As Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale hits cinemas, ‘if this is where it ends, I’m happy’
Creator Julian Fellowes, actor Hugh Bonneville and producer Gareth Neame reflect on the period drama’s success and its enduring legacy
Downton Abbey creator Julian Fellowes has been saying goodbye to the series for nearly as long as it has existed. By the fifth season, he had even grown accustomed to writing more definitive endings, not knowing that there would be a sixth season and three feature films to come.
But 15 years after the world first met Violet Crawley, Lord Grantham, Lady Mary, Mr Carson, John Bates, and everyone else upstairs and downstairs at that beautiful estate, the creators are really, truly closing a chapter and saying farewell with Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale, now in cinemas.
“It is sad,” Fellowes said in a recent interview. “It’s been a huge chunk of my life. And when I die, I think it’ll probably be the only job anyone remembers. But I hope it’s been happy.”
Downton Abbey, which was conceived by producer Gareth Neame as a kind of spin-off to Gosford Park, was in many ways an improbable hit.
In an era of television that celebrated difficult men and anti-heroes, here was a warm British period drama about aristocrats and their household staff that became a global phenomenon and, later, a successful film franchise. The first two features, released in 2019 and 2022, grossed more than US$287 million at the worldwide box office.