'Lady Edith? This series is ticking time bomb for her'
Downton Abbey will be back on our screens in just over a week and all will be right with the world. So what can we expect in the fifth series of a phenomenon watched by more than 11 million people in the UK and seen in an astonishing 250 territories around the world?
Who better to ask than the leading members of Britain’s first TV family: ‘When I first read the scripts of this new series,’ says Hugh Bonneville, Downton’s Robert, Earl of Grantham, ‘I felt it had more of the tone of the first series.
‘I couldn’t quite put my finger on why but I think it may be because it’s more focused on the house and the characters within it, both above and below stairs. And in this one – at the beginning, at least – we don’t inherit the same grief, for instance, that Matthew’s death cast over the start of Series Four.’
Not that Robert isn’t tested in a number of ways. ‘It’s now 1924 and he strongly disapproves of Ramsay MacDonald and the new Labour government. He’s also put out that his butler, Carson, rather than him, is asked to be head of the committee for a memorial to the war dead in the grounds of the Abbey.
‘And then, over the horizon, comes art historian Simon Bricker (Richard E Grant) to whom his wife, Cora, Countess of Grantham (Elizabeth McGovern), takes a great shine. Robert isn’t exactly up on his art history and nor does he take kindly to the fact that Simon appears to be hanging around for rather more than his interest in Downton’s paintings by Piero della Francesca.’
The scene is set for light-hearted sparks; although not for Edith, the Granthams’ middle daughter. ‘She’s carrying the pain of her terrible secret,’ says Laura Carmichael who plays Edith. ‘She has a child, Marigold, she adores but whom she can’t acknowledge. This series is a ticking time bomb for her.
Lady Mary with Branson and Lord Gillingham
‘And she still doesn’t know what’s become of her baby’s father, Michael Gregson (played by Charles Edwards). Everyone assumes he’s dead but Edith is still holding on to the idea that he could be alive somewhere. She’s really depressed.’
The question is how does someone cope with this much tragedy – and how has she kept it from her family? ‘I’ve always felt with Edith that, just when she thinks this is the worst thing that’s ever happened to her, something even worse comes along,’ Laura continues. ‘But all of it means that she’s much stronger, much braver than you could ever have imagined when Downton first started.’
Edith’s elder sister, Lady Mary (Michelle Dockery), on the other hand, seems to be emerging from the shadows. ‘Series Four was a real challenge,’ says Michelle, ‘because I had to convey my grief at the loss of my husband. So I must admit it’s been nice this time round that Mary has lightened up a bit, and she’s getting on with life now.
‘It feels like the old Mary has come back, which includes, of course, having digs at Edith at every opportunity. Laura and I love the dynamics of that. It’s such fun to do and much more interesting than when they’re being civil to one another, which is pretty rare.
‘Having said that, Mary doesn’t know what Edith’s been through in giving birth in secret to a daughter. So she’s intolerant of her sister always being gloomy. Mary’s attitude is: “What’s your problem?” And Edith isn’t able to tell her. It means she’s unsympathetic towards Edith which, to be honest, I struggle with.
‘Mary has grown up a lot but then so have I. When I got to 30, I started to feel I knew a bit more who I was. I think the same has been true of Mary. She’s a mother. She’s taking a real interest in running the estate. She’s enjoying her independence, although she was always very independent, even when she was with Matthew.’
Lady Edith
Elizabeth McGovern is delighted, she says, still to be involved in Downton. ‘I never imagined that I’d still be talking about Lady Cora five years down the line. In fact, it wasn’t until I went home after Series Three that I realised just how big a hit it was.
‘Being American, you’d imagine I’d have some clue as to why we seem to have struck a chord there but, honestly, I don’t. Having said that, I don’t get recognised every time I go to Sainsbury’s but then I look rather different in real life.’
Elizabeth is enjoying the new demands on her screen character’s relationship. ‘Robert and Cora have a good, long-running marriage but he’s finding it hard to adjust to the way in which society is changing. Cora, being American, is better able to take it in her stride. It means they get impatient with one another although it is their very differences that keep the marriage from growing stale.’
