Behind the Scenes at Downton Abbey: The official companion to all four series

Behind the Scenes at Downton Abbey: The official companion to all four series Emma Rowley Gareth Neame A revealing look backstage at the hit TV show Downton Abbey. In-depth interviews give an exclusive insight into the actors’ experiences on set as well as the celebrated creative team behind the award-winning drama.A lavishly illustrated book full of images from the new series including those stunning 1920s costumes, which will delight the millions of devoted Downton fans. Step inside the props store or the hair and make-up truck and catch a glimpse of the never-before-seen secret backstage world. Expertly crafted with inside knowledge and facts, this book will delve into the inspiration behind the details seen on screen, the choice of locations, the music and much more.With a perspective from the director’s chair and rare insights into filming, this is the inside track on all aspects of the making of the show. Contents Cover (#u8c7a501b-f392-5bb5-971e-6052bdab229f) Title Page (#u653deb27-7db3-599d-8298-b02d6ffdd771) Foreword by Gareth Neame (#ulink_d07a7934-49a8-515e-99bc-ee307d114185) Behind the Scripts (#ulink_84b99919-232a-5c47-941f-6b36eb58d971) Behind the Sets (#litres_trial_promo) Filming at Highclere Castle (#litres_trial_promo) Filming at Ealing Studios (#litres_trial_promo) Filming on Location (#litres_trial_promo) Inside the Prop Store (#litres_trial_promo) Inside the Wardrobe (#litres_trial_promo) Inside Hair & Make-Up (#litres_trial_promo) Insider Knowledge (#litres_trial_promo) The Downton Abbey Legacy (#litres_trial_promo) Series Four Cast List (#litres_trial_promo) Series Four Crew List (#litres_trial_promo) Copyright About the Publisher (#litres_trial_promo) FOREWORD (#ulink_38323638-73a1-5819-ad09-49c62e580261) Gareth Neame (#ulink_38323638-73a1-5819-ad09-49c62e580261) ‘I had seen Gosford Park, the movie that Julian had written so beautifully. I had been incredibly impressed by it. It was not so much the over-arching whodunnit element but just the simple depiction of its world that captured me.’ It was an inauspicious start. As I alighted from my cab outside Drones restaurant in Belgravia (a suitably traditional venue in which to have a working dinner with Julian Fellowes), there he was, hanging about outside, saying, ‘we can’t eat here, their gas is off.’ So began a meandering journey through a London neighbourhood that I suppose the Crawleys might have known well – although of course they were not invented until later that evening. Eventually we found our haven and over a touristic Italian supper I proposed an idea to Julian that became Downton Abbey. I had long thought that the setting of an English country house during the Edwardian era would make a very suitable arena for an episodic television series. I have often been drawn to cinema for ideas, adjusting and fine-tuning them for television, where in place of the one-off spectacle of the silver screen you have a much larger canvas on which to paint all the characters. Television also offers the joy of repeated pleasure because your audience is able to connect with the characters on a weekly basis. Naturally, some years earlier I had seen Gosford Park, the movie that Julian had written so beautifully for the late Robert Altman. I had been incredibly impressed by it. It was not so much the over-arching whodunnit element but just the simple depiction of its world that captured me. Having worked in British TV drama for a quarter of a century, I was very familiar with maids, footmen and aristocrats, Britain’s extraordinary inventory of historic houses and also our literary inspiration for drama. But when I watched Gosford Park it struck me how I had never entirely believed in the realisation of the setting in its many previous iterations. For once, I felt comfortable in the hands of the filmmakers and I truly appreciated what a fascinating environment I was being transported into. The film stayed in my imagination. Over dinner Julian and I talked about the DNA of the show – agreeing that it should be equally weighted between the family and its servants. It would have the traditional setting of the Edwardian country house but the density of stories and pace of narrative that is more familiar in a contemporary series. We wanted the show to be something that felt tangible and relevant, so that the audience didn’t so much look back nostalgically but could imagine what it would be like to be, say, Mary changing her attire half a dozen times a day to suit the next leisure activity, or Daisy making two dozen fires before dawn. We selected the years just prior to the First World War as the apogee of the country house and indeed the supremacy of the aristocracy, as much because of the similarities between these characters and ourselves as for the differences. Although their display of rather precise behaviour and manners marks them out as different from us, they have motor cars and electricity, hopes, dreams and ambitions, and are as befuddled by the technology of their age as we are by our latest gadgets from Apple. Despite our excited and animated conversation about the idea, Julian was initially cautious to revisit the ground he had covered so successfully before (he had, after all, won the Academy Award for his Gosford Park screenplay), I think on the grounds that lightning doesn’t strike twice in the same place. However, some days later I received an email, which over no more than a couple of pages described his initial thoughts on all the major characters who would come to inhabit Downton. The inheritance issue, the lack of a suitable male heir, the distant cousin entering their world for the first time were all there from the off. I had a strong sense that Julian had lived with these characters for many years but was only now describing them on the page. At once the world came alive for me. Julian and I took the project to Laura Mackie and Sally Haynes at ITV, and with their enthusiastic backing I commissioned Julian to write the first episode. I never forget that his opening stage direction set the premise for Downton Abbey in the most economic, but tantalising, way: The sun is rising behind Downton Abbey, a great and splendid house in a great and splendid park. So secure does it appear, that