Downton Abbey s02e09 Episode Script
Behind the Drama
Downton Abbey: the most successful British drama series for a decade.
Welcome to Downton.
You'll find there's never a dull moment in this house.
Two unmissable series rising to 12 million viewers in the UK.
And some of period dramas most memorable moments.
I can't believe it.
It's so wonderful.
I won't allow it! He proposed to me.
Good heavens, what am I sitting on? Now let's get behind the drama with exclusive interviews with the cast of this hugely loved show.
Literally he has to fall flat on his face.
When are they gonna kiss? They finally kiss.
An explosion went off right in front of our faces.
Hear what they really think of their characters.
She's damaged goods.
She's just a really good egg, I think.
She's not very nice.
Now who's jealous? And see them in action behind the scenes.
There will be explosions on this take.
To uncover the secret of Downton Abbey's success.
Whoo! Guys like me don't always get asked to do heroic action stuff, you know.
Come at once! Come at once! Come and see this at once! It's July 2011.
The cast is filming a scene for the Christmas episode.
And, action.
I don't want to spoil their fun but I couldn't wear a paper hat not with poor Mr Bates locked away.
His Lordship said much thesame.
Everyone is still reeling from the shock of Mr Bates's arrest.
If things don't go right for Mr Bates, have you given any thought to his replacement? There'll be plenty of time for that conversation after the trial.
Cut there, reset, thank you.
Resetting.
So far we've met 33 characters in the Downton saga.
Whatever their position in society, they all have a place in the story.
When we were devising Downton, we knew it was very important that we would treat everyone equally.
We just wanted a group of people who were all, for one reason or another, living in this one house but with different expectations of life and they go through different traumas but equal traumas.
and in a great house with more than 50 bedrooms, they had plenty to do.
The house is kind of like a swan.
It's beautiful and graceful and floating above the surface and underneath the legs are kind of going wild making it all happen and the servants are like the legs of the house.
You get barely time to, well, I won't say it but, yes, you know what I mean.
We all know who's boss upstairs.
The Dowager Countess.
I couldn't put it better myself.
But, if anything, the hierarchy's even stricter in the servants' quarters.
William, are you aware the seam at your shoulder is coming apart? Below stairs you can generally tell who is important to be seen in the principal rooms and in those days, it was young men, the footmen.
They were the peacocks.
They are designed to reflect the status the Granthams are trying to convey.
Obviously, at the head of the chain is Carson.
Downton Abbey.
Carson the butler speaking.
And Daisy, everybody knows, is at the bottom.
And that is why she has the rotten, miserable jobs, doing all the gritty, earthy work that has to be done.
We should go out to greet them.
And me, Mr Carson? No, Daisy, not you.
She's never allowed to be seen upstairs and you can tell because she's dressed that way.
Today, Britain's great houses have lost their traditional kitchens and sculleries.
So, Daisy's world has been recreated at the famous Ealing studios.
The upstairs cast rarely get to visit the myriad of sets here but it's where every downstairs scene is shot and the attention to detail is amazing.
We used to have taps that worked but they don't seem to be working any more.
The other day I went to turn the tap on in a scene and I was gonna wash my hands and they just didn't turn on, so I was like, 'Oh, hm.
' But, yeah, this all works.
This gets very hot and you can actually cook things.
I did a scene with Lady Sybil.
Why does everything go so lumpy? And this comes out and they shoot through there.
Ooh, there's this bit.
I love the household wants indicator.
It's an old-fashioned shopping list and it's really cool.
If they ran out of things, they'd just do that with the little tag.
How clever is that? Even the food on set is authentic for the period, though once it's gone cold after a few takes, it doesn't taste quite so delicious.
Just don't let Mrs Patmore hear you say that.
Mrs Patmore looks ready to eat her alive.
I was only trying to help.
Oh! Judas was only trying to help, I suppose, when he brought the Roman soldiers to the garden.
When I first got the job, people would say to me, 'Are you above stairs or below stairs?' And I'd say, 'What do you think?' Daisy and Mrs Patmore, I think they have kind of a mother-daughter relationship.
Although a very, very bossy mother who is also your boss.
I said you could go for a drink of water not a trip up the Nile.
It's very important to get her up to speed because if she does, she'll have a chance of probably going on and being promoted and one day she might be a cook herself, so the reasoning behind it is not just to be an old cow.
Sometimes my lines are really easy to learn cos I just have to say, 'Yes, Mrs Patmore, ' 15 times.
Yes, Mrs Patmore.
And run around pretending to make cakes.
Have you laid the service for breakfast? Yes, Mrs Patmore.
And finish blacking that stove.
Yes, Mrs Patmore.
Lesley has really hard lines to learn cos she always has sayings and phrases.
You know, like I'm trying to think of one now.
It's just the sprat to catch the mackerel.
Is that a phrase? He knows this is justthe sprat to catch the mackerel.
He understands.
He knows this is just the sprat to catch the mackerel.
She's witty and she knows she's witty and she enjoys it and she enjoys put-downs and she's a bit sarky.
Ooh, talk about making a silk purse out of a sow's ear.
I wish we had a sow's ear.
It'd be better than this brisket.
The cook had a very tough working life.
Will you leave me and let me get on with this travesty? I always feel with Mrs Patmore that if she didn't keep up the cracks, you know, she would just go forward with her forehead on her elbows and think, 'God, is this ever going to end?' Ooh, what a dreadful thing.
In Britain's great houses, intimate relationships between staff were frowned upon and the relentless hard work left littletime for romance.
But against the odds, some servants did find love.
The Anna and Bates story was the one that captured everyone's kind of imagination.
Everyone wanted them to get together.
When I was watching it, even though I knew what was happening.
You'd be like, 'Oh, come on.
' I'm John Bates, the new valet.
The new valet? That's right.
She clearly has empathy for this character on his arrival.
I'm Anna, the head house maid.
How do you do? Before Mr Bates comes along, I think she's just happy with her lot, really.
There's an attraction.
It's just alchemy.
She does fall for this man and she has this different option now in her life.
This relationship grows but it takes a long time to develop.
Everything we were talking about was not what we were saying.
It's sad to think about.
It's always sad when you love someone who doesn't love you back, no matter who you are.
Really we were kind of saying, 'I really like you.
' 'I really like you.
' So, it's really nice to play against the words and play against what you're actually talking about.
Perhaps Mr Patrick did love her back, he just couldn't say.
Why ever not? Sometimes we're not at liberty to speak.
Sometimes it wouldn't be right.
He doesn't wear his heart on his sleeve.
He keeps it buried where it belongs to reveal itself only when necessary.
And while Mr Bates plays his cards close to his chest, he still has to deal with hostility and resentment below stairs.
Remember to help me with the luggage.
Don't go running off.
I'll give you a hand.
I couldn't ask that, Mr Bates, not in your condition.
How long do we have to put up with this, Mr Carson, just so I know? Someone with such an injury would rarely, if ever, be employed in service in a house so it's of huge import to him that's he given this chance.
The arrival of a duke is an honour for the house and the servants must make a good impression.
But for Bates, it's a moment of shame.
I remember that scene vividly because, initially, it was going to be staged as the character falling to his knees, but I thought, metaphorically and literally, he has to fall flat on his face.
It was shot so many times, I was winded for a few days.
But it was very important that we saw this man's absolute humiliation.
Bates, are you all right? Perfectly, my Lord.
But the physical scars are the least of Bates's worries.
He can't escape his chequered past.
Nothing is harder to live with than false hope.
I wish you'd just come out with it.
With what? Mr Bates has the most amount of baggage of anybody, in the world, I think.
Whatever it is you're keeping secret.
He makes this, to me admirable, but essentially unmodern decision I'm afraid I cannot answer that.
Not to burden everyone else with his own troubles.
I just want to know the truth.
I cannot speak of it, my Lord.
But, of course, in a way it plays against him.
I bet Thomas would like it if they took you for a thief.
It means people can believe anything of him.
Yes, I expect he would.
