6 May 1926: A bus leaving the garage under police protection during the General Strike.
In 1926, industrial decline, worsening unemployment and social division led to the 1926 General Strike (as alluded to by the King to Cora in the film). A dispute over conditions, wage cuts and dismissals in the coal-mining industry, followed by Stanley Baldwin breaking off negotiations with the Trade Union Congress (TUC), prompted the unions to strike. With some 1.7 million workers walking out, mainly in the transport and heavy industries, Britain was virtually at a standstill for nine days between 3 and 12 May 1926. While the King was in favour of measures to curb disorder, he was sympathetic to the strikers and advised Baldwin not to take too harsh a line with them, saying: ‘Try living on their wages before you judge them.’ Though the TUC would eventually give up in defeat, the General Strike showed the effect worker solidarity could have on the country.
King George was aware that Britain in the 1920s was changing, that the younger generation, like Downton Abbey’s Daisy, were no longer content with their lot in life, questioning the age-old values of deference and discipline, on which great houses like Downton Abbey and the monarchy rested. Life was changing – telephones, gramophones and hair-dryers had already arrived at Downton, and the refrigerator was now a permanent feature in the kitchen. Cinema was experiencing something of a boom as Hollywood expanded its film-making in the 1920s, with the first ‘talkie’ film, The Jazz Singer, shown in Britain in 1928. The decade also brought in new styles of music and dance clubs were opening in cities across the country. Developments in transportation meant that motor cars were an increasingly common sight on the roads, and in 1927 Charles Lindbergh was able to make the first solo non-stop transatlantic flight, from New York to Paris.
Against this backdrop and on the advice of courtiers and the government, the royal couple continued touring the country, attending sporting events, schools, workplaces and industrial areas, all the while establishing the King’s image as a churchgoer and decent family man, a king who was above the people but who could also share in his people’s hopes and values. Queen Mary continued to staunchly support her husband throughout the difficult post-war years. Dressed in formal long dresses and toque hats, she could appear a little stiff and austere, but to others she seemed self-assured and calm at public engagements. Duty was her watchword and formality provided her with a kind of protective shield as she performed her role as loyal wife to the king.
Throughout the 1920s, the royal family carried out around 3,000 public engagements and also increased the number of royal ceremonial occasions, to include the wedding of Princess Mary to Lord Lascelles in 1922. Many of the royal visits and ceremonies were filmed on newsreels and shown in the growing number of cinemas up and down the country, the King and Queen surprisingly comfortable and adept before the cameras.
Turbulent years lay ahead for the monarchy, not least with the succession of the Prince of Wales to the throne as King Edward VIII in 1936. His political leanings and playboy lifestyle, which so troubled the King and Queen, were of similar concern to the authorities, and his determination to marry an American divorcee would result in his abdication shortly after, his brother Albert succeeding him as King George VI. The monarchy, however, would weather the storm, King George and Queen Mary having sufficiently bolstered the institution to survive the crisis.
George and Mary at the christening of Princess (later Queen) Elizabeth, 29 May 1926.
LADY BAGSHAW
Imelda Staunton
Accompanying the King and Queen when they arrive at Downton Abbey is a select retinue of staff, including the Queen’s lady-in-waiting Maud Bagshaw. She’s not exactly thrilled to be at Downton, having previously revealed to Queen Mary that she is a relation of the Crawleys and there is bad blood between the families.
The mystery deepens when we learn that Lord Grantham is in fact her nearest relation (her father was his great-uncle) and is the rightful heir to her estate, Brompton Park. However, she has chosen to cut herself off from the family and, much to Violet’s indignation, it is believed she has chosen to deny Robert the inheritance.
The stage is thus set for a showdown between the Dowager Countess and Lady Bagshaw, a confrontation that Maud (not unsurprisingly) attempts to avoid during her stay with the Crawleys. The role required an actor who could match Violet in stature, and award-winning actor Imelda Staunton achieves this with aplomb. Director Michael Engler agrees: ‘Lady Bagshaw has to be a formidable opponent to Violet, and we needed an actor who could hold her own, and Imelda of course did that very well.’