it seems as if the way of life it represents will last for another thousand years. It won’t. The script was a page-turner and, despite 2009 being a low point as the recession hit the TV industry, Laura and her boss Peter Fincham were so convinced by the material that they ordered the series for production. Making the first series was a lesson in attention to detail, as we sought to re-enact the style and etiquette of another age and bring to the show the best possible production values that we could. It all went so seamlessly that I became convinced that it was too easy and enjoyable and that the result might end up being a disappointment! After all, so many creative successes have to endure torturous journeys and difficult births. Julian and I had now been joined on the project by our key collaborators, the ‘architects’ of Downton Abbey our producing partners Liz Trubridge and Nigel Marchant, lead director Brian Percival, casting director Jill Trevellick, production designer Donal Woods and costume designer Susannah Buxton. Alongside Julian’s exquisite scripts was the finest cast of British acting talent we could have assembled. What was so satisfying about it was how Jill appeared to have effortlessly combined much-loved and respected actors such as Dame Maggie Smith, Penelope Wilton, Hugh Bonneville and Jim Carter, with those at the very start of their careers, such as Laura Carmichael and Sophie McShera. The launch of the show on ITV in September 2010 was a resounding hit and its success was galvanised by a rare spike in ratings for the second episode (very unusually suggesting that all those who sampled the first episode not only came back for more but also brought their friends). Within days of the show’s debut, Downton seemed to enter the vocabulary and become one of those rare pieces of television that leaps out of the TV screen and becomes a part of popular culture. We were lucky to have Masterpiece (part of PBS) as our US partner, who have done so much to bring British writing and acting to American audiences. The show premiered in the US in January 2011 to unusually high audiences and it was then rolled out across the world where, in territory after territory (we are now in over 200 worldwide) the Crawleys and their servants seemed to grip everyone’s imagination. By the time the second series aired in the UK, with the show recognised as Outstanding Miniseries at the Emmy Awards, it was clear that some sort of global phenomenon was beginning to take shape. Looking back, it is hard to pinpoint what it was that caused such a sensation. There is seldom only one reason for any creative endeavour of this type to succeed; there can be a multitude of explanations. But I believe a key reason for the success was combining a much-loved, familiar and expressly British genre, that of the English country house, with the pace, energy and accessibility of the most contemporary show. I also believe that audiences respond to clearly defined ‘precincts’ (this is why police and hospital dramas are enduringly popular around the world) and a precinct is exactly what Downton Abbey is. In every community, human beings organise themselves into hierarchies – in the workplace or at home, we all know our place. We are extremely conscious of these things, irrespective of the country or society in which we live. Nowhere are the peculiarities and eccentricities of social hierarchy more defined than in the British class system of the era we had chosen to depict. So while we all recognise the behaviour, it is a very extreme and exaggerated form of what we have experienced ourselves, and this makes for very compelling drama. Furthermore, Julian’s characters can seldom directly express their mood, feelings or intentions. Almost every scene is subtextual to some degree, and again this really gives the viewer something on which to chew. This is a cast of 20 or so core characters – all of them beautifully written and depicted, irrespective of whether the part is large or small – and because they each keep their own stories running throughout the episodes, they offer unique and individual points of access and appeal to the viewer. ‘Downton is unmistakably a drama series, but thanks to the wit of our screenwriter, directors and actors it is also at times extremely funny.’ The word ‘soap’ has occasionally been applied to the show, and despite some people believing this nomenclature hints at a lesser form of drama, it is not a term that has ever bothered Julian and me. If a soap is defined as a weekly drama with an ensemble of characters cohabiting in a specific environment with their myriad personal stories intertwined, then, dramatically speaking, Downton is a soap. I would suggest it is a soap of cinematic production values and the finest writing and acting, but a soap nonetheless. For many people worldwide the Crawleys have become an extension of their own families, which explains the anguish that greeted the loss of beloved characters such as William, Sybil and, most recently and most heartbreakingly of all, Matthew. Although, of course, it is the loss of such characters that not only provides the twists and turns which audiences have loved, but also provides the opportunity for us to bring in fresh characters, which in turn replenishes and rejuvenates Downton’s world. Downton is unmistakably a drama series, but thanks to the wit of our screenwriter, directors and actors it is also at times extremely funny. You wouldn’t describe the show as a comedy, yet humour is so much at the heart of it. Few dramas are as laugh-out-loud funny as Downton is. Of course, much of this dimension is in the charge of Maggie Smith, whose bons mots supplied by Julian and whose character’s disputes with the likes of Isobel or Martha are frankly delicious, and clearly hark back to what some real people must have thought and said not so very long ago. But although it is Violet’s ‘zingers’ that make for the sound bites, there is plenty of comedy going on elsewhere with the rest of the gang (who can forget Molesley’s ham-fisted attempts to woo Anna?). Finally, and I think perhaps most importantly, we have what may almost have been a happy accident of romance. Back at our inaugural dinner, while I knew that love, marriage and the pursuit of these things would be the backbone of the show, just