She's a real trooper to stick by him but that's because they're so in love, you know.
The servants might have it tough but being at the helm of this ship isn't easy either.
Pregnant? Especially with daughters like these.
The Turk is a true story.
I think he's dead.
The sisters are wicked with each other.
She's a bit of a bitch.
So, he slipped the hook.
Downton Abbey's sumptuous setting is perhaps the biggest star of the show.
The cast and crew have spent more than 100 days filming many of the upstairs scenes at the magnificent Highclere castle.
It's like working in a piece of living history.
When you walk into the hall it's wonderful.
There's certainly a really great feeling when you're in the real thing.
OK, stand by.
The seat of the Earls of Carnarvon for three centuries, it's the perfect location for Downton Abbey.
Here the family faces losing everything to a perfect stranger.
When he arrives in the village, no-one is happy.
They'll push one of the daughters at me.
They'll have fixed on that when they heard I was a bachelor.
Lady Mary Crawley.
I do hope I'm not interrupting.
They get off to a really bad start.
It's probably the worst possible start to any relationship.
Won't you stay and have some tea? Oh, no.
You're far too busy and I wouldn't want to push in.
She's a cow at the beginning.
You know, she's so rude.
The whole thing is a complete joke.
Matthew Crawley has been thrust into Lady Mary's life by a maritime disaster.
I thought it was supposed to be unsinkable.
I can't make myself believe it.
Is it really true? Afraid so.
But all them people freezing to death in the midnight icy water.
The heir to Downton Abbey has gone down with the Titanic.
This alters everything.
And the entail means Lord Grantham's title, estate and fortune must go to the nearest male relation.
An entail, yes.
Yeah, we all had to have a bit of a lesson on that.
The entail must be smashed.
You can't break it.
I'll tell you that.
I've tried.
Can't break it.
It's a very strange thing that's asked of him, I think.
You know, to come into their midst and be told that, 'One day, my son, all this will be yours.
' You know, it's very odd.
Welcome to Downton.
Thank you.
You've been so kind.
It is my duty to make sure that he comes to terms with that, actually.
They're going to have to make the best of it.
What should we call each other? Well, we could always start with Mrs Crawley and Lady Grantham.
Everybody's trying to throw him curve balls and Mary, in particular, is very keen to wrong foot him and prove that he's not the right man for the job and that he shouldn't be there.
By the way, if ever you want to ride, just let Lynch know and he'll sort it out for you.
Oh, Papa, cousin Matthew doesn't ride.
I ride.
Mary is irritated, frustrated, angered by her loss of her own, what she thinks should have been her inheritance.
The vast majority of aristocratic families, the women have no rights at all.
If they could make a good marriage, then they could become very powerful indeed.
But if they did not make a good marriage, they had nothing.
To Lady Mary's family, the solution to her problem is simple.
Marry a man who can barely hold his knife like a gentleman? Oh, you exaggerate.
When marrying well is your sole ambition, dressing the part is vital.
I'll admit that if I ever wanted to attract a man, I'd steer clear of those clothes and that hat.
Day to day life for the girls really would have meant a lot of changing.
They would always change for dinner, even if it's just the five of them, they'll be wearing their pearls, their diamonds and their long, beautiful dresses.
So, I don't know how they got much else done.
It takes quite a while to put on those dresses.
Behind the scenes, a team of six works full-time to recreate the elaborate fashions down to the tiniest period detail.
This dress for Lady Mary Crawley.
It's a piece of vintage beading but then it was sort of reimagined with a new back and new trimmings.
I did this dress for Michelle as well, which is slightly later period.
It was inspired by a very early Chanel from 1919.
You look very nice.
Thank you, darling.
While the men are stuck in the same old white tie night after night, the ladies' beautiful look comes at a price.
I sometimes have personal run-ins with my corset.
I'm not a big fan of them.
And we've all got corsets on like they have.
The corsets can get a bit cheeky after 12 hours.
Below stairs they get all the discomfort of Edwardian dress with none of the glamour.
Downstairs girls, we get really bad costume envy.
If suddenly an upstairs character is around, that's when you start to feel like, 'Oh, my God, I'm so depressed.
' When Lady Crawley comes down, I was so confused.
I called her Your Majesty by mistake three times in the scene.
Your Ladyship, I went, 'Your Majesty.
' Cos I felt like I was talking to the Queen.
There was no sort of real rapport with her because she was so different.
Upstairs the finest clothes come out for visiting dignitaries.
But not every guest is an exciting prospect.
A Mr Kemal Pamuk.
I can see him now, a funny little foreigner with a wide, toothy grin and hair reeking of pomade.
I wouldn't quite say that.
Here he is now.
Lady Mary Crawley, I presume? You presume right.
Sorry to be so dishevelled.
We've been on a train since dawn and we had to change in a shake.
You don't look dishevelled to me.
She's often very hard with men and quite cold and steely and actually with Pamuk she just melted and was swept away by him.
You know, she sort of embarrasses herself quite a lot.
What is it? Is this picture really a della Francesca? I think so.
The second Earl brought back several paintings from Mr Pamuk.
The man from Turkey is not constrained by the social mores of the time that poor old Mary was and when Mr Pamuk walks into that room, he's decided he's going to have her.
She's not as sophisticated as a young woman of her age would be today.
She probably doesn't know much about the facts of life.
You and my parents have something in common.
Oh? You believe I'm much more of a rebel than I am.
Now please go.
It's in an era when there are huge ramifications for such a thing being discovered.
Unfortunately in a way that only Julian can dream up, she is caught and I don't need to tell you how.
I think he's dead.
No, I'm sure he's dead.
The Turk is a true story.
It's always rather interesting that what seems the most fictional is in fact based entirely in truth.
A great friend of ours who is an owner of a great house came upon a diary of one of his great aunts and this whole incident is recorded.
Now we must decide what to do for the best.
There's only one thing we can do.
It's just this dark secret between the two floors, you know, I think that's what is so brilliant about Downton.
It's when the characters come together that makes it so interesting.
We did all the scenes where we were carrying Mr Pamuk through the house and it was a mixture of it being kind of fun but also really, really shocking as well.
Something happened to Mary.
She made this huge mistake and now she's damaged goods.
I can't make his eyes stay shut.
It certainly made her more human and much more vulnerable as a person.
Of course it would happen to a foreigner.
It's typical.
Don't be ridiculous.
I'm not being ridiculous.
No Englishman would dream of dying in someone else's house.
Especially someone they didn't even know.
But Mary's scandalous story doesn't stay secret for long, thanks to the unsisterly behaviour of Lady Edith Crawley.
We have three grown-up, very rich girls who are bored out of their skull.
All their energy is turned into this sibling rivalry and fighting and bitterness and jealousy.
Spare me your boasting, please.
Now who's jealous? I told my family.
I said this part, this sister, she's not very nice.
She's a bit of a bitch, Edith, and after the first three episodes or so, my mum said to me, 'I don't know what you're talking about, she's lovely, she's misunderstood.
' And by the end she was like, 'No, yeah, you're right, she's awful, she's a bitch.
' Is it true you wrote to the Turkish ambassador about Kamal? Yeah, she behaves quite badly.
And what if I did? He had a right to know how his countryman died in the arms of a slut.
She is not so good-looking.
She is not so charismatic as her elder sister.
So, all of these men that are thrown at Mary, I think Edith is very jealous and desperate for an offer to come her way.
So, he slipped the hook.
At least I'm not fishing with no bait.
Yes, the sisters are really wicked with each other.
So, Matthew goes from being flavour of the month to suddenly being another pawn in a game again which is incredibly frustrating for him, I think.
You know, I don't dislike him as much as you do.
Perhaps you don't dislike him at all.
She thinks, 'If Mary doesn't want him, then I'll have a go, ' without any hope.
Lady Edith's plan of seduction starts by tempting Matthew with an architectural tour of local churches.
Edith doesn't really have any interest in these churches, she's just interested in spending time with cousin Matthew.
I wish we could talk a little more about you.
