THE GRAND RETURN
The period drama Downton Abbey was a phenomenon that spanned six seasons, earned 15 Emmys and was adored by millions. Next month, the hit television series makes its long-awaited return – on the big screen. By Danielle Gay.
The hit television series Downton Abbey makes its long-awaited return – on the big screen.
ON LAURA CARMICHAEL’S first day back on set as her character Lady Edith Crawley, she wasn’t at the magnificent Highclere Castle, the estate in Hampshire, England, which Downton Abbey is based on, but rather at a studio in London.
“They had recreated the kitchens and the bedrooms there,” she remembers of her first scene, which she shared with her on-screen sister, Michelle Dockery (Lady Mary). “It was a lot of the old gang and the new gang in the crew. We were very excited to see everyone become their character again and to see the house and the costumes.”
For British-born Carmichael, becoming her character meant having her blonde hair styled into Lady Edith’s perfectly coiffed bob and dressing in a immaculately beaded gold silk chiffon gown. Carmichael had played the second daughter to the aristocratic Crawleys, known as Lord and Lady Grantham, from 2010 to 2015, but it was now September 2018 and she’d been out of the practice of wearing period costumes. “You feel so responsible, as you should, walking around in these dresses that have taken months to design and make. On the first day, first morning, first hour of filming, I put my heel through a bit of chiffon in my dress,” she says, laughing. “But that’s the thing with filming this movie: we just had to start and get back into it.”
The long-awaited Downton Abbey film picks up where the awardwinning television show left off. Season six followed the Crawley family and their staff during 1925 as they lived out their lives in Downton, until the final episode aired at the end of 2015. A testament to the show’s incredible popularity, the very last episode screened on Christmas Day and 9.6 million people across Britain still tuned in to watch it. The glamorous, high-society drama was so well loved across the globe that rumours of a potential movie were underway before the final season had even aired.
“It had been talked about since filming finished for the series,” Carmichael tells Vogue. “It really felt like any time any of us were promoting [the show] we were also promoting a film that we didn’t know was going to happen. It was a relief when we got the agents saying: ‘Right, it’s happening, here’s the script.’” The show’s creator, Julian Fellowes, finally gave the project the green light in 2017 and filming began at the end of last year. “It felt like a real celebration, having two and a half months together again. It was very nostalgic but also it felt like no time had passed at all.”
For the cast, it may have felt like they’d never left, but for the characters it’s two years later and time has marched on. Fans of the show will remember Lady Edith finally had her happy ending, marrying Bertie Pelham, the 7th Marquess of Hexham, at the end of the season. Carmichael’s character has undergone the biggest transformation – it’s the first time audiences will see her as a marchioness, living at the lavish Brancaster Castle. “On the first day, Gareth Neame, our executive producer, ran to me and said: ‘Now remember, Laura [Lady Edith] is now more important than anyone. She outranks them all,’” Carmichael says. “We’re now seeing Edith immersed in her new role. That’s a new challenge and it’s completely different from the life she led at Downton.”
“It felt like a celebration, having two and a half months together again. It was very nostalgic but also it felt like no time had passed at all”
Lady Edith later returns to the historic abbey, which is preparing for the arrival of King George V and Queen Mary to their Yorkshire country house. A host of favourites are also back, including the Earl and Countess of Grantham, played by Hugh Bonneville and Elizabeth McGovern, as well as Dame Maggie Smith as the scene-stealing Dowager Countess. There’s also a slew of new characters, including Simon Jones and Geraldine James, who play the king and queen, and the BAFTA-winning actor Imelda Staunton, of Harry Potter fame, who plays a brand-new character within the Crawley family circle. Her real-life spouse, Jim Carter, makes an unexpected return as Carson the butler.
