DOWNTON ABBEY’S LAURA CARMICHAEL
How cruel illness helped me bond with my Gran
THAT’S the gift of Downton, says Laura Carmichael, the actress who plays the often overlooked middle sister Lady Edith Crawley in the phenomenally successful TV costume drama.
Yet she is not talking red carpets, awards ceremonies or photo shoots. Laura is discussing the “privilege” of being able to use her celebrity to support Parkinson’s UK and raise awareness of the cruel neurological condition which overshadowed her grandmother’s fi nal years.
Laura was working as a doctor’s receptionist when she was invited to audition for Downton Abbey and admits she had no idea how huge the show would become. “I was very new, very green. I had been out of drama school for a couple of years and had that very typical experience of doing 18 different jobs to try to be the one thing you want – and none of them was acting.
“Downton was the biggest audition I’d had by a long way but I thought I was going in for a tiny role and had no idea of how massive it would be. We had no idea what it would turn into and I feel very lucky to be part of it.”
Although she is now fi lming the sixth and fi nal series and has featured in some of the show’s most gripping storylines, Laura, 28, still pinches herself to make sure it’s all real. “Maggie Smith used to work with Lawrence Olivier and can tell you all those stories,” she says.
“Working with her is a dream, she is so kind. I think she is fully aware of how intimidating she must be but she instantly made us feel comfortable. It really feels like she is our granny.”
Laura is quick to point out that her family is not “posh”. At her audition the casting director suggested she “do it a bit posher” but she does see parallels with her grandmother’s life and those of the Downton women. “When my Nanna was born in the 1920s it was such a time of change and that sense is no clearer than when you are looking at the Downton women.
“It has been fascinating and continues to be so as we look at how their role changed and the lives that they dreamt of in the fi rst series are so different from where they are now.”
The transition has perhaps been greatest for Lady Edith who dreamt only of marriage in the early episodes and is now running a newspaper and raising her illegitimate daughter.
LAURA’S grandparents lived through the Second World War but she says: “I really thought about Nanna a lot during the First World War Land Army storyline. Both my grandmothers had a whale of a time during the second war. Nanna was in the Land Army and then became a Wren, she had a fantastic experience.”
As a member of the Women’s Royal Naval Service her grandmother Mary travelled the world and met the man who would become Laura’s grandfather. “After the war she carried on working with ships in various different jobs and then in a department store,” Laura says. “Wartime opened up so many opportunities for women.”
Her grandmother was a big part of Laura’s life as she grew up. She lived near the family home in Southampton and would often look after Laura and her siblings Amy and Olivia while their mother Sarah worked as an NHS radiographer.
Laura was in her teens and still dreaming of drama school when her grandmother was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. Over the next seven years the fi ercely independent woman who had always been so full of fun began to slip away and Mary became more dependent on those around her.
Parkinson’s disease is a progressive neurological condition that affects about one in 500 people. Nerve cells in the brain die and this depletes levels of the chemical messenger dopamine. This leads to muscle stiffness, tremors or slowed movement. Symptoms get steadily worse until old age or another health problem such as an infection intervenes.
Mary was 85 when she died. Laura recalls: “Initially the changes were quite subtle, I think that’s often the case. Nanna had a friend who also had Parkinson’s and she noticed that her handwriting was becoming similar to her friend’s. That’s how she became aware of it.
“She lived on her own after being widowed and was incredibly active. She would go into schools to hear children read and volunteered for charities and I think she was very nervous of losing that freedom.”
In some cases, as happened to Laura’s grandmother, Parkinson’s is also associated with dementia and this can make it diffi cult to fi nd the best combination of treatments.
“It was always quite complicated to balance the drugs. When she was more lucid her Parkinson’s would be worse, when Parkinson’s was better she might not be so good on the dementia side.”
Laura says: “Nanna passed away when I was 22 and her Parkinson’s was a big part of our lives as a family. It is very unifying when something like that happens to a family. You bond through it.”
Indeed it is still a large part of the family’s life. Since then, Laura’s mother Sarah, 53, has raised more than £ 6,000 for Parkinson’s UK by walking the Inca Trail. The charity supports families living with Parkinson’s by training specialist nurses but it is also looking forward to a time when there might be a cure for the condition. The fi rst trial to test a promising growth factor which may help regenerate brain cells has just begun and scientists at Cambridge University recently discovered the tipping point where a protein in the brain becomes toxic and triggers Parkinson’s.
Lead author of the study Dr Celine Galvagnion says: “Finding a cure for Parkinson’s depends on our ability to understand it. This provides us with a likely explanation of how the initial steps leading to Parkinson’s occur.”
Parkinson’s Awareness Week runs from April 20- 26. For more details visit parkinsons. org. uk