‘I loved the role of Maud and it was great to play those really tense scenes with Maggie [Violet] and Penelope [Isobel],’ says Imelda. ‘We exchange some strong words – and certainly don’t discuss hemlines or the weather.’ It was a treat also for Imelda to spend the odd day with her real husband, Jim Carter, who plays Carson, ‘We did have a couple of dinner scenes together, although he was largely at the other end of the room and he didn’t serve me so much as a sherry!’
Isobel: ‘You must tell Violet at once.’
Maud: ‘I couldn’t.’
Isobel: ‘You’re wrong. As soon as she knows the truth, she’ll fathom your plans and cease to fight you.’
As well as her scenes with the original cast of Downton Abbey, Imelda appears for much of the film alongside Geraldine James, who plays Queen Mary. As lady-in-waiting, her character Maud must see to the Queen’s every need. A lady-in-waiting was chosen from noble ranks and would largely be considered a personal assistant and companion to the Queen rather than a servant. She would generally travel with the Queen, attend public events, handle correspondence and see to the Queen’s various needs, often as a trusted confidante. As such, Imelda needed to follow many protocols, so she found the historical advice given to her on set by Alastair Bruce invaluable. ‘Alastair told me that as soon as the Queen stands, I must stand immediately,’ Imelda explains, joking, ‘I was at Geraldine’s beck and call morning and night!’
Creating the costumes for Maud provided Anna Robbins with the opportunity to create quite a different look from any of the other characters. ‘We had really good picture references for Queen Mary’s ladies-in-waiting. A lady herself, her clothing would have been high quality and bespoke, and in accordance with royal protocol and propriety. We had a good early fitting with Imelda, looking at fabrics and colours that worked well with her skin tone and shapes that suited her. We put her in a beautiful velvet suit, with a blouse worn over the skirt, rather than tucked in, just to give a nod to the 1920s. Her hats were mainly wide-brimmed, rather than the more current cloche style – all a mixture of different influences.’
As the story unfolds, we discover that Lady Bagshaw’s maid, Lucy, is in fact her own daughter, the result of a relationship with her deceased husband’s army servant Jack Smith, unexpectedly conceived when Maud was thirty-nine. Such a scandal would have finished her in high society. To escape the ensuing uproar, Lady Bagshaw was forced to travel to America, before returning to England six months after her baby was born and taking up her position at the royal household.
Violet is enraged when she first learns that Lady Bagshaw is to leave her estate to Lucy, although when Violet learns of Maud’s secret, the Dowager is, to Maud’s surprise, understanding: ‘Well, who do you think I am? Some maiden aunt who never left the village?’ Although it is clear that she won’t be able to regain Brompton Park for Robert, Violet in no way sees this as a defeat. Instead she is mollified by the fact that Tom Branson and Lucy have struck up a romance – thereby putting him in the frame for the inheritance. By the time the royal party move on to Harewood, Maud has been welcomed back into the family.
LUCY SMITH
Tuppence Middleton
Lucy arrives with the royal entourage, as maid to Lady Bagshaw, the Queen’s lady-in-waiting. It soon becomes apparent that Lady Bagshaw and her maid are unusually close, and their relationship may not be what it seems.
Lucy is in fact the sec
ret daughter of Lady Bagshaw. She lived with her father, Jack Smith, until he died, when she was six years old. Lady Bagshaw then took her in as her ‘maid’; anything of higher status would have aroused people’s suspicions. Since the age of eighteen, Lucy has known the truth about her mother and the two have clearly developed a close bond.
New cast member Tuppence Middleton plays the role of Lucy Smith and was thrilled to be among such esteemed actors, coming also from a family of Downton Abbey fans. ‘There was one day where I walked onto set and I was doing a scene with Maggie Smith and Imelda Staunton,’ explains Tuppence, ‘and I had to take a breath and try and take it all in – it was amazing to see both of them work and very exciting.’
