Downton Abbey, Series 3 Scripts (Official)

by Julian Fellowes

  90 INT. SERVANTS’ HALL/KITCHEN PASSAGE. DOWNTON. NIGHT.

  Carson is in a frenzy. Mrs Hughes and the others are there.

  CARSON: Right. All change. The whole family is coming back tomorrow. And we must be ready to receive them.

  DAISY: Is it because Lady Mary’s in the hospital?

  CARSON: It is.

  DAISY: Does that mean she’s in danger?

  CARSON: No! It doesn’t mean any such thing!

  He storms out. Mrs Hughes takes over.

  MRS HUGHES: Lady Mary will be perfectly fine, but we have to make allowances.

  She walks out into the passage. Edna is there with her case.

  MRS HUGHES (CONT’D): Now, do you have everything?

  EDNA: But what have I done wrong? I’m as good as Mr Branson and there was nothing improper, nothing at all.

  MRS HUGHES: I’m sure. But there are rules to this way of life, Edna. And if you’re not prepared to live by them, then it’s not the right life for you.

  Edna picks up her bags and leaves.

  91 INT. CORA’S BEDROOM. DUNEAGLE CASTLE. DAY.

  Cora and O’Brien are packing.

  O’BRIEN: I’ll leave this case open to finish off tomorrow, and I’ll tell them to come for the others now.

  As she goes out, she passes Robert.

  ROBERT: It’s organised. We’ve got tickets for the first train in the morning. There isn’t one before then.

  CORA: I just wish I was there with her.

  He watches her for a moment.

  ROBERT: Shrimpie’s so happy you’ve taken pity on Rose. Thank you.

  CORA: It was different when Susan asked me. But Rose won’t replace Sybil.

  ROBERT: Of course not. No one will.

  CORA: Because that’s what your mother believes.

  By way of answer, he takes her hand and kisses it.

  ROBERT: I can’t wait to get home.

  CORA: Aren’t you enjoying your Victorian idyll any longer?

  ROBERT: I’m glad I was jealous of Shrimpie. It’s made me realise what a fool I’ve been. Downton will survive because of Matthew’s vision.

  CORA: I’m so pleased to hear you say it.

  ROBERT: You always knew how lucky we are in Matthew, and now I give thanks for him. As I give thanks for my home and my family, and most of all I give thanks for my wife.

  He takes her into his arms and kisses her.

  92 EXT. DUNEAGLE CASTLE. DAY.

  A new day. Violet, Robert, Edith, Rose and Matthew are joined by Bates, O’Brien and Molesley, with luggage stowed into cars and onto the wagonette. Shrimpie, Susan and Cora stand by.

  SHRIMPIE: Send us the news as soon as you know it. And thank you for taking in Rose.

  SUSAN: We’ll make firm plans as soon as we know when we’re leaving.

  CORA: I’m glad to have her now I know it’s what you both want.

  Cora walks towards the car, but Shrimpie follows her.

  SHRIMPIE: What I want is for her to know that family can be a loving thing.

  CORA: We’ll do our best.

  SHRIMPIE: Love is like riding or speaking French. If you don’t learn it young, it’s hard to get the trick of it later.

  CORA: Well said, Shrimpie. And good luck.

  She smiles and joins Robert and Violet by a waiting car.

  VIOLET: You’ve taken such a weight off their minds, my dear.

  CORA: But you’re wrong, Mama. She won’t help me get over Sybil. For the simple reason I don’t want her to.

  She climbs into the car. Violet turns to Robert.

  VIOLET: Why does Cora always think I have an ulterior motive?

  ROBERT: Because she knows you.

  Edith is with Matthew.

  EDITH: What did you tell Mary about Michael Gregson?

  MATTHEW: Nothing. But I hope he made it clear what has to happen.

  EDITH: Oh, yes. We both know what happens next.

  They climb in, too. Rose runs up to Robert.

  ROSE: I’ll see you at Downton very soon. And thank you both so much.

  ROBERT: We look forward to it. Are we all ready, Bates?

  BATES: We are, m’lord.

  As the servants climb aboard the wagonette, Susan catches O’Brien’s eye and nods. O’Brien nods back. The procession of vehicles heads off.82

  93 INT. SERVANTS’ PASSAGE. DOWNTON. DAY.

  Carson is there. Anna is with him, in her coat.

  ANNA: Mr Carson? I’m going down to the hospital. I think I have what she needs.

  CARSON: If there’s anything else, anything at all, just telephone.

