downton s4 press pack

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D O W N T O N A B B E Y

Contents

Cast .......................................................................................................................................................2

Guest Cast ............................................................................................................................................3

Crew ......................................................................................................................................................4

Character Background ..........................................................................................................................5

An interview with Julian Fellowes ........................................................................................................13

An interview with Gareth Neame .........................................................................................................15

An interview with Liz Trubridge............................................................................................................17

An interview with Hugh Bonneville ......................................................................................................19

An interview with MyAnna Buring........................................................................................................21

An interview with Laura Carmichael ....................................................................................................22

An interview with Jim Carter................................................................................................................24

An interview with Brendan Coyle ........................................................................................................26

An interview with Michelle Dockery .....................................................................................................28

An interview with Charles Edwards .....................................................................................................30

An interview with Joanne Froggatt ......................................................................................................31

An interview with Nigel Harman ..........................................................................................................33

An interview with Lily James ...............................................................................................................34

An interview with Rob James-Collier ..................................................................................................36

An interview with Allen Leech ..............................................................................................................37

An interview with Phyllis Logan ...........................................................................................................39

An interview with Elizabeth McGovern ................................................................................................41

An interview with Sophie McShera......................................................................................................43

An interview with Matt Milne ...............................................................................................................44

An interview with Lesley Nicol .............................................................................................................45

An interview with David Robb .............................................................................................................47

An interview with Ed Speleers .............................................................................................................48

An interview with Cara Theobold ........................................................................................................49

An interview with Penelope Wilton ......................................................................................................50

Carnival Films ......................................................................................................................................51

Harper Collins: Behind The Scenes at Downton Abbey......................................................................52

Harper Collins: The Complete Scripts Season Two ............................................................................53

NBCUniversal Home Entertainment: DVD and Blu-ray .......................................................................54

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CAst (In ALPHABetICAL oRDeR)

Lady Rosamund Painswick ................................................................................................ Samantha Bond

Earl of Grantham, Robert ................................................................................................... Hugh Bonneville

Edna Braithwaite ................................................................................................................. MyAnna Burrng

Lady Edith Crawley .......................................................................................................... Laura Carmichael

Mr Carson .....................................................................................................................................Jim Carter

John Bates ............................................................................................................................Brendan Coyle

Lady Mary Crawley ............................................................................................................Michelle Dockery

Molesley .................................................................................................................................... Kevin Doyle

Michael Gregson ............................................................................................................... Charles Edwards

Anna Bates ......................................................................................................................... Joanne Froggatt

Lady Rose MacClare ................................................................................................................... Lily James

Thomas Barrow ...............................................................................................................Rob James-Collier

Tom Branson ..............................................................................................................................Allen Leech

Mrs Hughes .............................................................................................................................Phyllis Logan

Countess of Grantham, Cora .......................................................................................Elizabeth McGovern

Daisy Mason .......................................................................................................................Sophie McShera

Alfred Nugent .............................................................................................................................. Matt Milne

Mrs Patmore ..............................................................................................................................Lesley Nicol

Doctor Clarkson ........................................................................................................................ David Robb

Dowager Countess of Grantham, Violet .......................................................................Dame Maggie Smith

Jimmy Kent ...............................................................................................................................Ed Speleers

Ivy Stuart ...............................................................................................................................Cara Theobold

Isobel Crawley .................................................................................................................... Penelope Wilton

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GUest CAst (In ALPHABetICAL oRDeR)

Sir John Bullock (Eps 3, 4) ..............................................................................................Andrew Alexander

Nanny West (Ep 1) ....................................................................................................................... Di Botcher

Jack Ross (Eps 4, 6, 7, 8) ..............................................................................................................Gary Carr

Baxter (Eps 5 - 8) ................................................................................................................. Raquel Cassidy

Lord Gillingham (Eps 3, 4, 7, 8) .................................................................................................. Tom Cullen

Duchess of Yeovil (Eps 3 ,4) ................................................................................................... Joanna David

Bill Molesley (Ep 1) .......................................................................................................... Bernard Gallagher

Green (Eps 3, 4, 7, 8) .............................................................................................................. Nigel Harman

Charlie Grigg (Eps 1, 2) ..........................................................................................................Nicky Henson

Sampson (Eps 3, 4) ............................................................................................................Patrick Kennedy

Sarah Bunting (Eps 7, 8) ............................................................................................................ Daisy Lewis

Charles Blake (Eps 6, 7, 8) .................................................................................................. Julian Ovenden

Evelyn Napier (Eps 5, 6, 7, 8) ............................................................................................Brendan Patricks

Spratt (Episodes 1, 6) ...............................................................................................................Jeremy Swift

Dame Nellie Melba (Ep 3) ........................................................................................... Dame Kiri Te Kanawa

Lady Shackleton (Ep 1) ................................................................................................Dame Harriet Walter

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CReW

Written and created by .........................................................................................................Julian Fellowes

Executive Producers ......................................................Gareth Neame, Julian Fellowes and Liz Trubridge

Producer .......................................................................................................................Rupert Ryle-Hodges

Line Producer ............................................................................................................................... Ian Hogan

Director (eps 1 & 2) ................................................................................................................... David Evans

Director (eps 3 & 4) .......................................................................................................Catherine Morshead

Director (eps 5 & 6) ......................................................................................................................Philip John

Director (eps 7 & 8) ............................................................................................................................Ed Hall

Director of Photography (eps 1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 8) .................................................................... Nigel Willoughby

Director of Photography .........................................................................................................Graham Frake

Production Designer ................................................................................................................Donal Woods

Location Manager ...........................................................................................................Mark ‘Sparky’ Ellis

Costume Designer ...............................................................................................................Caroline McCall

Make-Up and Hair Designer ...................................................................................................Magi Vaughan

Sound Recordist ...................................................................................................................Alistair Crocker

Historical Advisor ...................................................................................................................Alastair Bruce

Music ........................................................................................................................................... John Lunn

Editor (eps 1 & 2, 6) ......................................................................................................................Al Morrow

Editor (eps 3, 4 & 8) ....................................................................................................................Justin Krish

Editor (ep 7) ...............................................................................................................................Paul Garrick

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Earl of Grantham, Robert (Hugh Bonneville)Family responsibility weighs heavily on Robert’s shoulders. The tragic death of his son-in-law Matthew might mean that it is his job to shield his daughter Mary from trouble and take all the reins back into his own hands. But not everyone agrees. And, as the future custodianship of the great house is again under negotiation, Robert must adapt to the pace of twentieth century change.

Lady Rosamund Painswick (Samantha Bond) Rosamund’s marriage to the late, and rich Marmaduke Painswick was happy enough. But as a lonely widow with no children, she needs to meddle in the business of her nieces, in order to feel alive. Her London home provides a base for both Edith and Rose to conduct their busy social lives. While she appears disapproving, Rosamund is much more open minded than she lets on. Above all, she is practical, and in this series she finds herself in the position of Edith’s confidante and greatest support.

Edna Braithwaite (MyAnna Buring) Cora’s Lady’s Maid, replacing O’Brien. Her earlier flirtation with Branson took Edna the housemaid into dangerous territory, but in the intervening months she has not been lazy. She has honed her skills as a lady’s maid, so when the opportunity presents itself to return to the Abbey, she cleverly manoeuvres herself into the position. Mrs Hughes and Carson are appalled. Ever scheming, Edna has an agenda and there’s no doubt Branson will figure heavily in her plans.

CHARACteRs (In ALPHABetICAL oRDeR of CAst)

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Lady Edith Crawley (Laura Carmichael) Frequently eclipsed by her sister Mary and her late sister Sybil, Edith has begun to emerge from the shadows and forge her own trajectory of independence. As she writes her column for The Sketch, her relationship with its married editor Michael Gregson is getting serious, much to the dismay of Mary. However, Gregson’s ambitious plans for their future come with far reaching repercussions.

Mr Carson (Jim Carter) The butler. Ever loyal to his beloved Mary, Carson is prepared to take a difficult stand regarding her future happiness. At the same time, Mrs Hughes opens the door to a surprising revelation from his past life. A small chink in Carson’s buttoned-up exterior threatens to reveal aspects of his character that have been hidden until now.

John Bates (Brendan Coyle) Valet and former prisoner. Bates is enjoying freedom in the cottage he shares with his devoted wife Anna, but how far is he prepared to go to defend their happiness? His hard won sense of justice sees him help Molesley in his time of need; and both their allegiances to the Crawleys, in defence of their reputation, are put to the test.

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Lady Mary Crawley (Michelle Dockery) Broken by the untimely death of her husband Matthew and left to bring up their baby alone, the series charts Mary’s road to rehabilitation. Her supposed future within the family shattered, she must begin to build a new life, establish her own role at the heart of Downton, and perhaps open herself to the possibility of one day finding love again.

Molesley (Kevin Doyle) Life remains an uphill struggle for the hapless former valet Molesley. Having lost his job after Matthew’s death he struggles to find any worthwhile employment, let alone regain his stature as a valet in a great house. Will pride stand in the way of achieving his goals? His stoicism and strength proves an unlikely inspiration to another member of the Downton staff.

Viscount Gillingham (Tom Cullen) Lady Mary’s childhood friend, Anthony Gillingham has weathered some of the storms that are breaking over the Crawleys and Downton Abbey, as he attempts to balance family expectations and the demands of the modern world. Engaged to the Hon. Mabel Lane Fox, his choice is perhaps more sensible than inspired, and meeting Mary again makes him start to wonder whether he may have given up on life too soon.

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Michael Gregson (Charles Edwards) London based editor of The Sketch newspaper, the literary world he occupies is miles from Downton Abbey. He loves Edith and wishes to spend his life with her – their burgeoning romance only limited by the law which won’t allow him to divorce his insane wife. Desperate to make an honest woman out of Edith he hatches an ambitious plan. There’s no doubt that Gregson is willing to go to extreme lengths to secure their happiness together.

Anna Bates (Joanne Froggatt) The head housemaid. Married to her beloved Mr Bates, stoic and good-natured Anna looks forward to a happy and settled future, but sometimes life can take a surprising turn, and old certainties are cast aside.

Lady Rose MacClare (Lily James) The young and spirited daughter of Violet’s niece, the Marchioness of Flintshire. With the twenties now beginning to roar, Rose’s attraction to the bright lights of the city stands little chance of abating and, as she starts to explore the new world only recently opened to the post-war generation, the threat to the Crawleys’ social standing is ever present.

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Tom Branson (Allen Leech) Former chauffeur and widowed husband of Sybil. Without the support and friendship of Matthew, Branson still feels something of an interloper in the Crawley family. Is his future with the manipulative Edna? Or would it be more sensible to consider a completely new adventure for himself and baby Sybbie somewhere else entirely?

Thomas Barrow (Rob James-Collier) The under-butler. Having endured humiliation and indignity over his misguided attraction to Jimmy, Thomas owes a debt of gratitude to his friends below stairs. However, his self-interest knows almost no bounds and his mischief-making looks set to return. The question is: Can he achieve what he wants alone, or will he need help?

