Downton Abbey

by Emma Marriott

  It’s a scene that reminds us of the predicament that men like Thomas faced. Homosexuality was illegal in Britain, and remained so until 1967, with marriage between same-sex couples legalised only as recently as 2014. In 1927, those convicted of homosexuality could be sentenced to imprisonment and hard labour, although the vagueness of the law allowed the police considerable discretion over what constituted an offence. Even more devastating than a prison sentence was society’s disapproval, meaning men were forced to cover up their sexuality.

  Thomas: ‘Will they ever see it our way?’

  Ellis: ‘I don’t know. Fifty years ago, who’d have thought man could fly?’

  As a result, Mr Ellis advises Thomas to be more cautious in the future and there’s an increasing connection between the two men. Thomas has at last found someone he can confide in – ‘I feel I’ve finally found a friend’ – and Mr Ellis also seems relieved that they can talk simply as ‘two ordinary blokes’. Just before Richard Ellis leaves, the two men briefly kiss and Ellis gives Thomas a key ring as a keepsake. It’s a gift that, we hope, might lead to a possible future reunion.

  It is the butler’s job to oversee the cleaning of the silver – of which Downton Abbey has a vast quantity – as the best pieces need to be put on display for special guests. Silver needs careful handling and gloves must be worn, as hands leave oils and moisture on the surface which can mark and tarnish the metal. Butlers could spend an inordinate amount of time cleaning silver and plate, leaving their hands as ‘hard as boards’ afterwards.

  Whereas silverware was largely the province of the butler, footmen took charge of candlesticks, lamps, and other small items of furniture.

  Valets and ladies’ maids were responsible for more intimate or expensive items belonging to their masters and mistresses, such as ornaments, clothing and shoes. We frequently see the Downton staff repairing items of clothes or cleaning and buffing shoes in the boot room.

  Behind the Scenes

  THOMAS’S NIGHT OUT

  Thomas: ‘I can’t believe this. I’ve never seen anything like it.’

  Webster: ‘There’s a first time for everything.’

  When Thomas’s new acquaintance Chris Webster (played by Perry Fitzpatrick) takes him to the illegal nightclub Turton’s, Thomas is amazed by what he sees, but soon throws himself into the intoxicating atmosphere of the club, drinking and dancing with Webster, until they’re suddenly confronted by policemen. Everyone is promptly arrested – one policeman exclaiming, ‘Right! Gather your things. You’re coming with us, you dirty perverts,’ – and they are all taken down to the police station.

  The pub scene was actually filmed 200 miles south of York, in Hammersmith, London, in an original Edwardian pub that is now closed to the drinking public and used solely as a film and TV location. Turton’s nightclub was shot back in Yorkshire, in a disused cotton mill in Keighley while a conservation area of Victorian warehouses in nearby Bradford, known as Little Germany after the German Jewish industrials who built them, provided the exterior of Turton’s warehouse and the interior and exterior of the police station.

  In the nightclub, the men are seen dancing the Charleston and tango, which for filming was overseen by choreographer Diana Scrivener. ‘The tango has featured in Downton before,’ explains Diana, ‘but we’ve been waiting years to include the Charleston, which up until now wasn’t in vogue. By 1927, however, it was taking the country by storm as it was such an exciting and liberating dance. For Thomas’s introduction to an illegal nightclub, the Charleston worked perfectly.

  ‘To rehearse the scene,’ continues Diana, ‘I had previously auditioned some of the background dancers in Leeds, and I then did a couple of sessions on set with Robert and Perry. As it’s a nightclub, the dancing isn’t meant to look overly polished and it all worked out really well.’

  Downton’s composer, John Lunn, was also on set in a cameo role, playing his own music on the piano. Composers tend not to meet cast members, but working on Downton Abbey has always been a very different experience for John. Nevertheless his turn in Turton’s is the first time audiences will see him on film, as John explains: ‘Last time I was playing the piano in Downton my face didn’t make it into the final cut so I was pleased to see I was left in the edit this time!’

