Downton Abbey

by Julian Fellowes

  MATTHEW: We’ll need you to write a letter to the Home Secretary, a Mr Shortt.

  MURRAY: I’ll leave for London at once and put it into his hand myself.

  ROBERT: He’s a Liberal, isn’t he? Pity.

  ISOBEL: He’s a decent man.*

  MURRAY: The flaw in their case is the question of premeditation. Even if Mr Bates had run to the cellar for the poison and pushed it into her food, we can argue strongly he didn’t plan it.

  ANNA: He didn’t plan it because he didn’t do it!

  MATTHEW: And we’ll stress the circumstantial nature of the evidence. There may still be elements that come to light.

  ANNA: What chance do you think we have?

  Matthew looks at Murray, who makes the decision to be honest.

  MURRAY: It’s not a good chance, Mrs Bates. But there’s still a chance…*

  * Edward Shortt was Home Secretary in Lloyd George’s Government from 1919. Later, he argued that the grave responsibility of recommending a reprieve or the reverse should no longer rest upon the Home Secretary’s shoulders alone. The responsibility for the final decision should be shared by a commission of three: the Home Secretary, the Lord Chief Justice and the judge who presided at the trial. But he did not manage to persuade them to change the system.

  * I was pleased with that scene, which I thought they all played very well. Anna has to grasp that if they still try to plead Bates’s innocence, he will probably hang, but if they simply argue lack of premeditation, then he probably won’t hang, which will mean that they can get back to work and attempt to prove him innocent. For the wife or the husband of someone who has been wrongly convicted, this would be a very, very difficult suggestion to accept.

  I always enjoy it when Mr Murray comes up from London to advise the family on the latest drama. He is played by a very old friend, Jonathan Coy, and we met making a play for Granada in 1976, almost forty years ago, which is rather frightening.

  51 INT. SERVANTS’ HALL. DOWNTON. EVE.

  The household is assembled and silent. Mrs Hughes and O’Brien are both there. Carson comes in as Mrs Hughes is speaking.

  MRS PATMORE: When will they be back?

  MRS HUGHES: I’m not sure. They took Anna to an inn to help her catch her breath.

  DAISY: How will we ever face her?

  MRS HUGHES: With kindness, I hope.

  HALL BOY: When will he be hanged?

  There is a beat of silence. Carson turns to the housekeeper.

  CARSON: Her ladyship wondered if you could give her an account of the day.

  MRS HUGHES: Of course.

  But before she leaves, she addresses the room.

  MRS HUGHES (CONT’D): I’d like to say, I may have been called for the prosecution, but I do not believe in Mr Bates’s guilt.

  SHORE: What about you, Miss O’Brien? You’re very quiet.

  O’BRIEN: I’m sorry to have been part of it.

  Mrs Hughes and Carson have gone. Thomas leans over.

  THOMAS: There’ll have to be a new valet now. Won’t there?

  O’BRIEN: I don’t often feel selfless. But when I listen to you, I do.*

  * Here we see the other side of O’Brien. There are no entirely unsympathetic characters in Downton. But there is always a sub-text, or at least I try to suggest one. O’Brien made this trouble by sending the letter and getting Vera up to Yorkshire to confront Bates. It was all her fault, and I think it’s believable that, now a man is to hang for it, she is sorry. She doesn’t like Bates, but she doesn’t want anyone to hang because of something she’s done.

  52 INT. DRAWING ROOM. DOWNTON. NIGHT.

  Mrs Hughes is with Cora.

  CORA: His lordship will be so upset.

  MRS HUGHES: We’re all upset downstairs, m’lady.

  CORA: Of course you are… His lordship and Lady Mary won’t want to change, so we won’t either. Please ask Mrs Patmore to serve dinner twenty minutes after they arrive.

  MRS HUGHES: Very good, m’lady.

  CORA: When is that terrible man coming? To look at Ethel’s boy?

  MRS HUGHES: Saturday, m’lady. But there’s no need for you to see them.

  CORA: Thank heaven for that. Oh, Mrs Hughes, this is a time of grief for us. Of grief and heartbreak.

  Mrs Hughes nods and goes to the door with a heavy heart.

  53 INT. KITCHEN. DOWNTON. NIGHT.

  Daisy is working with Mrs Patmore.

  DAISY: I suppose it’s down to me again.

  MRS PATMORE: What is?