Mrs Hughes (Phyllis Logan) Stalwart housekeeper Mrs Hughes is tough and unsentimental, but also fair and decent. This series sees her moral strength and compassion tested to the limit as she is forced to keep a secret with one of her most trusted staff. Our below-stairs matriarch also extends a helping hand to Molesley in his time of need, and nudges Carson to confront an uncomfortable issue from his past.

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Daisy Mason (Sophie McShera) The assistant cook. Daisy is still at the beck and call of Mrs Patmore. However she now has scullery maid Ivy working beneath her, over whom she can (and does) exert her authority. Her kitchen skills are improving and she isn’t afraid to try new things and embrace new discoveries. But with her heart set on Alfred, it pains Daisy to see him pining for Ivy which generates some uncharacteristic moments of unkindness.

Countess of Grantham, Cora (Elizabeth McGovern) Cora is dealt a blow when she loses her longstanding lady’s maid, O’Brien. With loyalty and honesty valued above all else, Cora is hurt by O’Brien’s behaviour. She has weathered the pain of losing Sybil and is held at a distance by Mary’s grief. By virtue of her American heritage, Cora’s outlook is often more liberal than Robert’s; she is supportive of Branson’s plans to involve Mary in the running of the estate and takes an interest in Edith’s blossoming romance with Gregson. She loves being grandmother to Sybbie and baby George, but are her good intentions enough to keep trouble at bay?

Alfred Nugent (Matt Milne) Footman. O’Brien’s awkward, tall nephew. Good natured, honest and slightly bumbling Alfred is unwittingly at the heart of the downstairs love triangle. The object of Daisy’s affection, sadly he only has eyes for Ivy. But the feeling is not reciprocated; she has her sights set on Jimmy, who in turn enjoys flirting with Ivy to annoy Alfred. A talented cook – the question still remains whether he is really cut out for a career as a footman, or whether a different career path entirely would suit him better.

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Mrs Patmore (Lesley Nicol) The cook. Mrs Patmore is still firmly in charge of the kitchen and kitchen staff and religiously defends her rights and privileges, against all comers. Steeped in the traditional ways of doing things she is distrustful of all technology and, unlike Daisy, she views any new gadget as an enemy, fearing such developments may one day put them all out of work. She is shrewd and observant when it comes to the romantic desires of the younger members of staff, and is especially protective of Daisy. In her domain, nothing goes unnoticed.

Charles Blake (Julian Ovenden) Handsome Charles Blake is introduced to the Crawley’s by Evelyn Napier, who works in the same Government department. The pair are undertaking a study, to examine estates like Downton and others in North Yorkshire that may be facing difficulties in a changing society. When Cora invites them to stay at Downton, Mary assumes they will help her to secure Downton’s future. However Blake quickly makes it clear that while he is examining the collapse of estates like Downton, he does not necessarily wish to prevent it. With Blake seemingly opposed to everything the Crawleys stand for, there is immediate antagonism between him and Mary, which promises to make his stay a bumpy ride.

Dowager Countess of Grantham, Violet (Maggie Smith) As matriarch of the Crawley family, Violet is concerned with preserving Downton Abbey and protecting her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Although her acerbic wit and acid tongue endures, Violet also has a gentler side. Losing Sybil and now Matthew has taken a terrible toll on the family and it is in these moments that Violet’s true strength and wisdom is revealed. Seeing Mary slipping into a cocoon of sorrow, Violet clashes with Robert over his diffident approach. Violet encourages Mary to return to the land of the living, giving her some heartfelt grandmotherly advice.

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Jimmy Kent (Ed Speleers) Footman. Jimmy is handsome and continues to be the focus of Ivy’s attention. Aware of this, Jimmy plays up to it, both for his own fun and to annoy Alfred. Jimmy has an air of worldliness about him and he can appreciate those with a desire to see what lies beyond Downton’s walls. He certainly intends to spread his wings before he’s finished.

Ivy Stuart (Cara Theobold) Scullery maid. The pretty and fresh faced kitchen maid is part of Mrs Patmore’s team in the kitchen. She ranks beneath Daisy and, in fact, as a general dog’s body, she is at the bottom of the heap – something Daisy doesn’t let her forget. The object of Alfred’s hopeless and unrequited interest, Ivy only has eyes for Jimmy. Her innocence in this domain will land her in trouble if she isn’t careful.

Isobel Crawley (Penelope Wilton) Having lost her only son, Isobel is paralysed by grief. As a widow and now no longer a mother, she struggles to re-establish her place in the Crawleys’ world. Edith reminds her she is a Grandmother and encourages her to visit little George. In the wake of Matthew’s death, Isobel’s social causes have also lapsed – she rarely leaves the house. Here, Mrs Hughes is the one to draw Isobel to the cause of a man in need, and in doing so reminds Isobel that she still has kindness and energy in her.

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An InteRVIeW WItH JULIAn feLLoWes

For Julian Fellowes, series four of Downton Abbey marks the end of the beginning.

“The world in which Downton began has more or less ended and now they have to find a new way forward,” he says. “Immediately after the First World War there was a sort of dazed period where society – and I don’t just mean high society – was trying to gauge how much had changed. We’ve done the third series, when people were almost tentatively trying to decide how different the world had become. The fourth is more about getting into the 20s: what young people wanted, the changes in music, the arrival of the movies, cars, transport and all of that stuff. But also the difficulties of the big estates, with so many of them packing up. And of course that was quite a worry for the authorities: where was food going to come from? Were they going to be farmed in the same way? All of that establishes the colour of the fourth series.”

The new series begins six months after the death of Matthew Crawley that shocked viewers in last year’s Christmas episode. Fellowes thought carefully about whether or not to move forward in time, and then how far.

“It seemed to be much more interesting to, if you like, jump forward to Mary beginning to reconstruct her life. And by leaving it six months, we could start with her at her lowest ebb, but at the beginning of the period when it sort of becomes time for you to start getting out and about again, starting to make things happen once more.”

For Mary, does ‘getting out and about again’ mean we can expect her to receive attention from new admirers?

“I don’t think in Mary’s case it is believable that no man would have been interested: she’s very good looking, she’s clever, she’s very well placed, she has a big estate; these women are pursued.”

But will she even be interested, when she begins the series so dejected?

“The only reason she wouldn’t be eventually courted successfully would be if she was determined to remain alone and I just don’t think that’s who she is. I think she’s one of those people who find it quite difficult to be generally genial and those people need a partner, because otherwise there’s no one they’re ever completely relaxed with.”

We see a number of new faces joining the cast in series four of which two are Anthony Gillingham (Tom Cullen) and Charles Blake (Julian Ovenden).

“Anthony Gillingham is very much someone from the Crawley world,” says Fellowes, “and he’s been dealing with very similar problems. Charles Blake is a different kettle of fish: he is very much a modern thinker. He thinks the landed class, or indeed anyone else, are going to have to shape up if they want to get through. They’re both nice good men but they have a different kind of modus operandi.”

Mary’s re-emergence on the social scene has allowed Fellowes to pen an opulent set piece he’s long wanted to write.

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“These houses were built to impress and to entertain and it just struck me as being odd that we’d never had a house party. I think it was two things, really: I thought it was believable that the characters of Robert and Cora would want to help their daughter start again, and me, the author, thought it would be fun to see Downton going full pitch.”

A house party needs some headline entertainment – Fellowes decided that the greatest opera star of the period, the Australian soprano Dame Nellie Melba, might well put in an appearance. It was obvious who should play her…

“We have another antipodean opera star who is, I think, within a year the same age as Nellie Melba. We all thought it would be great if Dame Kiri Te Kanawa would do it, and thank God she did! It was very exciting for the cast and the servants to be sitting there listening to Kiri Te Kanawa giving them their own personal concert.”

It all marks a general lightening of the spirits in the big house, after two tragic deaths and a period in which, as Fellowes puts it, “We’d had lots of sadness and people in black dresses lying in bed and thinking ‘Oh God'.”

That said, don’t think series four will be all sweetness and light. Just when Anna and Bates looked like they might be about to waltz off in to the sunset, Fellowes promises, more upset for downstairs Downton’s favourite couple. The key, says Fellowes is neither to be too grim nor too glib but somewhere in between.

“The trick of Downton is that it’s quite funny but it makes you cry. You have to keep that in mind always - it mustn’t be so funny that it ceases to be real because then it won’t make you cry. But you mustn’t cry so much that you can’t then enjoy a scene in the kitchen with Mrs Patmore.”


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An InteRVIeW WItH GARetH neAMe

When a TV series enters its fourth year you might expect its executive producer to step back from the production but if anything, says Gareth Neame, he’s more hands on with Downton Abbey than ever.

“The normal thing would be for me to delegate the script editing side of things - the whole job of supporting Julian and the script writing. We haven’t done that. In fact if anything we’ve realised that it’s actually quicker, more streamlined and betters the process if we don’t involve other people and that he and I continue to work on all the scripts directly.”

The only other places Neame and Fellowes go for input are to their partner Liz Trubridge and the individual director on that episode.

“We are certainly open to the directors’ thoughts because they’ve got to execute it. But having said that, it’s still Julian sending the script to me and me writing up my notes on the script and him acting on those notes. TV is always best when you get behind a writer and an idea and give that writer his or her space to really do what they want to do.”

Some things, he says, have become easier over three series - during which time Downton has been screened in 220 territories to an estimated global audience of over 120 million people.

“You’ve got that great cast and you know which characters work, you know which locations you use, you learn so much about the making of the show and yes, I delegate the making of the show entirely to Liz and the team, to all the brilliant crew. What’s more challenging is how to keep the ideas going, how to keep the quality control up there, how to ensure it’s as good as ever - or better? That said I think that Julian is writing, and the actors and directors are delivering, really deliciously made individual stories that are moving, funny and heartfelt.”

Both Neame and Fellowes have stated several times that they did not wish Dan Stevens, who played Matthew Crawley to leave the series. Yet his departure has, Neame says, opened up new opportunities.

“In drama sometimes what seems like the absolute worst thing that could happen can be a great opportunity, if you spin it 180 degrees the other way and look at it again. Now the upshot is that the predicament Mary Crawley is in for the fourth series is far more dramatically powerful and interesting than if Matthew was still alive. It will engage audiences more than their ongoing relationship would have done.”

Downton’s global success has brought with it a queue of famous names all asking whether they could have a cameo, from actors to global superstars to rappers and politicians.

“It’s quite fun to hear about” says Neame, before adding that he would be hesitant to start answering their calls.

“In a show like this you have to be really careful about putting in cameos like that. We’re doing it with Dame Kiri Te Kanawa because the storyline is about a world-famous celebrity opera singer coming just for one stand-alone episode to sing at a house party. So it makes sense to cast a world-famous opera singer so that the audience view that character in the same way that the other characters in the show would. There’s a nice little connection there. You can do it for a cameo like that but otherwise you have got to be careful.”

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There have been many parodies and skits of Downton from both A-list stars like P Diddy and US presenters like Jimmy Fallon to normal fans of the show, which the cast and executives alike enjoy.

“It’s flattering that people like the show so much they put serious time and effort into parodying it to such great effect.”

One name has stood out, however: that of the Republican 2012 Presidential nominee Newt Gingrich.

“Not that he wants to be in the show, but I do enjoy reading all the Newt Gingrich comments about what a fan he is and why he thinks it’s so good - it’s all very funny.”

