Behind the Scenes at Downton Abbey (13 page)

Births, marriages and deaths – village life is punctuated by Christian rites. Bampton’s ancient church, St Mary’s, has already had starring roles in the Crawley daughters’ weddings as St Michael and All Angels’, and will reappear in series four.

History permeates its walls. The building is thought to have been built in 1153, but there has probably been a church on the site since before the Norman Conquest.

Filming in a place of worship means treating it with respect, but Liz Trubridge says the best way to proceed is as you would inside any building. ‘Wherever we film, we are very aware that it is somebody else’s property, and that is no different at St Mary’s. We aren’t going to work in anybody’s home and use a lot of profanities!’

Approval is sought for any changes to the location, too. Before Mary and Matthew’s wedding, the crew met with villagers to explain they would be erecting large fences to hide the bride’s dress from the paparazzi who were getting creative with cameras on poles!

Sometimes two locations must be combined in order to create the perfect look for a home on screen. Scenes set inside the rooms of Crawley House are filmed in a house in Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire, but the exterior belongs to a property in Bampton. ‘Both my houses are the envy of the rest of the cast,’ Penelope Wilton (Isobel Crawley) laughs. ‘They are beautiful, but also the people who own them are extremely nice.’

The relationships between the location owners and the
Downton
team, which are forged by their frequent return to these locations, make for a different experience to those that the cast and crew have had on other shows. John Prendergast explains: ‘Often when you finish working at a location you leave and say, “See you later, all done here, thanks very much, ta-ra.” Whereas with this show, every location we go to we almost definitely know we will return to it at some point or another. You get to have a good relationship with the owners.’

Of all the cast, Michelle Dockery has a particular tie to the Bluebell Railway, the heritage steam line in Sussex used to film many station farewells. ‘It’s a really special place for me because it’s where Mary sees Matthew off to war, it’s where she has the conversation with Sir Richard Carlisle in series two when he proposes, and she says, “I’ll think about it!” and then later she goes into labour as she gets off the train. So the railway is very significant and I love filming there.’

Gareth Neame refers to Mary’s station goodbye to Matthew, when she gives him her lucky mascot, as ‘the most important scene we have made on the show’.

Julian Fellowes agrees. ‘I like to write scenes where what the characters are saying is not really what the scene is about,’ he explains. ‘She was still in love with him and he was probably still in love with her. However, it was also about the fact that he might very well be going off to his death and this might be the last time they saw each other – but none of that was spoken.’

While the rolling English countryside has its charms, London exerts an increasing pull over the younger Crawleys, who are tempted by the freedom it offers.

For Charles Edwards, who joined the cast in series three as Edith’s editor Michael Gregson, their scenes shot in big-city locations have helped to underline how their unconventional relationship is out of place in the rule-bound confines of the Abbey. ‘It feels like an affair,’ he admits.

In series four the pair visit the Criterion restaurant in Piccadilly – which ‘plays’ itself – albeit decades earlier. While the Criterion remains a working restaurant today, complete with fabulous interiors, it still had to be dressed as a set, not least because it was packed with its own modern chairs and tables, leaving no room for the film crew’s equipment. ‘There was a lot of clearing out to do and bringing in of the typical 1920s big palms and fresh flower arrangements,’ says Gina Cromwell, the set decorator. ‘Then all the tables had to be dressed – using bishop’s hat napkins [a traditional way of folding table napkins] and suchlike – to give them the right period feel and look.’

It was a quick turnaround, she remembers, as is often the case in a packed filming schedule. ‘The film unit was working in another London location at the time, and we only had one morning to get this scene. We started at about 5 a.m., so it was hard work. We have a lot of those early starts, especially when we are in London.’