  DAISY: To produce dinner twenty minutes after they arrive, when we don’t know if it’s in two or ten hours’ time.

  MRS PATMORE: What’s got into you all of a sudden?

  DAISY: Nothing. I mean, I know I’m a dog’s body, but —

  MRS PATMORE: How can you choose today of all days to complain about your lot? I expect Mr Bates would rather be wondering how to keep a roast chicken warm than sitting in a lonely cell, facing his Maker.*

  * Daisy’s discontent has been stirred up by Shore. It is a belief of mine that there are people in this life, and quite a lot of them are politicians, who spend their life persuading everyone who’ll listen that they are very unhappy with their lot. They tell their audience that they’re being ill-used and mistreated and taken advantage of, and all of this stuff is coming from people who wish to control the lives of others. I hate controllers, so wherever I can attack them, I certainly do.

  54 INT. LIBRARY. DOWNTON. NIGHT.

  Robert is alone by the fire with a glass of whisky, which he sips, staring into the flames. He looks up as Mary comes in.

  MARY: You’ve been hiding from us.

  ROBERT: I couldn’t do any more chatter. Are the Crawleys still here?

  MARY: They went ages ago. Mama and Edith have gone up.

  She sits near him.

  MARY (CONT’D): I am so dreadfully, dreadfully sorry about today.

  ROBERT: I know you are… How’s Anna?

  MARY: I sent her to bed.

  ROBERT: It must all be resolved by Friday, anyway… Can I ask you something?

  MARY: Of course.

  ROBERT: Do you stay with Carlisle because he’s threatened to expose the story of Mr Pamuk dying in your bed?

  This is an astonishing revelation. Mary almost gasps.

  MARY: When did you find out?

  ROBERT: Your mother told me, when I asked why you were still with Carlisle when you were so tired of him.

  MARY: How very disappointed you must be.

  ROBERT: Your mama chose her moment well. She spoke at a time when it seems quite unimportant, compared to other disappointments we must face. And you’re not the first Crawley to make a mistake.

  MARY: To answer your question, it is partly true, but not entirely. In Mama’s phrase, I am damaged goods now. Richard is, after all, prepared to marry me in spite of it, to give me a position, to give me a life.

  ROBERT: And that’s worth it? Even though he already sets your teeth on edge?

  Mary does not try to deny this.

  ROBERT (CONT’D): What about Matthew? How does he view the late Mr Pamuk?

  MARY: He doesn’t know.

  ROBERT: So that is not what split you apart? I thought it might have been.

  MARY: Oh, no… There were other reasons for that… to do with Lavinia…

  ROBERT: I see. And those reasons are final?

  MARY: They are final for Matthew, so, yes, they are.

  Robert stands as he turns this round in his brain.

  ROBERT: Here’s what I think. Break with Carlisle. He may publish, but we’ll be a house of scandal anyway with Bates’s story. Go to America. Stay with your grandmother until the fuss dies down. You may find the New World is to your taste.

  MARY: He’ll keep my secret if I marry him.

  ROBERT: Once, I might have thought that a good thing, but I’ve been through a war and a murder trial since then. To say nothing of your sister’s choice of husband. I don’t want my daughter to be married to a
man who threatens her with ruin. I want a good man for you, a brave man. Find a cowboy in the Middle West and bring him back to shake us up a bit.

  MARY: Oh, Papa!

  She jumps up and hugs him for his forgiveness.*

  * A lot of things are routinely said about posh people, that they never worry about money or that they’re always rude to their servants, or whatever, and much, if not all, of it is untrue. But they do hate scandal. They hate publicity, and they hate to be in the papers, with very few exceptions. So, for Robert to suggest that it might be better for Mary to brave the scandal than to marry the wrong man is a most amazingly loving thing. And once Mary knows that her father doesn’t think it’s worth avoiding the bad publicity, then we realise she’s not going to marry Carlisle. Within the strictures of posh behaviour, this scene is as genuinely loving as any moment in the entire show, and they play it beautifully. I was pleased with the line about the cowboy: ‘Bring him back to shake us up a bit.’

  55 INT. CARSON’S PANTRY. DOWNTON. NIGHT.

  Carson is checking the silver.

  THOMAS: Have you got a minute, Mr Carson?

  CARSON: Only a minute. I’ve to go up and attend to his lordship.

  THOMAS: Well, that’s the point. This news is going to change things, isn’t it?