  ANNA: According to the doctor, there’s nothing to worry about.

  CARSON: Well, of course I worry. After Lady Sybil how could I not worry? Now, should I meet the others off the train?

  ANNA: Get Mr Matthew’s car taken to the station and have the others brought here. Mr Matthew can drive himself to the hospital and come back with the news when he’s ready.83

  CARSON: Yes. Good, good. Very good. And Anna, thank you.

  He is so grateful that someone is thinking straight.

  94 INT. DOWNTON HOSPITAL/HOSPITAL PASSAGE. DAY.

  Mary sits up on her bed, looking troubled. A nurse pats her back and leaves. Clarkson and Isobel are in the passage.

  CLARKSON: Would you help to prepare, while I make sure everything’s ready?

  Isobel moves towards the door.

  CLARKSON (CONT’D): Erm… You saved me from making a fool of myself at the fair. I’m afraid I’d had too much to drink.

  ISOBEL: I don’t know what you mean.

  CLARKSON: Well, I think you do. And thank you.

  Isobel smiles and goes in to find Mary in bed.

  MARY: I wish Matthew were here. It’s funny. I feel as if I’m only half myself without him.

  ISOBEL: He’ll be on the train by now. And you won’t want him in the room till it’s all over. You can trust me.

  MARY: It’s so strange. I must have known something, or why did I sense that I had to get home?

  Mary has another spasm.

  MARY: Oh!

  Isobel strokes her hand.

  ISOBEL: It won’t be long now.

  MARY: We must ring Carson. He’ll be in such a state.

  ISOBEL: I will.

  MARY: I shouldn’t have gone up North. All that bumping around in those carts. How could I be so stupid?

  ISOBEL: My dear, the baby will be perfectly well. Slightly early, but not very. We’ll have to take a little extra care, that’s all.

  There is a knock. She looks up to see Clarkson in the doorway. He nods.

  95 INT. THOMAS’S ROOM. DOWNTON. DAY.

  Thomas, black and blue, is in bed. Jimmy knocks and enters. For a moment they stare at each other.

  THOMAS: What are you doing up here?

  JIMMY: I just wanted to make sure there wasn’t too much harm done.

  THOMAS: Well, there was enough harm done.

  He laughs rather painfully, and winces.

  JIMMY: You were brave, Mr Barrow. Very brave. I feel badly. I… I shouldn’t have run off.

  THOMAS: No, you should have. Otherwise, what was I bloody doing it for?

  JIMMY: Were you following me?

  THOMAS: I like to keep an eye out… I could see you’d had a bit to drink and so… Yes, yes, I did follow you.

  JIMMY: Why?

  THOMAS: You know why.

  Now they have come to the nub of it. Jimmy pulls up a chair.

  JIMMY: I can never give you what you want.

  THOMAS: I understand that. I do. And I don’t ask for it. But I’d like it if we could be friends.

  This is both a surprise and a relief to Jimmy.

  JIMMY: Right you are, Mr Barrow. If that’s all, I think I could manage that.

  THOMAS: Thank you, Jimmy. Thank you. Now make yourself useful…

  Thomas hands him the paper to read to him, and they chat warmly.84

  95A INT. HALL. DOWNTON. DAY.

  Carson
is on the telephone.

  CARSON: Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you very much indeed.

  He hangs up and looks overwhelmed.

  96 INT. MRS HUGHES’S SITTING ROOM. DOWNTON. DAY.

  Mrs Hughes is with Mrs Patmore when Carson looks in.

  CARSON: That was Mrs Crawley. It’s over. Lady Mary’s very tired but she’s come through it. They both have.

  MRS PATMORE: Thank the Lord.

  MRS HUGHES: And what about the baby?

  CARSON: What about it?

  MRS HUGHES: What sex is it?

  CARSON: I never thought to ask.

  He ducks away and hurries off.

  MRS PATMORE: Men.

  97 INT. DOWNTON HOSPITAL. DAY.

  Mary holds the baby.

  MATTHEW: Can this hot and dusty traveller come in?

  Anna leaves as Matthew sits on the bed.

  MARY: Say hello to your son and heir.

  He takes the baby.

  MATTHEW: Hello, my dearest little chap… I wonder if he has any idea how much joy he brings with him?

  He takes his wife gently by the shoulders.

  MATTHEW (CONT’D): My darling, how are you? Really?

  MARY: Tired. And pretty relieved. But just think. We’ve done our duty. Downton is safe. Papa must be dancing a jig.