Below stairs, the relationship with the potential to blossom is that between Carson (Jim Carter) and the housekeeper, Mrs Hughes (Phyllis Logan). ‘People always ask whether Mrs Hughes and I will ever get together,’ says Jim. ‘And we want to know that, too. But, in the end, only Julian Fellowes has the answer.
‘He serves the ham and we slice it. Let’s just say that our relationship moves at a glacial pace, romantically speaking. But the reality is that, in those days, housekeepers and butlers were spinsters and bachelors.’
For actress Penelope Wilton who plays Matthew’s widowed mother, Isobel Crawley, the most important relationship, she thinks, is with Maggie Smith’s Dowager Countess, Violet. ‘It’s a relationship, what’s more,’ says Penelope, ‘that’s got stronger. Violet was very kind to Isobel when Matthew was killed.
Left: Isobel Crawley. Right: Cora, Countess of Grantham, with new character Simon Bricker, played by Richard E Grant
‘They are two women, two widows on their own. They enjoy and irritate each other in equal doses. They amuse each other and they spar, which keeps them sharp. I think there’s an interdependence – they need each other. It’s a relationship that drives both of them mad but one that they can’t do without.
‘Maggie and I have known each other for some while but, in the last five years, we’ve done two movies – The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel films – and Downton together. In the new [Exotic Marigold] film, out next year, my character, Jean Ainslie, comes back and causes trouble at the hotel, now run by Maggie and Dev Patel.’
The success of the show, it seems, has opened many doors for members of the cast, with Downton-related activities popping up in the least likely places – as Rob James-Collier (Thomas Barrow, the evil footman), happily illustrates.
‘There’s an award-winning butcher’s in Bampton, Oxfordshire,’ he says,‘where the fictional village of Downton is filmed. Lesley Nicol (Mrs Patmore, the cook) got wind of the fact they were selling something called Patmore’s Pies. So, for a bit of fun and still in costume, she and I decided to pay a visit one day after we’d finished filming.
‘We barged in like Dempsey and Makepeace and Lesley barked: ‘What’s all this I hear about you selling Patmore’s Pies?’ The staff loved it, they were laughing their heads off. I took the opportunity to buy some of their award-winning sausages, called Bampton Royals. I tried suggesting they rename them Barrow’s Bangers but they weren’t having any of it.’
Downton Abbey returns to ITV1 on Sunday 21 September at 9pm.
Who better to ask than the leading members of Britain’s first TV family: ‘When I first read the scripts of this new series,’ says Hugh Bonneville, Downton’s Robert, Earl of Grantham, ‘I felt it had more of the tone of the first series.
‘I couldn’t quite put my finger on why but I think it may be because it’s more focused on the house and the characters within it, both above and below stairs. And in this one – at the beginning, at least – we don’t inherit the same grief, for instance, that Matthew’s death cast over the start of Series Four.’
Not that Robert isn’t tested in a number of ways. ‘It’s now 1924 and he strongly disapproves of Ramsay MacDonald and the new Labour government. He’s also put out that his butler, Carson, rather than him, is asked to be head of the committee for a memorial to the war dead in the grounds of the Abbey.
‘And then, over the horizon, comes art historian Simon Bricker (Richard E Grant) to whom his wife, Cora, Countess of Grantham (Elizabeth McGovern), takes a great shine. Robert isn’t exactly up on his art history and nor does he take kindly to the fact that Simon appears to be hanging around for rather more than his interest in Downton’s paintings by Piero della Francesca.’
The scene is set for light-hearted sparks; although not for Edith, the Granthams’ middle daughter. ‘She’s carrying the pain of her terrible secret,’ says Laura Carmichael who plays Edith. ‘She has a child, Marigold, she adores but whom she can’t acknowledge. This series is a ticking time bomb for her.
Lady Mary with Branson and Lord Gillingham‘And she still doesn’t know what’s become of her baby’s father, Michael Gregson (played by Charles Edwards). Everyone assumes he’s dead but Edith is still holding on to the idea that he could be alive somewhere. She’s really depressed.’
The question is how does someone cope with this much tragedy – and how has she kept it from her family? ‘I’ve always felt with Edith that, just when she thinks this is the worst thing that’s ever happened to her, something even worse comes along,’ Laura continues. ‘But all of it means that she’s much stronger, much braver than you could ever have imagined when Downton first started.’