  ANNA and MR BATES

  Joanne Froggatt

  Brendan Coyle

  Anna and John Bates are in a good place right now. Happily married and with a young son, also John, they are, in the words of Joanne Froggatt, who plays Anna, ‘very happy in work, in life and love’. Still working at Downton Abbey, Anna as maid to Mary and Mr Bates as valet to Robert, they have been through turbulent years. Mr Bates injured his leg in the Boer War, Anna was sexually assaulted (Joanne receiving a Golden Globe for her performance of the storyline), both have spent time in prison and yet the two have somehow managed to overcome everything.

  The couple are thoroughly decent and loyal to the Crawley family. Anna is a kind and generous soul, and Mr Bates is naturally calm, patient and a little more enigmatic, and both feel lucky to have found each other. Having gone through so much adversity, they both also have an inner strength and a determination of will that comes to the fore in the movie.

  In defiance of the royal servants who condescend to the Downton staff and sweep them aside, Anna and Bates decide they should take matters into their own hands. They assemble everyone in the wine cellar and take the lead in plotting against the royal household. ‘There’s a great clash between the well-oiled machine that is Downton Abbey,’ says Brendan Coyle, who plays Mr Bates, ‘and this royal “carnival” almost that comes to the house.’

  ‘Anna has also really come into her own,’ says Joanne. ‘She’s really taking charge of her life and then leads the way with the revolution of the downstairs staff. She’s also a little bit naughty in the film but on the right side of naughty in order to put people in their place. She is by no means a walkover.’

  ‘As Mary had such a modern hairstyle in the last television season, we thought the younger ladies in the house might follow suit. Anna, for instance, now has a lovely soft bob.’

  Nosh Oldham, hair and make-up designer

  Anna’s moral compass is on red alert when it emerges the Queen’s dresser, Miss Lawton, has been stealing precious trinkets from the house. Rather than turn Miss Lawton in, however, Anna turns the situation to her advantage by coercing the seamstress to alter Edith’s ballgown in return for Anna’s silence over the stolen items and their safe return.

  Over the years, Anna has developed a close bond with Mary and they often share their private thoughts in the sanctity of Mary’s bedroom. ‘They have always supported each other and in a way Anna mirrors what Mary is doing upstairs,’ explains Joanne. ‘Mary has taken on the role of being protector of Downton and the person that will take it forward. Anna is completely committed to helping Mary and does her bit in her area of the house to support Mary in that quest.’

  Mary: ‘You’re a good friend to me, Anna.’

  Anna: ‘I hope we’re good friends to each other, m’lady.’

  Bates: ‘Here’s to the triumph of Downton, and my beautiful wife!’

  Joanne was pleased to be back on set, particularly filming the bedroom scenes: ‘On the first day of filming, Laura [Edith], Michelle [Mary] and I did a scene together and we couldn’t believe we were back again, we were like giddy schoolgirls. In fact, coming back to the Downton set, having all been away doing other projects for around three years, was a bit like coming back to school after the summer holidays and being able to catch up with your friends.’

  Brendan also enjoyed seeing familiar and new faces on set: ‘It was great to have these new actors, like David Haig, come and hit the ground running. They’ve entered the world of Downton Abbey and shifted it a little.’

  As a couple, Anna and Bates’ allegiance to Downton Abbey is unwavering, and when Mary voices her concerns about whether she can really take the estate into the future, Anna tells her in
no uncertain terms that Downton Abbey is the beating heart of the community and it is up to Mary to keep that heart beating. By promising her mistress that she can count on her and Mr Bates, Anna helps Mary edge towards the realisation she must do exactly that.

  Behind the Scenes

  THE WINE CELLAR

  Anna: ‘We are going to clear the way so you cook and serve dinner for the King and Queen at Downton Abbey. As you should.’

  Mrs Patmore: ‘Well, oh my God. Is this a revolution?’

  Molesley: ‘Should I fetch the pitchforks?’

  One of the first days of filming at Shepperton was the scene where the downstairs’ staff gather in the wine cellar to plot against the royal household. Fed up of being pushed aside, Anna and Mr Bates announce they all must ‘defend Downton’s honour’ and fight back against the tyranny of the visiting servants. The majority readily join in the revolution, although Carson is deeply uncomfortable with the situation, which to him smacks of treason – ‘We’ll all end up in Botany Bay!’ – although even he concedes that his counterpart, the Page of the Backstairs Mr Wilson, has treated him deplorably.

