A Year in the Life of Downton Abbey: Seasonal Celebrations, Traditions, and Recipes (5 page)

When the last nail has been banged into the set walls, the final button sewn on to a dress and hair perfectly coiffed, the actors will step on set to say their lines in front of camera. Carson and Mrs Hughes will have the house shipshape and Bristol fashion, ready to face the new year ahead and all the challenges it will inevitably bring them at Downton Abbey.

Michelle Dockery and Tom Cullen on location for series five.

Lady Mary Crawley

SPOTLIGHT ON

When Gareth Neame and Julian Fellowes met for dinner in Chelsea a few years ago, it didn’t at first look as if it was going to be a very productive meeting. First of all, the restaurant they had planned to go to was shut, so they tramped around until they found an unassuming Italian bistro. Initially, they had planned the meeting in order to say goodbye to a project that they had not been able to make fly. As they talked, Gareth said he thought that a television series based on the world Julian so beautifully explored in his screenplay
Gosford Park
would work brilliantly. ‘I had long thought that the setting of an English country house during the Edwardian era would make a very suitable arena for an episodic television series, with its joy of repeated pleasure because your audience is able to connect with the characters on a weekly basis.’

Despite an animated conversation over supper, Julian later said something to the effect of lightning not striking twice in the same place (he had won an Oscar for his script, taking him from unknown writer and character actor to Hollywood hot property in what was a literal overnight sensation) and Gareth thought that might be it until he received an email from Julian, no more than a couple of pages long, describing his initial thoughts on all the major characters who would come to inhabit Downton. ‘I had a strong sense that Julian had lived with these characters for many years, but was only now describing them on the page,’ says Gareth. ‘At once the world came alive for me.’

Lesley Nicol, Phyllis Logan and Sophie McShera discuss their next scene.

Cut to 2014 – the production is shooting its fifth series, and the show has been seen by more than 270 million viewers worldwide. It has won just about every TV award there is, from Emmys to Golden Globes, and is the most successful British-made television export ever. It is, safe to say, evident that lightning does indeed strike twice.

Each year the show gets bigger, garnering more fans in ever far-reaching places (Jim was astonished to be recognised when he was cycling in Cambodia). Does this put more pressure on Gareth? ‘The biggest challenge with a show as beloved as
Downton
is that you’ve got to keep it up there – there can’t be any drop-off in terms of quality,’ he explains. ‘That can be difficult, given the sheer weight of narrative we carry. We have to try to find fresh ways of doing things yet retain the elements people love. Familiarity is a huge part of the appeal and we do have a sense now of how the likes of Violet, Carson or Tom Branson are going to react to the circumstances we put them in. But it has to be kept airborne – we have to find the balance between the expected and the unexpected.’

The show itself isn’t the only thing to get bigger – so are the actors’ profiles: ‘Everyone wants a piece of the cast and that can be a juggling act for our schedule. Fortunately, the advantage of an ensemble cast is that they’re not all called every day for filming.’

Gareth’s own
Downton
year begins as soon as shooting wraps in August; at that point, while everything is still fresh in their minds, he and Julian have several meetings to brainstorm the next series. Gareth has had a set of laminated photographs made up for each character – ‘We’ll hold one up and discuss their storyline,’ he says. ‘You’ll have people accusing you of getting out the darts,’ I say. ‘In a way it is a bit like that,’ laughs Gareth. ‘Julian will say, for some characters, that he absolutely knows what he wants to do with them, while others are less clear so we’ll brainstorm and develop ideas together. But that’s how the storyline of Anna’s assault and resulting impact on her marriage evolved.’

Of course, some storylines are forced when an actor decides to leave. Dan Stevens (Matthew Crawley), Jessica Brown Findlay (Lady Sybil) and Siobhan Finneran (O’Brien) left to pursue other acting opportunities. ‘We had a lot of notice for Sybil’s exit and as we had three daughters, we were OK to lose one and we knew that it could be a great piece of storytelling, which it was. Dan Stevens’ exit was much harder – we didn’t know until just a few episodes before the finale, plus we had already had one death that series. It had to be that way [for Matthew and Sybil] because a servant can be fired, but if we lose someone from the family the only possible exit is through death. We couldn’t have Mary and Matthew estranged so soon after their marriage either. We had very few episodes in which to lay a footpath for his leaving, so [the car crash] was the only option,’ explains Gareth.

From September to December as Julian writes the first drafts, Gareth will be involved in new actor deals, hiring directors, and the post-production of the previous series right through the autumn season as the finale does not air until Christmas. By Christmas, the first four episodes will have been written and shared with key production members, with two more arriving in January. There’s a short working break at this point in the new year, when the awards season kicks off in America with the Emmys and the various Guild awards.

The crew’s call-sheet.

The scripts will have been completed by June but filming begins at the end of February and runs through until August, during which time post-production (editing, music) is ongoing. Post-production and publicity continues after they have wrapped until they deliver their final episode in December. Throughout the year, there’s a lot of international travel for Gareth and the cast: ‘Although we make the show in the UK, it’s as big, if not bigger, in the US and growing elsewhere, so we’ll be going to China, Australia, New Zealand …’ All the while, of course, Gareth is busy as managing director of Carnival Films, producing other TV dramas and developing new ideas.

‘I genuinely love the show,’ says Gareth, smiling. ‘If I didn’t make it, I’d be watching it.’ But while Gareth has enjoyed a number of professional successes (
Spooks, State of Play
and
Whitechapel,
to name just a few), the phenomenon of
Downton Abbey
is unique. ‘I hoped we’d do well, but the shock was the scale of success, not just in America but in European countries typically not much interested in British TV, such as France and Spain. Then there’s China …!’ Does he have a theory for the show’s success? Gareth nods: ‘It starts with being an expressly British and familiar genre – the aristocracy in the English country house – which we know from Agatha Christie, P. G. Wodehouse and Jane Austen. But where previously it’s been literary or sedate or a little old-fashioned, what we’ve done is provide sharp, pacy, modern storytelling with multiple narratives. So firstly, it’s familiar, and secondly, it’s slightly unexpected. Thirdly, the characters are so well drawn and acted you can relate to them. I think also we show romance in a way that isn’t seen much anymore – the will they/won’t they element that audiences enjoy. There’s comedy, there’s the strong sense of family … We’ve lined up all these ducks in a row.’