What was it like growing up in Manchester? Does it say anything about the side aisles? Just gazing lovingly at the back of Matthew's head and Matthew completely unaware.
I wonder how Mary's getting on.
All right, I should think.
Why? I just wondered.
I remember the first series, there was sort of a catchphrase on set of 'poor Edith' after the end of every scene.
We've time for one more at least before we lose the light.
I underestimated your enthusiasm.
Lady Mary can't help but notice that cousin Matthew's a hit with both her younger sisters.
You must be careful not to break Sybil's heart.
I think she has a crush on you.
Well, that's something no-one could accuse you of.
Oh, I don't know.
I assume you speak in the spirit of mockery? You should have more faith.
It's quite a bold move, in those times, to be left alone, having sandwiches over a dining table.
It's much more racy than it sounds these days but it's a nice scene to play because suddenly all the electricity that's been sparking around and building up over the course of the series, you were allowed to light the light bulb.
He proposed to me.
Oh, my dear.
Have you given him an answer? Only that I'd think about it.
Always Mary has to think about it.
She's impulsive in some ways but when it comes to making a decision, she finds it really difficult.
Pregnant? You needn't be quite soshocked.
Cora's happy news does nothing to help.
If your mother's child is a boy, then he's the heir and I go back to living on my wits and you'd rather not follow me.
Oh, Matthew, you always make everything so black and white.
I think this is black and white.
Do you love me enough to spend your life with me? It's the moment that she realises that it's not going to happen, I think that is the point where Mary realises that she does in fact really love him.
So I've ruined everything.
But in 1914, this whole world of elegance is turned upside down for everyone.
Action! It beats sitting round a dining table for three days, I tell you.
Even the great class divide is under threat.
When are they going to kiss? Come on! Are they ever going to kiss? They finally kiss.
The First World War transformed life in Britain and Downton Abbey is no exception.
I like that whole half century between 1890 and 1940 because it's only 50 years, you know, within many lifetimes, and yet it really was the transition of the old world into the new.
The trades union movement was beginning, Karl Marx's writings were having an influence across the world.
Women's rights and, of course, it took a war to release all this stuff.
Sergeant Stevens.
Sir? I want every wounded man taken down the line before it starts to get dark.
We've bloody well lost enough of them for one day.
Having volunteered to go to the front, Matthew is caught up in the Battle of the Somme, which claimed the lives of nearly 20,000 men on the first day of fighting alone.
Forward! The trenches stuff, it was such a joy because, you know, guys like me don't always get asked to do, sort of, heroic action stuff, you know.
There will be explosions on this take.
Let's make our hero heroic, for goodness' sake.
Well, he's certainly going to come across as that.
Give him something jolly brave to do.
And action! This is my wounded soldier.
Stuntman.
Yeah.
I asked for the smallest, lightest man they could find.
I've had no breakfast! On location in Suffolk, 50 supporting artists help bring to life this bloodiest of all battles.
Whoo! It's a world away from the splendour of Downton Abbey.
I still think Maggie Smith should be in this scene.
Lobbing mint imperials over the top! And, action! With the explosions and everything, it does get your adrenalin going.
Like there.
You know, differently timed explosions we hadn't rehearsed so we were just playing it as and when the crap falls on your head, which is amazing.
Yeah, it beats sitting around a dining table for three days, I tell you.
And the war makes its mark on Downton Abbey.
Many of Britain's great houses played a vital role in nursing injured soldiers back to health.
Highclere which is, you know, the real Downton, was not a convalescent home as we have it but a hospital.
A rather extraordinary character called Almina, Countess of Caernarfon, got her father to fund a real hospital.
Oh, really.
It's like living in a second-rate hotel where the guests keep arriving and no-one seems to leave.
I think the war sort of broke that vision that Edwardian England had of itself as this sort of flawless place where everyone knew who they were and what they should be doing.
Come on, damn you.
I think that was over.
While adjusting to the new order is difficult for some, for others, it offers a glimpse of the future.
Interestingly the daughters rise to the challenge first.
They find some useful purpose.
As soon as I've done this, I'll take your orders for books.
She grows up and understands the world in a different way and I think that she can be helpful and practical and carve a role for herself in the world that doesn't just include getting married.
I hadn't cast you as Florence Nightingale.
We can't leave all the moral high ground to Sybil.
She might get lonely there.
She's been in this house in this sort of little Downton bubble but being the kind of girl that she is, she needs to do something.
She can no longer just sit there.
By joining the ranks of World War I's 9,000 volunteer nurses, Lady Sybil sees the world outside the walls of Downton and her taste of freedom has far-reaching consequences.
We are talking about Branson, yes.
The chauffeur? Branson? What has he said to you? That he loves me and he wants me to run away with him.
Good God in heaven.
He falls head over heels in love and then spends a long time trying to convince her that she should do the same for him! I'll stay in Downton until you want to run away with me.
Don't be ridiculous.
She really has to consider losing her family, her friends, her security, her life, everything she's grown up with.
In the close confines of a house like Downton Abbey, it's not easy to pursue love across the class divide.
She's sort of constantly kind of, you know, popping into garage.
I wish I knew how an engine worked.
I can teach you if you'd like.
You know in that way when you like someone and you just want to sort of, you know, hang out.
Myself and Jess were joking, we're back here again.
It's three years later and I'm still tinkering with this car.
And, you know, we spent a long time in the garage of Downton.
Oh, don't badger me, please.
It is slow burning.
The whole way through I was constantly reading scripts going, 'When are they going to kiss? Will they ever kiss? I have to say I think Branson's very patient.
I wonder how many other people would wait for that long.
You get that sense every time she goes back to the garage, people are like, 'If you don't kiss, I'll throw something at the TV.
' It's like, 'Come on!' Yes, you can kiss me.
They finally kiss.
And at last, Lady Sybil and Branson escape the garage.
Oh, my God.
She's eloped.
She's on her way to Gretna Green.
They keep leaving notes.
This is the problem.
If they didn't leave notes, they would have been away, married and everything.
You don't expect a car chase in Downton.
I suppose we do have one.
Everyone keep an eye out for the motor.
Mary and Edith get in a car together and run and save their sister.
How did you find us? How did you know? But these two fear no-one not even Lord Grantham.
Yes? He bursts straight into them after dinner, which is completely unheard of.
Number one, he's a chauffeur, he shouldn't even be in the house.
You've asked me to come and I've come.
Would someone please tell me what is going on? Or have we all stepped through the looking glass? In the scene, everyone's so shocked kind of going, 'When did this happen? How did this happen?' I won't allow it.
I will not allow my daughter to throw away her life.
You can posture it all you like, Papa, it won't make any difference.
Oh, yes it will.
How? I don't want any money.
You can hardly lock me up until I die.
That's brave, I think, for the time.
I think that's a pretty brave thing to do.
Tom.
Downton's ordered world appears to be crumbling.
At least there's one couple doing things properly.
Mr Bates, is this a proposal? If that's what you want to call it.
And you might start calling me John.
Everything is rosy in the garden until the arrival of his first wife.
As an actress I was really pleased that it all went wrong cos I thought I don't want it to just be happily ever after cos otherwise I'll be bored.
You see, if you don't come back to me, I'm going to the newspapers with a cracking story and I'd like to bet the Grantham's won't survive it.
Oh? A diplomat dying in the bed of an earl's unmarried daughter? Well, that takes the ticket for the tale of the year.
It's bad enough that he won't come back, that's bad enough but that's liveable with.
The idea that he won't come back cos he's going to be happy with someone else, is intolerable.
Vera's interference You bitch.
Is enough to push Bates to the limit.
Your Lordship, I need to go to London tomorrow.
Please say this concerns property and not the former Mrs Bates.
I only wish she was the former, my Lord, or, better still, the late.
Yeah, it does get worse and worse.
You know, it does get worse and worse for Bates.
It's erm He has a pretty rum time of it.
But could Bates have been driven to murder? His wife's dead.
In the shadow of Vera's death, Bates and Anna finally marry.