  CARSON: I have every hope that Mr Bates’s sentence will be commuted. His lordship is doing everything —

  THOMAS: I know. And I hope he’s successful, but even if he is, Mr Bates won’t be coming home this weekend, will he?

  CARSON: I’m afraid not.

  THOMAS: So I — I wondered if you’d given any more thought to my application.

  This is a little awkward.

  CARSON: I’m sorry, but I have spoken to his lordship and he thinks you’re more suited to your present position.

  THOMAS: He doesn’t trust me, does he? Because of the stealing. I knew it.

  CARSON: If you knew it, then why did you pursue it?

  56 INT. KITCHEN. DOWNTON. DAY.

  Daisy is sighing as she peels potatoes.

  MRS PATMORE: What is it now?

  DAISY: Nothing.

  MRS PATMORE: Well, it’s not nothing, is it?

  DAISY: I just feel taken for granted. Sometimes I think you don’t notice that I’m human at all.

  MRS PATMORE: Oh, so it’s my fault?

  DAISY: You talk to me like when I first came, but I know things now —

  MRS PATMORE: Things I taught you.

  DAISY: Maybe, but I learned them and I work well, but you wouldn’t know it the way I’m treated. It may be wrong to complain with Mr Bates like he is, but he reminds me that life’s short and I’m wasting mine.

  SHORE: Please listen to her.*

  She is standing in the doorway, watching.

  MRS PATMORE: Have you put her up to this?

  SHORE: It’s what she feels.

  MRS PATMORE: Daisy, you’re tired. Why not get away for a day? You told Mr Mason you’d go to the farm. Go, then. Breathe the air. Have a rest.

  DAISY: I couldn’t. I don’t think William would like it.

  MRS PATMORE: Ohh!

  * They took Shore out of this scene because the actress couldn’t film on that day, which was rather a shame, but that’s just one of those things. Good actors tend to be busy actors and one just has to work round it. That said, there are of course many, many actors who are very good indeed but who never get that essential first lucky break.

  57 EXT. CEMETERY. DOWNTON VILLAGE. DAY.

  The new gravestone reads: Lavinia Catherine Swire, 1895–1919, beloved daughter of Reginald and Anne Swire, ‘I will turn their mourning into joy.’ Mary is walking towards the grave when she sees Matthew and Isobel standing there.

  MATTHEW: You got my note. I’m so pleased.

  ISOBEL: I’m going to fight off Mr Travis if he objects. He can be so difficult.

  MARY: We should be able to manage him between us.

  Matthew speaks to Mary, but he does not exclude his mother.

  MATTHEW: I’m so glad you’re here. And I feel, somehow, we were all of us part of each other’s story for a while and…

  MARY: And now that story is at an end.

  ISOBEL: In what way?

  MARY: Well, Matthew doesn’t want to live here, and I’m moving away soon.

  MATTHEW: You mean to Haxby?

  MARY: Wherever I go, the time we shared is over. And Lavinia was a part of that.

  ISOBEL: Let’s take a moment to remember her.

  And the three of them bow their heads as Matthew starts.

  MATTHEW: I thought we’d start with a prayer. Our Father, which art in Heaven…

  58 INT. LIBRARY. DOWNTON. DAY.

  Violet walks in and sits down. She hears sobbing. Surprised, she gets up and walks round the sofa to find Daisy. The girl is wracked with sobs as she builds the fire.

  VIOLET: Oh! What on earth’s the matter?

  Daisy nearly jumps out of her skin.

  59 EXT. DOWNTON VILLAGE. DAY.

  Mary walks off. Matthew and Isobel start for Crawley House.

  ISOBEL: She’s still in love with you, you know?

  MATTHEW: I don’t think so.

  ISOBEL: Well, I’m sorry, but it’s as plain as the nose on your face.

  MATTHEW: I thought you didn’t like her for throwing me over.

  ISOBEL: That’s a different conversation.

  MATTHEW: Mother, it has to be like this. I’m afraid I can’t explain why… At least, I’m not going to.

  ISOBEL: Something to do with Lavinia?

  MATTHEW: Maybe.

  ISOBEL: Well, you see, I think you’re wrong. Lavinia wouldn’t have wanted this. She was a sweet girl, a kind girl… She wouldn’t have wanted you to be unhappy.

  MATTHEW: You don’t understand. I deserve to be unhappy. So does Mary.

