The Chronicles of Downton Abbey: A New Era (32 page)

JASON GILL
(WARDROBE MASTER) THE
FOOTMEN'S WHITE GLOVES ARE HARD
TO KEEP CLEAN, ESPECIALLY WHEN THEY
ARE SERVING RED WINE (GRAPE JUICE).

The costume team take the opportunity to rush in to rearrange the fall of a drape, the turn of a collar. It is a constant battle to keep costumes looking trim – especially for male characters. As Jason Gill, wardrobe master, explains, ‘I try to get the boys not to crease things. But it sometimes feels as if the entire universe is conspiring against you. Starched collars can draw blood, but the main concern is keeping make-up off the white collars.’ Lights are re-set, sound booms manoeuvred and ‘marks’ put down on the floor to make sure each actor knows where to stand. Surveying the scene, Jim Carter remarks with Carson-like authority, ‘Filming is a bit like life in service – there's a lot of waiting and then moments of frenetic activity.’

As in all productions, there is a mixture of truth and deception; there is much that is real, but as much that is make-believe. As Georgina Melling – a regular extra who appears as a housemaid – admits, ‘I thought all the props were fake, but then I had to carry a tea tray. It was really heavy!’ The costumes, too, carry the weight of authenticity. ‘Stiff collars are a pain in the neck, quite literally,’ says Bonneville. ‘But they affect your bearing and make you stand in the right way.’

With so much activity and
so many people on set, filming
is easier if actors know exactly
where they should be for each
scene. The floor markings are
colour-coded to guide each
actor into position.

The filming of Matthew
and Mary’s wedding required
as much preparation as a real
one, to ensure that not only
was everything perfect, but
historically accurate, too.

The practicalities of filming, however, require a certain amount of adjustment. Mats are put down on the flagstones to absorb the sound, and the actors also have rubber pads on the soles of their shoes for the same reason. At 6 foot 4 inches, the height of Matt Milne (who plays Alfred) poses certain problems on set. Lucille Sharp, who plays Reed, Martha Levinson’s lady’s maid, has to stand on a low wooden box alongside him at the kitchen table, so that they can both fit naturally into the same shot.

Working with real food in the kitchen or dining room is a constant challenge. ‘Today we were filming with lobsters,’ Lesley Nicol, who plays Mrs Patmore, tells me, ‘and they were smelly to begin with, and they got a lot smellier. Even a bowl of apples begins to smell over the course of a day’s filming.’ Occasionally the food is faked (the crew were disappointed to discover that Mary and Matthew’s wedding cake was made of cardboard), but mostly it is real. To combat the inevitable problems of things smelling, wilting, melting or collapsing, Lisa Heathcote, the series cook, has devised several ingenious strategies. ‘It can take all day to film one scene around the dining-room table, because of the number of different camera shots you need to cover all the characters, so it’s important to have things that last. We keep away from cream dishes and, of course, fish.’ For the sake of historical accuracy, nevertheless, it is necessary to show a ‘fish course’ at dinner. ‘For this’, Heathcote confides, ‘we use chicken – or “chicken-fish” as we call it, usually in a sauce. The advantage is, it doesn’t smell, and they can even eat it.’ When oysters (another dinner-party staple of the time) are called for, cleaned oyster shells are filled with oyster mushrooms.

The food planning has to be meticulous. ‘We do menu cards for each meal in the script,’ explains Heathcote. ‘Things that are relatively simple but look good, and are historically correct.’ Another consideration is that, because the diners have to serve themselves, the actors must be able to get the food off the serving platter and onto their own plates with the minimum of fuss. ‘We often do things en croute for that reason. Typically, the scene of the family eating in the dining room at Highclere might be filmed three weeks before the one showing Mrs Patmore and Daisy preparing it – downstairs in the kitchen at Ealing. So we have to keep very careful notes – and lots of photos of all the dishes!’

During a day’s filming the dishes have to be regularly refreshed, and often the whole meal re-set. For a meal for 18 people, Heathcote has to cook some 70 servings, and in makeshift conditions with limited equipment. ‘At Highclere one day,’ she recalls, ‘I was cooking outside on a trestle table. The plates of dressed meat were all laid out, when Lady Carnarvon turned up with her dogs, and they all made a dash for the meat. We had to fend them off!’