Edith’s elder sister, Lady Mary (Michelle Dockery), on the other hand, seems to be emerging from the shadows. ‘Series Four was a real challenge,’ says Michelle, ‘because I had to convey my grief at the loss of my husband. So I must admit it’s been nice this time round that Mary has lightened up a bit, and she’s getting on with life now.
‘It feels like the old Mary has come back, which includes, of course, having digs at Edith at every opportunity. Laura and I love the dynamics of that. It’s such fun to do and much more interesting than when they’re being civil to one another, which is pretty rare.
‘Having said that, Mary doesn’t know what Edith’s been through in giving birth in secret to a daughter. So she’s intolerant of her sister always being gloomy. Mary’s attitude is: “What’s your problem?” And Edith isn’t able to tell her. It means she’s unsympathetic towards Edith which, to be honest, I struggle with.
‘Mary has grown up a lot but then so have I. When I got to 30, I started to feel I knew a bit more who I was. I think the same has been true of Mary. She’s a mother. She’s taking a real interest in running the estate. She’s enjoying her independence, although she was always very independent, even when she was with Matthew.’
Lady EdithElizabeth McGovern is delighted, she says, still to be involved in Downton. ‘I never imagined that I’d still be talking about Lady Cora five years down the line. In fact, it wasn’t until I went home after Series Three that I realised just how big a hit it was.
‘Being American, you’d imagine I’d have some clue as to why we seem to have struck a chord there but, honestly, I don’t. Having said that, I don’t get recognised every time I go to Sainsbury’s but then I look rather different in real life.’
Elizabeth is enjoying the new demands on her screen character’s relationship. ‘Robert and Cora have a good, long-running marriage but he’s finding it hard to adjust to the way in which society is changing. Cora, being American, is better able to take it in her stride. It means they get impatient with one another although it is their very differences that keep the marriage from growing stale.’
Below stairs, the relationship with the potential to blossom is that between Carson (Jim Carter) and the housekeeper, Mrs Hughes (Phyllis Logan). ‘People always ask whether Mrs Hughes and I will ever get together,’ says Jim. ‘And we want to know that, too. But, in the end, only Julian Fellowes has the answer.
‘He serves the ham and we slice it. Let’s just say that our relationship moves at a glacial pace, romantically speaking. But the reality is that, in those days, housekeepers and butlers were spinsters and bachelors.’
For actress Penelope Wilton who plays Matthew’s widowed mother, Isobel Crawley, the most important relationship, she thinks, is with Maggie Smith’s Dowager Countess, Violet. ‘It’s a relationship, what’s more,’ says Penelope, ‘that’s got stronger. Violet was very kind to Isobel when Matthew was killed.
Left: Isobel Crawley. Right: Cora, Countess of Grantham, with new character Simon Bricker, played by Richard E Grant‘They are two women, two widows on their own. They enjoy and irritate each other in equal doses. They amuse each other and they spar, which keeps them sharp. I think there’s an interdependence – they need each other. It’s a relationship that drives both of them mad but one that they can’t do without.
‘Maggie and I have known each other for some while but, in the last five years, we’ve done two movies – The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel films – and Downton together. In the new [Exotic Marigold] film, out next year, my character, Jean Ainslie, comes back and causes trouble at the hotel, now run by Maggie and Dev Patel.’
The success of the show, it seems, has opened many doors for members of the cast, with Downton-related activities popping up in the least likely places – as Rob James-Collier (Thomas Barrow, the evil footman), happily illustrates.
‘There’s an award-winning butcher’s in Bampton, Oxfordshire,’ he says,‘where the fictional village of Downton is filmed. Lesley Nicol (Mrs Patmore, the cook) got wind of the fact they were selling something called Patmore’s Pies. So, for a bit of fun and still in costume, she and I decided to pay a visit one day after we’d finished filming.
‘We barged in like Dempsey and Makepeace and Lesley barked: ‘What’s all this I hear about you selling Patmore’s Pies?’ The staff loved it, they were laughing their heads off. I took the opportunity to buy some of their award-winning sausages, called Bampton Royals. I tried suggesting they rename them Barrow’s Bangers but they weren’t having any of it.’
Downton Abbey returns to ITV1 on Sunday 21 September at 9pm.