Downton Abbey

by Julian Fellowes

  ROSAMUND: Lady Grantham’s written to ask him. But I think now I should have waited until I was back in London.

  SHORE: Oh, no. He’ll cheer you up, m’lady. I promise you. Specially if the house is in mourning.

  ROSAMUND: That’s a comfort, I suppose.*

  * We lost this scene between Rosamund and Shore, which was sad because I feel that when someone is playing a lady’s maid, or a valet, or a chauffeur, you want to see them doing the job. That was the only moment when we actually saw Shore working as Rosamund’s maid, as opposed to coming out of her room into the passage, but it wasn’t one I wanted to go to the stake for.

  64 INT. YORK PRISON. DAY.

  Anna is with Bates, alone, with a warder watching.

  ANNA: Mr Murray’s gone to London with the lawyers and he’s going to see —

  BATES: Ssh.

  He smiles at her, much less unhappy than she is.

  BATES (CONT’D): Will you stay on at Downton?

  ANNA: Who says they’ll let me?

  BATES: They’ll let you. And you’ll have some money. Mr Murray thinks you can keep it, or most of it.

  She will not comment. She just shakes her head.

  BATES (CONT’D): I want you to thank his lordship for trying to help me —

  ANNA: Yes, but what he said —

  BATES: He didn’t want to say it. And I won’t blame him for not lying.

  ANNA: He regrets not lying. I heard him say it.

  BATES: Give him my best wishes for the future. And wish all of them well. I don’t want you to hold it against Mrs Hughes or Miss O’Brien —

  ANNA: If you think I can ever —

  BATES: Even Miss O’Brien. We’ve not been friends, but she doesn’t want me here. Please forgive them. I do.†

  ANNA: I’m not sorry, you know… Not a bit. I would marry you now, if I wasn’t already your wife. I would!

  BATES: God knows, I’m not sorry, either. Maybe I should be, but no man can regret loving as I have loved you.

  She can’t speak, but reaches for his hand across the table.

  WARDER: No touching!

  BATES: For God’s sake, man. You know where I am bound. How dangerous can this be?

  The warder looks for a moment, then nods and turns his back. Bates stands and draws Anna to him.

  BATES (CONT’D): One kiss. To take with me.

  He kisses her. There is the sound of a guard outside the door and they are apart by the time the door is thrown open…*

  † Needless to say, Bates forgives Robert and generally forgives everyone, which Anna finds much harder to do than he does. But I never feel he is too much Saint Bates to be true. There is darkness underneath. That is the strength of Brendan Coyle’s wonderful performance.

  * It was a different system then and visits of this sort were supervised by a single warder, as prison officers were called. This one has a reasonably kind heart and allows them a kiss. Hopefully, as a result, eyes were streaming among the show’s followers.

  65 INT. SERVANTS’ HALL. DOWNTON. NIGHT.

  O’Brien and Thomas are playing planchette when Mrs Patmore arrives. Daisy is watching and two maids are also playing.

  MRS PATMORE: Still at it?

  THOMAS: The secrets of the universe are boundless.

  MRS PATMORE: Are they indeed?

  Then she looks at Daisy and has an idea.

  MRS PATMORE (CONT’D): All right. Shove over.

  O’BRIEN: You’ve changed your tune.

  MRS PATMORE: Have I? Perhaps I have. Now, let’s get going. Who’s out there?

  She has planted her finger on the glass.

  O’BRIEN: But we’ve already —

  MRS PATMORE: Here we go.

  The glass moves firmly towards W. Thomas and O’Brien seem to be struggling to control it, but now it heads for I. L. L. I. A. M.

  DAISY: William? Is it really you, William?

  MRS PATMORE: YES.

  DAISY: Oh, my Lord! Oh, my God! William? Is it you? What do you want?

  Mrs Patmore is red-faced with effort as the glass continues to move apparently against the wishes of O’Brien and Thomas.

  MRS PATMORE: GO. TO. FARM. MAKE. DAD. HAPPY. Go to the farm. Make Dad happy. You can’t say fairer than that.

  SHORE: Is it usually so specific?

  O’BRIEN: Not usually, no.

  MRS PATMORE: Well, that’s enough for me. Ooh, this stuff is thirsty work.

  She stands and retreats to the kitchen, followed by Daisy. The game has broken up. O’Brien looks at Thomas.

  THOMAS: That was a clear instruction.

