The Chronicles of Downton Abbey: A New Era (9 page)

The surviving heroes were fêted. T. E. Lawrence (known as Lawrence of Arabia) was celebrated in 1919 for his derring-do in the war. That year, Mary could have gone to London’s Royal Opera House for the opening night of a film about him,
With Allenby in Palestine and the Liberation of Holy Arabia
, attended by the Prime Minister Lloyd George, most of the Cabinet and a hand-picked audience of Very Distinguished People. In an unprecedented move, newspaper editors cleared the front pages of ads (stories did not appear on the front at that time) and instead ran the review for the show when it transferred for a run at the Albert Hall. Crowds in their hundreds, desperate for a ticket, brought portable stools and sat all day outside the box office in the hope of a seat. King George V even requested a performance at Balmoral, where he and Queen Mary were spending the summer. Back home, of course, the heroes were being looked after, none more so than Matthew. Mary had been deeply shaken by the fear she felt when he was on the frontline, and although she was not as directly involved in the war effort as her sisters, she was never far from the horror.

Cora
Accepting change is quite as
important as defending the past.

Mary
But the role of houses like
Downton is to protect tradition.
That’s why they’re so important
to maintain.

‘She began as quite an arrogant young girl. She was shaken and vulnerable after the incident with Kemal Pamuk. That vulnerability opened her up, and put her in touch with her emotions rather more,’ says Dockery. ‘But that practical side she has is still there, and it comes back in this series.’ As one part of her life finds resolution, another seems to be unravelling, but Mary is a force to be reckoned with and we know that she will fight for her family’s future, whatever the cost.

For a young woman interested in fashion, like Lady Mary,
Vogue
became indispensable reading during the 1920s.
Established in America at the end of the nineteenth
century, a British edition was launched in 1916 and a
French one in 1920. They all provided detailed coverage
of French couture at a time when the industry was being
transformed through the creations of inspired designers
such as Madame Vionnet and Coco Chanel.

The family tiara would have been
worn by numerous Crawley brides
in the years since its creation in
1830. A beautiful garland of leaves
and floral clusters, pavé set with
old-cut diamonds, it could also be
converted into two brooches, to
allow it to be used more often.

The invention of cigarette-making machinery at the end of the nineteenth century
ushered in an age of cheap cigarettes. Cigarette smoking, rather than pipe smoking,
became the great working-class pastime and a feature of breaks from work for
people like Thomas. Immediately after the war there was a massive surge in
consumption and by 1920 over 36 million cigarettes were being smoked in the
UK, making huge fortunes for producers such as the Wills family.

Thomas
All my life they’ve pushed
me around, just ’cause I’m different.

T
homas Barrow is one of the most complicated and intriguing of all the characters at Downton Abbey. As we have got to know him through years of both peace and war, multiple layers have been peeled away to reveal an insecure, jealous, sometimes paranoid, defensive and cowardly man beneath a glossy veneer of good looks and arrogance. Nor is this the end to his complexity, for in rare, unguarded moments he has revealed he has a heart that is capable of being broken. One wouldn’t know it otherwise.

Having survived the First World War, Thomas is, perhaps surprisingly, still to be found at Downton Abbey. Despite his constant bristling against life in service, he never seems able to leave the fold entirely. Life on the outside doesn’t appear to suit him. He failed in his one brief try at business and now, having convinced Lord Grantham that he has changed into an honest man, he’s been promoted to valet in Bates’s absence.

No longer tethered to the butler’s pantry nor working under the control and watchful eye of Carson, Thomas has joined the select group of upper servants, which includes the cook, the lady’s maid, the butler and the housekeeper. Nor is he in his handsome livery anymore. He remains, however, as vain as ever; his suit is more contemporary than Bates’s was as valet. ‘He has single-pleat trousers and a three-button jacket, rather than the four buttons his predecessor would have worn,’ says Caroline McCall. ‘The jacket has a nipped-in waist and so do the trousers. His collars are more modern: an Albany rather than Bates’s double round. And he has a special fine-leather glove to cover his wounded hand.’

He might look slightly less striking out of his footman’s livery and dressed instead in an ordinary suit, but he is proudly conscious of his promotion, a role that both he and Molesley have long aspired to. Moreover, his new job as a ‘body servant’ gives him far greater knowledge of his master’s affairs – knowledge that might prove useful to him, and of interest to his old ally, O’Brien.

But in post-war Downton we discover that O’Brien’s loyalties have shifted from Thomas to her nephew, Alfred, the newly appointed footman. The arrival of this young upstart rather punctures Thomas’s pleasure in his own promotion. Everyone seems to prefer Alfred and it is not long before Thomas begins to plot to find ways in which he can scupper the boy’s chances in the house. The biggest problem that Thomas faces is that O’Brien has Alfred’s back; and she of all people knows how best to get back at her old compatriot and has no compunction in doing so when the need arises.