Michelle Dockery also reprises her role as Lady Mary, who is still married to Henry Talbot and has taken a more active role in the running of Downton. “We see Mary in this full managerial role of trying to keep Downton Abbey going and we see the pressure on her,” says Carmichael. “She has this responsibility to the house and it’s a role that she’s actually very good at and it suits her. I think in that way they’ve both found a place to be which is good for them, because living together and squabbling over boys and dresses wasn’t very good for Edith and Mary.” Although the sisters might have both found peace, there are still some quintessentially Downton moments of sibling rivalry to look forward to. “For, Michelle and I it was really fun to get back into that dynamic and see if they’ve matured a bit.”
Capturing these changes within the characters took meticulous costume work by the show’s costume designer, Anna Robbins. “On the series I have nine episodes for each series, with five or six story days within each episode,” Robbins explains. “That’s hundreds of costumes to tell a story. When you move onto the film, I had far fewer costumes with which to tell the same stories.”
For Robbins, who joined the series in season five, the challenge was in the way the clothes had to reflect the impending arrival of the 1930s. “I had to find a balance between moving on in the decades, pushing towards that slight turning point into the 30s. But I couldn’t take it too far because I didn’t want to lose the really iconic recognisable characterisation that I’d established in the series. It was about finding pieces that felt classically Lady Mary or Lady Edith or Cora [Crawley], but at the same time, looking at the micro trends from 1927 and making sure it felt fresh.”
In the case of Lady Edith, her wardrobe also had to reflect her newfound self-assuredness. “She’s found her signature in terms of style,” says Robbins. “I always like to make sure there’s exquisite craftsmanship within her wardrobe – so that might be embroidery, beading, lacework or beautiful prints. There’s a fluidity to her wardrobe in contrast to a slightly more structured, tailored look for Lady Mary. I like to look at the dichotomy between the two sisters and work that. While they’re not always at war, there’s usually a style contrast between the two of them, because they’re such different women.”
To achieve historical accuracy, Robbins used an even split of original and custom-designed pieces for the film. She called on her large network of vintage traders and visited monthly vintage fashion fairs in London. Some pieces were called in from the US, while fabric was sourced from France. If she couldn’t find a specific piece, she worked with a model-maker to recreate it. “On the series I set the bar high, so to elevate it up to the big screen was a huge challenge, but one that we really relished. We went to great lengths to make sure it was authentic and accurate and that the quality was there.”
Robbins was scrupulous with every detail, working with the show’s historical advisor, Alastair Bruce, to ensure every piece was periodappropriate. The king’s outfit alone had 52 elements to it and required its own spreadsheet. “I’ve always prided myself on the authenticity of the costumes on Downton – so the attention to detail is there – and that’s when it’s an abstract, fictional piece. When you throw in real-life characters there’s a huge responsibility to get that right.” Then there were the tiaras, worn during a ball in one of the film’s final scenes. While some were real tiaras borrowed from London jeweller Bentley & Skinner, others were to-scale replicas using Swarovski crystals that Robbins commissioned. “There are absolutely some real diamonds glittering away in our dinner and ball scenes. If I’ve done my job correctly it will be difficult to spot.”
Robbins also encouraged the actors to wear period-correct undergarments and footwear, a trick she used in the series which helps actors achieve the correct shape and posture. “The women have come out of corsetry, but there’s still underwear at play that is used to augment the female form,” she explains. “I’m not saying that during a long dining room scene they haven’t taken their shoes off under the table, but Maggie Smith would wear her shoes with her costume, as I say, because it completes the costume.
“I don’t think they ever feel particularly relaxed, because they know that they’re wearing valuable, one-off pieces. I’m sure that somewhere in the back of their minds they know that they’ve got to be careful when they’re walking up the drive or sitting at the dining room table that they don’t put a heel to a hem.”
And even if, like Carmichael, they do just that, it’s part of the whimsy of Downton that the audience will never know any better. “I think there’s a comfort with Downton, that the team around it are so wonderful,” says Carmichael. “They’ve really been crafting what they think is going to be the best story to tell. I think it’s going to be a treat.” Downton Abbey is in cinemas September 12.
“On the series I set the bar high, so to elevate it up to the big screen was a huge challenge. We went to great lengths to make sure it was authentic and accurate”