  MATTHEW: I’m dancing a jig. I feel like I’ve swallowed a box of fireworks.

  She strokes his hair, as he looks at her in wonder.

  MATTHEW (CONT’D): You are going to be such a wonderful mother.

  MARY: How do you know?

  MATTHEW: Because… Because you’re such a wonderful woman.

  MARY: I hope I’m allowed to be your Mary Crawley for all eternity, and not Edith’s version, or anyone else’s for that matter.

  MATTHEW: You’ll be my Mary, always, because mine is the true Mary. Do you ever wonder how happy you’ve made me?

  MARY: You sound rather foreign. Shouldn’t you be saying things like, ‘You’ll be up and about in no time’?

  MATTHEW: I’ll do all that tomorrow, but right now I want to tell you that I fall more in love with you every day that passes.

  MARY: I’ll remind you of that next time I scratch the car.

  MATTHEW: Do. I give you full permission.

  MARY: Where are the others?

  MATTHEW: Back at the house, panting to see you — to see you both — but I’ve sent Mother to keep them at bay. I wanted the chance to be alone with my family.

  MARY: You’d better go and tell them I’m still alive. But first, I think I’ve earned a decent kiss.

  MATTHEW: You certainly, certainly have.

  They kiss.85

  98 INT. DRAWING ROOM. DOWNTON. DAY.

  Edith is with Branson. They are chatting. Branson has Sybbie in his arms.

  EDITH: First Sybbie, now her little cousin. It’s rather wonderful the ways that families just keep unrolling.

  BRANSON: But did you have a good time?

  EDITH: I did. Very good, in a way. How about you?

  BRANSON: I’ve been on a bit of a learning curve, as it happens.

  EDITH: Me, too. And it isn’t over yet.86

  Isobel is talking to Robert.

  ISOBEL: These things are always rather nerve-racking. But all’s well that ends well, and it won’t be long before you’ll be able to say hello to your very own grandson.

  ROBERT: My grandson? Oh, my dear, how sweet and miraculous that sounds!

  CORA: Our grandson. And, yes, it does sound miraculous.

  99 EXT. COUNTRY ROAD. DAY.

  Matthew, as happy as a man can be, drives along at a lick.

  100 INT. DRAWING ROOM. DOWNTON. DAY.

  ROBERT: Life is strange, isn’t it?

  VIOLET: In so many different ways.

  ROBERT: No, I mean, I think of all the uncertainty between Matthew and Mary, or when the money was lost, and everything was so dark.

  100A EXT. COUNTRY ROAD. DAY

  Matthew continues driving at speed.

  ROBERT (CONT’D: V.O.): Yet now, here we are, with two healthy heirs…

  Matthew hums a tune as he drives over the hill and taps his hands on his steering wheel in time, looking to the heavens. A huge lorry, also travelling at speed, is coming the other way.87

  ROBERT (CONT’D: V.O.): … an estate in good order, and I wonder what I’ve done to deserve it.

  The lorry seems to fill the road ahead.

  100B INT. DRAWING ROOM. DOWNTON. DAY.

  VIOLET: I agree. But then we don’t always get our just deserts.

  101 EXT. A COUNTRY LANE. DAY.

  Skid marks on the road lead to a row of broken sycamores and the overturned wreck of the roadster. The driver, badly shaken, gets out of the cab and runs towards the crashed car. He stops at the sight of Matthew lying, broken and bleeding, under the vehicle. He is quite, quite dead.88

  102 INT. DOWNTON HOSPITAL. DAY.

  Mary sits, in a pretty bed jacket, holding the baby, flowers beside her. Anna finishes tidying the sheet.

  ANNA: You look lovely, m’lady. Motherhood on a monument.

  MARY: You’d better go down. They’ll be here in a minute. And tell Mr Matthew he must wait his turn…

  102A EXT. COUNTRY ROAD. DAY

  Matthew lies dead, with blood trickling down his cheek.

  MARY (CONT’D: V.O.): He’s seen the baby and they haven’t.

  102B INT. DOWNTON HOSPITAL. DAY.

