Michael works closely with producer Liz Trubridge, who explains: ‘When there’s a big scene I can provide another pair of eyes and help resolve any problems that come up. If there are extras, I’ll make sure they react in the right way. In some locations, it’s quite hard to hide the crew so I can also check they’re not getting into shot.’
‘To begin with, we might shoot a master,’ explains Michael, ‘where you get the whole scene in shot, and watch it unfold. And then we might slowly do pieces and close-ups and that sort of thing.’ These varied shots will then be reviewed and pieced together in the film’s edit.
Behind the Scenes
THE GRAND DINNER
King George: ‘This is good. I thought something else was planned, but it is excellent, so “well done” to old Courbet.’
Molesley: ‘Oh, this wasn’t Monsieur Courbet, Your Majesty. Mrs Patmore cooked it. In fact, it is the Downton Abbey staff who are serving you this evening.’
A key scene in the film is the evening dinner, where the King and Queen are obviously the very special guests of honour. With the table dressed beautifully and guests in their finery, dining room scenes make for a wonderful spectacle in Downton Abbey. The grandeur and formality of evening dinners also provide plenty of scope for dramatic tension, which is multiplied by at least ten when the King and Queen are at the table.
At Downton Abbey, evening dinners are still very much formal events – the footmen serve from the left, supervised by the butler who is stationed close to the sideboard, from which he dispenses wine or other alcoholic drinks. Most evenings, the women wear formal evening dress and the men now wear black tie. They once wore white tie and tailcoats, but by 1927 this is only brought out, along with tiaras for the ladies, for very special occasions – and there is no occasion more special than having the King and Queen to dinner. Nevertheless, dining at Downton is a little more relaxed than the royal family’s own formal dinners, where King George V and Queen Mary observed strict protocol. At Windsor Castle, the Guards string band played ‘God Save the King’ behind a grille as guests assembled for dinner, the meal lasted no longer than an hour, the post-meal coffee and port just twenty minutes, with the King and Queen retiring at eleven o’clock on the dot. ‘Nothing was lacking but gaity,’ recalled their son, the future Edward VIII.
Set decorator Gina Cromwell and her team dressed the table with an exquisite flower display in regal colours running down the centre, featuring red roses and orchids. The finest glasses, china and silverware are also on the table, along with menu cards. Historical advisor Alastair Bruce and a former Buckingham Palace butler ensured everything was done correctly.
At the table, the Queen is seated to the left of Lord Grantham, in the middle, and the King is on the opposite side of the table, on Lady Grantham’s left. The remaining fourteen guests are seated so that women and men alternate, with husbands and wives apart. Food is served and cleared from the left, starting with the King and Queen, and drinks come in from the right. During a meal, guests would speak to their neighbour on one side for the first course, and on the other side for the second, after which the rules would be more relaxed. Ladies at the table had to observe which way the most senior woman – in this case Queen Mary – turned first and follow suit: in the film, Violet berates her granddaughter for talking in the wrong direction.
At the Downton Abbey dinner, Queen Mary wears a reproduction of a diamond tiara that may be familiar to some viewers – it is worn by Queen Elizabeth on British banknotes. Named after the committee of women who raised money for its creation, the Girls of Great Britain and Ireland Tiara was given to Queen Mary (then Duchess of York) in 1893. She in turn gave it to her granddaughter Princess Elizabeth as a wedding present in 1947 and she has worn it regularly throughout her reign, still referring to it as ‘Granny’s Tiara’.
With eighteen people sitting at the table and the production crew encircling it, the dining room itself can get very busy. For the camera and lighting team, night shoots are particularly tricky. The silver candelabras are a focal point of the table decorations, and would have been the only light source. To create the necessary flickering effect and light the room effectively, director of photography Ben Smithard and his team floated a large balloon contraption above the table. ‘It’s illuminated from the inside,’ explains Ben, ‘and it floats because it’s full of helium. By dimming the lights right down you get close to the feel of candlelight. With two to three cameras moving around the table, we were really tight on room, and this was the most space-effective way of lighting the scene.’
The filming of dining-room scenes at Highclere is a challenge for the cast as well as the crew. The actors must remain seated at the table for long periods of time while the camera and lighting team set up for multiple takes. The scene needs to be filmed from several angles, each line repeated many times, while cameras are rearranged, lighting adjusted and lavish piles of food are brought in and out many times.
However, it’s probably most tiring for the actors playing the serving staff as they must remain on their feet whenever the cameras are rolling during the ten-hour filming day, usually with next to no dialogue. It’s an occupational hazard for actors like Jim Carter, who as Carson has spent many stationary hours by the sideboard. He jokes that over the years he’s developed a zen-like patience during the whole process. ‘In the dining room, I’m more of a reactive presence, standing in the background raising eyebrows now and then disapprovingly. Of course, you never know what will get picked up in the final edit – sometimes you think you’ve been doing some amazing stuff only to be replaced with a close-up of some knives and forks. I’m pretty philosophical about all of that.’
Continuity is also a real challenge: for each take, the production team must ensure that the amount of food on the plates, the levels of wine in the glasses and even the heights of the burning candles are exactly the same. The servants must serve the food at precisely the right line in the script, without dropping anything and without clattering the serving utensils too much.