The scene this afternoon is their wedding night.
They finally get married.
Which has been a long time coming.
It's the couple's most intimate scene yet.
It's a costume drama with no costumes on.
The setting for their wedding night is a bedroom built on a sound stage at Ealing.
Shall I do that? For Anna and Bates, it's a snatched moment of happiness.
Action.
Well Mrs Bates.
While everyone tries to carry on as normal, in Downton Abbey tragedy is never far away.
My legs, I can't seem to move them.
BUT miraculously Look out! My God.
For the characters who inhabit Downton Abbey's upstairs world, the Great War accelerates the pace of life and love.
I think it did make you realise how short life could be.
Action.
Lavinia and I will get married.
Oh, my dear fellow.
And, as a lot of people did, got engaged just like that.
I think she seems rather sweet.
Meeting us all together must be very intimidating.
I do hope so.
It was the first scene that I did with pretty much the entire upstairs cast there looking at you.
It was very easy to access those nerves and jitters and everything because they were kind of real.
But the elegant Lady Mary keeps her composure in any social situation, whatever her personal feelings.
Hello, Miss Swire, I'm Mary Crawley.
Of course you are.
She realises very quickly that she has to move on.
I mean, she's in her late 20s by the second series and that's considered kind of on the shelf.
You know, I love that, that immediately she invites Richard Carlisle to meet the family.
We're pleased to have you here, Sir Richard.
Lady Grantham.
Welcome.
Sir Richard Carlisle is a newspaper proprietor, inordinately wealthy, self-made man.
They're a wee bit suspicious of him cos he's sort of new money.
And I think they probably think he's slightly common.
I was asking about Haxby Park.
I'm taking Mary over there tomorrow.
Our Haxby Park? Why? Are the Russells selling? I'm not sure how comfortable it is.
It'll be comfortable when I'm finished with it.
Central heating, modern kitchens, bathrooms with every bedroom, it's all possible.
Sounds more like an hotel.
You do get these very rich, very powerful, in some cases quite tough individuals arriving and buying these great estates up and becoming sort of slightly ersatz toffs.
What'll we do about furniture and pictures and everything? What does anyone do? Buy it, I presume.
Your lot buys it, my lot inherits is.
In lots of ways he should appear a good catch.
You see, I want you to marry me.
He's quite famous.
Her position in society would be very high.
She would have quite an interesting life with him socially.
But he's You know, there's a toughness, there's a ruthlessness about him that is very much part of the business that he's in.
I want to be a good husband and for you to be happy but don't ever cross me, do you understand? Never.
And having a little bit of badness in you is always quite fun.
She's with this person who she's now going to spend the rest of her life with and she doesn't love him.
Lady Mary's true love is back at the front fighting for his country alongside footman William.
Am I ready? Only you can answer that, sir.
And they are not to be spared.
I had to run out of the crater and look ahead as if we were going to charge but then hear the incoming.
Shout for him, push him out of the way and then an explosion went off right in front of our faces.
So, I essentiallysaved his life.
One last act of loyalty to the members of the house.
Unlike William, Matthew survives but like so many veterans of the First World War, he returns a broken man.
I've still got this funny thing with my legs, I can't seem to move them.
You know, to be told that you may never walk again, you know, it's not good news.
My God.
Is something wrong, sir? No, nothing.
BUT miraculously It's too heavy for you.
No, it's not.
Look out! Heavens, that was a near thing.
My God.
I gather Julian did his medical research, this has happened and his ability to walk is recovered slowly and quite surprisingly.
Mary! Girls! Cora! Come at once! And then the celebrations come in and those were lovely scenes to play when we're running down the stairs.
Action.
Cora! Everyone! Everyone, come at once and see this! And everyone's so excited and joyful and weeping.
They use a steadicam shot which is where our cameraman sort of straps a giant robot to his person and charge down the stairs with Lavinia, through the library, and come and find me slightly surprised, I think.
Is it true? Is it true what Lavinia says? It's a miracle! Is it true? Is it true what Lavinia says? I can't believe it.
It's so wonderful.
I cannot begin to tell you what this means.
Well, it's pretty good news for me too.
And there's more cause for celebration upstairs and down.
I am sorry to disturb you but I I've just heard news from the War Office and I thought you'd all like to know that the war is over.
But in Downton Abbey, as in the rest of post-war Europe, the euphoria doesn't last long.
They had just got to the end of this massive killing fields of central Europe, they'd finally got home, 'Phew, I made it, ' and then as the war ends, Spanish flu arrives and lays waste to them.
Are you too hot in that, my lady? We still have time to change.
No, I'm fine.
I thought it was important to fill Downton with Spanish flu.
Molesley too? Good heavens.
Everyone's falling like ninepins.
Lavinia? Do you know, I'm not at all well either.
It was a vicious disease and effected the young specifically, which is what makes it all the more tragic, especially after World War I when so many young men died.
And it did hit you hard and fast.
Wasn't there a masked ball in Paris, when cholera broke out? Half the guests were dead before they left the ballroom.
Thank you, Mama.
That's cheered us up no end.
Oh, no.
Spanish flu was the worst pandemic in history, killing more than 50 million people across the globe.
And as it wreaks havoc at Downton, Mary and Matthew find themselves alone.
As much as he loves Lavinia, as beautiful as she is and as wonderful as she's been to him, there's a fire that he can't quite put out and God, Mary.
He's a terribly romantically confused man.
How can you resist, you know, you're dancing with Lady Mary.
There's music playing, it's, you know Hello? What are you doing up? She is head over heels in love with Matthew and to see him completely head over heels in love with somebody else, is the most devastating thing imaginable.
But Lavinia has much more than a broken heart to contend with.
How's Lavinia? All right, I think.
The nature of Spanish flu was that just as you appeared to look as though you were recovering, you were at your most vulnerable.
Is it Mama? That's what's so It's Lavinia.
If you then got the second degree of Spanish flu and it went into the lungs, you would die probably quite quickly.
There was no medicine available, as there is now, to deal with it.
Can you hear me? It's me.
It's Matthew.
I knew it was going to come to this dramatic end and I loved that, actually, I was, sort of, quite excited by that.
Now, I'm kind of gutted because I absolutely loved doing this job, absolutely loved it.
Be happy for my sake.
And then, of course, she takes it that she has this broken heart, which then leads to her death which is so sudden.
We're cursed, you and I, and there's nothing to be done about it.
He is a man in hell and the only thing that will answer is to punish himself because the one thing that mustn't be rewarded, in his mind, is sin.
This is the end.
Of course it's the end.
After everything that's happened above and below stairs, Downton Abbey is in turmoil.
For the family and their staff, things can't get much worse.
But who knows what might happen in the future? The Christmas special might give us a few more clues.
- A happy Christmas to us all.
- Happy Christmas.
Don't forget to make a wish.
So, what are the cast hoping Christmas will bring? I would like Daisy to have a new dress and a promotion and a new love interest.
I mean, I know I'm a dog's body but How can you choose today, of all days, to complain about your lot? God, I just I've no idea.
I think they are truly in love.
You would have to be to make that kind of leap.
Things are going very, very badly in terms of the future of the girls.
Cora, if there is something and you know what it is, tell me, please.
Perhaps it's time.
Let's just say I hope things improve.
Let's all make a wish.
A wish and a prayer.
Is this about Bates, again? I think they'll come good in the end.
I think they they kind of Well, they don't have to, I suppose, but I think everyone wants them to do well.
How terrible it is.
We mustn't lose faith.
He's been wrongly accused.
I'm sure you hope so.
We know so.
Now, Thomas.
It would be nice to see her having some sort of personal happiness outside cooking a souffle.
Be nice if she had a gentleman friend, wouldn't it? - Happy new year.
- Happy new year.
Well, Mary and Matthew have just got to get together.
They're meant to be together.
I deserve to be unhappy, so does Mary.
But maybe they can't be.
I mean, maybe it's too late.
Fingers crossed.
Forgive me if I'm casting a gloom.
