A Year in the Life of Downton Abbey: Seasonal Celebrations, Traditions, and Recipes (37 page)

SPOTLIGHT ON

A producer’s role is often an enigmatic one, but they are, essentially, the captains steering the ship, and how they handle rough seas affects the whole crew.
Downton Abbey,
in scale and ambition, is effectively like filming nine feature movies in six months: the pressure on the production is huge and it would be understandable if there were mutinies. Fortunately, executive producer Liz Trubridge – a.k.a Queen Liz – is the oil that is poured on troubled waters. Radiating calm and good humour, with an absolute certainty in what needs to be achieved, it is Liz that navigates the good ship
Downton
the whole year round. The cast and crew are constantly amazed by her ability to keep her head when all around her chaos could break out at any moment: ‘I believe in a team of equals,’ she says. ‘It’s the way I like to work and I want everyone to feel they have a voice. As producers, our job is to pick the best team to do the job and then give them the space, facility and support to do it … because then it makes me look good!’

But her leadership is clearly inspirational. Alastair Bruce says, without hesitation, that his favourite thing about working on the show is Liz. ‘She absolutely manages the team. Not only does she organise and run things, but on top of all that, she is able to make everyone feel special and brings that into her management in a way that is very comfortable to receive.’

Liz Trubridge and Brendan Patricks relax between takes.

Liz has worked on the series since its inception and is the executive producer full-time on
Downton
for the whole twelve months. Her year begins in December, when they start pre-production having received the first scripts. After the Christmas break, the pre-production process gains momentum, with more and more members of the team coming on board – department heads for design, costume and so on, then the location team, accounts team and gradually all the team members joining in. Throughout January, there are location recces, castings and meetings, and the schedule begins to come together. ‘We are lucky that Julian has usually written the first four episodes by Christmas, which means we can quickly get an idea of the shape of it,’ says Liz.

In February, the production is getting close to shooting and at the beginning of the month they have their ‘reach recces', in which sound, camera and all crew on set (except for costume, hair and make-up) go to the locations with the directors, producers, director of photography and line producer (who controls the budget) and checks everything out. There might, for example, be a problem with noise from the air conditioning; or the director of photography will decide he needs a lift in order to get lights for the windows; access to buildings has to be sorted; empty spaces that are going to have sets put in need to be measured up – there are countless details and factors that must be accounted for. Done properly, the crew and actors can then crack on with filming the minute they arrive.

Next is the read-through, as Liz explains: ‘It’s a great opportunity to hear the script for the first time and we gather as many of the cast as we possibly can. Inevitably, with the success of the show, one of the ongoing issues we have is that they are all in huge demand – we could have up to seven requests for actors’ time by 10 a.m. on any given morning.’ These requests could be anything from a photoshoot for a magazine cover to days needed to film scenes in a movie.

February sees the start of filming and, by then, says Liz, ‘We’re pleased to be up and running. We tend to start at Highclere, as it’s more available in February and March, shooting in blocks of two episodes each.’

The schedule is immensely complicated. ‘It’s easy to forget that we are unusual in having such a huge cast,’ says Liz. ‘All the period costume we have to get them into – they do their make-up first, then get their clothes on, back to make-up for final tweaks. It’s not uncommon to have the cast ready at 8 a.m. in 1924 hair and a beautiful costume,’ she laughs.

Liz splits her time between being on set, with the directors – one will be there filming, another will be planning the next ‘block’ (two or three episodes) – and keeping an eye on the cutting room. The planning is detailed, as nothing can be left to chance: new actors need to be cast, directors found and the big set pieces prepared for. As viewers will have noticed, the show frequently features an elaborate event in a single episode which isn’t repeated – a cricket match, a shoot, an excursion to Scotland, a garden party, Lady Rose’s coming-out ball, a day at the beach – all of which need to be planned well ahead. Even if the script isn’t completely finished, the producers will have been told about these beforehand.

Each block of episodes is filmed across six or so weeks, with the crew spending a third of their time at Highclere, a third at Ealing and a third at other locations, going back and forth, but as little as possible, so that the departments do not have to keep packing and moving. The final episode is filmed in late July/early August. After the wrap, pretty much everyone goes home except for Liz. ‘We traditionally transmit in September [in the UK], so we deliver episodes as we film. I take a two-week break in September and come back to finish editing the final episodes. They are finished in mid-November and then off we go again, getting ready for the next series!’

The actors wait for the next scene to be set up.

Christmas

It’s Christmas at Downton Abbey: the mistletoe hangs quietly, hoping to witness a kiss beneath its white berries, pine and holly are laid on every surface, a yule log crackles in the fireplace and stockings are hung on the mantelpiece.

Much of what we know and love about the festive season today was already in place by 1912, and certainly by 1924. From trees to Father Christmas and turkeys, the Victorians had largely adopted the traditions we still enjoy; Downton certainly embraces the spirit of the advent calendar.

In the great hall, a huge tree is decked out in decorations and electric lights, with piles of toys wrapped beneath – presents for the children of the estate’s tenant farmers and the local village. The Countess of Warwick, at Easton Lodge, was a notorious society beauty – she was part of King Edward VII’s infamous Marlborough House Set and was his lover for many years – and one of her annual traditions was a Christmas-tree party to which all the estate employees and the village schoolchildren were invited. A newspaper report described it thus: ‘In the centre was a large fir-tree, taken out of the park, and reaching from the floor to the ceiling. Many hundreds of toys, of all imaginable descriptions, together with a number of sparkling brilliants, were hung upon the tree; in fact the tree was so laden that its foliage could scarcely be seen.’

At Downton Abbey, thanks to the American influence of Cora, Christmas is especially glorious. Cora would have grown up with fabulous opulence – those living in the Gilded Age, the era in which Cora was a girl in Cincinnati, made a point of putting their wealth on display at any opportunity, and Christmas was a very good opportunity indeed. The house is filled to the brim with decorations, at Cora’s behest, and she may wistfully remember days of ice-skating on a lake, dressed in an elegant fur-trimmed coat.