Yet it’s not the celebrity fans or the ratings that makes Neame most proud of his and Fellowes’ creation. It’s the esteemed company that Downton Abbey keeps these days, and what it’s done for British television drama.

“I am proud of the fact that a British show made primarily for a UK market can, within a couple of years of inception be on an awards list alongside Mad Men, Game of Thrones, Homeland, Breaking Bad and Boardwalk Empire, probably the five biggest, most respected American shows of this time. We are on the same platform as them and that’s not happened before. It just shows that the right drama can really cross boundaries and borders.”

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An InteRVIeW WItH LIZ tRUBRIDGe

The opening of the fourth series of Downton Abbey presented Executive Producer Liz Trubridge and her team with a challenge not so much of plotting but of tone.

“After Matthew’s death at the end of the Christmas special we knew that we had to give the audience something tonally right because people were concerned for Mary – but we didn’t want to set the whole of series four in mourning, because that was going to be too grim.”

They opted to open six months after Matthew’s death. Crucially, the decision was taken that the departure of Dan Stevens, the actor who played him, should be viewed as a springboard.

“It wasn’t something we chose but we totally understood why he wanted to move on and therefore we had to take advantage of it and make it into something that would serve the show. In all long running series, it’s terribly important that you keep your regulars but you have a turnover of characters. Of course, it’s given us an opportunity to bring in new people and to take Mary’s story off somewhere new.”

One thing Trubridge will say is that after the demise of Lady Sybil and Matthew last series, there won’t be any more Downton deaths – at least not for a while.

“We don’t want to have any more deaths at the moment, that’s for sure. At least not straight away. But let me put it this way, I think we’re very conscious of the effect that both Sybil and Matthew had on the viewers and therefore you don’t want to keep doing that, of course you don’t. At the same time, you don’t want the pendulum to go too far the other way and just to become froth. Frankly, Julian is far too clever a writer for that to happen.”

For Trubridge, who is in charge of the day-to-day running of the show as well as keeping one eye on the bigger picture, the challenges she faces are twofold: on the one hand there are specific, hugely complex scenes and set pieces.

“This series we’ve done a first timer: a big house party on a scale that we haven’t ever attempted before on a television schedule, or on a television budget. Catherine Morshead, who directed it, did a phenomenally good job with that.”

And on the other there is the general maintaining of standards.

“The biggest challenge we have is that the larger the audience we have and the greater the success of the show, the more responsibility there is on us to keep raising that bar and not allow the standards to slip.”

Part of that type of quality control comes with the casting of new characters.

“There are quite a handful of new characters, some of whom will stay longer than others. It’s great fun because you get to start that joyous process of casting again, bringing in people who fit in with our regulars.”

Meanwhile, Trubridge says she constantly has to pinch herself at every new manifestation of Downton’s growing fame.

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“We are astonished and delighted at it. The effect it’s had on the States, it’s fantastic for us, it really is. We were invited to the American Ambassador’s house in Regent’s Park for Thanksgiving dinner and we assumed we were going with other Americans in London. Then we thought we were the lucky guests to come along but it turned out the dinner was for us – and at the beginning of the dinner he read out a message to us from Michelle Obama. You feel this cannot be happening but it is.”

So let’s imagine that Michelle Obama took Trubridge away to work at the White House – what would be the three rules she’d advise her successor to follow?

“Ha! Well one, remember that, as the producer, you are the enabler of very talented people who have come to the table. The wheels are well oiled on this – don’t try and fix what ain’t broke. Two, trust your instincts. Don’t look at the 120 million plus viewers around the world because you will freeze. And finally, just make the very best programme you can. Get the scripts the best you can. Cast as high as you can and as well as you can. Whether that’s somebody out of drama school or an A-list American star like Shirley or Paul, it doesn’t matter as long as you really go through that process and keep the bar high.”

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CAst InteRVIeWs

HUGH BonneVILLe PLAys LoRD GRAntHAM

As series four begins Robert finds himself facing what Hugh Bonneville calls, “A double calamity,” with the breaking of his daughter Mary’s heart and the loss of Matthew, his heir.

“The family is traumatised and Robert's responsibility is to protect his daughter as best he can from the agony she’s going through.”

But alongside this, he has to protect Downton itself and this is going to be difficult with potentially catastrophic death duties looming large.

“At the beginning of the third series we saw Robert’s own folly jeopardising the future of the estate. This time it’s something he could not have avoided, which is the death of his heir and the burden of death duties. 50% of the estate was owned by Matthew and punitive taxes are now due to the revenue. What is he to do? How can he best preserve Downton for his new heir, the baby George?”

The way Robert handles this dilemma is seen by his family as trying to wrestle control of the estate back for himself. Bonneville doesn’t see it that way.

“Robert's aim – as it has always been – is to try and do the best for the estate and for the family.”

What Robert thinks is best for his daughter Mary is to protect her from the outside world.

“Unfortunately, this well-meaning approach may not actually be what's best for the very person he is trying to protect. It's as if he wants to keep Mary swaddled in her widow's weeds. What others in the family believe is that she needs to break out of what you might call the chrysalis of mourning. In the first episode we see him almost suffocating Mary with his desire to protect her, out of fear of her going under. It’s somewhat overbearing and unhealthy, to be honest. But as she emerges from the darkness, so he delights in her new-found brightness of spirit as the story develops.

And what of any potential suitors for his daughter?

“In terms of the other men around Mary I think he longs for her to be happy. It's as simple as that. She's had more than her share of tragedy.”

There are, of course, not one but two grandchildren now in the house, Sybbie and George.

“I think Robert is a doting grandfather. No question!,” says Bonneville.

As for Robert’s own marriage to Cora, which was put under immense strain by the death of Sybil, Bonneville says things are set fair this series.

“After the personal wobbles in series two and then the devastation of what happened with Sybil I feel that Robert and Cora are now closer than they've ever been. They're united. They still have disagreements, for instance over his approach to Mary’s bereavement, but ultimately we feel that they’re on solid ground again.”

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Bonneville is looking forward to some major set pieces in episodes to come, in particular the party scenes.

“I love it when we do the big ensemble scenes. I mean they’re a nightmare to shoot – when you’ve got 15 or 20 people in one scene it’s always agony for the director. But the criss-crossing of storylines is always satisfying for the audience, particularly in scenes when the house is buzzing with activity, so I completely agree with Robert’s line, ‘It’s good to see the old house at full strength again.’

Yet though he says he loves the ensembles scenes (“It’s rare that we’re all together and can swap war stories”) it’s the quieter moments that are Bonneville’s favourites.

“The way that Julian writes Robert’s encounters with his daughters is really touching, be it with Mary or Edith. There’s a beautiful one with Edith coming up which is very, very special. Robert cherishes the relationships with his children now they're grown up. They’re independent young women who look to their father for wisdom and advice... and often ignore it, probably rightly!”

As for the series’ phenomenal global success, Bonneville says it keeps the cast on their toes.

“It puts a notional pressure on us to keep the standards high but then we were going to do that anyway for series four. And the opportunities the show's success has afforded all of us are incredible and the invitations we’ve had from around the world are extraordinary. It won’t happen again in my lifetime so we’re all enjoying it while it lasts.”

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MyAnnA BURInG PLAys eDnA BRAItHWAIte

After Edna Braithwaite was fired in somewhat spectacular fashion in the series three Christmas episode, no one, including MyAnna Buring, expected her to appear at Downton ever again.

“I had no idea I’d be returning! It was amazing, just such lovely news. Because I thought that was it. I couldn’t see how she could come back given the circumstances under which she left last time; I thought it wouldn’t be possible. But really sweetly Julian and the producers felt there was more of a story to get from Edna so I got invited back.”

That story involves, perhaps inevitably, Tom Branson (Allen Leech). But first Edna has to wheedle her way back in to the household.

“At the beginning of series four, Lady Cora finds herself without a lady’s maid and Edna ever ambitious spots an opportunity to sneak her way past Mrs Hughes and back into Downton Abbey. Let’s just say she is full of natural charm and uses that to great effect.”

Back in the house, Edna sets about working her way up once again.

“Edna is somebody who has dreams far above her station. She sees in Branson somebody who has realised those dreams and she hopes that one day she can realise her own.”

In some ways ‘Evil Edna’ conducts her scheming around the house almost like a female version of Thomas. But Buring thinks there’s more to Edna than that.

“I think she fantasises about a life where she’s waited upon as opposed to waiting on anyone else. And in a way who can blame her? Why not have those dreams? She is somebody who is breaking the mould by trying to do something about it - as opposed to most people not even daring to dream. I think there’s a naivety about her that’s almost endearing. She doesn’t understand why she wouldn’t be able to have what she sees other people having, and in particular Branson. He’s someone who has stepped over that class boundary. Why shouldn’t she?”

Her attitude to Branson has changed however, since she was last fired from the staff:

“When they met during the Christmas episode I think she definitely had this sort of romantic view that this could be love. Though I think she’s much more pragmatic this time round believing that they can be allies and help one another. She fantasises about him in that way, as opposed to a romantic way.”

Buring has appeared in several major series in both TV and cinema in the last year, from White Heat to the Twilight saga. How does filming Downton Abbey compare?

“This is the nicest production team, crew and cast to step on a set with. They are so welcoming and friendly, and especially coming back having spent a bit of time on the set previously, it has been like coming back to an old family. It’s quite nice because it’s like I get to dip in and out of this lovely world. It is so much fun on set, a real giggle. It almost feels like summer camp and not like a job at times.”

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LAURA CARMICHAeL PLAys LADy eDItH

This series, says Laura Carmichael, viewers will get to see a different side to Lady Edith.

“We’ve tried to show that she’s grown up a bit and is slightly more confident in herself. In episode one, she and Michael Gregson (Charlie Edwards) are reunited after about six months – they haven’t seen each other since Matthew’s death. But things are still going very strong between them, and it’s a relationship that feels far more modern. Gregson has this bohemian lifestyle and he opens Edith’s eyes to all of that: he throws her a party where she meets lots of interesting people. You sort of get to feel a little bit of that thrill of the rebellion that Edith is going through. The family don’t notice that she’s socialising a lot, which is great for her – everyone’s so concerned about Mary.”

Edith, in short, is having a whale of a time while the family back at Downton are still in mourning.

“I think for Edith it does just feel a bit anticlimactic to come back to this kind of house in mourning and back to the same old, same old. All her energy is hoping that Michael can divorce his wife and they can get married, live in London, hang around with artists and write, and how fabulous would that be as opposed to the house, which is living under a pall and has nothing there for her.”

Edith’s bohemian rebirth has been fun for Carmichael, too. She’s been filming around London, and at The Criterion Hotel for some genuine '20s glamour.

“I get the same excitement as Edith would from having the chance to see things a little differently. Even the smallest things, like I didn’t wear gloves in a scene where we were eating. It sounds like nothing but that was just really thrilling because we never do that at Highclere. Suddenly you feel slightly more on show.”

There’s been a wardrobe overhaul, too, to go with Edith’s new intellectual outlook.