Don't be silly.
And Lord Grantham would like Well, that would be telling.
Welcome to Downton.
You'll find there's never a dull moment in this house.
Two unmissable series rising to 12 million viewers in the UK.
And some of period dramas most memorable moments.
I can't believe it.
It's so wonderful.
I won't allow it! He proposed to me.
Good heavens, what am I sitting on? Now let's get behind the drama with exclusive interviews with the cast of this hugely loved show.
Literally he has to fall flat on his face.
When are they gonna kiss? They finally kiss.
An explosion went off right in front of our faces.
Hear what they really think of their characters.
She's damaged goods.
She's just a really good egg, I think.
She's not very nice.
Now who's jealous? And see them in action behind the scenes.
There will be explosions on this take.
To uncover the secret of Downton Abbey's success.
Whoo! Guys like me don't always get asked to do heroic action stuff, you know.
Come at once! Come at once! Come and see this at once! It's July 2011.
The cast is filming a scene for the Christmas episode.
And, action.
I don't want to spoil their fun but I couldn't wear a paper hat not with poor Mr Bates locked away.
His Lordship said much thesame.
Everyone is still reeling from the shock of Mr Bates's arrest.
If things don't go right for Mr Bates, have you given any thought to his replacement? There'll be plenty of time for that conversation after the trial.
Cut there, reset, thank you.
Resetting.
So far we've met 33 characters in the Downton saga.
Whatever their position in society, they all have a place in the story.
When we were devising Downton, we knew it was very important that we would treat everyone equally.
We just wanted a group of people who were all, for one reason or another, living in this one house but with different expectations of life and they go through different traumas but equal traumas.
and in a great house with more than 50 bedrooms, they had plenty to do.
The house is kind of like a swan.
It's beautiful and graceful and floating above the surface and underneath the legs are kind of going wild making it all happen and the servants are like the legs of the house.
You get barely time to, well, I won't say it but, yes, you know what I mean.
We all know who's boss upstairs.
The Dowager Countess.
I couldn't put it better myself.
But, if anything, the hierarchy's even stricter in the servants' quarters.
William, are you aware the seam at your shoulder is coming apart? Below stairs you can generally tell who is important to be seen in the principal rooms and in those days, it was young men, the footmen.
They were the peacocks.
They are designed to reflect the status the Granthams are trying to convey.
Obviously, at the head of the chain is Carson.
Downton Abbey.
Carson the butler speaking.
And Daisy, everybody knows, is at the bottom.
And that is why she has the rotten, miserable jobs, doing all the gritty, earthy work that has to be done.
We should go out to greet them.
And me, Mr Carson? No, Daisy, not you.
She's never allowed to be seen upstairs and you can tell because she's dressed that way.
Today, Britain's great houses have lost their traditional kitchens and sculleries.
So, Daisy's world has been recreated at the famous Ealing studios.
The upstairs cast rarely get to visit the myriad of sets here but it's where every downstairs scene is shot and the attention to detail is amazing.
We used to have taps that worked but they don't seem to be working any more.
The other day I went to turn the tap on in a scene and I was gonna wash my hands and they just didn't turn on, so I was like, 'Oh, hm.
' But, yeah, this all works.
This gets very hot and you can actually cook things.
I did a scene with Lady Sybil.
Why does everything go so lumpy? And this comes out and they shoot through there.
Ooh, there's this bit.
I love the household wants indicator.
It's an old-fashioned shopping list and it's really cool.
If they ran out of things, they'd just do that with the little tag.
How clever is that? Even the food on set is authentic for the period, though once it's gone cold after a few takes, it doesn't taste quite so delicious.
Just don't let Mrs Patmore hear you say that.
Mrs Patmore looks ready to eat her alive.
I was only trying to help.
Oh! Judas was only trying to help, I suppose, when he brought the Roman soldiers to the garden.
When I first got the job, people would say to me, 'Are you above stairs or below stairs?' And I'd say, 'What do you think?' Daisy and Mrs Patmore, I think they have kind of a mother-daughter relationship.
Although a very, very bossy mother who is also your boss.
I said you could go for a drink of water not a trip up the Nile.
It's very important to get her up to speed because if she does, she'll have a chance of probably going on and being promoted and one day she might be a cook herself, so the reasoning behind it is not just to be an old cow.
Sometimes my lines are really easy to learn cos I just have to say, 'Yes, Mrs Patmore, ' 15 times.
Yes, Mrs Patmore.
And run around pretending to make cakes.
Have you laid the service for breakfast? Yes, Mrs Patmore.
And finish blacking that stove.
Yes, Mrs Patmore.
Lesley has really hard lines to learn cos she always has sayings and phrases.
You know, like I'm trying to think of one now.
It's just the sprat to catch the mackerel.
Is that a phrase? He knows this is justthe sprat to catch the mackerel.
He understands.
He knows this is just the sprat to catch the mackerel.
She's witty and she knows she's witty and she enjoys it and she enjoys put-downs and she's a bit sarky.
Ooh, talk about making a silk purse out of a sow's ear.
I wish we had a sow's ear.
It'd be better than this brisket.
The cook had a very tough working life.
Will you leave me and let me get on with this travesty? I always feel with Mrs Patmore that if she didn't keep up the cracks, you know, she would just go forward with her forehead on her elbows and think, 'God, is this ever going to end?' Ooh, what a dreadful thing.
In Britain's great houses, intimate relationships between staff were frowned upon and the relentless hard work left littletime for romance.
But against the odds, some servants did find love.
The Anna and Bates story was the one that captured everyone's kind of imagination.
Everyone wanted them to get together.
When I was watching it, even though I knew what was happening.
You'd be like, 'Oh, come on.
' I'm John Bates, the new valet.
The new valet? That's right.
She clearly has empathy for this character on his arrival.
I'm Anna, the head house maid.
How do you do? Before Mr Bates comes along, I think she's just happy with her lot, really.
There's an attraction.
It's just alchemy.
She does fall for this man and she has this different option now in her life.
This relationship grows but it takes a long time to develop.
Everything we were talking about was not what we were saying.
It's sad to think about.
It's always sad when you love someone who doesn't love you back, no matter who you are.
Really we were kind of saying, 'I really like you.
' 'I really like you.
' So, it's really nice to play against the words and play against what you're actually talking about.
Perhaps Mr Patrick did love her back, he just couldn't say.
Why ever not? Sometimes we're not at liberty to speak.
Sometimes it wouldn't be right.
He doesn't wear his heart on his sleeve.
He keeps it buried where it belongs to reveal itself only when necessary.
And while Mr Bates plays his cards close to his chest, he still has to deal with hostility and resentment below stairs.
Remember to help me with the luggage.
Don't go running off.
I'll give you a hand.
I couldn't ask that, Mr Bates, not in your condition.
How long do we have to put up with this, Mr Carson, just so I know? Someone with such an injury would rarely, if ever, be employed in service in a house so it's of huge import to him that's he given this chance.
The arrival of a duke is an honour for the house and the servants must make a good impression.
But for Bates, it's a moment of shame.
I remember that scene vividly because, initially, it was going to be staged as the character falling to his knees, but I thought, metaphorically and literally, he has to fall flat on his face.
It was shot so many times, I was winded for a few days.
But it was very important that we saw this man's absolute humiliation.
Bates, are you all right? Perfectly, my Lord.
But the physical scars are the least of Bates's worries.
He can't escape his chequered past.
Nothing is harder to live with than false hope.
I wish you'd just come out with it.
With what? Mr Bates has the most amount of baggage of anybody, in the world, I think.
Whatever it is you're keeping secret.
He makes this, to me admirable, but essentially unmodern decision I'm afraid I cannot answer that.
Not to burden everyone else with his own troubles.
I just want to know the truth.
I cannot speak of it, my Lord.
But, of course, in a way it plays against him.
I bet Thomas would like it if they took you for a thief.
It means people can believe anything of him.
Yes, I expect he would.
She's a real trooper to stick by him but that's because they're so in love, you know.
