent and there are things we must get started on, if you agree.

  ROBERT: Oh, I’m glad you still think my agreement has a part to play.

  He leaves. Branson looks at Matthew.

  BRANSON: Are you sure you wouldn’t rather just cut and run, like me?

  4 INT. HALL. DOWNTON. DAY.

  Followed by Isis, Robert is walking away from the dining room when he sees Bates waiting by the staircase.

  ROBERT: Bates! My dear fellow! I didn’t know you were here already!

  BATES: They let you out at dawn. Thank you for sending Anna in the car.

  ROBERT: Nonsense. Where have they put you?

  BATES: In my old room, m’lord.

  ROBERT: Well, that won’t do. I’ll ask Jarvis how far they’ve got with finding a cottage.3

  BATES: Thank you… About Thomas —

  ROBERT: He’s called Barrow, these days.

  BATES: Yes. He would be.

  ROBERT: I’ll sort it out, Bates. I promise. But in the meantime, you just rest. Stay in bed, read books.

  BATES: If you’re to pay me a wage, I have to make myself useful.

  ROBERT: For now, just enjoy being free. Heaven knows you deserve it.

  Robert leaves, with Isis in tow.

  4A EXT. CRAWLEY HOUSE. DAY.

  A car pulls up, and Ethel, who is picking herbs from the garden, runs inside.

  5 INT. DRAWING ROOM. CRAWLEY HOUSE. DAY.

  Isobel is with Violet.

  ISOBEL: But you didn’t walk out of my luncheon when Robert asked you to.

  VIOLET: Well, that luncheon was to support Cora in her grief. It did not seem appropriate to let the whole thing end in chaos and a quarrel.

  ISOBEL: So you don’t think I should have given Ethel a second chance?

  VIOLET: I do not criticise your motives, but did you really consider? Ethel is notorious in the village.

  ISOBEL: I don’t think so.

  VIOLET: I know so. You have surrounded this house with a miasma of scandal, and touched all of us by association.

  ISOBEL: I think one must fight for one’s beliefs.

  VIOLET: And is poor Ethel to be the cudgel by which you fight your foes?

  The door opens. Ethel appears with a tray of coffee things.

  ISOBEL: Ah, Ethel.

  Isobel gets up to close the door behind Ethel.

  ISOBEL (CONT’D): I was telling Lady Grantham how your cooking has come on.

  ETHEL: I’m studying, m’lady. These days, a working woman must have a skill.

  VIOLET: But you seem to have so many.4

  6 EXT. GARDENS. DOWNTON. DAY.

  Robert is walking with Cora.

  CORA: I don’t see how you can just sack him. He’s done nothing wrong.

  ROBERT: He can’t have expected to stay my valet once Bates was released.

  CORA: Ask Carson. He’ll have some ideas.

  In the distance a nurse is wheeling a perambulator.

  CORA: Poor little girl.

  ROBERT: Has Branson said anything more about moving out?

  CORA: How can he move out before he’s found a job? How can you want him to? He’s our responsibility now, Robert, he and the baby. We owe that to Sybil.

  But he does not answer and instead looks away.

  ROBERT: I must get on. I’ve got this meeting with Jarvis and Matthew.

  7 INT. SERVANTS’ HALL. DOWNTON. DAY.

  Bates and Anna are there, along with Thomas and some of the others. Anna cleans a gold fringe, while Ivy lays the table.

  ANNA: Stop fidgeting.

  BATES: Give me that cloth.

  She does. He starts to help sponging and shining the fringe.

  THOMAS: You got any plans, Mr Bates?

  BATES: It’s rather early to say. His lordship suggested I have a rest.

  MOLESLEY: I expect you’ll be looking for something to do, Mr Barrow. Now that Mr Bates is back.

  He has only voiced the thoughts of everyone in the room.

  THOMAS: I wouldn’t be too sure about that.

  ALFRED: They’re showing a film tonight in the village hall. Way Down East. It’s about a wronged woman who survives in the wilderness, through her own wits and courage.

  O’BRIEN: Blimey. They’ve stolen my story.

  ALFRED: Lillian Gish is in it.

  IVY: I like her.

  ALFRED: There’s a late showing tonight, half past ten, for local servants. What about it?

  Ivy is quite interested, in spite of herself.

  IVY: Will you come with us?

  JIMMY: I haven’t got a ticket.

  IVY: You could get one.

  JIMMY: Sounds a bit soppy, to be honest.

  IVY: Well, I’m not going with Alfred on my own. My mum wouldn’t like it.

  MRS HUGHES: She would not, and nor would I. You may go if Madge or Alice go with you. But not otherwise.

  Alfred looks over to the maids. Two of them smile and nod.

  IVY: All right. If Mrs Patmore agrees. Straight there and back, mind.

  Alfred is thrilled, Jimmy snorts with derision.5

  8 INT. LIBRARY. DOWNTON. DAY.

  Rob
ert, Matthew and an elderly man, Jarvis, are standing over some plans on the table.

  JARVIS: This means the overhaul of every part of the estate we hold in hand, and some large new parcels in addition. All in an instant.

  MATTHEW: But don’t you see? If we invest in new machinery, new methods and new techniques, the whole estate must benefit by it. And as for taking new lands in hand, we won’t be running it as separate farms. We’ll find another use for some of the farmhouses —

  ROBERT: This is ridiculous! Downton has existed for hundreds of years in perfect harmony. We have worked with the farmers as partners. Now you want to blow it all to smithereens —

  MATTHEW: Of course I don’t, but —

  JARVIS: If I may, my lord. Mr Crawley, you are very new to our way of life here —

  MATTHEW: I beg your pardon!

  ROBERT: There’s no point biting Jarvis’s head off, you are new to it.

  MATTHEW: Must I remind you of the state the place was in a few months ago?

  ROBERT: That was nothing to do with the way we run it! The money was lost in a bad investment.

  MATTHEW: Yes. And you’ve been bailing the place out with Cora’s fortune. You have been for years. Downton must be self-supporting if it’s to have a chance of survival!

  His voice has been raised and, as he stops, they all three realise this and become embarrassed.

  ROBERT: Well. You’ve given us plenty to think about. Hasn’t he, Mr Jarvis?