“There’s a brilliant dress I wore in The Criterion which the costume girls were calling ‘Beadith’ because it’s covered in beads. Her costumes feel so risqué! They’re beautiful and sexy. There are some things that people would wear to awards ceremonies now – they’re stunning. It’s all no corsets and very revealing even for now, you know, with some low cuts and things, but then also the one in the hotel has a big split up the leg. This was a time when we weren’t showing uncovered ankles a few seasons ago. So it’s a big change.”

What hasn’t changed is Edith’s relationship with Mary. There will be no sudden rapprochement, even after Matthew’s death.

“As much as I think Edith genuinely does feel awful and misses Matthew herself – they were close and he supported her – I don’t think Edith is suddenly going to be Mary’s confidante and a shoulder to cry on. The impression you get is that Edith almost can’t bear to be around Mary and Mary’s grief. Her escaping to London is the freedom to get out of the doom and the gloom. She doesn’t really know what to say at Downton, she doesn’t know how to comfort her. And she’s having a great time!”

It is all a long way from the Edith we first met in series one.

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“In the beginning Edith was youthful and naïve – she didn’t see that she wasn’t going to bag Matthew Crawley, that of course he would have ended up with Mary. But in the war she evolved and realised that she could go out and make something for herself. The relationship with Michael Gregson comes out of a passion for writing and for work and being good at something – really good at something – that is artistic and sexy and glamorous. We’ll see how that still manages to get her into trouble, but at least she’s embraced all of that change and really, really grown up.”

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JIM CARteR PLAys CARson

Like a benevolent grandfather Mr Carson, Downton’s butler, has always had a soft spot for Lady Mary. And so seeing her after Matthew’s sudden death has a knock-on effect on Carson and his staff.

“They’re all tiptoeing around her on eggshells, not wanting to disturb, not wanting to upset. Carson’s persuaded to intervene personally to try and help Mary to take an interest back in life. He possibly oversteps the mark by trying to encourage her to engage with the running of the estate to carry on Matthew’s work, and to come out of her apathy.”

There are always questions about how much tenderness a man in Carson’s position could show.

“We had a situation at the end of series one which was much debated, where he gave her a hug. That might have been completely improper. But we’re not a realistic documentary, we’re a drama. And now we get a similar sort of situation, where he’s the father figure. The fondness comes through and her vulnerability shows. So that’s quite a nice thing - he lives so much by the book of protocol that when you see behind the façade it can be extremely tender.”

It is not in Carson’s nature, however, to let the personal impinge on the professional for long.

“Domestically he’s quite pleased because the house is at least now up to strength in terms of staffing. At the start of episode three and through episode four, life starts to come back to the house – literally. First of all there’s a big house party, which is like going back to the old days of the grand country house party in which a major entertainer is brought in. It shows the house firing on all cylinders. It almost feels as if it’s gone back to the pre war extravagance.”

Going back to former glories is all Carson ever wants, of course.

“Carson loves it, yes, he’s got an under butler, he’s got two footmen. He’s still trying to hold back the tide of progress, so he’s delighted that things have gone back to that way really. And through this there’s also young men, young life in the house and we start to see Lady Mary possibly starting to look beyond Matthew to the future.”

The staff under Carson are also beginning to get ideas that there might be a life beyond service.

“The staff have certainly got ambitions beyond the house: people are no longer content with their role in life. That’s finished really, so one of the footmen wants to be a cook, a chef? Unheard of! The kitchen maids want to be assistant cooks? Please! People aren’t content with their lot, it’s not just enough to have a job with a livery and to be told what to do. Add to that the fact that there are signs that Thomas is going to start stirring things up again and nothing is going to be harmonious, and it’s just a question of Carson trying to keep the lid on everything the whole time.”

This series we will, Carter reveals, finally get a glimpse of Carson’s back story and it comes, of course, via Mrs Hughes (Carter says that his fans’ number one question is, “If he’s going to get together with Mrs Hughes?”)

“We learn a little bit more about Carson’s past, that he did have a sort of slightly dented heart in his past and Mrs Hughes picks up on it. But he wouldn’t reveal that to anyone else except her.”

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Surely not a chink in Carson’s previously impregnable emotional armour?

“There’s a little chink, but if you’re brought up to be discreet, you don’t show too much emotion. I mean his whole life is actually hearing everything and giving nothing away really. So you don’t break down and weep. But yeah, viewers will get a little chink in there. I can at least assure you there is a heart beating in there somewhere.”

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BRenDAn CoyLe PLAys JoHn BAtes

“It’s incredible,” says Brendan Coyle, pondering his character’s situation at the beginning of series four of Downton Abbey. “Bates is actually really happy!”

The idea that Bates, who has suffered more than his fair share of the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune over three series of Downton, might finally get to enjoy a quiet life, makes him laugh. He thought he had it all planned out.

“Series three we summarised as, ‘Mr Bates incarcerates, Anna Bates investigates, who liberates Mr Bates, who then decorates with Anna Bates.’ So we thought maybe in series four he and Anna might germinate baby Bates!”

Yet there’s no sign of a baby Bates as the series begins. Bates and Anna are back at work, living happily in a cottage on the grounds.

“Life is a bed of roses! We were all trying to predict what was going to happen. But nobody could, especially as each series varies widely from the one previous. All I will say is that something happens that shakes their world and has serious consequences.”

If it’s not quite domestic bliss his character might have wished for, it’s another meaty storyline for Coyle to play.

“As an actor you want to be playing scenes like this all the time. But when you get them it’s just great. This theme in particular is dark and powerful, and of course I’m sharing it with Jo (Froggatt), which is just brilliant. When I read it I picked up the phone to Jo and said, ‘Have you seen this?’ We were just thrilled because we didn’t see it coming. We thought it was Julian’s best writing for us. We’re the kind of actors who think this is the kind of stuff we want to sink our teeth into.”

At the other end of the dramatic scale, Coyle spends much of his screen time dressing ‘his’ Lord, Hugh Bonneville.

“You never see Bates performing duties other than dressing and undressing his Lordship, but there is a formality to that. I can do his cuffs up very quickly now! The bow-tie is still quite difficult though! We’ve figured out all these different ways of getting dressed and undressed whilst doing a scene. I can dress Hugh Bonneville in about 45 seconds. And I can undress him in 10…”

Aside from his own storyline and scenes Coyle finds himself surrounded by new cast members. What sort of a welcome do they get?

“Oh, we like to scare and intimidate them… no we’re a very welcoming bunch! Paul Giamatti’s joining (for the Christmas episode), whom I love, so that’s exciting, but Downton’s also so expansive you may find your paths never cross. That’s what I love about the show and what our producers do: it’s not like we’re sticking to a formula. It just grows exponentially. Who knows what’s going to happen and where it’s going to go? For example I haven’t seen the final episode yet, and we’re in the middle of shooting. I don’t even know how many more cast members will be joining us before we’ve finished!

Coyle of course, is a cast member who’s been there from the very start. He describes Bates’ evolution:

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“He was an outsider. Even at the end of series one he was effectively dismissed because he wasn’t up to the job. It was quite a journey, to end up in jail for murdering his wife (or did he?). Towards the end of series four we see a much more determined, rounded character, I feel. There’s definitely a lot of mystery. I actually love the fact that he conceals a lot more than he reveals. He doesn’t wear his heart on his sleeve. He’s very stoic, so we don’t always know what’s going on. Also we don’t always know what he’s capable of. But in terms of his dedication to the family and his Lordship, he’s prepared to do anything to protect them, as we saw in series two.”

Yet even in spite of how well he understands his character, Coyle says he still doesn’t have an answer as to why Downton has been such a worldwide success.

“What I love about that question is that nobody knows. It’s the mystery of television; you can’t formulate it. Why it appeals across the board: class, colour, creed and race. It’s a complete mystery. I mean the P Diddy spoof for example - I think we might have got an episode out of that budget! That was extraordinary. I think the success of drama is really down to one man’s voice and the effectiveness of storytelling. It goes without saying that Julian Fellowes is a master craftsman. He sure knows how to tell a story and to keep it moving. I think he knows that '20s world so well, but he’s also very well immersed in modern storytelling for television.”

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MICHeLLe DoCkeRy PLAys LADy MARy

The last series of Downton Abbey began with Lady Mary in a wedding dress. This series begins with her in widow’s weeds. It’s six months after Matthew’s death and she’s still in full mourning.

“Normally three months after someone’s passed away the women would start to change into lilacs and greys and purples but Mary is refusing, even after six months, to change out of anything but black. Everyone around her is trying to bring her out of this dark spell that she’s under. In the first episode there’s an almost fairytale-like quality to things… like a sort of spell that’s been cast over Downton. It’s even shot in that way, very grey and bleak. And it only really begins to thaw when she comes out of mourning.”

The family and staff are all concerned. Several of them try to lift her out of her grief, through parties and trying to get her to meet new people.

“But she can’t move on and I don’t think Mary will for a long time. Matthew’s still very much in her thoughts.”

This stands in stark contrast to Mary’s prevailing mood throughout series three. She was settled and happy and she had a future ahead of her, until her world was turned on its head. But Dockery says that the death of Matthew has opened up new opportunities for her character.

“Initially, when we read the storyline with Matthew’s death we all thought, ‘What will happen now?’ But it has taken things down a completely different avenue. Series four is a complete contrast to series three. And I’m still discovering so many sides to her character. I like how in the first few episodes of series four Mary is retreating to being quite cold again like she was in series one. In a slightly more grown up way and for very different reasons, she was quite a superficial, spoilt brat in the first series but now she’s changed. It’s through the grief really.”

Mary may be reluctant to move on, but that doesn’t stop certain parties from trying to persuade her.

“Let’s face it,” says Dockery, “Mary obviously doesn’t find relationships easy. She can be quite tough, she’s not a walkover so it will take quite a strong man to handle her and we saw that storyline play out with Matthew and Mary - in the end he sort of tamed her a bit.”

Where Matthew had challenged Robert about the management of the estate, that task now falls to Mary.

“It’s a lot to take on and Lord Grantham is quite tough with Mary at first. Because she’s a woman as well he’s not quite sure she’s capable of taking on that responsibility. She puts up a fight when she thinks that he’s making the wrong decision or he needs to be a bit more open minded about something. So that’s another lovely aspect of the story for me - the relationship, again, with Lord Grantham and that struggle she has with her father.”

Finally, of course, Mary now has a baby, George, to contend with.

“Actually in the beginning Mary finds it very difficult to bond with George because she sees Matthew in him. But gradually that starts to change.”

It’s meant that Dockery has had to learn how to play mum.

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“George is actually twins and they are just gorgeous. Luckily they are very good. They are very quiet and they seem to enjoy it even at that age.”

But if the babies on set have been merely a minor distraction, a much greater diversion has been the presence of a new game that has taken the green room by storm.

“Bananagrams is a bit like Scrabble. Tom Cullen (who plays Lord Gillingham) brought it with him and we all love it. It sort of keeps your brain alive between set ups. Pretty much everyone’s playing.”

And dare we ask who is the Bananagram champion?

“Maggie’s very good. And Laura’s very good. Me? I get good days and bad days.”