However, despite the bustle, an underlying sense of calm pervades the set. Michelle Dockery (Mary) thinks this comes from Percival – ‘You never see him get irritable’ – and Trubridge: ‘She is also a big part of it. Laura Carmichael [Edith] says she is like Aslan, the lion in Narnia – a calming presence. We’re worried if she’s not there!’ There is also a great deal of laughter. Lucille Sharp was delighted to discover that ‘everyone on the show has such a great sense of humour’. Between takes in the kitchen, Daisy and Mrs Patmore start up a harmonious duet of the Three Degrees classic ‘When Will I See You Again?’. The friendships are not constrained by the hierarchies of the characters. As Elizabeth McGovern (Cora) says, ‘I certainly don’t sit around giving the three girls advice. They do that to me!’ ‘It’s wonderful,’ says Carmichael, of the time they spend together at Highclere. ‘I just love it – to be part of the gang. Jim Carter [Carson] performs magic tricks at the bar. He made red balls turn into a £10 note! And in the summer we all play croquet.’ There is a great deal of professional generosity, too. Rob James-Collier (Thomas) reveals, ‘It’s been a massive learning curve for me. Siobhan Finneran [O’Brien] has been fantastic. Watching her, I saw that it’s all done behind the eyes. Otherwise I might have played Thomas like a pantomime villain.’

After three series of working together there is a camaraderie amongst the actors. ‘This year it’s stronger than ever,’ says McGovern. ‘We’ve all bonded with each other.’ Everyone who has been a part of the making of this much-loved drama feels touched by the experience of working on, and living in the world of,
Downton Abbey
. As the characters enter the fast-changing world of Series 3, it is clear their story still has a place in the hearts of the cast, crew and viewers alike.

ROB JAMES-COLLIER
(THOMAS) THE GREAT
THING ABOUT THE ENSEMBLE IS IT'S A WHO’S
WHO OF GREAT BRITISH ACTORS.

Amongst all the activity and
bustle there is also a lot of
waiting around until a set is
prepped and ready for filming.

Hugh Bonneville –
Robert, Earl of Grantham

Elizabeth McGovern –
Cora, Countess of Grantham

Michelle Dockery –
Lady Mary Crawley

Dan Stevens –
Matthew Crawley

Laura Carmichael –
Lady Edith Crawley

Jessica Brown Findlay –
Lady Sybil Crawley

Maggie Smith –
Violet, Dowager Countess of Grantham

Shirley MacLaine –
Martha Levinson

Penelope Wilton –
Isobel Crawley

Samantha Bond –
Lady Rosamund Painswick

Allen Leech –
Tom Branson

Peter Egan –
Marquess of Flintshire

Phoebe Nicholls –
Marchioness of Flintshire

Lily James –
Lady Rose MacClare

Jim Carter –
Charles Carson

Phyllis Logan –
Elsie Hughes

Lesley Nicol –
Beryl Patmore

Brendan Coyle –
John Bates

Joanne Froggatt –
Anna Bates

Siobhan Finneran –
Sarah O’Brien

Rob James-Collier –
Thomas Barrow

Sophie McShera –
Daisy Mason

Kevin Doyle –
Alfred Molesley

Christine Lohr –
May Bird

Amy Nuttall –
Ethel Parks

Matt Milne –
Alfred Nugent

Lucille Sharp –
Reed

Cara Theobold –
Ivy Stuart

Ed Speleers –
Jimmy Kent

David Robb –
Dr Richard Clarkson

Robert Bathurst –
Sir Anthony Strallan

Michael Cochrane –
Reverend Travis

Jonathan Coy –
George Murray

Kevin R. McNally –
Horace Bryant

Christine Mackie –
Daphne Bryant

Douglas Reith –
Lord Merton

Charlie Anson –
Larry Grey

Michael Culkin –
Archbishop of York

Tim Pigott-Smith –
Sir Philip Tapsell

Charles Edwards –
Michael Gregson

Bernard Gallagher –
Bill Molesley

Terence Harvey –
Jarvis

Ruairi Conaghan –
Kieran Branson

John Henshaw –
Tufton

There are two people without whom this book would not exist, not only because of their professional excellence but because of their enormous generosity towards this project, and our part in it: Julian Fellowes and Gareth Neame. To them, above all, we want to say thank you.

It has been great, too, to know that we were working with a brilliant team at HarperCollins, all of them completely committed to producing the very best book possible. Our thanks to Hannah MacDonald, Helen Wedgewood, Emily Labram, Myfanwy Vernon-Hunt, Jane Beynon, Katherine Patrick and Sally Cole.

A huge helping of thanks, too, to the three Milk (Publicity) maids – Una Maguire, Victoria Brooks and Jessica Morris. Also to our agents Rowan Lawton of Furniss & Lawton, Annabel Merullo of PFD, representing Carnival Films, and Mark Lucas at LAW. Also thanks to Emma Kitchener-Fellowes for her valuable insights and deep knowledge of the period.

The entire cast and crew of
Downton Abbey
have given so generously of their time for this book, even as they were stretched to the limit with their filming schedule. There’s no one on the production, actors or crew, who hasn’t contributed in some way.

In researching the historical aspects of the book, the London Library has, as ever, been an invaluable resource; thanks to its dedicated staff for all their care and attention.