  As the scene was early on in the shoot, many of the cast were excited to be back on the Downton Abbey set, albeit in the unfamiliar location of the wine cellar, one of the newly built additions at Shepperton. Kevin Doyle explains the challenge of getting back into character as Mr Molesley straight away for such a pivotal scene: ‘It was great to be back but it was quite a weird morning for all of us, as we hadn’t been together for three years and there we all were in this rather confined space. After such a long time away, you do have to remind yourself how your character speaks and recreate their physicality – there’s no slowly getting into the swing of it.’

  Raquel Cassidy, who plays Miss Baxter, also vividly remembers how the actors were feeling as they prepared for the scene, ‘As it was one of the first where the downstairs cast were all together, the atmosphere was quite jovial and heady. The mood of the scene we were playing, though, was quite different, and Michael [Engler], the director, had to work a bit to get us in that place, explaining that by taking matters into our hands we could have got the sack, so the stakes were quite high for our characters. It was a great scene to play, one in which the Downton staff enter as individuals and leave almost as a little army.’

  Michael remembers the cellar being a serious scene but with a comic edge. ‘I wanted to find the right balance, between the stakes being real enough but doing it so it still played to the comedy of the situation. Downton is quite unique in that way – it has so many different characters with storylines that can be comic, political, romantic and emotional, and yet it all feels like one world. A lot of that, of course, is down to the scripts and the way Julian Fellowes writes them.’

  MRS PATMORE

  Lesley Nicol

  We find Mrs Patmore, played by Lesley Nicol, still at the helm of the kitchen at Downton Abbey, whipping up great quantities of delicious food all through the day. The kitchen is a constant hub of activity; food is prepared and cooked from scratch, and Mrs Patmore runs her domain with formidable pride. In the past, Mrs Patmore had been resistant to new electrical gadgets in the kitchen, partly because she feared it could spell the end of her job. By now, though, she has just about got used to having a refrigerator, which is a permanent fixture of the kitchen.

  In such a pressurised environment, it’s no wonder that Mrs Patmore is quick to speak her mind. Lesley Nicol jokes that her character is a bit like Gordon Ramsay, as when checking a plate of food she will, ‘look at it, season it and then shout at a few people!’

  Tensions run particularly high when the kitchen staff learn that when the King and Queen arrive at Downton members of the royal household will take over all their duties. Mrs Patmore, who has always fought her corner, is – unsurprisingly – indignant when she is pushed aside by the superior royal chef Monsieur Courbet, with whom she has several run-ins, referring to him openly as ‘Oh Mighty One’.

  Monsieur Courbet ultimately gets his comeuppance, as does the Page of the Backstairs, Mr Wilson, whom Mrs Patmore ‘accidentally’ covers with the sticky contents of her mixing bowl. It was a scene that Lesley particularly enjoyed playing, and one that she had to get right in the first or second take. ‘Luckily, David Haig, who played Mr Wilson, was very good about it all!’

  Mrs Patmore: ‘A royal luncheon, a parade and a dinner? I’m going to have to sit down.’

  Mrs Patmore still has a strong bond with under cook Daisy, the two spending long hours in the kitchen together. While neither she nor Sophie McShera, who plays Daisy, actually make any of the food we see on screen, they are both adept at knowing exactly what they should be doing when they deliver each line, such as chopping parsley or mixing a sauce – but they do draw the line at anything too complicated.

  Did making a Downton Abbey film feel any different for Lesley? ‘Not really,’ she says, ‘I thought it would and I kept saying to Sophie, should we be doing things any differently? But no, we just carried on as normal and I loved every minute.’

  Behind the scenes, home economist Lisa Heathcote oversees the food seen on screen, all of which must be authentic to the period but also look good on camera and stand up to the rigours of filming. Having worked on Downton Abbey since the first season, Lisa draws from her knowledge of country-house fare, while also making use of period cookbooks.