  O’BRIEN: Very clear. Mrs Patmore’s stronger than she looks.

  THOMAS: Nobody’s stronger than she looks…

  66 INT. HALL. DOWNTON. NIGHT.

  Matthew has just been admitted by Carson.

  CARSON: They’re in the drawing room, sir.

  MATTHEW: I’m really only here to see Lady Mary, Carson. Is there any chance of hooking her out?

  CARSON: Leave it with me, sir.

  ROBERT: Matthew? You should have come earlier. You could have had dinner.

  He is walking across the hall towards them, looking worried.

  MATTHEW: Is something the matter?

  ROBERT: My dog’s gone missing. I was going to go and look for her.

  MATTHEW: We should organise a search party, ask the menservants to join us. Then we can apply some real method. Wouldn’t you agree, Carson?

  67 EXT. WOODS. DOWNTON. NIGHT.

  A line of searchers with lanterns fans out across the woods, calling. Robert leads them. Mary is with Edith further back.

  ROBERT: Isis! Come here, girl! Isis!

  MARY: Poor Papa. I wonder if she’s been stolen.

  EDITH: What a horrid thought.

  Through the trees, Thomas can glimpse the shed. He is walking alongside Carson when he stops and stares at it.

  CARSON: Thomas? What’s the matter with you?

  THOMAS: Nothing.

  He would go over to the shed… when Robert claps his hands.

  ROBERT: I’m afraid we’ll have to call it a night, but remember there’s ten pounds for anyone who finds her tomorrow. For now, thank you all very much.

  MARY: Poor Papa. It’s terrible for you.

  ROBERT: She may turn up. She may be trapped somewhere. We could still find her.

  Carson turns to Thomas.

  CARSON: Get back to the house as fast as you can and ask Mrs Patmore to heat up some soup for the searchers.

  Thomas glances at the outline of the shed in the darkness.*

  CARSON (CONT’D): Thomas?

  THOMAS: Yes, Mr Carson.

  There is nothing he can do. Mary is now walking by Matthew.

  MATTHEW: Poor Robert. This is an awful time for him.

  MARY: Why were you up at the house this evening? Did Papa summon you?

  MATTHEW: As a matter of fact I came to see you. I wanted to find out what you meant when you said you had to marry Carlisle… and that I’d despise you if I knew the reason —

  MARY: Yes. You would.

  MATTHEW: Whatever it is, it cannot be enough for you to marry him.

  MARY: That’s what Papa said.

  MATTHEW: So you told him?

  MARY: Yes.

  MATTHEW: And does he despise you?

  MARY: He’s very disappointed in me.

  This is the first real clue. He looks at her.

  MATTHEW: Even so. Please tell me…*

  * I think that if Thomas could have arranged to find Isis in the shed that night, he would have done it, and got the dog back inside the house. But of course he can’t because he’s been sent on an errand by Carson. So he’s stuck with leaving it there. But he’s got nothing against the poor animal, and I’m pretty sure he would have been uncomfortable about it.

  * Matthew wants to have it out with Mary and learn her terrible secret, whatever it may be, and so we leave them to it, assuming she will tell him all. But what sets the style of Downton wit
h moments like this is that the audience knows what is being said, so they don’t have to hear it. It’s the same with our treatment of sex in the series. The audience knows what’s happening, or going to happen, but on the whole we let them imagine it, rather than see it. They will understand that the event has taken place, and they can argue about it, standing round the water cooler the following day, but they are spared the abrasive experience of actually watching it. Of course, it is slightly old-fashioned, and as a narrative style owes more to old Hollywood than modern television, but it seems to work for us.

  68 INT. MRS HUGHES’S SITTING ROOM. DOWNTON. NIGHT.

  Carson is with the housekeeper. He still has his coat on.

  MRS HUGHES: You’d think the good Lord would have spared him the loss of his dog. At a time like this.

  CARSON: Ours not to reason why.

  MRS HUGHES: When will we hear about Mr Bates?

  Carson shakes his head as he takes the coat off.

  MRS HUGHES (CONT’D): I don’t know how they’ve kept it out of the papers. I suppose that’ll change if it goes ahead. I can’t bear to think of it. How will Anna bear it?

  CARSON: As the widow of a murderer? She’ll have to get used to a degree of notoriety, I’m afraid. And so will we, as the house that shelters her.