Lucy’s arrival at Downton also attracts the attention of Branson. Having snatched a few moments together, Lucy is interested in his rise from chauffeur to family member, as she will one day experience a similar rise in status when she inherits her mother’s estate. There is clearly an attraction between the two, and when Lucy agrees to correspond with Tom, he leans in to kiss her. We later see them dancing on the terrace at the ball, clearly captivated by one another.
Lucy: ‘I have such a feeling that you can understand what’s going on inside my head when no one else does, or ever could.’
Royal Tours
Monarchs have always moved around their realms, travelling between their own royal houses for business and pleasure, and visiting other areas in a bid to remind their subjects of their power and worth. King George V and Queen Mary were no different, constantly travelling between various royal estates, in an annual pattern often dictated by sporting events: Sandringham for pheasant shooting, Windsor for Ascot Week, the Isle of Wight for the Cowes Week sailing regatta (the King living aboard the royal yacht), and Balmoral for grouse shooting.
Alongside their sporting commitments, the royal couple and their family also visited hundreds of towns and cities across the country. As early as 1912 the Archbishop of York urged the King to connect with the people, saying that it was ‘not enough that they should assemble in the streets on ceremonial occasions to see him, but that he might, so to say, go to see them – move about with as little ceremony as possible through their own towns, villages and workshops’. That same year, the government and the King had been alarmed by increasing industrial militancy, in particular a strike involving 1 million miners, which many feared could lead to political discontent and anti-monarchy sentiment, threatening even the existence of the Crown.
Thus, in 1912, a European trip was cancelled and the new King and Queen set upon a tour of South Yorkshire to meet its working people, staying at the great house of Wentworth Woodhouse (where, incidentally, the ballroom scene was shot for the Downton Abbey movie). Sitting in the heart of the South Yorkshire coalfields, Wentworth was the obvious base for the tour. As the royals arrived, thousands lined the streets between Doncaster Station and Wentworth and a further 40,000 were waiting for them in the park. Their stay coincided with a major disaster at nearby Cadeby Colliery, which was to lead to the loss of ninety-one lives. After visiting other local collieries – the King even descending into the mine at Elsecar – the royal couple visited the site of the disaster, where some 80,000 people had assembled, witnessing the Queen in tears as she left the pit office.
10 September 1927: The Royal Garden Party at Balmoral. From left to right are the Duke of York, King George V, the Duchess of York and Queen Mary. Princess Elizabeth, our future Queen, is in the pram.
The 1920s were still turbulent times, particularly after the Great Strike of 1926, which increased the need for the monarchy to get among the people. Every trip, whether it was for business or pleasure, was perfectly managed and was often met with great ceremony. In 1927, the year in which the movie is set, George V stayed at the Earl of Sefton’s Abbeystead estate in Lancashire, where he had been shooting. From there, he travelled by train to Balmoral and was met by a guard of honour from the King’s Guard of the 1st Battalion the Royal Scots, and the Lord Lieutenant of Aberdeenshire. On the same day, Queen Mary visited Princess Mary at Goldsborough; crowds cheered her as she left Harrogate Station. Five days later she journeyed up to Balmoral, where she was met with a similar degree of ceremony as the King.
Queen Mary visits Silverwood Colliery in Yorkshire in 1912.
Behind the Scenes
THE PARADE
The Commanding Officer rides up to the King, salutes with his sword and announces:
‘Your Majesty, the Yorkshire Hussars are formed up, ready and awaiting your inspection.’
One of the most spectacular scenes in the Downton Abbey film is the parade of the Yorkshire Hussars in the village, followed by the King’s inspection of the troops. It’s a splendid sight, the yeomanry in ceremonial dress of gold and black in a stately procession of horses and gun carriages glinting in the sunshine. The streets are dressed in bunting and everyone is there, the royals and the Crawley family on a raised dais, the Downton staff and hundreds of villagers waving flags and cheering as the procession passes.