The servants might have it tough but being at the helm of this ship isn't easy either.
Pregnant? Especially with daughters like these.
The Turk is a true story.
I think he's dead.
The sisters are wicked with each other.
She's a bit of a bitch.
So, he slipped the hook.
Downton Abbey's sumptuous setting is perhaps the biggest star of the show.
The cast and crew have spent more than 100 days filming many of the upstairs scenes at the magnificent Highclere castle.
It's like working in a piece of living history.
When you walk into the hall it's wonderful.
There's certainly a really great feeling when you're in the real thing.
OK, stand by.
The seat of the Earls of Carnarvon for three centuries, it's the perfect location for Downton Abbey.
Here the family faces losing everything to a perfect stranger.
When he arrives in the village, no-one is happy.
They'll push one of the daughters at me.
They'll have fixed on that when they heard I was a bachelor.
Lady Mary Crawley.
I do hope I'm not interrupting.
They get off to a really bad start.
It's probably the worst possible start to any relationship.
Won't you stay and have some tea? Oh, no.
You're far too busy and I wouldn't want to push in.
She's a cow at the beginning.
You know, she's so rude.
The whole thing is a complete joke.
Matthew Crawley has been thrust into Lady Mary's life by a maritime disaster.
I thought it was supposed to be unsinkable.
I can't make myself believe it.
Is it really true? Afraid so.
But all them people freezing to death in the midnight icy water.
The heir to Downton Abbey has gone down with the Titanic.
This alters everything.
And the entail means Lord Grantham's title, estate and fortune must go to the nearest male relation.
An entail, yes.
Yeah, we all had to have a bit of a lesson on that.
The entail must be smashed.
You can't break it.
I'll tell you that.
I've tried.
Can't break it.
It's a very strange thing that's asked of him, I think.
You know, to come into their midst and be told that, 'One day, my son, all this will be yours.
' You know, it's very odd.
Welcome to Downton.
Thank you.
You've been so kind.
It is my duty to make sure that he comes to terms with that, actually.
They're going to have to make the best of it.
What should we call each other? Well, we could always start with Mrs Crawley and Lady Grantham.
Everybody's trying to throw him curve balls and Mary, in particular, is very keen to wrong foot him and prove that he's not the right man for the job and that he shouldn't be there.
By the way, if ever you want to ride, just let Lynch know and he'll sort it out for you.
Oh, Papa, cousin Matthew doesn't ride.
I ride.
Mary is irritated, frustrated, angered by her loss of her own, what she thinks should have been her inheritance.
The vast majority of aristocratic families, the women have no rights at all.
If they could make a good marriage, then they could become very powerful indeed.
But if they did not make a good marriage, they had nothing.
To Lady Mary's family, the solution to her problem is simple.
Marry a man who can barely hold his knife like a gentleman? Oh, you exaggerate.
When marrying well is your sole ambition, dressing the part is vital.
I'll admit that if I ever wanted to attract a man, I'd steer clear of those clothes and that hat.
Day to day life for the girls really would have meant a lot of changing.
They would always change for dinner, even if it's just the five of them, they'll be wearing their pearls, their diamonds and their long, beautiful dresses.
So, I don't know how they got much else done.
It takes quite a while to put on those dresses.
Behind the scenes, a team of six works full-time to recreate the elaborate fashions down to the tiniest period detail.
This dress for Lady Mary Crawley.
It's a piece of vintage beading but then it was sort of reimagined with a new back and new trimmings.
I did this dress for Michelle as well, which is slightly later period.
It was inspired by a very early Chanel from 1919.
You look very nice.
Thank you, darling.
While the men are stuck in the same old white tie night after night, the ladies' beautiful look comes at a price.
I sometimes have personal run-ins with my corset.
I'm not a big fan of them.
And we've all got corsets on like they have.
The corsets can get a bit cheeky after 12 hours.
Below stairs they get all the discomfort of Edwardian dress with none of the glamour.
Downstairs girls, we get really bad costume envy.
If suddenly an upstairs character is around, that's when you start to feel like, 'Oh, my God, I'm so depressed.
' When Lady Crawley comes down, I was so confused.
I called her Your Majesty by mistake three times in the scene.
Your Ladyship, I went, 'Your Majesty.
' Cos I felt like I was talking to the Queen.
There was no sort of real rapport with her because she was so different.
Upstairs the finest clothes come out for visiting dignitaries.
But not every guest is an exciting prospect.
A Mr Kemal Pamuk.
I can see him now, a funny little foreigner with a wide, toothy grin and hair reeking of pomade.
I wouldn't quite say that.
Here he is now.
Lady Mary Crawley, I presume? You presume right.
Sorry to be so dishevelled.
We've been on a train since dawn and we had to change in a shake.
You don't look dishevelled to me.
She's often very hard with men and quite cold and steely and actually with Pamuk she just melted and was swept away by him.
You know, she sort of embarrasses herself quite a lot.
What is it? Is this picture really a della Francesca? I think so.
The second Earl brought back several paintings from Mr Pamuk.
The man from Turkey is not constrained by the social mores of the time that poor old Mary was and when Mr Pamuk walks into that room, he's decided he's going to have her.
She's not as sophisticated as a young woman of her age would be today.
She probably doesn't know much about the facts of life.
You and my parents have something in common.
Oh? You believe I'm much more of a rebel than I am.
Now please go.
It's in an era when there are huge ramifications for such a thing being discovered.
Unfortunately in a way that only Julian can dream up, she is caught and I don't need to tell you how.
I think he's dead.
No, I'm sure he's dead.
The Turk is a true story.
It's always rather interesting that what seems the most fictional is in fact based entirely in truth.
A great friend of ours who is an owner of a great house came upon a diary of one of his great aunts and this whole incident is recorded.
Now we must decide what to do for the best.
There's only one thing we can do.
It's just this dark secret between the two floors, you know, I think that's what is so brilliant about Downton.
It's when the characters come together that makes it so interesting.
We did all the scenes where we were carrying Mr Pamuk through the house and it was a mixture of it being kind of fun but also really, really shocking as well.
Something happened to Mary.
She made this huge mistake and now she's damaged goods.
I can't make his eyes stay shut.
It certainly made her more human and much more vulnerable as a person.
Of course it would happen to a foreigner.
It's typical.
Don't be ridiculous.
I'm not being ridiculous.
No Englishman would dream of dying in someone else's house.
Especially someone they didn't even know.
But Mary's scandalous story doesn't stay secret for long, thanks to the unsisterly behaviour of Lady Edith Crawley.
We have three grown-up, very rich girls who are bored out of their skull.
All their energy is turned into this sibling rivalry and fighting and bitterness and jealousy.
Spare me your boasting, please.
Now who's jealous? I told my family.
I said this part, this sister, she's not very nice.
She's a bit of a bitch, Edith, and after the first three episodes or so, my mum said to me, 'I don't know what you're talking about, she's lovely, she's misunderstood.
' And by the end she was like, 'No, yeah, you're right, she's awful, she's a bitch.
' Is it true you wrote to the Turkish ambassador about Kamal? Yeah, she behaves quite badly.
And what if I did? He had a right to know how his countryman died in the arms of a slut.
She is not so good-looking.
She is not so charismatic as her elder sister.
So, all of these men that are thrown at Mary, I think Edith is very jealous and desperate for an offer to come her way.
So, he slipped the hook.
At least I'm not fishing with no bait.
Yes, the sisters are really wicked with each other.
So, Matthew goes from being flavour of the month to suddenly being another pawn in a game again which is incredibly frustrating for him, I think.
You know, I don't dislike him as much as you do.
Perhaps you don't dislike him at all.
She thinks, 'If Mary doesn't want him, then I'll have a go, ' without any hope.
Lady Edith's plan of seduction starts by tempting Matthew with an architectural tour of local churches.
Edith doesn't really have any interest in these churches, she's just interested in spending time with cousin Matthew.
I wish we could talk a little more about you.