  ANNA: Then let me put you out of your misery right away, Mr Carson. By handing in my notice.

  She is standing in the doorway.

  MRS HUGHES: You don’t mean that.

  ANNA: Yes, I do. If I stay here, I keep the story alive. If I go away, to Scotland, say, or London, it’ll die soon enough. I’ll just be one more housemaid, lost in the crowd.

  CARSON: She has a point.

  MRS HUGHES: Not one that I accept.

  ANNA: I mean it, Mrs Hughes. I do.

  69 EXT. DOWNTON. NIGHT.

  Matthew is silent. Mary watches him. He is stunned.

  MARY: Say something. If it’s only goodbye.

  MATTHEW: Did you love him?

  MARY: You mustn’t try to —

  MATTHEW: Because if it was love, then —

  MARY: How could it be love? I didn’t know him.

  MATTHEW: But then why would you —?

  MARY: It was lust, Matthew, or a need for excitement or something in him that I — Oh, God, what difference does it make? I’m Tess of the d’Urbervilles to your Angel Clare. I have fallen. I am impure.

  MATTHEW: Don’t joke. Don’t make it little. Not when I’m trying to understand.

  His pain does move her, and her voice softens.

  MARY: Thank you for that… But the fact remains that I am made different by it. Things have changed between us.

  MATTHEW: Even so, you must not marry him.

  MARY: So I must brave the storm?

  MATTHEW: You’re strong. A storm-braver if ever I saw one.

  MARY: I wonder. Sybil’s the strong one. She really doesn’t care what people think, but I’m afraid I do… Papa suggested I go to New York, to stay with Grandmama to ride it out.

  MATTHEW: You can find some unsuspecting millionaire.

  MARY: Preferably one who doesn’t read English papers.

  For the first time, they both half laugh.

  MATTHEW: Go or stay, you must sack Carlisle. It isn’t worth buying off a month of scandal with a lifetime of misery. When is he due back?

  MARY: Tomorrow. He and Aunt Rosamund’s beau are returning for the Servants’ Ball.

  MATTHEW: Will that still go ahead?

  MARY: Not if Bates is — Not if the worst happens. Papa hasn’t faced that it probably will.

  CORA: Matthew, are you coming in for some soup?

  She is standing in the doorway.

  MATTHEW: You’re kind, but no, thank you. My work is done for tonight.

  Cora goes back inside. He turns to Mary.

  MATTHEW (CONT’D): You were wrong about one thing.

  MARY: Only one? And what is that, pray?

  MATTHEW: I never would, I never could, despise you.*

  * I like this scene because Mary doesn’t try to sentimentalise what she did. She fancied a man very much and she went to bed with him. That is the beginning, middle and end of it. There’s something in her, and this is why in the end you like her despite her toughness, that won’t allow her to lie. She won’t say: ‘Oh, we fell so in love and we were married in our hearts.’ She wants Matthew to see the worst of her, because if he’s going to forgive her, he’s got to forgive what really happened and not the version he would prefer to hear.

  The reference to Tess of the D’Urbervilles and Angel Clare – i.e. the fallen woman and the saintly man – is probably lost on people who haven’t read the novel, but Hardy lived almost next door to us in Dorset, and in fact he used our village church as the model for the marriage of Tess and Angel, so it felt right. It’s quite an interesting church, actually, with a rood screen from Archbishop Laud’s unpopular revival of many Catholic practices in the 1630s. Cromwell’s army destroyed Laud’s screens in all but a handful of churches in England, and our village boasts one of them.

  70 INT. SERVANTS’ HALL. DOWNTON. NIGHT.

  O’Brien and Thomas are alone.

  O’BRIEN: Why didn’t you just go and ‘find’ the poor thing there and then?

  THOMAS: How? His lordship was in the way and Mr Carson sent me back with a message for Mrs Patmore.

  O’BRIEN: So you’re going to leave the wretched animal out all night?

  THOMAS: What reason could I give? If I went back and found her now?

  O’BRIEN: Go first thing, once you’re free, and just pray nothing’s happened. For your own sake.

  71 INT. ATTICS. DOWNTON. NIGHT.

  Anna is making her weary way to bed when she hears singing. She turns the corner and finds Shore opening her door.

  SHORE: I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to sound so merry.

  ANNA: Why not? The whole world doesn’t have to be grieving because I am.

  SHORE: I wish you luck. I do. Truly.

