The Chronicles of Downton Abbey: A New Era (30 page)

Lloyd George’s reforms ended this way of life, as the Duke of Richmond and Gordon recalled of the Goodwood ‘gang’ (a group of superannuated servants who were allowed to stay on – most estates had one): ‘You would see them around the house or the park, sweeping up the odd leaf or weeding when they felt like it. They all had their bicycles and they were blissfully happy.’ But with the arrival of state-administered old-age pensions, ‘The regulation was that you mustn’t earn any extra money at all. So that’s when it all stopped.’

Other changes were subtler, harder to pin down. The Duchess of Westminster could not find a date for when the ‘little social changes’ occurred, she revealed in her memoir,
Grace and Favour
. ‘Some things obviously disappeared in the 1914 War; ladies taking the air in carriages in the Park, straw put down in the street outside the house of an invalid, whistles blown for taxis … But when did the London telephone book go into two volumes? When did they start cutting down the height of signposts so that they could be read by motorists rather than by coachmen perched up on boxes? When did the ranks of bath-chairs for hire disappear?’

One thing that remained resolutely unchanged for Violet was her style of dress. This would have been deliberate. For her, an aristocrat’s life is about fulfilling a role, and much of this would be done through one’s costume – to demonstrate one’s place in the ranks. When Branson admits to not owning white or black tie, Violet cannot comprehend why a former chauffeur would not let the world see that he was now married to an earl’s daughter, or at least try to fit in with the crowd around him. His politics and views are beyond her reckoning.

Violet
At my age, one must ration
one’s excitement.

The costume designer modelled Violet’s style more closely to Queen Alexandra (they would have been close contemporaries) – King George V’s mother – than to Queen Mary. She was a woman to whom many of Violet’s generation would have looked, to see how she was coping with the post-war world. By and large, her way of coping was, like Violet’s, to carry on exactly as before. ‘Violet maintains the high neckline of the Edwardian era,’ says Caroline McCall of the dowager’s dresses. ‘She always has a choker around her neck and a to-the-floor hem. There is a weight and texture of decoration about her clothes.’ Queen Alexandra’s penchant for wearing a choker and maintaining a very high neckline was, apparently, the result of her desire to hide a small scar on her neck, left by a childhood operation. It instituted a distinctive style of dress that proved extremely influential, enduring even beyond her death. Her favoured couturier was the London-based house of Redfern & Sons, on whom she bestowed a Royal Warrant, as did the future Queen Mary.

In some ways, one could almost feel sympathy for Violet. She may not be lonely, but doubtless she feels isolated at times, cast adrift in the modern world where people no longer dress for mourning, where cars rev noisily down the driveway and the young talk of ‘weekends’ (instead of Saturday-to-Mondays) and elopements. Yet, throughout it all, she keeps her poise. Smith says: ‘It’s odd for Violet because she obviously was the king of the castle at one point. But I have a feeling she’s older and wiser than the rest of them. And I think she’s just, “I’ve been there, done that and got the T-shirt.”’ No, pity is not what Violet seeks, but admiration and quiet praise – with perhaps a dash of irreverence, too, just to keep the spirits up.

Violet, like all women of her class, used perfume –
or ‘scent’ as they always called it – sparingly. Aristocratic
women favoured the citrus-based ‘Eau de Cologne’
(developed at the beginning of the eighteenth century
by an Italian perfumier in Cologne), or else the essence
of flowers. Heavy musk-scented concoctions were
considered to belong to the more bohemian.

HUGH BONNEVILLE
(THE EARL OF GRANTHAM)
EVERYONE ON THE PROGRAMME IS WORKING AT
THE TOP OF THEIR GAME – WHICH IS SOMETHING
VERY SPECIAL.

T
he attention to detail on the set of
Downton Abbey
is phenomenal. It infuses every aspect of the production. ‘I’m always very moved by the art department,’ says Hugh Bonneville, who plays Lord Grantham. ‘They strive much harder than any I’ve ever worked with before to make everything just right. If you are reading a letter in a scene it will be right in every detail – the paper, the handwriting, the date on the letter, the sentiments of the writer. I remember in one scene reading a newspaper at breakfast and they had created a perfect version of
The Times
for that date, so I was reading – in this bald reportage – an account of the murder of the Romanovs. You can’t help but feel transported into another place and time, even when there are 30 technicians in jeans standing [just off camera] in the room.’

Talking to the production designers, Donal Woods and Charmian Adams, it becomes clear how subtle, but effective, some of the detailing is. Everything, though, is directed towards telling the story. ‘The last series’, Adams explains, ‘was dominated by great events – the World War, the Spanish ’Flu epidemic. This series is a closer look at the family, seeing them in a changed and changing world.’ There is a whole new mood. ‘The feeling of encroaching modernity’, Woods suggests, ‘has always been a key element in the programmes. From the very first scene of Series 1, with its trains, telegraphs and motor cars, it was clear that we were moving on from the worlds of Jane Austen and the Brontës into something that connected with our world.’

That sense of forward movement and connection gathers pace in the third series. In these episodes the design team try to reflect the new, brighter decade. ‘We are lightening up after the Victorian gloom and the bleakness of the war years,’ says Woods. ‘We have gone for lighter tones wherever we can.’ However, it can only be done in subtle ways. ‘One of the difficulties we have’, confesses Woods, ‘is that in grand country houses they never seemed to buy furniture after the 1880s or 90s.’ The main rooms in all the stately homes the location team originally viewed seemed not to have changed at all since the end of the nineteenth century, bar a few modern light-fittings and family photographs. ‘At Downton, Robert sees it as his job to keep the house as it is. So it’s quite difficult to introduce evidence of the new age. The lightness is subtle in some rooms: Matthew and Mary’s living quarters, for instance, are slightly lighter in tone.’

Between takes locations are
alive with activity as the
production team primp and
preen the actors and the set to
make sure every detail is right.

Highclere is just one location
used for filming
Downton Abbey
;
in Series 3 the characters are
shown in many other places
outside the estate, in the changing,
fast-paced world of motor cars
and new technology.

Away from the grand rooms of Downton the post-war world can be suggested more vividly. ‘In this series’, Adams says, ‘there are fewer horses and more motor cars.’ And the arrival of Cora’s mother, Martha, from America brings what Woods describes as ‘a great gust of the modern age’. ‘She has a very different energy – from the moment she arrives in a Cadillac, with white-wall tyres!’

CHARMIAN ADAMS
(PRODUCTION DESIGNER)
YOU READ SOMETHING IN THE SCRIPT – A
SINGLE LINE – AND THEN IT TAKES ABOUT
15 PEOPLE TO RECREATE IT!

For the costume designer, Caroline McCall, the new age can be suggested directly through the characters’ clothes. ‘The constraints of the pre-war world were relaxed after the conflict. This had a massive influence on fashion, particularly women’s fashion. Women had a new independence. They were much more active. They could be seen out on their own. They had things to do. In dress, simplicity became key.’ The shift from fuss to clean lines has been greatly appreciated by the actresses, who find the clothes much easier to wear.

And this new spirit of feminine independence is picked up, and followed through, by Magi Vaughan, the hair and make-up designer, who researched the period through paintings of the period. ‘In the Twenties the women did begin to use rouge, but very discreetly, because they didn’t want it to be seen. Hairstyles, too, were changing. They were getting shorter. That is part of the story. The Marcel wave came in from France. And there was the “bob”.’