as it is in real life, I had no idea of the dominant effect that this would have on its fortunes. Romance on screen is decidedly unfashionable. We’re pretty good at depicting sex and relationships, desire and rejection, but there is almost no role for non-sexualised love. This is consistent with us living in an age with a total absence of subtext, where almost anything can be said and there is little time to be anything other than direct. How satisfying it is then, in an era of extremely complex relationships, of text-ing and a wide exposure to sex in almost every part of life, to watch the slow burn and simple unravelling of a good old-fashioned romance. Ironically, starved of such apparently stuffy and staid behaviour, audiences around the world have consumed it hungrily. Fellowes is a master romantic storyteller, but we have also been blessed with the chemistry of Michelle Dockery and Dan Stevens, Jessica Brown Findlay and Allen Leech, and all the others who bring this beguiling element of human nature to life in our show. It remains to be seen what Downton’s legacy will be. Clearly it has reminded us there is still an appetite for a drama that the whole family can sit down to together, something that aside from Doctor Who was largely thought of as over. Dozens of spoofs, magazine covers, celebrity (and political!) endorsements and fans have emerged. I also believe it has demonstrated that globalisation can touch many forms of entertainment, for while audiences are in some ways becoming increasingly parochial and favouring their own home-grown dramas, those from any country can have worldwide appeal. Audiences in America do not feel that this is a foreign show; they want to spend their time with the Crawleys as much as the Brits do. Subsequent series of Downton have gone from strength to strength, with the growing momentum seemingly most dynamic in the US, where the show is the highest-rating drama ever played on PBS in its illustrious 40-year history. The finale of series three beat the entire competition across all network television. The launch of the fourth series felt like the right time to produce a companion book about the making of the show, to offer a deeper insight into how it happens. In their own words, the cast of Downton Abbey and our talented crew reveal many of the secrets, previously private experiences and tricks of the trade involved in bringing the show to the screen. It should be a revelatory read for any Downton enthusiast, no matter how much you feel you already know about Britain’s best-known stately home, the family who live there and the servants who work for them. (#ulink_d5efdedb-60a1-58bb-9804-d581da24f03b) THE PRODUCERS Behind the Scripts ‘When I first read the script I couldn’t put it down. I could see each character in my head when I had finished reading. That doesn’t happen very often.’ Hugh Bonneville ROBERT, EARL OF GRANTHAM The story of Downton Abbey began with a dinner and an idea. The idea quickly became a concept for a television series, which was snapped up by ITV. Gareth Neame commissioned Julian Fellowes to write the first episode, and from the opening scene the script caught the imagination of the TV bosses who read it and recognised that they had something special. ITV is the show’s natural home, Fellowes believes. There, he and Neame feel they are better able to present the house’s inhabitants as they envisage them, rather than getting mired in the social politics of a century ago, as might be the case at a more ‘interventionist’ rival. ‘For me, the contention that everything was horrible for everyone except for a few rather unpleasant aristocrats is as untrue as saying everything was marvellous for absolutely everyone,’ Fellowes says. ‘The truth, as always, lies somewhere between the two. ‘We were presenting this very structured, class-conscious society, but at the same time we would deal with all the characters within it with equal weight. We would make an assumption that most of them were trying to live the best lives they could, given the hand they had been dealt. I think that that sense of ordinary, non-heroic characters nevertheless being decent people who are trying to do their best is the central philosophy of Downton,’ he adds. For Fellowes, the world of Downton Abbey had begun to take shape in his mind; from the large country house that embodied it to the people who inhabited it, from the major plotlines to the smaller events that they would experience along the way. In order to create the scripts for this first series, Fellowes carefully mapped out, character by character, a community and the interactions between its members that would tell their story: the rivalry, jealousy, love, hatred, births, marriages and deaths. It was his attention to detail and his vision that has inspired cast and crew alike to become involved in the project. ‘When I first read the script I couldn’t put it down,’ remembers Hugh Bonneville, who went on to play Robert, Earl of Grantham. ‘I could see each character in my head when I had finished reading. That doesn’t happen very often.’ For Fellowes, the first character to take on life was Cora, Countess of Grantham. At the time he had been reading To Marry an English Lord, a book about the young American heiresses who had flocked to marry into the old English families during the Victorian era, to exchange their parents’ newly made wealth for a title and status. ‘But what was it like after that?’ he asked himself. ‘Many of these women were here for years after the way of life they had arrived to preserve had almost become history. What was it like living in a freezing house in Staffordshire which was hideously uncomfortable and far from their roots? The next generation, even the younger sisters of a lot of those women, would not succumb to the fashion for European titles. The sea receded, leaving these women stranded in an alien culture, with English or Scottish children. So I started to play with that.’ Once he had developed the characters of Cora and her husband, Robert, others began to take shape, each with their own dramatic function. The mysterious new valet Mr Bates provided a spur to the action with his sudden arrival at the house – ‘a very simple dramatic catalyst,’ says Neame. Anna, then head housemaid, emerged as the show’s moral compass, guiding the audience as to how we should view other characters and developments, while remaining far from saccharine. ‘When I read the first episode, straightaway I fell in love with Anna because I thought she was beautifully written,’ actress Joanne Froggatt remembers. ‘A really nice person, but not boring.’ Phyllis Logan (Mrs Hughes) agrees that for her the characters and their characterisation are an important element of the script’s appeal. ‘All the characters are, to my mind, well rounded and intriguing. There’s lots of light and shade to them. They are not one-dimensional and are fascinating to play.’ ‘All the characters are, to my mind, well rounded and intriguing. There’s lots of light and shade to them. They are not one-dimensional and are fascinating to play.’ Phyllis Logan MRS HUGHES The eldest daughter of the house, meanwhile, acted as the focus of its hopes and fears, as she still does. ‘You invest in all the characters, but if I had to come down to it, I would say my favourite is Mary,’ says Neame. ‘The overall dynamic of the show has always been about her future, whether it’s the succession issue in the first series, who was going to be the right man for her to marry, or the ups and downs in her relationship with Matthew. And knowing, as I do, where the story goes in the future, she will be at the heart of it.’ It is the storyline that brings the audience back for more, series after series, and this carefully managed plot is still very much the work of the show’s creators, Gareth Neame and Julian Fellowes. Since that first historic dinner, the pair have maintained a strong working partnership, with clearly defined roles in the creation of the show. Together they discuss the storylines and establish a broad overview of where they want to take each series, before Fellowes produces a first draft of every episode. Having started writing for the screen when he was a working actor, Fellowes has trained himself to write wherever he can, which has helped him to shoulder the writing single-handedly. ‘I wasn’t really allowed the luxury of, “I must write in this room, I can only write in these hours, I have to have my little [lucky] rabbit there,”’ he says. ‘That was forbidden me, so I had to work when I had two hours off and I was sitting in my dressing room or in a trailer or in a terrible hotel. I’m grateful for that, because today I can work on a train or stuck in an airport.’ On each draft script, Neame gives his notes – ‘what should be accented, what should be held back, “I like this storyline but I think we’ve missed this key scene”’ – and thus they work through the scripts until they are happy with them. It is a surprisingly intimate process for a show that is now so big. ‘By the time we finish series four, Julian and I will have discussed, debated and agreed every story in around 40 episodes,’ he says. ‘A lot of shows have more input from a wide group of people, and in those cases the writer can get stifled by myriad different opinions. This way, I can ensure the stories he wants to tell are brought to the screen.’ Through their partnership, Neame has discovered the sheer breadth of Fellowes’ talent as a writer. ‘I knew he could bring that world to life like nobody else,’ he says. ‘A massive part of the show’s success has been his extraordinary ability to write romance, hatred, rivalry, love, jealousy, laugh-out-loud humour and tragedy.’ The balance of all these elements within the scripts is delicately judged. ‘In a sense, we go for chuckles rather than guffaws,’ says Fellowes. ‘Once you are making a comedy, you’ve gone into a different place in people’s minds. We have to stop at the threshold.’ As he sees it, the humour has to fit with the reality of the stories and the characters. ‘We have established that Violet, for instance, is quite a witty woman and so we can give her cracks to make without disturbing her reality, because that is who she is. You could say the same for Mrs Patmore. So we’ve got two women above and below stairs who provide a lot of the humour.’ ‘Inevitably there is going to be male interest in this eligible, beautiful young widow. How she reacts to that, how people respond to her and how we see her move on in her life without Matthew is going to be very interesting.’ Gareth Neame EXECUTIVE PRODUCER Certainly, some of their comic lines are now firmly established in popular culture, from Violet’s withering ‘Don’t be defeatist dear, it’s very middle class’ to Mrs Patmore’s complaint that a ringing phone is ‘like the cry of a banshee’ – just one of her choice phrases. ‘She relishes a good line,’ says Lesley Nicol, who plays the cook. ‘I think she’s just one of those women who picks up and connects to language, and uses it. She’s got some rather learned phrases. We are all a fan of contra mundi [against the world] – we’d never heard that phrase before!’ It is this light touch that offers some much-needed relief for the emotion played out on screen. Among most period dramas, Downton stands out in that it is not a literary adaptation, allowing for some delicious tension around the ‘will they, won’t they?’ romances of Mary and Matthew, Sybil and Branson, Anna and Mr Bates. (These relationships have now been resolved, but these will surely not be the last couples we will see come together on screen.) A sizeable chunk of the audience seems to suspect that tender feelings linger in the most unlikely of places. ‘I enjoy the relationship with Mrs Hughes,’ says Jim Carter (Mr Carson). ‘And I love the fact that people who watch the programme speculate as to whether there is a romantic link between Carson and Mrs Hughes.’ But will they ever get together? ‘Everybody wants to dredge up a romance!’ says Phyllis Logan. ‘I like their relationship the way it is, and I know they are very fond of each other. Who knows what may occur?’ Romance aside, the show’s originality means it can offer up true shocks to the audience – notably the deaths of William, Sybil and Matthew. Downton’s fourth series opens six months after a car crash claimed the life of Matthew Crawley just as he had become a father. As Matthew’s widow, Mary now faces the challenge of building a life for herself and her baby, George. ‘That was the hook we left the audience with at the end of series three, with that very long-held shot of her with her newborn baby, not even knowing that she’s a widow,’ says Neame. ‘Inevitably, there is going to be male interest in this eligible, beautiful young widow. How she reacts to that, how people respond to her and how we see her move on in her life without Matthew is going to be very interesting.’ There was a clear decision to reflect the emotional impact of the loss on all members of the family, says David Evans, who, as lead director for series four, directed its opening episode. ‘It was exciting to work on this because it starts so firmly with the household as grief-stricken as they were when Matthew died,’ he says. ‘I was struck by its emotional honesty. It’s the first episode of a new series, but Julian has not flinched from reintroducing us to the characters at their lowest.’ Penelope Wilton (Isobel) was particularly relieved to find this was the case for her character, who has been left grieving for her son. ‘The death knocked her sideways, as it would any mother,’ she says. ‘In a lot of series, when someone dies everyone gets over it immediately. What Julian’s done very well is that he’s left Mary and myself having a very difficult time, which is much more realistic.’ A shadow has fallen over the whole house. Filming the opening episode, Evans had a note for the cast to remind them to have the loss in mind. ‘The advice was to keep the tone sombre,’ remembers Ed Speleers (Jimmy). ‘Everyone is just a little bit quieter.’ Yet while the tragedy might loom foremost as series four begins, the show remains, as always, a multi-strand story, with a plot that cannot be predicted. Some members of the cast love this unknown element in the development of their character’s storylines and deliberately try to avoid getting advance notice of the twists and turns of the plot to come. Others, however, are honest about their desire to uncover spoilers at every opportunity! ‘I’m terrible, I want to know everyone’s storyline,’ Laura Carmichael (Edith) says. ‘It’s like gossip, “Have you heard what is happening to this character?” But Phyllis doesn’t want to know. She’s always hushing people if they’re reading the scripts on set!’ The show involves a large ensemble of characters, which means that there is always much to learn about those living above and below stairs – for the audience but also for the cast. Even four series in, for some of the actors there are details of the lives of their characters which are still being revealed through each new script. ‘I don’t know what’s around the corner,’ says Charles Edwards, returning as Edith’s love interest Michael Gregson. ‘Very occasionally, you will receive a script for an episode and there’s a new piece of information for the character which is a surprise to you. It’s rather exciting.’ Elizabeth McGovern found the visit of Cora’s mother, Martha, played by Hollywood legend Shirley MacLaine, a particular revelation in series three. ‘She’s a hoofer, a kind of dancer and chorus girl who made good. That taught me a lot about Cora,’ she says. ‘I was never sure if she was a blueblood American or just the daughter of a very, very rich guy. It became clear to me that Cora’s fortune was not one that goes back to the Mayflower!’ Even Mr Carson, always correct as butler, was revealed to have had a slightly racier past spent treading the boards. ‘It broadens the scope of the character,’ says Jim Carter. ‘I’m a fixture of the house. Unlike Anna or Thomas, who’ve had varied love lives and excitement, Carson doesn’t have much of that. It was nice to explore.’ Yet there is always an internal logic to the decisions the characters make and the paths they follow. ‘When Julian takes a character in a different direction, it’s not really a new direction, it’s just another layer of onion skin being peeled off,’ says Hugh Bonneville. For instance, Michelle Dockery believes that Mary has strengthened before our eyes from ‘quite a spoilt, petulant young girl’ to a softer, yet stronger woman. At the same time, her character retains her bite. ‘Mary still has that incredibly snobbish edge to her,’ she says. ‘As much as she’s grown and become more vulnerable as the series has gone on Julian never leaves out that side of her that’s still a bit of a snob. I like seeing that.’ As Lesley Nicol puts it, ‘What’s nice about Julian’s writing is that he has allowed everyone to develop a side of their character that was there to begin with, but which becomes more evident with every series.’ Crucially, it is always easy for the viewer to connect with these people who lived the best part of a century ago. ‘Ultimately, the show is about relationships, and a lot of the issues in Downton are ones that we face today: somebody falling in love, or falling in love with the wrong person, or experiencing rivalry at work,’ says Joanne Froggatt. ‘I think the period that it’s set in is near enough to our time that it feels familiar to us, as well as being very different. There’s a real array of characters too, so there’s somebody to love – or to love to hate. It ticks a lot of boxes. It’s a period script, but in a very modern way.’ The script, of course, is just words on a page until it is brought to life by these flesh-and-blood people. The hard work to achieve this was over before an episode had ever aired, with the creators working with the casting director, Jill Trevellick, to assemble the cast. Some parts were decided through straight offers to the more established names, such as Hugh Bonneville and Dame Maggie Smith. ‘It was one of those funny things when, for most of the roles that are played by established recognisable actors, we got our first choice,’ says Fellowes. ‘Maggie signed up, Hugh signed up, Elizabeth signed up and then the momentum was going. We were incredibly lucky.’ As much thought went into casting the junior roles, but the actors were chosen through auditions. ‘We spent a few months trying to get the dynamic right between all of them,’ says Brian Percival, lead director on the first series. For him, Sophie McShera – attending her audition in a maid-like outfit of a black cardigan with a white lace collar – stood out among the would-be Daisies. ‘We’d seen a lot of people and they were fine but they just weren’t right,’ he says. ‘She was fantastic straightaway. And Jo [Froggatt] too. She has all the right qualities for Anna, very sympathetic, but at the same time very beautiful, with an honest and trust-worthy feel about the way that she plays the character.’ Since Downton is a far from static world, bringing the scripts to life demands a near-constant process of casting as major and minor characters arrive and depart. Unlike American series, which tend to lock in their cast for five or seven years, Downton works, as is standard in the UK, on contracts that ‘option’ (lay claim to) an actor for up to three years. The show has no option on Maggie Smith, notes Fellowes, it being ‘entirely up to her whether she wants to continue or not.’ For some of the cast the end of series three was the time when they decided to move on – with an explosive impact on the plot in one case. ‘As much as we didn’t want to lose Dan Stevens [Matthew], ironically his leaving ended up being the best thing that could happen to us in terms of new storylines,’ says Neame. ‘The scripts are all the stronger for Mary being back at square one again.’ As for finding new cast members, Fellowes and the show’s producers have the final say; the producers attend the auditions but film each one so that Fellowes can watch them on DVD later. The director of the relevant episodes also has some input, alongside the casting director. Cara Theobold, playing kitchen maid Ivy, is one of the cast who has most recently been through this process, via three auditions during her final year at drama school. ‘It was my first professional job,’ she says. ‘The perfect part happened to be the one that I auditioned for first.’ That didn’t mean she avoided a nail-biting wait, however. ‘I had to go home at Christmas and sit and watch the special on TV. I knew I had a recall, but nothing more. I had no expectations, I just thought it was a good experience. And here I am.’ ‘My thought was that if we can keep the audience till the end of the first act, then we’ve got them... I had to shoot it in a way that would not let the audience stop for breath or, worse, reach for the remote!’ Brian Percival DIRECTOR The new arrivals are not only those in front of the camera; each series boasts multiple directors, as the demands of its timetable mean that at any point one director will be in pre-production, another in the midst of filming and the third hard at work in the edit suite. Each one may return for future episodes – their own filming schedules allowing – but the producers like the variety, as it adds to the feeling of freshness and energy on set. The first to shoot was Brian Percival, who won an Emmy for his work as lead director on series one and returned to direct on the second and third series. Of course, as cast and crew gathered together on set, no one knew how the show would be received. The first scene shot was a courtyard chat between Siobhan Finneran and Rob James-Collier, playing scheming servants O’Brien and Thomas – chilly in every way. ‘It was minus six on a February morning,’ Percival says with a laugh. ‘We thought, “Oh well, this is the start of a journey!” It was nothing spectacular or grand; you tend to start with small scenes to get everyone settled in. There’s always a nervous energy about first days.’ Throughout the process, he knew it was crucial to pique the viewers’ interest. ‘I thought if we can keep the audience till the end of the first act – which is about ten minutes in – then we’ve got them,’ he says. ‘So we tried to create a rollercoaster feel and introduced pretty much the whole cast, with the exception of Violet. I had to shoot the episode in a way that would not let the audience stop for breath or, worse, reach for the remote! I hoped they’d be hooked and we’d go from there.’ Now, the show runs like clockwork, and the process of translating scripts into action follows a precise structure. Each series is split into five ‘blocks’ – the first representing episodes one and two; the second, episodes three and four, and so on, with the fifth devoted to the longer Christmas special. Each of these blocks are overseen by individual directors and each takes about five weeks to shoot. Before filming begins, however, David Evans, as lead director for series four, oversees the rehearsals for each block. Top-Left: Director David Evans (kneeling) plans a shot with director of photography Nigel Willoughby (standing directly on his right). Top-Right: First assistant director Chris Croucher (left) discusses a scene in rehearsal with director Andy Goddard. Bottom-Right: Director Jeremy Webb explains his vision for a scene during Bates’s incarceration in prison. Bottom-Left: Director David Evans consults his shot list under the light of a prop lantern. Once shooting begins, it is full-on. ‘It’s a bit like steering an ocean liner,’ he says. ‘You need to think clearly, because the decisions you make at nine o’clock are still being felt at 3 p.m. So, you might say, “Is it really five camera set-ups?” and you might not be able to shoot the scene that way.’ For a typical scene that is shot, for example, in the library at Highclere, vans packed with light fittings and other equipment are parked by the imposing front doors, but positioned so that they are not visible through the castle’s windows. A couple of minutes’ walk from the house, a flurry of activity is underway at the ‘base’ of trailers parked bumper-to-bumper, housing make-up, wardrobe, dressing rooms and the production office. The cast often jump into a car standing by to drive them the short distance to the set, to spare their costumes and hairstyles from a brisk wind or splash of country mud. Shooting a scene begins with the cast, still clutching their scripts, being herded on set by the first assistant director for a line run – quite literally a run-through of their lines. This offers a chance for the actors and director to establish how the scene should work. ‘They are always looking to find some little detail they haven’t been able to do before,’ says Evans. ‘Actors generally don’t come onto the set with the lines off pat and they are not too set in their ways as to how they will do the scene.’ The aim is for there to be a sense of creativity, after all. ‘I try and learn my lines quite far in advance,’ notes Lily James (Rose). ‘But some people learn them on the morning in the make-up trailer because they want the scene to be fresh.’ However, the show’s script supervisor is always ready to prompt the actors when they are rehearsing on set – in addition to making sure that the script flows without any continuity issues between scenes, and writing daily notes to keep the show’s editor informed of decisions that are made while filming. The actors build on the director’s notes to develop their performances. Ed Speleers, for instance, explains how Evans helped him tap into something that is crucial to his character, Jimmy – ‘simply, that the footman is bored. He’s always thinking about what’s going on outside the house. That’s why he’s so interested in the girls. At the end of the day, he’s just a young bloke who wants to have some fun. Before you know it, you’re there.’ The scene is then blocked out, which means establishing the actors’ various positions on the set, followed by a ‘crew show’ for members of the costume, make-up and art department who are on hand to check everything looks right from their perspective. ‘Everybody troops into the room and stands round the edges as they talk out the entire thing, almost like it’s a little play for the various departments,’ says Evans. The actors then disappear, to be made completely ready for camera in terms of make-up and costumes, while the focus shifts to the director of photography, Nigel Willoughby, overseer of the show’s cinematography. ‘I’m in charge of the look and the camerawork essentially – so, the lighting, and how we stage scenes,’ he explains. Together with the director, he and his two camera operators discuss how the scene will be filmed, and what camera set-ups would work best. Since its start, Downton tends to have two cameras filming together, unless it is a wide shot. Next, it is time for the director, too, to retreat, and the set then belongs to Willoughby, his chief electrician (known as the ‘gaffer’) and the electricians for the half an hour or so it will take to arrange the lighting exactly as required. The actors are called back to the set for another run-through in front of the cameras before a bell signals for quiet and the first assistant director shouts ‘Shooting!’ Then he tells the camera operator to roll camera and finally the take will be shot. Watching the action unfold via a TV monitor will likely be executive producer Liz Trubridge. Having produced the show since its start, she spends much of her time overseeing filming. ‘When she’s on set it is an extremely comfortable place,’ says Evans. ‘The person who is basically the guardian of the spirit of Downton Abbey on set can be called on if people have questions.’ Indeed, Hugh Bonneville believes it is key that, just as the show enjoys a single authorial voice, it has a similar unity in the way it is run by production company Carnival Films. ‘It’s produced by a team of people, but it’s not ten different producers from five different production companies,’ he explains. ‘It’s one clear vision.’ ‘There isn’t a single day that’s similar, and that’s part of the joy of this job. As a team, we know the pitfalls – we know what can and will work and what can’t and won’t.’ Liz Trubridge EXECUTIVE PRODUCER On a day-to-day level, each producer has different responsibilities in managing their role but they have found a shared rhythm to their work. ‘Producing is the most unspecific of all of the jobs in making a show,’ Neame explains. Every producer works slightly differently; there’s no one way to do it. The nature of the job that you do does depend on the show you’re making.’ Neame, the ‘custodian of Downton’, runs the production company, procures the finance from its owners, collaborates with Julian Fellowes on scripts and also approves the casting, editing and post-production work. That leaves Fellowes, who holds the title of executive producer as well as writer, to focus on the scripts, and Trubridge on the ground as the ‘nitty-gritty executive producer, working directly with the directors and actors,’ says Neame. ‘As long as we’ve got a script that we’re happy with, and we’ve chosen the director we’re happy with, I know that Liz will manage all the production side with great creativity, flair and brilliant efficiency.’ Also part of the team are Rupert Ryle-Hodges, who organises the logistics – from when shooting takes place, to how much money is being spent – and Nigel Marchant, who as co-executive producer has a more supervisory role. ‘We are the enablers,’ Trubridge summarises. ‘There isn’t a single day that’s similar, and that’s part of the joy of this job.’ A benefit to having reached a fourth series, she laughs, is that now, ‘as a team, we know the pitfalls – we know what can and will work and what can’t and won’t.’ For all things historical, there is Alastair Bruce, who can often be found on set in the folding chair that bears his affectionate nickname ‘The Oracle’. The author of several books, he was recruited after working with Fellowes on projects such as The Young Victoria. On Downton, attention to historical detail underpins the stories told on screen, he stresses. ‘Normally, historical advisors are broadly ignored in projects or at the sideline, but because of how important my role is to the delivery of Downton Abbey I sit at the front with Liz Trubridge and we work hand-in-hand.’ Bruce’s role, as he sees it, is to help the director to deliver a coherent piece that links to the period – even if the audience is not aware that this is happening. ‘Whereas directors normally try to take Julian’s written words and turn them into a good performance, delivering it to the conscious side of the viewer, I’m the one who’s working in the background trying to make sure that the viewer’s subconscious is also satisfied.’ This means that on set Bruce will be constantly monitoring that whatever action the director wants to shoot fits in with the period and, more specifically, with what would be happening at that time of day in a house of that size. ‘The house is an organism that has a daily structure,’ he explains. ‘The reason why timings are so important is because you cannot run a house like Downton Abbey without closely watching the very specific schedule, so that everybody’s eating at the right hour in order that the house can operate effectively.’ Historical advisor Alastair Bruce is always on hand to ensure every period detail is right. Executive producer Liz Trubridge (left), pictured with Julian Fellowes, brings calm and order to a busy set. For the weeks spent filming at Highclere, the grounds beneath the castle become home to the ‘travelling circus’ of trailers that accompanies the production team. That focus translates into everything from making sure that the costume is coherent with the time of day (not as straightforward as it sounds, since Mr Carson the butler, for instance, would have changed into his eveningwear before Lord Grantham), to what items the servants should be carrying in the background. The hierarchy, meanwhile, informs everything. ‘I got a bit carried away the other day,’ Sophie McShera revealed. ‘We had the extras in, and I’m really bolshie to the kitchen maids – I tell them it’s because I’m the sous chef. But I was being a bit bossy with the housemaids, too, and realised they are above me! I checked with Alastair and he said, “The kitchen is your domain, but you can’t be too cheeky to them.”’ ‘The director’s life is amazing. One day you’re at Highclere with 70 people asking you questions and Lady Carnarvon flitting around, the next it’s two blokes with a computer, having a mid-morning banana!’ David Evans DIRECTOR The audience may not consciously be aware of these little accuracies, but added together they help transport us to a different world. ‘The viewers feel they are in the space, as they’re legitimately seeing the way a house like that would work,’ says Bruce. When filming concludes, the post-production process begins – and if directing an episode has something in common with steering an ocean liner, the director returns to the editing suite with a much smaller crew. ‘Just me and Al Morrow [the series editor],’ laughs David Evans. ‘The director’s life is amazing. One day you’re at Highclere with 70 people asking you questions and Lady Carnarvon flitting round, the next it’s just two blokes with a computer, having a mid-morning banana!’ Their task, over roughly a fortnight, is to shape what has been filmed into a coherent whole. The producers will already have been looking at the ‘rushes’ (what has been filmed) every day and spotting anything that may need to be changed or re-shot – which is rare. Nonetheless, whole scenes will be cut. The scripts are deliberately written long, so that the action has to be squeezed into the running time, creating pace and energy. ‘I like it that way, because then you are genuinely editing something,’ says Neame. ‘The script is a template, it is not the Bible. So when you go into editing, you’re essentially doing another draft of the script. We’re asking: “Does the story work without that scene?” or “Can we just have those four lines from the scene and make it much shorter?” It’s a fun part of the process. You’re going back to the story and you’re retelling it, but this time you’re doing it with pictures and performances, rather than with the words on the page.’ It is a team effort, which can produce as many as ten different iterations of the version, or ‘cut’, from the director and editor, as the producers give their feedback. Whole scenes will be taken out, put back in and switched in order, until Neame, Fellowes and Trubridge are satisfied and it is sent to ITV. Once all the executives involved have signed off the cut, it is ‘locked’. Since the edit process has been carried out on a flexible, digitised version of the film, the finished cut has to be reproduced using the original HD footage to produce the final, or ‘online’, product. The grading can then take place, whereby the show’s colourist Aidan Farrell, at finishing facility The Farm, digitally enhances the images that have been shot. On a practical level he can make day look like night, or a summer shoot appear to have taken place in deep midwinter, if needed – but his role is really about adding further contrast, hue and texture to the footage, to strengthen the mood and atmosphere. Farrell sees this process as the driving factor behind Downton’s famously rich feel. ‘Going back to series one, at that time period dramas were quite brown, desaturated and old-looking,’ he notes. ‘We wanted a completely new look for the genre, so we went for really bold colours.’ Orchestrating the whole sequence of events is Jess Rundle, the post-production supervisor, who plans the viewings with the executives and makes sure the show comes in on budget and on time. Finalising the visual aspect of the show is far from the end of this process, however. Just as what is seen on screen is dramatically refined, so is the audio aspect. Each episode is scored with around 20 to 25 minutes of music, made up of some 20 to 30 ‘cues’ – the individual pieces of music that underpin the drama. As a rule, comic scenes tend to use less music, while the more harrowing, emotional storylines demand more. Either way, the score acts as a key storytelling tool, says John Lunn, the Emmy Award-winning composer who has written for the show since its start. ‘I’m not trying to conjure up an era in the incidental music, although I’m not ignoring it either,’ he explains. ‘It’s not the function of the music. It is to tell the story and also, in a long-running series where people occasionally miss an episode, the music works as a shorthand, emotionally.’ As his music hinges so much on timings, he only works from the finished edit. He has a team helping with the recordings and orchestrating the music, but he writes it alone, improvising on a keyboard as he watches the action. The final versions are performed by a 35-piece orchestra conducted by Lunn at one of London’s iconic music studios: Abbey Road, Angel or Air. Many themes and motifs recur in various forms. ‘The house has a theme, and there are quite a few themes for relationships, rather than specific people,’ notes Lunn. ‘Anna and Bates get about four or five, as their storyline keeps changing. Then there’s another four or five for Matthew and Mary.’ Even death does not signal an end to those. In Matthew’s absence, Lunn plans to use the music to ‘almost suggest his presence’ in his grieving family’s thoughts. Конец ознакомительного фрагмента. Текст предоставлен ООО «ЛитРес». Прочитайте эту книгу целиком, купив полную легальную версию (https://www.litres.ru/emma-rowley/behind-the-scenes-at-downton-abbey-the-official-companion-to-a/?lfrom=688855901) на ЛитРес. 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