  With that, she starts to go into her bedroom.

  ANNA: Why were you so merry?

  SHORE: Oh… no reason, particularly.

  72 INT. KITCHEN. DOWNTON. NIGHT.

  The kitchen has been closed up for the night. Daisy is hanging the drying cloths by the stove.

  DAISY: Do you think that was William?

  MRS PATMORE: Who else could it have been? Who else would have known you’d been asked to the farm?

  DAISY: That’s true.

  MRS PATMORE: So will you go?

  DAISY: I feel I should, don’t you?

  MRS PATMORE: Oh, I think so.

  She turns out the lights, adding under her breath:

  MRS PATMORE (CONT’D): If only to spare my fingers…

  END OF ACT FIVE

  ACT SIX

  73 EXT. DOWNTON. DAY.

  A car and a van are parked outside.

  74 INT. SERVANTS’ HALL. DOWNTON. DAY.

  Ethel looks in with her little boy.

  ETHEL: Is Mrs Hughes about?

  SHORE: I’ll go and find her if you like.

  She goes, leaving the two of them alone.

  ETHEL: Who’s she?

  ANNA: Lady Rosamund’s new maid.

  Ethel remembers who she is talking to.

  ETHEL: Oh, Anna. What am I thinking of? I’m ever so sorry.

  Anna manages a slight smile as Mrs Hughes appears.

  MRS HUGHES: There you are, Ethel. Come with me.

  They go, passing Carson, who barely nods at Ethel.

  CARSON: Where’s Thomas? Has anyone clapped eyes on him?

  O’BRIEN: He went out after breakfast for something. He won’t be long.

  75 EXT. WOODLAND. DOWNTON. DAY.

  Thomas approaches the hut. He unbolts and opens the door. It is empty. He is horrified.

  76 INT. SERVANTS’ STAIRCASE. DOWNTON. DAY.

  Mrs Hughes and Ethel climb the stairs together.

  MRS HUGHES: Now, I don’t want any rowing.


  ETHEL: No.

  MRS HUGHES: Dignity at all times.

  ETHEL: Yes.

  MRS HUGHES: I don’t know why you’re doing this.

  ETHEL: Because I want them to see once and for all that I know my own mind. That I’m not nobody. It’s important.

  MRS HUGHES: Well, let’s get on with it.

  77 EXT. MASON’S FARM. DAY.

  Green fields surround the peaceful farmhouse. Daisy approaches.

  78 EXT. WOODLAND. DOWNTON. DAY.

  Thomas is fighting his way through briar and tare.

  THOMAS: Isis! Good dog! Isis! Good girl.

  He trips and falls into the mud.

  THOMAS (CONT’D): Oh, for God’s sake! Will you just bloody come, you stupid dog!

  79 INT. KITCHEN. MASON’S FARM. DAY.

  Mason and Daisy sit at a groaning table.

  DAISY: You shouldn’t have gone to all this trouble. Not for me.

  MASON: No? Not when you’re the nearest thing to a child of mine left on earth?

  DAISY: But I don’t deserve it. Not when I were only married to William for a few hours. You were there. You saw it.

  MASON: You may not know this, Daisy, but William had three brothers and a sister.*

  DAISY: What?

  MASON: All dead. At birth or not long after. I think that’s one reason why William married you. So that I wouldn’t be alone with all my bairns gone. Without you, I’d have no one to pray for. I think William knew that.

  DAISY: Oh.

  MASON: So, will you be my daughter? Let me take you into my heart, make you special? You’ll have parents of your own, of course —

  DAISY: I haven’t got any parents, not like that. I’ve never been special to anyone.

  MASON: Except William.

  DAISY: That’s right. I were only ever special to William. I never thought of it like that before.

  MASON: Well, now you’re special to me.

  * We knew William was an only child, but we did not know what we learn here, that he was the sole survivor of his parents’ children. Which was bad luck, but not extraordinary for that time. So maybe Mason is right and it was always William’s plan that his father should adopt Daisy, at least in his heart.

  80 INT. DRAWING ROOM. DOWNTON. DAY.

  Mrs Hughes, Ethel and little Charlie step into a fairyland. There is a rocking horse and soldiers and a castle and a little pedal car and a hoop and a bicycle and sweets and… Mr and Mrs Bryant standing at the centre of it all. Ethel is dumbstruck, as little Charlie stumbles over to the horse.