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CHARLes eDWARDs PLAys MICHAeL GReGson

From the series three Christmas episode, two things became clear: Michael Gregson loves Lady Edith, and Lady Edith loves him back. But there’s a problem, as Charles Edwards explains:

“He needs to get a divorce from his mentally unstable wife before they can marry, and he begins this series trying to take the necessary steps. He is determined to make this work with Edith.”

In the meantime, Edith will become more involved in Gregson’s London life and Gregson, in turn, will visit Downton.

“He’s trying to involve Edith very much in his London life and give her some inspiration. She’s really enjoying London - Edith gets a chance to free herself up a bit in terms of her social restrictions and her clothes. He has parties at his flat and she meets all kinds of literary figures like Virginia Woolf and artists like Roger Fry. Gregson’s quite big in the literary set.”

It means that when it comes to Gregson visiting Downton, he doesn’t fit. Gregson is modern and rather dismissive of the aristocracy and their old-fashioned ways.

“He feels uncomfortable when he does ultimately go to Downton but he knows that it’s necessary in order to ingratiate himself with Edith’s father. He doesn’t dislike him but he finds it all very stiff. The London scene is liberal compared to the restrictions of somewhere like Downton. So he’s neither in favour of what the Crawleys represent but neither does he rebel against it. His attitude would be to try to swing open the curtains and let the daylight in, so to speak.”

But of course Gregson can never marry Edith without Robert’s approval. So he hatches a plan.

“It is a cunning ruse indeed! He’s at a house party and it comes upon him that this would be a brilliant way to win Robert’s approval. I won’t say how but his manoeuvrings suggest that he obviously has a chequered past, Mr Gregson, and he employs one of his dubious talents to win Robert’s favour.”

It all meant that Edwards got to spend some time at Highclere Castle, the real life Downton Abbey.

“It’s great. You bed down at one of the local hotels and you all have a lovely time in the evening, have dinner together. After that it’s up bright and early filming the next day. I've always loved the show, even from before I was involved in it. It’s fascinating to see from the inside the way it works, the way Julian (Fellowes) comes up with the twists and turns and keeps the ball in the air.”

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JoAnne fRoGGAtt PLAys AnnA BAtes

As series four begins Anna and Mr Bates are happy. It’s worth saying that sentence a couple of times because most of their relationship has been doused in misery. Joanne Froggatt seems quite surprised herself.

“She looks really happy when we rejoin her! Anna and Mr Bates are having a rare time of joy and happiness in their lives, which is really nice to see as a viewer. I think it is important that they have that, because you want them to have both highs and the lows. You don’t want them to be on one level all the time because they’ve been through some quite traumatic experiences. So yes, they start off in a really good place, they’re happy in their cottage and work’s going well. They’re enjoying life really.”

Needless to say, this can’t last.

“It certainly doesn’t last long! Yes, there is another upset on the cards for Anna and Bates. I mean it’s lovely to play being in love but it’s also great to play the drama as well, and as actors we always warm towards playing something dramatic.”

Froggatt says that she has found filming the fourth series particularly rewarding, especially after playing the character for the best part of four years.

“I’ve had some challenging things to do this season, which I’ve really enjoyed. Sometimes you can get lulled into a false sense of security playing the same character for some time. But I’ve set up the character, I know what I’m doing now and so it certainly hasn’t become tedious, which is great, for me. And, hopefully, it’s a sign that it’s exciting for the viewers as well. Julian is bringing some more shocks and surprises on board which is good for everybody.”

Anna has always been every other character’s friend and confidante, both above and below stairs, and she soon strikes up relationships with several new arrivals.

“Anna’s got quite a good relationship with Lady Rose, which has developed slowly from the end of series three and the Christmas special. It’s quite a sweet relationship actually, helping her to learn to dance. They do have a connection and I think Anna feels a little bit for Lady Rose, because she is a young girl wanting a bit of excitement in her life. Yet she’s at Downton at a time where everybody is still deep in mourning for Matthew, so she’s a little bit bored really. I think Anna feels for her - even though she completely sympathises with the family too in their state of grief, she also understands this young girl who’s wanting a little bit of energy around the house.”

With that in mind Froggatt reveals – with some trepidation – that we will see Anna and Rose indulge in a little more leg-shaking this series.

“I don’t want to spoil the storyline for the viewers but I can say that Rose and I have a great opportunity to dance again though do find ourselves in a spot of bother.”

This being an ensemble cast may we assume it became competitive?

As she did last year, Froggatt has spent time in America between the third and fourth series, and so has experienced Downton mania in full swing.

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“Hugh (Bonneville), Jim (Carter), Elizabeth (McGovern), Sophie (McShera), Rob (James-Collier) and I, we all went on a press trip to the States in December. We went to see Dan’s (Stevens) play on Broadway. Obviously we’re quite conspicuous as a group, but other theatre goers wouldn’t sit down to start the play, as they were taking photographs of us! And I was trying to use the Ladies in the interval and literally couldn’t get to the loos because of being stopped. People are so excited by it - it’s a lovely thing to experience, to be part of something that’s just become so popular.”

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nIGeL HARMAn PLAys GReen

On joining the Downton Abbey cast the first task for Nigel Harman was to polish up his pronunciation.

“My character is Lord Gillingham’s valet Green. In our first rehearsal I was told it was Val-et and Gillingham, not ‘Vallay’ and ‘Jillingham.’ Gill as in fish, valet as in pallet.”

That was just the start of it – there was extra confusion to come when it came to his character name.

“My name is Green but I get called Gillingham by the other staff because when you’re downstairs you get called the name of your principal.”

With all that established, how does Gillingham/Green come to be at Downton in the first place and what is he like?

“Gillingham and his valet are at Downton for a weekend, visiting the country, and so we just turn up and I head off below stairs to join the other servants. He’s very much a social animal and loves the people that are around him. He loves having a good time and a laugh and quite often palms off his work to other people so he can spend time hanging around.”

Hanging around? What would Mr Carson think of that?

“Not a lot, but there’s not much he can do with a valet from another house. Green seems to always have time on his hands where other people don’t and he gets away with it because he’s charming.”

How has Harman, a seasoned performer on everything from EastEnders to the West End stage, most recently in Alan Ayckbourn’s A Chorus of Disapproval and Shrek The Musical (for which he won an Olivier Award and a Theatregoers’ Choice Award for Best Supporting Actor) found joining another established ensemble cast?

“It’s been brilliant and slightly alarming but really welcoming. There’s a responsibility with a show that’s this big, particularly when you’ve got a strong storyline that you want to reach the marks. So yes I was nervous but more excited than nervous, and when you get your feet under the table in terms of how you stand – (never put your hands in your pockets!), the period and of course the language, you start to feel more comfortable. I got shown around the house, and it starts to kind of seep in to you and then you start to feel comfortable. So yes it was daunting in the beginning but now I feel very much included. We’ve had a really good laugh and in one regard I’m lucky – I only have one costume so I never have to change!”

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LILy JAMes PLAys LADy Rose MACCLARe

Downton’s newest arrival above stairs is Lady Rose MacClare, the Dowager Countess’ great niece whom we first met at the end of series three. Now that her parents have moved to India she has been taken under Cora’s wing.

“She has come to live at ‘Downton’ with the Crawley family and so I think she is grateful to have been taken in by them,” says James. “It gets her away from the thought of her horrid mother in India. So at the start she is on her best behaviour. She may be a bit of a troublemaker but she doesn’t want to cause trouble at the beginning.”

Naturally, trouble soon follows.

“I don’t think she really fits in that well!” laughs James. “She is different from other girls in that she doesn’t want to behave. She feels a bit on edge a lot of the time and Edith is quite nasty to her too.”

Yet at a time when Downton is suffused with gloom, Rose is also a breath of fresh air.

“Yes, she definitely brings a bit of light to the place. At the start of the series because of Matthew’s death there is a real weight and dejection to everything. I think that is also why Rose is trying to tow the line because you have got to be sensitive in those sorts of situations. But she does try and encourage a bit of life and music around the place – she is obsessed with music and dancing. And I think that the house needs that actually.”

James admits to being a complete music obsessive and that she used period recordings to help her get in to the role.

“I always listen to music to get into character, especially if it is period – it immediately takes you into the world of the piece. I love listening to Al Jolson, so I’ve been watching loads of old YouTube clips and that’s helped me make a real connection.”

Her period costumes helped her get in to the mood as well, she says. Mercifully she’s been spared the corsetry that some of the actresses had to endure in the early series.

“Caroline (McCall, Downton’s costume designer) is just a genius. Rose has loads of sailor outfits. Wool was very in vogue and so I have a lot of wool outfits which are beautiful. They’ve all been made from scratch by the incredible dressmakers. I wear a lot of pink and a lot of blue but actually, the most risqué numbers she’s worn were in the last series. I think this season being at Downton she is more conservative. I mean her hair is totally changed from this kind of wild frizzy blonde mess now she has a maid to fix it. You could say she’s been Downtonised.”

Yet unsurprisingly Lady Rose’s Downtonisation hasn’t knocked the spirit out of her – she still loves to dance.

“My dancing has really improved,” says James. “I seem to do a lot of dancing but I guess for young girls in the period that would be the thing. At that time for someone that’s young and wants to meet boys and wants to be free, it's probably the single most exotic, exciting way to do that. So she’s always learning new dances. I've learnt so many different ones this series. I really like the waltz: there's a beautiful waltz I do in episode two. Well, the music is beautiful. I wouldn’t say my dancing is.”Just as Lady Rose has been welcomed in to the fictional Downton Abbey, so Lily James has been

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welcomed in to the real-life cast as a series regular.

“I'm learning so much every day, from being on set with these actors and actresses. It's a crazy, wonderful experience to have as a young actress to be around these people like Maggie Smith and Penelope Wilton. Laura (Carmichael) and Michelle (Dockery) are absolutely amazing and watching them too, has just been so inspiring. Obviously I feel more at home and more comfortable and more confident now - I'm so lucky, it's such a great job and it's so much fun as well.”

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RoB JAMes-CoLLIeR PLAys tHoMAs BARRoW

After last year’s incendiary storylines – the kiss with Jimmy; the aftermath with Carson and O’Brien; and the climax in the Christmas episode when Thomas and Jimmy settled their differences – Rob James-Collier describes the beginnings of this series as a period of entrenchment.

“The dust has settled, everything is as it was and he's been promoted to under butler. So he is kind of revelling in that a little bit.”

It means that Downton’s original arch-schemer suddenly finds himself in a position of power. Now, when he walks into the servants’ quarters the footmen have to stand, which obviously gives a man like Thomas huge pleasure. But new challenges await.

“We see the dawning of a new partnership because we quickly find out that Miss O'Brien has done a bunk in the night and so obviously someone has to fill the void. And then Edna, a character from the past, comes back to take the post of lady's maid and we see a partnership develop with her and Thomas with all of the opportunities that entails for some new plotting. So yes, he's building relations because he's a survivor and he needs an accomplice. He needs someone to feed him information from around the house and this new maid looks like she fits the bill.”

Confrontation presents itself to Barrow in the form of the new nanny.