  ISOBEL: Nobody your age deserves that. And if you are, and you can do something about it and don’t, well, the war’s taught you nothing.

  MATTHEW: That’s your opinion.

  ISOBEL: Yes. It is.

  END OF ACT FOUR

  ACT FIVE

  60 EXT. GARDENS. DOWNTON. DAY.

  Robert is walking when Carson hurries up.

  CARSON: The Dowager Countess has arrived. She’s waiting in the library.

  ROBERT: Waiting for what?

  CARSON: Well, you, I suppose, m’lord.

  ROBERT: I was out here looking for Isis. You don’t know where she might be?

  CARSON: I haven’t seen the dog, m’lord.

  ROBERT: Can you ask in the servants’ hall?*

  * The clue to Isis’s disappearance came at the New Year’s Eve drinks, when Thomas looks at her and she wags her tail. For that moment we made quite a big thing of the shot of the dog, because we knew the plot would have to hang over for quite a long time before Thomas took action in his endeavour to be appointed Robert’s valet. He has followed O’Brien’s suggestion: ‘Make him grateful. Do him a good turn. Hide something he loves, then find it and give it back.’ And there is nothing Robert loves more than his dogs.

  61 INT. LIBRARY. DOWNTON. DAY.

  Violet is now seated, with Daisy standing before her.

  VIOLET: But you can’t have been false to him. You were his wife for only half an hour.

  DAISY: It’s difficult to explain, m’lady.

  VIOLET: Well, try.

  DAISY: I led him on. When he was wounded, I let him think that I loved him.

  VIOLET: Why?

  DAISY: I thought it’d cheer him up, give him something to live for.

  VIOLET: And you did all this when you didn’t even like him?

  DAISY: No. I did like him. Very, very much. Everyone liked our William.

  VIOLET: Oh, so you married him to keep his spirits up at the end?

  DAISY: I suppose I did, yes.

  VIOLET: Well, forgive me, but that doesn’t sound unloving. To me, that sounds as if you loved him a great deal.*

  The door opens and Robert comes in
.

  ROBERT: I’m sorry to keep you waiting, Mama, I’ve been outside. I was looking for —

  Daisy bobs a curtsey, snatches up her bucket and hurries out.

  ROBERT (CONT’D): What was she doing?

  VIOLET: Mending the fire and suffering.

  ROBERT: She shouldn’t be here at this hour. Why isn’t Thomas on duty?

  VIOLET: I don’t need you to tell me the world is falling about our ears… Is there any news on Bates?

  ROBERT: Not yet. Murray has a meeting with the Home Secretary later today. We should know something then.

  VIOLET: I’m surprised there isn’t more in the papers. ‘Earl’s valet to swing’ and so on, but I’ve seen hardly anything, and nothing about you.

  ROBERT: I quite agree and I can’t enlighten you. Is that why you’re here?

  VIOLET: Well, not exactly. I wanted to talk about Rosamund and Hepworth.

  ROBERT: Careful. She might come in.

  VIOLET: Then I shall speak quickly. I only want to know one thing: is a woman of Rosamund’s age entitled to marry a fortune hunter?

  ROBERT: Does she know all the facts?

  VIOLET: Yes, yes, she does.

  ROBERT: Then I would say yes. But, for God’s sake, let’s tie up the money.

  VIOLET: My thoughts exactly… What is the matter, Robert?

  ROBERT: Isis has gone missing. I can’t think where she’s got to…

  * I always like to bring about conjunctions involving characters who don’t meet in the natural way of things. And there is no greater distance at Downton than that between the Dowager Countess and Daisy the kitchen maid. So I was looking for some legitimate reason that would allow them to share a scene. Of course, before the war, if a fire had to be mended during the day, it would be a footman’s job, but this slight breakdown in the routine seemed to reflect the changes going on all around, so I felt it was reasonably believable.

  62 EXT. WOODLAND. DOWNTON. DAY.

  The dog is walking along through the woods, being led on a string by Thomas. He arrives at an old shed, a shelter for the keepers. He puts the dog inside and slides the bolt.

  THOMAS: In you go, Isis, in you go. Good girl. Good girl.

  63 INT. ROSAMUND’S BEDROOM. DOWNTON. DAY.

  Rosamund is changing for dinner, helped by Shore.

  ROSAMUND: Any talk of the luckless valet?

  SHORE: Nothing downstairs… So, is Lord Hepworth coming for the ball?