  Anna has left. How charming Mary looks with the child. And how happy.89

  THE END

  1 This Special is one of our excursion episodes, and this year we decided to make it about stalking. I am an unashamed supporter of the country way of life, and stalking particularly is easy to defend because it is essential for the health of the herds. Without stalking it would be necessary for the people in charge of the deer to undertake ever more culling. I like to shake the rather simplistic opinions that you come up against, and we thought Scotland would be a nice change of scenery. We looked at various houses and, prompted by our indefatigable advisor, Alastair Bruce, who is a friend of the family, we thought the most appropriate was Inverarary, the seat of the Dukes of Argyll. As always, it is necessary for us to take houses where the family is still there, because we cannot create convincing interiors otherwise, and happily the Argylls seemed pleased to welcome us, being hospitable and nice throughout the filming. It is a very beautiful place.

  2 We always like to remind the audience of the mechanics of how these houses worked, that the valets and the ladies’ maids tell the footmen that the cases are ready to go down and so on. And the maids swap information as to what they will need for the stay.

  3 Here we make a distinction for the audience: stalking does not involve shotguns.

  4 We start to touch, very lightly I hope, on the wisdom of Mary’s making this journey when she is extremely pregnant. Everyone is going to think it a mistake by the time we’re finished.

  5 The breaking up of the old rules is one of the main themes of the show.

  6 Gregson has invited himself up to Scotland because he wants to know them all. It is quite deliberate. So I think their suspicions that he’s done it to get in with them are true, but not quite in the way Mary believes.

  7 That the Countess of Newtonmore was ‘chiefly heiress’ was a phrase I rather liked, which I got from our historical advisor, Alastair Bruce. Peerages that may pass through women are much more common in Scotland than in England. Scottish titles created before the Act of Union can be inherited by women in default of a male heir, which for me is an argument for extending the custom to England. As for the title itself, Newtonmore was one of the towns I knew well when I was making Monarch of the Glen. It is a lovely part of Inverness-shire and it was a privilege to be working there.

  8 Nicknames should make things easier and more informal, but instead they often make them stickier. They are a defensive mechanism of the upper classes. You soon reach a point where you could call someone like Lord Flintshire by his
Christian name, but you really cannot bring yourself to call him Shrimpie. Maybe these days this is less true because we are so much more relaxed, but in those days, whatever such people may pretend, it was a way of keeping outsiders out.

  9 Branson has been left out partly for plot reasons, but partly because I want to remind the audience that his has not been an easy journey. The family may have now got to the point of accepting him, but once he leaves the sheltering umbrella of Downton he is back up against the values of the English upper class.

  10 Bates has Scottish blood, just to give him a bit of back story.

  11 Robert has always been more worried about his dog than he is about his house or estate or son-in-law or anything else. I think that’s fairly truthful. Certainly it would be in my family.

  12 Violet is much more aware of Branson’s vulnerability than the others are.

  13 In the nineteenth century when the family was away the servants would usually go on what were called board wages, where they would get extra money but the daily food supply would stop. They wouldn’t be catered for because, with the family absent, the kitchens were not operating at full tilt. That is one of the reasons for the huge number of pubs in London’s Belgravia, because many houses in the area would be on board wages for chunks of the year while the families were at their country estates or travelling. Those servants who remained in London would get extra money to feed themselves, so pubs serving food were quite an important part of the local economy. As for how much of a rest they had, these breaks from the family were generally seen as an opportunity to clean things that don’t normally get cleaned and to go through the rooms really thoroughly. So the work continued.

  14 Edna, for my money, has what they call ‘sussed’ the situation. She’s an ambitious girl who wants to get on. I don’t blame her for that. And she sees that her best bet is Branson, because he comes from her own people. She is right that he is a legitimate target for a girl like her, especially as he is considered by the others to be a bridge between upstairs and down.

  15 Inverarary looks like Sleeping Beauty’s castle, but the entrance has a cumbersome covered glass porch that was put up for Queen Victoria. Her daughter, Princess Louise, married the then Marquis of Lorne – later Duke of Argyll – which was quite contentious at the time, being the first marriage between royalty and a commoner for centuries. The union was not in fact all that happy and they had no children, but anyway, Victoria used to visit. For our purposes the decision was made that, because the entrance was slightly ugly, we would use one of the other entrances round the side. I can’t say it’s a decision I completely agree with, because all the vehicles are crowded onto what were essentially garden paths, as opposed to a big forecourt like at Highclere. Left to me, I would have gone with the covered glass porch, but we seem to have got away with it. In the story, this is our first example of a house running on empty, of which in 1921 there were many. For those families, the money was gone but everything would continue as normal for a period before it all caved in. In this very year the agricultural subsidies would be ended by the Government and people would sink further into debt, without knowing what was going to happen next.