“There’s a chance encounter. Obviously Thomas always had a soft spot for Lady Sybil. They bonded at the military hospital. We saw how upset he was when she died. So now she’s passed he’s obviously going to have a soft spot for her child. This nanny comes with Sybbie, she gets quite protective with the baby – and that’s obviously the wrong thing to do with Thomas. He takes umbrage and marks her card from that point in. Just because she disrespected him. What can I say?” says James-Collier, the regular cast comedian, “If you rile a tiger he’s going to show his claws.”

Why can’t Thomas resist his machinations?

“I think a lot of it is just inherent in his personality - he has always had that devilish streak in him. A lot of it might have been just boredom. He’s always looking for something, a bit of excitement, gossip, scandal - anything he can do to pass the time and amuse his mind.”

Yet last series’ events showed a more human side to the nation’s favourite conniving footman, and James-Collier says that he’s noticed a change in attitudes to Thomas among the public after his character’s struggles with his sexuality in series three.

“People have stopped me in the street and gone ‘I hate him even more now.’ I say, ‘Why?’ They say, ‘Because he made me cry. I was crying for this man I hated and then I hate myself.’ It goes back to Julian Fellowes writing that big story arc for my character over the last series. I really did think we needed to confront his sexuality, not just because he was gay but because of the era in which he was gay. I wanted to see what effect being gay in Edwardian times had on the person and the people around him. I think we needed to explore it and we did, thankfully. Because of that, in this country people have warmed and seen a different side to him: he’s got more layers. You need the words first but hopefully I lived up to them with the performance.”

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ALLen LeeCH PLAys toM BRAnson

Few characters have come as far as former chauffeur Tom Branson, and yet as the fourth series begins once again he finds himself all at sea. Not only has he lost his wife Sybil (and been left with baby Sybbie) but with Matthew also gone Branson has lost his right hand man.

“Suddenly,” says Allen Leech, “all of the changes they were pushing through together on the estate look like they could just fall by the wayside. It looks like Lord Grantham could just revert back to his old ways. At the end of the last series, there is a great speech that Branson has with Robert saying, ‘You know the one thing I’ve learnt is, whatever your role here, we all have to pitch together to try and keep this place going.’ I think it’s something Branson invented to try and get over the death of his wife and also in some way to kind of honour Sybil’s memory. He is trying to keep the house going for his own daughter as well.”

Branson is not the only one who lost a partner last series and he soon finds himself siding with Lady Mary to help her through her grief.

“He does that by trying to keep her interested in what’s going on around the estate,” says Leech. “There’s a question mark over whether she will become heir or whether it passes to her baby son George, but Branson sees past that and says, ‘Let’s just try and get her out of her shell.’”

For Leech himself, much of his fourth series time on set has been spent working with babies – contrary to the old maxim about children and animals.

“We have a new, and slightly older Sybbie this series. She is an absolutely amazing child. Genuinely absolutely gorgeous and really, really funny. There haven’t been any bust ups, no - I like to think we get on quite well although she is only 19 months old. My Daddy skills are okay. As long as I can hand her back to her parents when the going gets tough! We do have a game, which is I can say to her, ‘Say Bye Daddy,’ and she will say, ‘Bye Daddy’ to me which is pretty cool! And then if you say it some more, she’ll suddenly go, ‘I actually want to see my Daddy,’ and then she gets a bit tired. Of course she’s not the only one - the little baby George or rather the twins that play him are absolutely gorgeous. But it is weird... Downton’s becoming a bit of a nursery!”

Unlike some of the other cast Leech hadn’t been to America before to experience Downton’s reception there, until this year.

“Branson’s character came to the fore a lot more in season three and for the first time I noticed people were double taking and asking for photos when I was out. Going through border control the guy on the desk, a man in his 60s, looked at me, looked at my passport, started keying in the details or whatever they do and then he just looked up and said, ‘That’s a very bad thing that you did to your wife.’ Episode four had just aired in the States, where I’d left Sybil in Ireland and came back and so he goes, ‘Pregnant woman… I know you had your issues, but that was a really bad thing you did to your wife.’ I just laughed and went, ‘You know I don’t think I would have done that in real life...’ and he said, ‘I should hope not!’”

Who knows what the border control officer will make of Branson’s plight this season, then – because he soon becomes embroiled in the surprise return of lady’s maid Edna (MyAnna Buring).

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“She obviously took a bit of a shine to him and Branson, being quite lonely, kind of confided in her. But I think Edna’s quite a scheming character. She’s always got her eyes on something else, and suddenly she’s back in the house. She’s somehow managed to get a better job and Branson’s genuinely terrified of the fact that she’s there. He’s walking a very fine line with the family and with her, you know? He feels guilty for leading her on in some ways as well, and, I suppose, he is attracted to her in some way, but he wants to forget about what happened while the family were away. That’s going to cause difficulties - because she obviously has an ulterior motive, one that people will find out about.”

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PHyLLIs LoGAn PLAys MRs HUGHes

“Bleeding Heart Mrs Hughes!” is how Phyllis Logan describes her character. “Always trying to help, just out of the goodness of her heart.”

She’s referring to an early series four storyline with her old sparring partner Mr Carson (Jim Carter).

“Mr Carson has a blast from the past visited upon him. An old chum. Suddenly he turns up again – well, actually, Mrs Hughes engineers that he turns up so that they can make up. Despite her hard shell exterior she is a bit of a soft touch really.”

A soft touch, but not where Edna Bratihwaite (MyAnna Buring) is involved. It was Mrs Hughes who sent her packing in the Christmas Special, so she is none too chuffed to see her reappearing six months later as one of her staff.

“I’m not happy but I try to persuade Cora that yes, she was fine, because obviously I don’t want to give away why I sacked her – that would be giving away Mr Branson’s secrets as well. So I can’t tell her the reason that I gave her the boot. But I certainly don’t want her back. And I just have to say, ‘Well she was fine as a house maid but I really don’t think she’s cut out to be a lady’s maid.’ Anyway, Cora’s obviously decided that this is going to happen. So without giving the game away to her about Branson, I have to capitulate and put up with it. And then indeed Edna does start stirring it again and becoming Mrs Minx.”

If the fourth series begins with the house under something of a pall, Logan says that things do soon take a turn for the better.

“There’s an episode about three in where they’ve opened up their doors for a big house party. It’s something we’ve never seen before. But it’s obviously something that they used to do a lot – you know, have people for a long weekend and they’d have hunting, shooting and fishing and lots of lovely dinners. So it sounds a bit like PG Wooster time you know: Bertie saying we all went off to somebody’s country house for the weekend. Part of it I suppose is a way of trying to throw off the cloud of Matthew’s death, but also to open up Mary’s mind and heart to the fact that there is a life to be lived beyond Matthew and inviting a few eligible bachelors as well for her to see.”

For Mrs Hughes the big house party is a reminder of Downton functioning at its best.

“They obviously remember the pre-war times when it was happening on a regular basis I guess. And there’s lots of hustle and bustle about the house, lots of new people coming and new staff too – because lady’s maids would come with their Ladies and valets come with their Lords. So I suppose for the youngsters below stairs, it’s a chance to have a bit of a flirty time with this Lord so and so’s valet.”

As for Mrs Hughes, will we get to see inside her heart, as we do with Mr Carson?

“No, no, I think she revealed all in series one. There may be a few others. I mean she seems to know rather a lot about the sexual workings of people. She’s like Downton’s own Anna Raeburn! An agony aunt for everyone’s problems - sexual, psychological, anything; she seems to be the go-to woman for all of that. She is called Mrs but obviously she’s never been married because women over a certain age, when they’re

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in service always were called Mrs, just by deference I suppose. So yes, for a woman who’s never been married, she knows a thing or two. I think she must have been a bit of a goer in her time!”

While Mrs Hughes remains stoic and staid below stairs, the actress who plays her has got to enjoy a bit of glamour at the SAG awards in the US.

“Five of us were there and we won! Everybody at the ceremony was saying even before we won, ‘We just love your show.’”

Which was all very welcome, until it turned out that there seemed to be a mass exodus following the awards. “Then they said, ‘In fact Downton’s on tonight so we’re not staying for the party, we’ve got to get back.’ They were all nipping off to watch it on the telly! So it was great that they loved the show that much. Less so that they didn’t want to stay with us at the party!”

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eLIZABetH MCGoVeRn PLAys LADy CoRA

According to Elizabeth McGovern, the set of Downton Abbey has become a place of unbridled luxury in the wake of the series’ huge success!

“We’re now allowed to have cappuccinos, I’m happy to tell you! That’s the only indulgence I’ve noticed. But the feeling about set is that we just get on with the work as usual.”

Work as usual for McGovern means more change for her character Cora – a woman with a modern mindset, but one living in a situation from a prior age.

“She is a woman of her time and she makes the best of the deal she made marrying Robert,” is how McGovern describes it. But, she adds,

“I had wondered if we would ever be seeing Cora make more demands for herself because of the changing expectations of women, but what’s seeming to happen is that she’s projecting it on to her children and her grandchildren and making demands for them. She is still very happy to take a passive role herself, and for her own expectations for herself.”

What that means for the fourth series of Downton Abbey is a desire to help her daughter Mary, and the family, move on from Matthew’s death.

“She wants to make things right again. Her modus operandi is very much to try to move Mary on, to move the whole family on, and to give Mary another dimension to her life, in giving her some power and control over the estate. And even though Cora accepts a complete lack of power and control for herself in her own life without batting an eye, she very much wants it for her daughter.”

Cora herself begins the series being dealt a slight blow when her trusted lady’s maid O’Brien departs.

“I think she experiences a little bit of displacement grief: you know how sometimes when there’s a generalised sadness it manifests in an overreaction to something that is really not that huge? Well O’Brien’s departure is a minor trauma that takes on an even greater proportion as a displacement for the major trauma, which is of course the hole created by Matthew.”

As for her marriage to Robert, which was so sorely tested last year over the death of Sybil, McGovern describes it as evolving, if never quite changing.

“Even though we see them as basically an extremely happily married couple, Cora’s more willing to take another side of the argument to Robert, she feels much more comfortable. And also – which I’m really happy about when I see it in the script – she’s much more impatient with his flaws than she has been in seasons past. So she’ll be impatient with him when he is being obstinate about moving on with the times, and things like that. But all of that is still within the context of a lot of love and understanding on Cora’s part for her husband.”

She is of course, not just a wife and mother but a grandmother to two grandchildren.

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“You don’t see her on her hands and knees with the children very much,” says McGovern. “Symptomatic of the time, they were raised by staff. But she’s definitely got their best interests very much in her mind, and she’s particularly protective of the chauffeur’s daughter and the complication that she might inherit as a result of that. That’s something that I really appreciated about the writing of that part – that Cora had a chance to come to the little girl’s aid.”

Cora as grandmother is an example of how different cast members of Downton Abbey come in and out of focus, often performing different functions within the family and the drama.

“The thing about being a Downton Abbey actor is one minute you’re the star of a scene and the next minute you’re in the background and that’s the way it is. Both are challenging in different ways, but the real challenge is adjusting your brain so that one day you’re Sarah Bernhardt and another you’re Sarah Jones. They both take a different sort of craft.”

As for McGovern herself, she says that Downton’s continued success hasn’t affected her all that much:

“I think probably for the younger actors it has very much changed their day to day existence – we all in different ways feel like we are experiencing something that only comes around once in a lifetime, so that is amazing. But my life is pretty settled! It doesn’t really palpably change my day-to-day existence at all. Except for those cappuccinos – and you know what? That’s all I need.”

