Downton the movie is on its way, says Phyllis
KNOWN for her calm and soothing manner, Downton Abbey’s housekeeper yesterday helped to reassure fans that the much-loved TV drama will be back – this time on the big screen.
Phyllis Logan, who plays Mrs Hughes, said there is a skeleton script and the main actors have been asked about their availability.
And news that Highclere Castle, near Newbury, Berks, where the original series was filmed, will be closed to visitors from May 30 to July 7 has fuelled speculation.
Ms Logan, 61, whose character married curmudgeonly butler Mr Carson (Jim Carter) in the final series in 2015, said: “There’s a potential script coming our way, slightly rewritten. Everyone’s been asked what’s going on between this date and that date.
“So we just hope that all the elements – because there are so many – come together.
“To have a last hurrah with all the characters, going back to the castle and seeing all the old muckers will be fantastic. I’m certainly up for it.”
Ms Logan knows of one fan in Boston, in the US, who loved the show so much that she had the castle keys tattooed on her hip.
“I kid you not,” she said. “Though, unfortunately, she has them on the wrong hip. She also had the wig and the full outfit.”
The show, created by Julian Fellowes, ran for six seasons, ending with a Christmas special two years ago.
Almost immediately there were rumours of a movie to cash on its popularity abroad, particularly in the US.
NBC Universal International Studios had hoped to start filming in 2017 with 20 of the original cast, including Hugh Bonneville (Lord Grantham) and Michelle Dockery (Lady Crawley). All were asked to keep their diaries open but the project never got under way. Fellowes, who has made several films and won an Oscar for Best Screenplay for Gosford Park in 2002, was keen to be involved in a big screen version but Dame Maggie Smith, 83, who played Violet, Dowager Countess of Grantham, said she was too old to take part. Ms Logan, who stars in the comedy TV drama Girlfriends, which begins on Wednesday on ITV, said: “It was a great show to do and a great character to play and I will forever think fondly of Mrs Hughes. “It was one of the best gigs of my life and opened up so many other avenues and put a different spin on my career.”
ABIG-screen version of Downton Abbey has, as they say in the movie biz, been “greenlighted”. That’s certainly something for fans to look forward to in 2018.