‘Filming all the dinner scenes takes an age,’ explains Douglas Reith, who plays Lord Merton. ‘If you have anything to say, you end up saying it about thirty-eight times! And each time you shoot, you have to think about exactly what you were doing, were you drinking from a wine glass or holding a fork.’
It’s all a tightly choreographed process, which makes for very long days of filming, and while the original Downton Abbey cast are well used to this, it was a first for Simon Jones, who plays King George. However, he soon learned how the actors at the table kill time as they wait between takes: ‘Hugh [Lord Grantham] would pass round two salt cellars, each containing pieces of paper,’ explains Simon. ‘Whoever received the paper with the cross on it was the “murderer” and they had to surreptitiously wink at someone else at the table. They’d then wait a few seconds and die spectacularly. Allen [Tom Branson] was superb as a murderer, I think he managed to do away with everyone at the table.’
For a dinner party scene, careful planning goes into the menu, as Lisa Heathcote, home economist for Downton, explains: ‘Dining room scenes involve long days of filming and the food has to be removed and refreshed as we go along.’ There are many takes, meaning that each time an actor cuts into a particular food it then has to be replaced for a retake.
As a result, Lisa must cook in bulk and supply multiple batches of each food to ensure continuity. ‘I also have to bear in mind how the food is served, that the actors will need to take food from a dish served by a footman so I need to prepare individual portions that can be easily handled. If I did one big jelly and then each actor takes a spoon out of it, I’d have to make hundreds of the same jelly, which logistically wouldn’t work.
The actors also have to nibble on food throughout the day so I often put watercress and cucumber on the plates, because that’s something you can eat lots of without feeling too nauseous at the end of the day!’
LORD and LADY MERTON
Douglas Reith
Penelope Wilton
Isobel and Lord Merton are now, much to the relief of everyone at Downton Abbey, a married couple. It took some time for Lord Merton to woo Isobel Crawley – particularly as they thought at one point that Lord Merton was to die from anaemia (but fortunately it turned out not to be the pernicious kind). Now living at Isobel’s home, Crawley House, in the village, they are very much part of the family at Downton.
Brought up as a peer, Lord Merton is from a distinctly aristocratic background, very different to his more middle-class wife. Isobel’s upbringing was more modest than those at Downton; her father and first husband were both doctors and she is a trained nurse. She came to Downton when her son, Matthew Crawley, unexpectedly became heir to the estate. Matthew was to fall in love with and marry Lady Mary, securing the future of Downton for the Crawleys. When he died tragically in a car crash, his mother, perhaps surprisingly, decided to stay on. ‘The sense of privilege they all have at Downton grates with her a bit,’ explains Penelope Wilton, who plays Isobel. ‘She has come from a completely different background to the one she finds herself in and brings a sort of everyman’s view to it all. She’s not backward in coming forward with her criticism, although she’s tremendously grateful for the Crawley family’s warmth and how they looked after her when her son died.’
Violet: ‘Will you have enough clichés to get you through the visit?’
Isobel: ‘If not, I’ll come to you.’
Isobel discovers that despite Lord Merton’s upbringing, he is forward-thinking and cares little for snobbery or status, giving away his estate to his son, with whom he has fallen out. ‘He doesn’t wear his coronet on his sleeve,’ says Douglas Reith, who plays him. As a result, the couple have an easy-going relationship and Lord Merton tends to laugh off Isobel’s sniffy references about the King and Queen, a gentle foil to Isobel’s uneasiness about the trappings of class, and rather more accepting of the opulence surrounding the royal party.
The two actors were delighted to be back with old friends on the Downton Abbey set, not least because it meant returning to Highclere, as Douglas explains: ‘The wonderful thing about Highclere is that it’s a private house, and quite intimate when you’re inside. As soon as you walk through the doors, you feel welcomed.’ All of Isobel and Lord Merton’s scenes in the film are above stairs in the movie: they are guests at the afternoon tea with the royal couple, the lavish dinner in the evening and attend the ball at Harewood.
‘Isobel’s dresses have a dropped waist but her hemlines were never above mid-calf and she wore relatively sensible shoes with a modest neckline and sleeve length.’
Anna Robbins, costume designer
As a voice of dissent at Downton, Isobel was always destined to clash with the uncompromising Violet. Nonetheless, over the years their relationship has evolved into one of friendship, as Penelope describes: ‘At the beginning they were absolute opposites and didn’t like each other at all, but they’ve grown to admire and respect one another. Although they can’t help teasing each other, which they still do a great deal.’
In the movie, Isobel, who is resourceful and ever-practical, attempts to get to the truth behind the relationship of Maud and her maid, Lucy, and by doing so deftly smooths over the long-standing feud between Violet and Lady Bagshaw. Despite their differences, Isobel has grown fond of Violet and is familiar with the peculiar workings of her mind – the two are a formidable match for each other.
A VILLAGE FIT FOR A KING
The village of Downton has always been of great importance to the Crawley family and the estate workers. For the film, two locations stood in for the village: Bampton in Oxfordshire, which was previously used for the television series, and Lacock in Wiltshire, which stood in for the splendid street scenes of the King’s parade.
