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‘Downton Abbey’ Review: Back to the Past

From its spectacularly detailed aesthetic to the characters’ march down well-worn personality paths, the movie argues insistently for the status quo.

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‘Downton Abbey’ | Anatomy of a Scene

The director michael engler narrates a sequence from the film..

“I’m Michael Engler, and I directed ‘Downton Abbey.’ At this point in the movie, the king and queen and their retinue have arrived, and they’re staying at Downton. And this is the big banquet dinner that they’re all going to be at together. And the servants at Downton have found out that they won’t be actually serving the king and queen, and the royal staff is going to be serving. And so there’s been this conspiracy to replace them and to restore the glory of Downton by having the staff serve and make dinner for the king and queen.” “Tom, you’re looking pleased with yourself.” “He was just praising Lady Bagshaw’s maid.” “There’s always a certain amount of tension between individual agendas and behavior and then what is expected of one and of the group.” “This is good. I thought something else was planned. But it is excellent. So a well done too old Courbet.” “This wasn’t Monsieur Courbet, Your Majesty. Mrs. Patmore cooked it. In fact, it is the Downton Abbey staff who are serving you this evening.” “That sets it up so that the contrast of when Molesley, who was supposed to be seen and not heard, he speaks up, and all eyes are on him. You know, I wanted these very long, formal, static shots of—” “I do beg your pardon, Your Majesty.” “The people at the table looking at him, try to include as many people as possible so you could see how big a room had been quieted by this and was focused and stilled. But also we played around with, well what shall we do with the score, here? What should it feel like and all that. And then in the end we played the absolute silence except for the light ticking of the clock. Kevin Doyle who plays Molesley is a brilliant actor. And because he is so real and he can play the most dramatic moments, but he is also fearless comically and really, really funny.” “I suppose he’s excited that they’ve had to take over from our people. I wonder what’s happened.” “Whatever may have happened does not excuse his behavior.” “I can assure you, Lady Grantham, we are quite used to people behaving strangely when we are near.” [LAUGHTER]

By Jeannette Catsoulis

“Just like the old days,” Cora Crawley, Countess of Grantham (Elizabeth McGovern) says, fondly, as “Downton Abbey” gathers all the familiar faces in bustling preparation for an imminent royal visit. Viewers who have faithfully followed the genteel tribulations of the Crawley clan for six seasons of glittering television will need no encouragement from me to re-immerse themselves in the show’s warm bath of privilege. Those who prefer their ablutions minus the scum of entitlement can safely give this big-screen special a miss.

The old days, of course (the “good” is silent), are what the Downton universe is selling, a magnificently appointed fantasy of benign aristocracy, grateful underlings and noblesse oblige. Picking up in 1927 shortly after the TV show’s finale, the movie finds the household frantically readying for a lavish dinner, a fancy parade and a grand ball in honor of King George V and Queen Mary. Amid the hubbub, Lady Cora dispenses her usual calming looks and soothing advice, still oblivious to her husband’s seeming preference for the company of his dog. Lady Mary (Michelle Dockery) continues to fret, but not too much, over the estate’s financial problems. And Violet, the Dowager Countess (the indispensable Maggie Smith) — always the lemon in the soufflé — is scheming to secure a family inheritance.

Below stairs, the Royals’ stuck-up retinue is attempting to supplant the Downton domestics. Daisy (Sophie McShera), the tart kitchen maid, is making eyes at a saucy plumber, and a butler emergency coaxes Carson (Jim Carter), that reliably priggish defender of probity, out of retirement. There’s some petty pilfering, a blink-and-you-miss-it assassination attempt and a bit of bother with a boiler. But it’s all weak tea, with the occasional decorous tilt toward politics (of the Irish-Republican kind) and scandal (of the butler-on-the-down-low kind). This last leads us to a clandestine gay club where a rowdy group of men are deliriously dancing the Black Bottom . It’s easily the movie’s liveliest scene, and the most surprising, not least because the north of England in the 1920s was hardly a gay haven.

With barely enough plot to go around, most characters are served a tiny dollop. Lacking the nutritious story lines of the past, the cross-cultural liaisons and the odd inconvenient corpse in Lady Mary’s bedroom, the movie is mainly empty calories. Yet its screenwriter, Julian Fellowes (who created the TV series), knows his stories have always relied less on words than on the looks — arch and knowing, suspicious and appalled — that ricocheted around every social gathering. Choreographing those is the job of the director, Michael Engler, who stretches each raised eyebrow and pursed lip to big-screen proportions, miraculously without turning every close-up into a cartoon.