Filming such a scene, with around 300 extras and the main cast, a hundred crew members, along with the King’s Troop Royal Horse Artillery and around sixty horses, including six teams of horses pulling First World War guns, is a complex undertaking. The production crew must carefully plan every aspect of the shoot, from sourcing and overseeing the huge number of people and horses involved, to dressing the streets, organising costume and make-up for all the extras, and overseeing the complex filming schedule during the four days of filming. Co-producer Mark Hubbard, who, with his team, handled much of the day-to-day management of the film, explains: ‘We talked a lot about that scene as it really was a logistical challenge and quite a daunting thing to tackle. Luckily, the weather was glorious.’
Ben Smithard, the director of photography, who oversees cameras, lighting and the visual look of the film, agrees: ‘The parade scene was the biggest sequence in the film and perhaps bigger than anything shot in the TV series. We spent four days in the village of Lacock, closing a whole street off for one day. We had three or four cameras, filming on the ground or on cranes, and the logistics really were tricky as so much could go wrong.’
Despite the hundreds of cast and crew that arrived for filming, not to mention the soldiers, horses and the countless trucks that accompany all film crews, life still had to go on in the village, particularly for its younger residents. Areas of the village were cordoned for filming but the production team had to work around the school situated on the high street, allowing for parents to drop off and pick up children at the beginning and end of the school day.
Dressing the whole Downton cast along with hundreds of extras is a huge challenge for the wardrobe department. In order to dress and process so many people, Anna Robbins had to draft in extra people to help over the two days of filming. Beginning before the sun was up, they started dressing people with military precision, making sure everyone from the working-class spectators in their Sunday best to the aristocrats on the dais were looking their best. ‘It’s always a treat to see some of the Downton staff out of their uniforms and in daywear,’ says Anna.
The parade scene features the Yorkshire Hussars, a volunteer yeoman cavalry unit of the British Army, first formed in 1794 to defend Britain against a French invasion. Cavalry units such as these harken back to a former age of warfare, their uniforms unchanged since the 1800s, an echo of an older world. Nonetheless, it is only right that the public should support them in such a parade, as, like other cavalry units, volunteer members of the Yorkshire Hussars played their part in the First World War, fighting in France, at Ypres, Loos, and Arras, among other battles, some remaining on the Western Front until the end of the war. In the face of mechanised warfare, however, it was clear the days of the cavalry were numbered, although some regiments, like the Yorkshire Hussars, were kept on as horsed units for a little while longer.
To re-enact the procession of the Yorkshire Hussars, the production team brought in the King’s Troop
Royal Horse Artillery, a mounted unit of the British Army that is used to fire royal salutes to mark the grand occasions of state. The origins of the unit date back to the eighteenth century, but its current form evolved in 1946 following the phasing out of the cavalry and the mechanisation of horse-drawn artillery. King George VI had requested that a troop of artillery should be retained to fire salutes on state occasions, dressed in traditional ceremonial uniform. Today these soldiers, who are all trained to drive teams of horses pulling field guns, fire salutes at the Trooping of the Colour to celebrate the Queen’s official birthday. In 1997, members of the King’s Troop pulled a gun carriage carrying the coffin of Diana, Princess of Wales, while members of the royal family walked behind.
Mark Hubbard says: ‘We decided to go with the King’s Troop as their uniforms and equipment are right for the period. They know how to march in processions and exactly what they are doing, which made the whole process much easier.’
For the members of the Royal Horse Artillery, the experience of filming was an enjoyable one and the set-up similar to being in a real parade. The horses were transported in nine lorries from Woolwich in south-east London to the filming location in Lacock in Wiltshire, 140 miles away. A make-shift camp was set up in a field just at the end of the high street, made up of stables for the horses and a number of marquees containing sleeping quarters, showers, catering, costumes and equipment. Sparky Ellis, the location manager for Downton Abbey, helped to organise ‘horse base’, as the film’s crew called it: ‘With the help of a company who set up equestrian events around the country, we created what was effectively a mini-village on the edge of Lacock. We had the whole thing up for just under two weeks, then collapsed it all down and the circus moved on. It was a huge operation.’
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