Over the years, Bampton in Oxfordshire has stood in for a host of village locations in Downton. Many scenes have been filmed on the village green and in St Mary’s Church, which, as St Michael and All Angels, was the setting for the weddings of Carson and Mrs Hughes, and Lady Mary and Henry in the final season. Bampton’s old rectory continues to be used for the exterior of Crawley House (where Isobel now lives with her new husband, Lord Merton) and the old grammar school building stood in for the cottage hospital in early seasons. One of the streets, Church View, has often been on screen, and is the home to the Grantham Arms and the Dog and Duck.
For the parade scene in the movie, the decision was made to shoot in another village as the film crew needed a much larger street location for the procession, which would involve hundreds of extras and a troop of cavalry, horses and gun carriages. The chosen location was Lacock in Wiltshire, much of which is built in a similar limestone to Bampton, with a layout of streets that look very much as they did 200 years ago. The historic feel of Lacock has made it a popular location for television and film production crews, and indeed the Downton Abbey crew briefly filmed there in the final series, transforming Church Street into a livestock market.
The parade was filmed in and around the high street in Lacock and the King’s review of the troop was shot in playing fields nearby. Location manager Sparky Ellis and the production team met with the residents of the village to outline their plans for filming and to seek the residents’ approval. Largely owned by the National Trust, Lacock has plenty of period features but there were still signs of modern life that needed to be removed for filming. Curtains or any modern window dressings needed to be taken away, as did residents’ cars and twenty-first century street signs. Some items that were difficult to remove or cover up, such as TV aerials, could be erased digitally in post-production, but the crew, with the help of the residents, tried to remove as much as they could for filming.
KING GEORGE and QUEEN MARY
Simon Jones
Geraldine James
The actor Simon Jones was delighted to join the Downton Abbey cast, playing none other than King George V, his first regal role on screen. ‘I’ve played the Emperor of Austria on stage, so that was my first taste of power, but this is my first king. Interestingly, when we were at Highclere shooting, I did seem to get quite a bit deference from the extras, almost as if George V had come back to life!’
Simon dutifully put in some background research on the King and realised that in order to recreate his look a beard was a must. In keeping with his naval upbringing, George grew a beard and moustache in his late teens, and kept them throughout his life. Previously clean-shaven, Simon started to grow a beard several weeks before the shoot and luckily it grew to almost the right shape (which was soon perfected with a little pruning from the hair-and-make-up team) – he was clearly destined for the role.
In building a picture of the man he was about to play, Simon also delighted in the odd revealing detail, one of which showed how much of a stickler the King was for protocol. ‘King George thought it terribly bad taste to have a crease down the middle of trousers, with turn-ups at the bottom. It enraged him that his sons clearly didn’t agree and I’ve seen a photo of him with his two sons, both of them wearing trousers with sharp creases down the middle and turn-ups.’
In the movie, we first glimpse the King and Queen as they sweep into the drive of Downton Abbey in a Daimler. Lined up at the entrance are the entire household, the Crawleys and family guests on the right and staff on the left. On hand during this key scene was the historical advisor Alastair Bruce, as he was during most of the filming process to answer the many questions that often crop up as scenes are shot. Simon explains one such moment, ‘When we got out of the car and then crossed the gravel towards the house, it suddenly occurred to me, would I wipe my shoes on the doormat before going in? Alastair said absolutely not.’
One of the most challenging scenes for Simon was the parade in the village, during which the King inspects the Yorkshire Hussars. This was Simon’s first scene of filming and he had to do the inspection on horseback, in front of the royal artillery, 300 extras and the whole cast and crew. ‘That was quite a challenge �
�� the last time I was on a horse was for a hunting scene in the period drama Brideshead Revisited and that was forty years ago! As a result, the production team had a double ready to take over, but it actually went okay and he wasn’t needed. I think I earned my spurs that day!’
While at Downton, the King invites Bertie on a tour of the African colonies with his son the Prince of Wales. In reality, the King’s relationship with his eldest son was strained by 1927 – George deeply disapproved of the Prince’s bachelor lifestyle and his liking for fashionable clothes, clubs and cocktails while the Prince loathed his father’s obsession with protocol and etiquette. In the film, the King believes Bertie could be just the man to provide a ‘steadying influence’ for his son while on a royal tour. It doesn’t occur to him that Bertie might not want to be away when his first child is due, and it’s only after Queen Mary explains the situation that the King agrees to release him from the obligation. The royal couple clearly have a good working relationship and her husband heeds the Queen’s counsel when needed, much to the relief of Bertie and Edith.
Queen Mary is a great support to her husband. As Queen, she plays her part well; she is gracious to everyone at Downton and is kindly dismissive of Molesley’s odd behaviour at dinner, knowing what a strange effect the presence of royalty can have on people. The visit to Yorkshire gives the Queen a chance to see her daughter, Princess Mary, about whom she is clearly worried, particularly as her son-in-law, Lord Lascelles, seems to absent himself from every family occasion.
Downton Abbey Page 5