What was it like growing up in Manchester? Does it say anything about the side aisles? Just gazing lovingly at the back of Matthew's head and Matthew completely unaware.
I wonder how Mary's getting on.
All right, I should think.
Why? I just wondered.
I remember the first series, there was sort of a catchphrase on set of 'poor Edith' after the end of every scene.
We've time for one more at least before we lose the light.
I underestimated your enthusiasm.
Lady Mary can't help but notice that cousin Matthew's a hit with both her younger sisters.
You must be careful not to break Sybil's heart.
I think she has a crush on you.
Well, that's something no-one could accuse you of.
Oh, I don't know.
I assume you speak in the spirit of mockery? You should have more faith.
It's quite a bold move, in those times, to be left alone, having sandwiches over a dining table.
It's much more racy than it sounds these days but it's a nice scene to play because suddenly all the electricity that's been sparking around and building up over the course of the series, you were allowed to light the light bulb.
He proposed to me.
Oh, my dear.
Have you given him an answer? Only that I'd think about it.
Always Mary has to think about it.
She's impulsive in some ways but when it comes to making a decision, she finds it really difficult.
Pregnant? You needn't be quite soshocked.
Cora's happy news does nothing to help.
If your mother's child is a boy, then he's the heir and I go back to living on my wits and you'd rather not follow me.
Oh, Matthew, you always make everything so black and white.
I think this is black and white.
Do you love me enough to spend your life with me? It's the moment that she realises that it's not going to happen, I think that is the point where Mary realises that she does in fact really love him.
So I've ruined everything.
But in 1914, this whole world of elegance is turned upside down for everyone.
Action! It beats sitting round a dining table for three days, I tell you.
Even the great class divide is under threat.
When are they going to kiss? Come on! Are they ever going to kiss? They finally kiss.
The First World War transformed life in Britain and Downton Abbey is no exception.
I like that whole half century between 1890 and 1940 because it's only 50 years, you know, within many lifetimes, and yet it really was the transition of the old world into the new.
The trades union movement was beginning, Karl Marx's writings were having an influence across the world.
Women's rights and, of course, it took a war to release all this stuff.
Sergeant Stevens.
Sir? I want every wounded man taken down the line before it starts to get dark.
We've bloody well lost enough of them for one day.
Having volunteered to go to the front, Matthew is caught up in the Battle of the Somme, which claimed the lives of nearly 20,000 men on the first day of fighting alone.
Forward! The trenches stuff, it was such a joy because, you know, guys like me don't always get asked to do, sort of, heroic action stuff, you know.
There will be explosions on this take.
Let's make our hero heroic, for goodness' sake.
Well, he's certainly going to come across as that.
Give him something jolly brave to do.
And action! This is my wounded soldier.
Stuntman.
Yeah.
I asked for the smallest, lightest man they could find.
I've had no breakfast! On location in Suffolk, 50 supporting artists help bring to life this bloodiest of all battles.
Whoo! It's a world away from the splendour of Downton Abbey.
I still think Maggie Smith should be in this scene.
Lobbing mint imperials over the top! And, action! With the explosions and everything, it does get your adrenalin going.
Like there.
You know, differently timed explosions we hadn't rehearsed so we were just playing it as and when the crap falls on your head, which is amazing.
Yeah, it beats sitting around a dining table for three days, I tell you.
And the war makes its mark on Downton Abbey.
Many of Britain's great houses played a vital role in nursing injured soldiers back to health.
Highclere which is, you know, the real Downton, was not a convalescent home as we have it but a hospital.
A rather extraordinary character called Almina, Countess of Caernarfon, got her father to fund a real hospital.
Oh, really.
It's like living in a second-rate hotel where the guests keep arriving and no-one seems to leave.
I think the war sort of broke that vision that Edwardian England had of itself as this sort of flawless place where everyone knew who they were and what they should be doing.
Come on, damn you.
I think that was over.
While adjusting to the new order is difficult for some, for others, it offers a glimpse of the future.
Interestingly the daughters rise to the challenge first.
They find some useful purpose.
As soon as I've done this, I'll take your orders for books.
She grows up and understands the world in a different way and I think that she can be helpful and practical and carve a role for herself in the world that doesn't just include getting married.
I hadn't cast you as Florence Nightingale.
We can't leave all the moral high ground to Sybil.
She might get lonely there.
She's been in this house in this sort of little Downton bubble but being the kind of girl that she is, she needs to do something.
She can no longer just sit there.
By joining the ranks of World War I's 9,000 volunteer nurses, Lady Sybil sees the world outside the walls of Downton and her taste of freedom has far-reaching consequences.
We are talking about Branson, yes.
The chauffeur? Branson? What has he said to you? That he loves me and he wants me to run away with him.
Good God in heaven.
He falls head over heels in love and then spends a long time trying to convince her that she should do the same for him! I'll stay in Downton until you want to run away with me.
Don't be ridiculous.
She really has to consider losing her family, her friends, her security, her life, everything she's grown up with.
In the close confines of a house like Downton Abbey, it's not easy to pursue love across the class divide.
She's sort of constantly kind of, you know, popping into garage.
I wish I knew how an engine worked.
I can teach you if you'd like.
You know in that way when you like someone and you just want to sort of, you know, hang out.
Myself and Jess were joking, we're back here again.
It's three years later and I'm still tinkering with this car.
And, you know, we spent a long time in the garage of Downton.
Oh, don't badger me, please.
It is slow burning.
The whole way through I was constantly reading scripts going, 'When are they going to kiss? Will they ever kiss? I have to say I think Branson's very patient.
I wonder how many other people would wait for that long.
You get that sense every time she goes back to the garage, people are like, 'If you don't kiss, I'll throw something at the TV.
' It's like, 'Come on!' Yes, you can kiss me.
They finally kiss.
And at last, Lady Sybil and Branson escape the garage.
Oh, my God.
She's eloped.
She's on her way to Gretna Green.
They keep leaving notes.
This is the problem.
If they didn't leave notes, they would have been away, married and everything.
You don't expect a car chase in Downton.
I suppose we do have one.
Everyone keep an eye out for the motor.
Mary and Edith get in a car together and run and save their sister.
How did you find us? How did you know? But these two fear no-one not even Lord Grantham.
Yes? He bursts straight into them after dinner, which is completely unheard of.
Number one, he's a chauffeur, he shouldn't even be in the house.
You've asked me to come and I've come.
Would someone please tell me what is going on? Or have we all stepped through the looking glass? In the scene, everyone's so shocked kind of going, 'When did this happen? How did this happen?' I won't allow it.
I will not allow my daughter to throw away her life.
You can posture it all you like, Papa, it won't make any difference.
Oh, yes it will.
How? I don't want any money.
You can hardly lock me up until I die.
That's brave, I think, for the time.
I think that's a pretty brave thing to do.
Tom.
Downton's ordered world appears to be crumbling.
At least there's one couple doing things properly.
Mr Bates, is this a proposal? If that's what you want to call it.
And you might start calling me John.
Everything is rosy in the garden until the arrival of his first wife.
As an actress I was really pleased that it all went wrong cos I thought I don't want it to just be happily ever after cos otherwise I'll be bored.
You see, if you don't come back to me, I'm going to the newspapers with a cracking story and I'd like to bet the Grantham's won't survive it.
Oh? A diplomat dying in the bed of an earl's unmarried daughter? Well, that takes the ticket for the tale of the year.
It's bad enough that he won't come back, that's bad enough but that's liveable with.
The idea that he won't come back cos he's going to be happy with someone else, is intolerable.
Vera's interference You bitch.
Is enough to push Bates to the limit.
Your Lordship, I need to go to London tomorrow.
Please say this concerns property and not the former Mrs Bates.
I only wish she was the former, my Lord, or, better still, the late.
Yeah, it does get worse and worse.
You know, it does get worse and worse for Bates.
It's erm He has a pretty rum time of it.
But could Bates have been driven to murder? His wife's dead.
In the shadow of Vera's death, Bates and Anna finally marry.
The scene this afternoon is their wedding night.
They finally get married.