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soPHIe MCsHeRA PLAys DAIsy MAson

Occupational hazards for actresses playing kitchen maids in Downton Abbey part one: getting electric shocks from antique food mixers. Sophie McShera, who plays Daisy, explains:

“Lady Cora buys us an electric mixer for the kitchen and this is like the devil incarnate to Patmore, she can’t bear it. But Daisy’s really up for it and I loved making things with it. Or I did until I stuck my finger in a bit of it that I shouldn’t have done and gave myself an electric shock. It was kind of my fault. But my arm was funny for the whole day and no one gave me any sympathy,” she jokes.

The mixer is of course suggestive of Downton’s forced march in to modernity. It’s the same dynamic that has Daisy herself dreaming of moving up in the world at the beginning of series four.

“She was a really good feminist last year with her strike and she is following the same path this time round,” says McShera. “She is much more ambitious which she was not at all in the beginning and she has realised that she could make something of herself, that she has got a talent, and that she managed to better herself from scrubbing out the fires to being the assistant cook. Career goals have not gone away.”

That said, neither has Alfred, and no matter how forward thinking Daisy has become, it is still the 1920s - a woman still wants a husband.

“She has still got a little soft spot for Alfred and he is still having none of it. I should add that I think that’s really rude because I think they would be lovely together! She gets herself in a bit of a pickle because of this love triangle: Daisy loves Alfred and Alfred loves Ivy and we can’t work out if Jimmy loves Ivy or not. All I know is so far she is not having much luck.”

Will Mrs Patmore be there to comfort her?

“Patmore and Daisy’s relationship has always been like mother and daughter. There is still a massive status difference but they are in this weird kind of friendship as well. There are tensions too, though: Daisy is more accepting of the new world and modern things like the food mixer because she is young – it’s just like me and Leslie (Nicol), with me trying to teach her to use her iPad. She’s having none of it but she’s getting there!”

McShera is getting there too, though in her case it’s with the actualities of playing a kitchen maid at a time when cooking and butchery were often one and the same.

“I don’t really eat meat and so stuffing stuff into big joints of mutton is grim, but I am getting much less squeamish, doing all that. We had to make these little pigeons with their feet still on which were some kind of French delicacy? They looked vile but Mark (from the props dept), who’s a chef too, just makes me get on with it now!”

And so, four years in, how does it feel to have gone from an unknown actress to someone who was getting compliments on the street the last time she was in New York promoting the programme.

“It doesn’t feel like four years and it is so lovely to be with all your friends, it is like a big stupid family. You have got Jim (Carter) who is like the dad and Rob (James-Collier) is like the naughty one. Everyone has got a different role and it’s always lovely to be back with them.”

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MAtt MILne PLAys ALfReD nUGent

Opportunities for advancement have never exactly been legion below stairs in Downton Abbey, unless you happen to be lucky enough to marry one of the Ladies, like Branson. So when footman Alfred starts to get ideas about expanding his CV this year, you’re rooting for him – but a little worried too.

“He’s starting to develop this sort of fascination that he’s had for everything culinary,” says Matt Milne. “He’s been reading Mrs Beeton, trying to train himself, even though he’s not particularly talented. Later in the series an opportunity arises for him to put himself to the test. Mrs Patmore and Daisy play very lightly with him and boost him up and so he cooks some medium dishes and he goes off and he has this test of wits. But as we know, wits are not exactly Alfred’s strong point!”

All the while, of course, what Matt Milne calls ‘the famed kitchen love square’ is simmering along quite nicely – “he’s still very attracted to Ivy but she finds Jimmy much more alluring because he’s just so much more free spirited and wily and cheeky” – and there is still the small matter of the sudden departure of O’Brien, Alfred’s auntie, given that it was she who got Alfred the job in the first place.

“Everyone assumes that he’s been been privy to her leaving but he hasn’t. So that’s left him without anyone on his side. Even though she manipulated him too at times she was family and now that’s gone.”

A year ago Milne was a virtual unknown. He joined Downton Abbey for the third series and now he is a familiar face at awards ceremonies, as well as having starred in Tennessee Williams previously unperformed triptych The Hotel Plays and made a film in New York.

“Both of those couldn’t have been more different from Downton,” he says. “They were a really good release and great fun. The thing is Alfred is worlds away from me – he’s straight down the line and functional. My mates back in Hereford actually just take the mick at the contrast: my hair is normally all over the place, not plastered down, and I can’t cook at all!”

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LesLey nICoL PLAys MRs PAtMoRe

According to Lesley Nicol, three series of dealing with the shenanigans of the maids and the footmen in the kitchen has begun to take its toll on Mrs Patmore, but by series four it’s not just her colleagues that are giving her grief.

“She is really reluctant to move forward with technology, like mixers and appliances coming into the kitchen, because she’s very, very sure that they’ll all end up losing their job, if that’s the way it goes. Nobody seems to hear her saying this. They are all very excited when all of these new-fangled gizmos arrive.”

Firstly, Mrs Patmore thinks that no machine can ever equal the skills of a human being. But more than that, she is worried about what mechanisation means for the staff as a whole, not least herself.

“She can’t understand why you would want a machine when some of the kitchen maids do it very well. They’re acquired skills, after all. And think of the ramifications of a woman of her age being thrown out at this stage, it would be a disaster! This is her home, she hasn’t got anywhere else to go. Eventually I think we’ll see the stress getting to her.”

As if the march of technology isn’t enough to worry about, Mrs Patmore also has to contend with a kitchen that’s increasingly looking like a dating agency. It’s Daisy she’s most worried for.

“Because Daisy has been there the longest, she is particularly concerned for her, and Daisy is the one who seems to be hurting the most. She does try and help with the situation, but it goes wrong. And it’s a shame, because she probably ends up even worse if she hadn’t interfered.”

Mrs Patmore has less and less time for Jimmy, too.

“He is everything that she doesn’t approve of really. He appears to be cocky, lazy and shallow. He’s just an idiot really. And also, he has power over the young women, flirts with them, manipulates them.”

Whereas Alfred gets her full support, with his new venture in to cookery.

“He wouldn’t normally be cooking or anything, because he’s a footman, but she lets him have the freedom to try things out. One of the dishes is so good she suggests it goes up to the dining room as a savoury that evening.”

Nicol spent three months in Los Angeles between series, from where she won a role in the ABC fairy tale drama Once Upon A Time.

“Everyone wants to meet you in LA. People in the industry are huge fans, just like the viewers at home. The spread is vast – you get to meet people in the business and then I was recognised in Costco by a Mexican girl. She was 17 and she said, ‘Are you Mrs Patmore? My family love you!’ A family from Mexico watching Downton Abbey? How great is that? I mean this is a show that’s gone way beyond the normal kind of British show on TV in America. It’s a much wider audience. All kinds of people say, ‘My brother watches it, you know, and he only likes the Superbowl!’

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Nicol’s favourite story, however, comes from west London. “JJ Abrams, the film director, came to visit us on set in Ealing when he was in the UK. He had just directed the Star Trek movie and he was responsible for Lost, and he’s directing the next Star Wars movie… you name it. And yet he came to visit our set and he had tears in his eyes. It was unbelievable.”

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DAVID RoBB PLAys DoCtoR CLARkson

Like any good local family doctor, Dr Clarkson is always ready to be called on when needed.

“He’s a bit of a hybrid,” says David Robb, who plays him, “always has been, because he’s not classed as family obviously, and he’s also not part of the staff. So he’s really on the periphery of things – but because he’s the local GP, obviously he’s been around quite a lot with all the deaths and illnesses!”

Yet since late last series there have been hints that Clarkson may have an additional role to play.

“I think Julian has introduced a frisson of middle aged love with my character and Penelope Wilton’s (Isobel Crawley). At the moment it hasn’t really flowered but I did have a couple of scenes in the Christmas episode where he downs a couple of sherbets and gets slightly fresh with her in a dignified sort of way. Which Isobel rather rebuffed so I don’t know whether there’s any future in this at all.”

Little has been made explicit about Dr Clarkson throughout the series so far, but when Downton Abbey began Julian Fellowes suggested all of the actors should create their own backstories if none were supplied.

“My theory about my character,” says Robb, “was that he’d never married. He’s Edinburgh born, went to Edinburgh University, probably excelled in the sense that I suspect his parents were probably upper working class, so he’s really clawed his way up through his ability. He joined the army, because in the second series he was sporting South African medal ribbons, and he was in the Army medical corps in the Boer War. I also thought he’d been jilted at university by his one true love and he’s simply never found the right person in his life. So, here he is now in his late 50s, a GP in this bustling community.”

Robb appeared in I, Claudius – he has featured in huge hit TV shows before but he describes his experience on Downton Abbey as ‘unprecedented.’

“They’re repeating I, Claudius at the moment and I saw a very young me last night. So it’s not that one hasn’t touched success before but this is off the scale. My character is some way down the food chain yet even I’m getting it. I was in the theatre the other night, and as I was edging along the aisle to sit down people were saying, ‘Oh my god we love the series, would you say hello to my daughter?’ And you just think, gosh this is absolutely extraordinary - it’s like being a Beatle.”

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eD sPeLeeRs PLAys JIMMy kent

Jimmy Kent may only have been working in Downton Abbey for a year but according to Ed Speleers already he’s tiring of the place.

“He’s restless. In his mind he wants to create mischief because everything’s a little tedious for him. Everything he says at the moment has just got the slightest tone of boredom about it. He’s a little bit facetious with everyone whether it’s Alfred, or people who are above him, even Mrs Patmore, Anna, Carson… every time he’s asked to do something there’s a slight cheek to it.”

It’s O’Brien’s departure that leads to Jimmy hankering for something new for himself.

“There’s a scene where they’re all sitting in the servants’ hall talking and he’s quite inspired by the fact she’s gone. I think he does want to see some of the world. But at the same time he might just be all talk. He might never ever have the courage or the guts to actually go and venture into the outside world.”

The explosive storyline of Thomas and his unrequited love for Jimmy is now well behind them – “there’s a good rapport between Thomas and Jimmy now” says Speleers. But in its place comes more unrequited affection, this time from Ivy to Jimmy. At first, Jimmy appears to be interested.

“It starts off as he’s just trying it on, just to put the needle into Alfred, to wind Alfred up as much as possible because that’s what he gets a kick out of. I think his standpoint on Ivy is that she’s a nice girl and everything else but I think it’s all a game for him. Of course, things between them could develop as the series goes on.”

Does that mean that Jimmy is turning in to a bad boy, filling Thomas’s shoes perhaps?

“He’s potentially a bad boy. But he’s not really done anything too naughty as yet. I would love to do that. I don’t think I’m type cast per se but I would revel in being able to cause some trouble. More often than not I’ve played guys in my career who are, for want of a better word, nice.”

Speleers sees Jimmy as representative of a whole generation of young men who had been to war, returned and started to see that there might be more to life than service at a large country estate.