  Royal chef Monsieur Courbet prepares a lavish feast for the royal party upstairs, which is promptly discarded and replaced by Mrs Patmore’s food when the Downton staff take over all arrangements for the grand evening meal.

  To recreate the kind of food served to royals, Lisa used, among other references, cookery books by Charles Elme Francatelli, who was a popular Italian-British cook and chef to Queen Victoria. ‘Much of the food prepared by a royal chef would have been quite intricate and frightfully grand,’ explains Lisa. ‘Jellies were really popular and they used a lot of aspic in the period – everything was set quite firmly (just like their hair!) which helped to preserve the food and show it off. Glacé fruit and sweetmeats, which were expensive to produce, would have also featured on royal household menus.’

  The ill-fated feast that Monsieur Courbet prepared included a rib of beef and a game pie, which was in reality filled with porridge oats as no one was actually eating it. Lamb cutlets would also have appeared on a royal menu; Lisa’s for the scene were coated in a white béchamel sauce, decorated with tarragon and glazed with aspic, then put in a pastry basket marked with crowns.

  DAISY and ANDY

  Sophie McShera

  Michael Fox

  Of all the downstairs staff, under cook Daisy is the least excited at the prospect of royalty staying at the house, declaring early on, ‘I agree with Mr Branson. I don’t like kings either.’ ‘Daisy is kind of baffled by all the excitement,’ says Sophie McShera, who plays her. ‘For the kitchen, visitors of any kind, in particular royal visitors, simply means more work for the staff and she can’t see what the fuss is all about.’ Daisy is even less impressed when she discovers that the Downton staff will play no role in the royal visit – ‘I think it’s rubbish. They impose, they demand, and now we’re to be made nothing in our own house.’

  Over the course of the Downton series, we’ve seen Daisy grow from a young girl with limited schooling into a woman in her twenties, now with some education and firm views on what she wants in life. ‘Daisy has been on a bit of journey, as she always has been since the first season,’ says Sophie. ‘She’s constantly making discoveries about how she feels about the world, how she feels about the house and the people in it. I love that about her.’

  Daisy questions what the world has in store for her and dares to dream of a life outside service. She and footman Andy are now engaged, although she’s not ready to discuss plans for a wedding and begins to have doubts about him. Michael Fox, who plays Andy, explains, ‘Andy wants to start a life with Daisy but she’s not ready to do that. She thinks Andy is quite safe and a littl
e ordinary.’

  ‘For Andy and the other footmen, serving the King and Queen was like playing in the FA Cup final – it was such a huge moment in their lives.’

  Michael Fox

  Daisy’s head is turned when Tony Sellick the plumber turns up – she’s impressed by his ambition and desire to do well in life, and worries that Andy lacks similar drive. Andy clocks Daisy’s interest in Mr Sellick and in a fit of jealous rage damages the newly fitted pump in the boiler. This made for a memorable scene for Michael Fox, as he explains: ‘I didn’t expect the boiler to be quite so big – it was like the engine room in the Titanic! Ben Smithard [the director of photography] was lying down under the valves, waiting for me to come in with a shovel and smash it. He had to wear safety goggles as it was all a bit precarious.’

  When Andy confesses to Daisy after the dinner, much to his surprise she is impressed by his evident passion: ‘You risked being sacked, you risked ruin, just for the love of me?’ Andy’s actions serve to bring the two together, with Daisy now happier to discuss plans for marriage.

  Daisy: ‘They’re all mental. All this fuss for a man and woman we don’t know.’

  Daisy: ‘You tried to wreck the visit of the King of England. You risked being sacked, you risked ruin, just for the love of me?’

  Michael was delighted to have a few significant scenes in the movie, particularly as he had expected only to be in one episode of the television series when he originally joined for the final episode of season four. ‘It was great to be back on set, and as I only joined in the last two seasons, for me it all finished a little sooner than I would have liked. They are all such a great group of actors, and on the film I really savoured every moment.’ Sophie was similarly happy to be back among friends, particularly her sidekick Lesley Nicol, who plays Mrs Patmore, the two characters having worked together in the kitchen for so many years.