Which has been a long time coming.
It's the couple's most intimate scene yet.
It's a costume drama with no costumes on.
The setting for their wedding night is a bedroom built on a sound stage at Ealing.
Shall I do that? For Anna and Bates, it's a snatched moment of happiness.
Action.
Well Mrs Bates.
While everyone tries to carry on as normal, in Downton Abbey tragedy is never far away.
My legs, I can't seem to move them.
BUT miraculously Look out! My God.
For the characters who inhabit Downton Abbey's upstairs world, the Great War accelerates the pace of life and love.
I think it did make you realise how short life could be.
Action.
Lavinia and I will get married.
Oh, my dear fellow.
And, as a lot of people did, got engaged just like that.
I think she seems rather sweet.
Meeting us all together must be very intimidating.
I do hope so.
It was the first scene that I did with pretty much the entire upstairs cast there looking at you.
It was very easy to access those nerves and jitters and everything because they were kind of real.
But the elegant Lady Mary keeps her composure in any social situation, whatever her personal feelings.
Hello, Miss Swire, I'm Mary Crawley.
Of course you are.
She realises very quickly that she has to move on.
I mean, she's in her late 20s by the second series and that's considered kind of on the shelf.
You know, I love that, that immediately she invites Richard Carlisle to meet the family.
We're pleased to have you here, Sir Richard.
Lady Grantham.
Welcome.
Sir Richard Carlisle is a newspaper proprietor, inordinately wealthy, self-made man.
They're a wee bit suspicious of him cos he's sort of new money.
And I think they probably think he's slightly common.
I was asking about Haxby Park.
I'm taking Mary over there tomorrow.
Our Haxby Park? Why? Are the Russells selling? I'm not sure how comfortable it is.
It'll be comfortable when I'm finished with it.
Central heating, modern kitchens, bathrooms with every bedroom, it's all possible.
Sounds more like an hotel.
You do get these very rich, very powerful, in some cases quite tough individuals arriving and buying these great estates up and becoming sort of slightly ersatz toffs.
What'll we do about furniture and pictures and everything? What does anyone do? Buy it, I presume.
Your lot buys it, my lot inherits is.
In lots of ways he should appear a good catch.
You see, I want you to marry me.
He's quite famous.
Her position in society would be very high.
She would have quite an interesting life with him socially.
But he's You know, there's a toughness, there's a ruthlessness about him that is very much part of the business that he's in.
I want to be a good husband and for you to be happy but don't ever cross me, do you understand? Never.
And having a little bit of badness in you is always quite fun.
She's with this person who she's now going to spend the rest of her life with and she doesn't love him.
Lady Mary's true love is back at the front fighting for his country alongside footman William.
Am I ready? Only you can answer that, sir.
And they are not to be spared.
I had to run out of the crater and look ahead as if we were going to charge but then hear the incoming.
Shout for him, push him out of the way and then an explosion went off right in front of our faces.
So, I essentiallysaved his life.
One last act of loyalty to the members of the house.
Unlike William, Matthew survives but like so many veterans of the First World War, he returns a broken man.
I've still got this funny thing with my legs, I can't seem to move them.
You know, to be told that you may never walk again, you know, it's not good news.
My God.
Is something wrong, sir? No, nothing.
BUT miraculously It's too heavy for you.
No, it's not.
Look out! Heavens, that was a near thing.
My God.
I gather Julian did his medical research, this has happened and his ability to walk is recovered slowly and quite surprisingly.
Mary! Girls! Cora! Come at once! And then the celebrations come in and those were lovely scenes to play when we're running down the stairs.
Action.
Cora! Everyone! Everyone, come at once and see this! And everyone's so excited and joyful and weeping.
They use a steadicam shot which is where our cameraman sort of straps a giant robot to his person and charge down the stairs with Lavinia, through the library, and come and find me slightly surprised, I think.
Is it true? Is it true what Lavinia says? It's a miracle! Is it true? Is it true what Lavinia says? I can't believe it.
It's so wonderful.
I cannot begin to tell you what this means.
Well, it's pretty good news for me too.
And there's more cause for celebration upstairs and down.
I am sorry to disturb you but I I've just heard news from the War Office and I thought you'd all like to know that the war is over.
But in Downton Abbey, as in the rest of post-war Europe, the euphoria doesn't last long.
They had just got to the end of this massive killing fields of central Europe, they'd finally got home, 'Phew, I made it, ' and then as the war ends, Spanish flu arrives and lays waste to them.
Are you too hot in that, my lady? We still have time to change.
No, I'm fine.
I thought it was important to fill Downton with Spanish flu.
Molesley too? Good heavens.
Everyone's falling like ninepins.
Lavinia? Do you know, I'm not at all well either.
It was a vicious disease and effected the young specifically, which is what makes it all the more tragic, especially after World War I when so many young men died.
And it did hit you hard and fast.
Wasn't there a masked ball in Paris, when cholera broke out? Half the guests were dead before they left the ballroom.
Thank you, Mama.
That's cheered us up no end.
Oh, no.
Spanish flu was the worst pandemic in history, killing more than 50 million people across the globe.
And as it wreaks havoc at Downton, Mary and Matthew find themselves alone.
As much as he loves Lavinia, as beautiful as she is and as wonderful as she's been to him, there's a fire that he can't quite put out and God, Mary.
He's a terribly romantically confused man.
How can you resist, you know, you're dancing with Lady Mary.
There's music playing, it's, you know Hello? What are you doing up? She is head over heels in love with Matthew and to see him completely head over heels in love with somebody else, is the most devastating thing imaginable.
But Lavinia has much more than a broken heart to contend with.
How's Lavinia? All right, I think.
The nature of Spanish flu was that just as you appeared to look as though you were recovering, you were at your most vulnerable.
Is it Mama? That's what's so It's Lavinia.
If you then got the second degree of Spanish flu and it went into the lungs, you would die probably quite quickly.
There was no medicine available, as there is now, to deal with it.
Can you hear me? It's me.
It's Matthew.
I knew it was going to come to this dramatic end and I loved that, actually, I was, sort of, quite excited by that.
Now, I'm kind of gutted because I absolutely loved doing this job, absolutely loved it.
Be happy for my sake.
And then, of course, she takes it that she has this broken heart, which then leads to her death which is so sudden.
We're cursed, you and I, and there's nothing to be done about it.
He is a man in hell and the only thing that will answer is to punish himself because the one thing that mustn't be rewarded, in his mind, is sin.
This is the end.
Of course it's the end.
After everything that's happened above and below stairs, Downton Abbey is in turmoil.
For the family and their staff, things can't get much worse.
But who knows what might happen in the future? The Christmas special might give us a few more clues.
- A happy Christmas to us all.
- Happy Christmas.
Don't forget to make a wish.
So, what are the cast hoping Christmas will bring? I would like Daisy to have a new dress and a promotion and a new love interest.
I mean, I know I'm a dog's body but How can you choose today, of all days, to complain about your lot? God, I just I've no idea.
I think they are truly in love.
You would have to be to make that kind of leap.
Things are going very, very badly in terms of the future of the girls.
Cora, if there is something and you know what it is, tell me, please.
Perhaps it's time.
Let's just say I hope things improve.
Let's all make a wish.
A wish and a prayer.
Is this about Bates, again? I think they'll come good in the end.
I think they they kind of Well, they don't have to, I suppose, but I think everyone wants them to do well.
How terrible it is.
We mustn't lose faith.
He's been wrongly accused.
I'm sure you hope so.
We know so.
Now, Thomas.
It would be nice to see her having some sort of personal happiness outside cooking a souffle.
Be nice if she had a gentleman friend, wouldn't it? - Happy new year.
- Happy new year.
Well, Mary and Matthew have just got to get together.
They're meant to be together.
I deserve to be unhappy, so does Mary.
But maybe they can't be.
I mean, maybe it's too late.
Fingers crossed.
Forgive me if I'm casting a gloom.
Don't be silly.
And Lord Grantham would like Well, that would be telling.