“Things were moving forward so quickly at that time that it would be hard for a young man not to take notice of it. Politically and socially and everything else. You would be reading papers and be aware of the fact that, ‘Hang on, there is probably more to life than aspiring to be a valet or a butler. Perhaps there is something else I can do.’”

What about Speleers? Does he fancy his chances as a butler or valet? How’s his real life silver service?

“There’s an air of arrogance in me that would probably say I would fancy my chances but I think I’d get down there and I would bottle it. My first week or two I was carrying a silver tray full of teacups and coffee mugs. The whole thing just went flying in to the air – I didn’t even slip, I don’t even know how I did it – and it shattered into a million pieces so badly they had to stick the next set down to the tray. That’s obviously the key – child proof the set so I can’t do any more damage!”

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CARA tHeoBoLD PLAys IVy stUARt

Downton Abbey was Cara Theobold’s first job out of drama school. So when she describes her character Ivy as series four begins she could just as easily be talking about herself:

“Last series she was nervous and finding her feet, locating her role in the hierarchy and meeting new people. But now she is much more settled and she has a place. She has settled into the routine, she is a working member of the house and she has got her place in the little mini society of downstairs.”

Same for you, Cara?

“A lot has happened in a year but coming back this series to film felt very different because it was no longer my first job. Last year was the first time I’d ever been on a film set at all and now I know everyone so well now.”

Ivy may also have settled in but that’s not to say she’s settled down.

“The love quadrangle, as we call it – Daisy likes Alfred, Alfred likes Ivy, Ivy likes Jimmy – that’s still happening, especially in the early episodes. It seems to Ivy that Jimmy likes her. He takes her to the pub and even to the theatre. But you’re unsure of what his motives are as far as Ivy’s concerned.”

This, of course, is big news in Ivy’s world. Going to the theatre is, Theobold says, “the most thrilling night of her life.” Viewers will even get to see her in her ‘outdoor dress’ for the first time.

“It is a very beautiful brown jacket offset with a brown dress, brown shoes and a brown hat,” she laughs.

Yet heartfelt or otherwise, Jimmy’s advances do represent something serious for Ivy.

“If you think about it she lives in quite an insular world, especially being in the kitchen. She is a character who has ambition, and she doesn’t just want to be a maid for the rest of her life. But because of the time and being a young girl in that society there just aren’t any possibilities for her, so she doesn’t really know what she can do. When Jimmy comes in, talking about going off to London and wanting to travel, she sees that as her key to something exciting.”

Again, Theobold compares Ivy’s life to her own.

“It’s funny for me living as a modern independent woman, playing someone for whom there just weren’t the possibilities. I am very lucky to be able to be doing what I love for a job – whereas she has to do what she has to do to have any job at all.”

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PeneLoPe WILton PLAys IsoBeL CRAWLey

Within a single series Isobel Crawley has gone from having a son preparing to be a husband and father to having no son at all. As the new series begins a woman who thrived on doing good works in the community has retreated entirely into herself.

“For Isobel she’s lost someone who was her baby, then her young lad, then her teenager, her young man and her married son. Her soldier. We’ve got through the war. And he was paralyzed and came back. There’s only been the two of them for a long time. So it’s a great shock to her.”

Isobel’s response is to remove herself from her public life, says Wilton. “She doesn’t really have much to do with the family to begin with this series, because initially she’s in shock and then she’s in deep mourning.”

Matthew, Wilton points out, was Isobel’s only child. With him gone her only close relative is Matthew and Mary’s baby George, and George is with his mother at the big house.

“At the beginning you feel that she’s really not managing and finding it very hard to cope with the loss. She’s feeling quite vulnerable about it all and not really wanting to join in. And then slowly, through the help and persuasion of the family and Doctor Clarkson she begins to come back to life. But it takes a while.”

Are the Doctor’s entreaties purely from the goodness of his heart or is he a potential suitor? Wilton is unequivocal:

“Not as far as she’s concerned. She’s decided she’s not going to have that sort of life anymore. And I think she likes her independence you know, she’s much freer. She went to France in the war and she can travel more and she’s interested in the women’s movement and that sort of thing. She’s not just a do-gooder, she’s interested in things.”

Isobel is now, of course, a grandmother. But Lady Mary has not always been the easiest daughter-in-law to get along with.

“I think she’s very vulnerable, but I wouldn’t say that they have the closest relationship. I don’t think it’s because of any animosity, it’s just that their lives are different. The things that they’re interested in are probably rather different, too.”

Yet the introduction of what Wilton calls ‘a rather sharp nanny’; doesn’t make Isobel’s role any easier.

“I think at the time she would like to be more hands on as a granny but to begin with she doesn’t want to interfere. She’s delighted, but of course it’s tinged with the sadness because she sees a lot of Matthew in George. And she has to make a relationship: babies they grow and you have to make a new sort of relationship with them separate to their parents.”

If that sounds like a personal reflection, it is:

“I know how it is,” says Wilton. “I have a one year old grandson. I have been called upon for help!”

Press Pack


CARnIVAL fILMs

Carnival Films is the UK's leading drama production company and part of NBCUniversal International Television Production.

Since its first series Downton Abbey has won nine Emmy® Awards including Outstanding Miniseries or Movie with a total of 39 nominations making it the most-nominated non-US series in Emmy® history.

In 2011, the critically-acclaimed series also earned the prestigious Golden Globe® for Best Mini-series. In total, Downton Abbey has won two Golden Globes® and has been nominated for six. In 2012 it was also awarded the Producers Guild Award for Outstanding Producer of Longform Television. In addition the cast were awarded a coveted Screen Actors Guild Award in 2013 for Outstanding Ensemble in a Drama Series. Downton Abbey Season 3 was nominated for a Critics’ Choice Television Award and a TCA Award. Since 2010 the show has also been sold in over 200 territories around the world.

In 2011 Carnival produced David Hare's television film, Page Eight (the first part of his Worricker Trilogy) for the BBC. Filming has just completed on the second and third parts of the Trilogy, Turks & Caicos starring Winona Ryder and Christopher Walken alongside Bill NIghy and Salting The Battlefield with Ralph Fiennes and Helena Bonham Carter. Carnival recently finished filming on The 7:39, an original two part romantic drama for BBC One written by David Nicholls, starring David Morrissey, Sheridan Smith and Olivia Colman, which will air in late 2013.

In 2010 Carnival produced the multi Bafta award-winning adaptation of William Boyd's Any Human Heart for Channel 4 which along with Downton Abbey earned the company recognition as Best Producer at the 2011 Broadcast Awards and the Televisual Bulldog Awards. In 2012 Carnival produced an adaptation of Blake Morrison’s The Last Weekend for ITV and in the same year was instrumental in bringing The Hollow Crown to BBC Two, Sam Mendes cycle of Shakespeare history plays, which were co-produced with Neal Street.

The fourth series of Whitechapel, the popular and original crime drama will transmit in September 2013 on ITV. In addition the company is due to complete filming on a new ten-part series starring Jonathan Rhys Meyers as Dracula, which will air on Sky Living and NBC this autumn.

Originally founded over thirty years ago, Carnival has brought hundreds of hours of popular television and film to audiences worldwide, from series such as Poirot, Jeeves & Wooster, Hotel Babylon, As If and Rosemary & Thyme, powerful international mini-series such as Traffik, The Philanthropist and The Grid to classics such as Shadowlands and Porterhouse Blue.

Carnival is run by producer Gareth Neame who in 2008 sold the company to NBCUniversal as the cornerstone of its new international TV business. NBCUniversal International Television Production is headed by President Michael Edelstein. To complement Carnival’s success in drama, Edelstein has established an impressive range of television production labels covering all genres: Monkey Kingdom, which produces Channel 4’s hit UK reality series, Made in Chelsea; factual entertainment label Chocolate Media, makers of How To Cook Well with Raymond Blanc for BBC Two; and Lucky Giant, which specializes in comedy and most recently produced Christopher Guest comedy Family Tree, starring Chris O’Dowd for both BBC Two and HBO. Additionally, NBCU International Television Production operates a joint TV production venture with Working Title (producers of drama Birdsong), acquired an equity stake in Australian-based Matchbox Pictures (makers of critically-acclaimed drama series The Slap), formed a strategic production partnership with LARK Productions in Canada (producers of Motive) and operates a prolific global formats business.

Press Pack


the official companion to all four series:BeHInD tHe sCenes At DoWnton ABBeyWritten by emma Rowleyforeword by executive Producer Gareth neame

A revealing look backstage at the hit tV show Downton Abbey. In-depth interviews give an exclusive insight into the actors’ experiences on set as well as the celebrated creative team behind the award-winning drama.

A lavishly illustrated book full of images from the new series including those stunning 1920s costumes, which will delight the millions of devoted Downton fans. Step inside the prop’s cupboard or the hair and make-up truck and catch a glimpse of the never-before-seen secret backstage world. Expertly crafted with inside knowledge and facts, this book will delve into the inspiration behind the details seen on screen, the choice of locations, the music and much more.

With a perspective from the director’s chair and rare insights into filming, this is the inside track on all aspects of the making of the show.

BeHInD tHe sCenes At DoWnton ABBey is published by Harper nonfiction on 12th september 2013 in hardback at £20 and eBook at £12.99

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DoWnton ABBeytHe CoMPLete sCRIPts: seAson 2Julian fellowes

Immerse yourself in Julian fellowes’ multi-award-winning drama. the full scripts of season two include previously unseen dialogue and drama.

Downton Abbey has become a national phenomenon and the most successful British drama of our time. Created by Oscar-winning writer Julian Fellowes, the two series have delighted viewers and reviewers alike with stellar performances, ravishing sets and costumes and a gripping plot.

The second series of Downton Abbey opens in 1916 as the First World War rages across Europe. The Crawley family and their servants play their part on the front line and the home front, their lives intensified by the strain of war. Julian Fellowes succeeds in not only riveting his audience with cleverly woven storylines of love, loss and betrayal but also in delivering a social commentary of British life.

The Series 2 scripts give readers the opportunity to read the work in more detail and study the characters, pace and themes in depth. With an introduction and commentary from Julian Fellowes, this is an invaluable insight into how he researched and crafted the world of Downton Abbey.

Downton Abbey the Complete scripts: season 2 is published by Harper nonfiction on 7 november 2013 in paperback at £14.99 and in eBook at £8.99.

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NBCUniversal HOME ENtErtaiNMENt: DVD aND BlU-ray Downton Abbey Series 4, makes it way to DVD on the 11th of November and includes all 8 episodes from the brand new series, plus 3 exclusive to DVD bonus featurettes - each approx. 10 mins run time.

1) The Making Of - A full and detailed Behind the Scenes of Series 4 including a look at changes in fashion and how the house is moving forward, with new cast members and exciting storylines.

2) Downton Diaries - The cast bring fans even closer to the world of Downton, with this exclusive look into a typical day on the set of Downton, from the arrival on location, hair & make up, to costumes and working with the cast.

3) Meet the new cast - An exciting look at the new characters joining the UK's No.1 TV drama and what we can expect to see from them.

A Series 1-4 boxset including the Christmas day episodes from 2011 & 2012, will also be released on the 11th of November.

Series 4 - RRP £29.99 DVD £34.99 BDSeries 1- 4 - RRP £TBC

downton s4 press pack

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