From its spectacularly detailed aesthetic to the characters’ march down well-worn personality paths, “Downton Abbey” argues insistently for the status quo. Lady Mary fleetingly questions the future of the aristocracy, only to be reassured — by a servant, mind you — that she and her ilk are not just relevant, but essential. And when the 1926 General Strike is mentioned, it’s solely to allow Violet to quip that her maid was “rather curt” with her at the time. Supporting a class system as rigid as Violet’s spine, the Downton staff are so devoted to their betters that even when they stage a revolution, its purpose is to deny themselves a night off.

You have to admire Fellowes’s ability to turn the sour sauce of oppression and inequality into comfort food. So when Henry Talbot (Matthew Goode) finally sails in, mere minutes before the end credits, to waltz with Lady Mary and assure her that Downton will endure forever, the faithful will likely feel as relieved as she does.

Downton Abbey

Rated PG for men kissing and women keeping secrets. Running time: 2 hours 2 minutes.

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Downton Abbey review – ridiculous, vanilla-flavoured fun

Imelda Staunton joins Maggie Smith and co in this standalone film that feels like an intensely glucose Christmas special

T here are some films that you really have to see on the big screen. Not this one, though. To get the full, authentic experience, you’ll need to see it on the small screen, on 27 December, with quart of eggnog inside you and enough Quality Street to trigger a diabetic coma. It is at all times ridiculous – but, I have to admit, quite enjoyable.

This standalone movie special is based on the smash-hit telenovela of picturesque Brit poshness, Downton Abbey – all about the interwar aristos with problems that go well beyond as anything as déclassé as “first world” – and this film is like the most intensely glucose and sometimes baffling Christmas special. It is structured like any TV episode around a set of concurrent subplots, delivered in a series of little bite-size scenes, played in and out with strident little orchestral stings on the soundtrack. Every so often you can feel the rhythmic thud of where the ad break would normally go – where it will go, in fact, when this goes to TV.

The screenwriter is Julian Fellowes, who of course created the all-star country-house murder mystery Gosford Park in 2001, which won him the Oscar for best original screenplay and whose aristocratic setting he cleverly converted into the global TV phenomenon of Downton. With Robert Altman’s shrewd directorial flair for ensemble playing, Gosford Park was a witty, spiky, subversive tale of violence and snobbery. Downton Abbey on TV was much more lightweight, and this is a bit exposed in the cinema. It’s actually possible to imagine a new TV series spun off in turn from this movie, which is even more vanilla, and then a new film, and so on, until we have incrementally blanded down to something like My Little Pony.

The Downton Abbey movie is not as spectacularly star-studded as Gosford Park, but it’s got its share of A-list talent, however: Maggie Smith, of course, as the dowager Countess of Grantham, Hugh Bonneville as Lord Grantham (absent-mindedly fondling his retriever at breakfast) – there’s also Imelda Staunton in a new role and Jim Carter as the beetle-browed former butler Mr Carson. All are very underused.

The setting now is 1927, and lawks-a-mercy, the grand house of Downton is all of a flutter and a fluster upstairs and down with news that King George V (Simon Jones) and Queen Mary (Geraldine James) will be coming to stay the night and make a military inspection of local troops: “There’s to be a parade of hussars in the village!” yelps someone excitedly. But oh dear, the downstairs staff are enraged when the monarch brings in his own royal servants who pull rank on them, while the formidable Countess of Grantham (Smith) is nettled to see that the Queen has brought her lady-in-waiting Lady Bagshaw (Staunton), a distant cousin with whom she has a serious beef. Also, some little silver knick-knacks around the house are going missing, and there’s a mysterious military fellow who seems to have taken a room in a pub with a view overlooking where His Majesty will be standing on the village green.

Exasperatingly, many of the plotlines – the central royal drama and the confrontation between Lady Grantham and Lady Bagshaw – are accelerated and resolved with almost surreal speed. But one which is emphasised is a new development in the life of the Downton franchise’s gay character, Barrow, the footman-turned-butler played by Robert James-Collier, whose sexuality is acknowledged and even celebrated. However, I do have to point out that his new trance of love means that he simply isn’t very good at his job and Mr Carson has to be brought out of retirement for butlering duties on the night of royal specialness. Meanwhile, Barrow disports himself at the kind of secret establishment which Mr Fellowes imagines existing in Yorkshire in the 1920s.

Basically, the plots are rickety and the characterisation has the depth of a Franklin Mint plate, but there are some funny moments and Kevin Doyle, playing the overexcitable servant Molesley, pretty much steals the entire film with his embarrassing outburst of royalist love and Downton pride over dinner. When the grand patrician company falls into a deathly hush and director Michael Engler goes in for a closeup on Molesley’s aghast face, you’d need a heart of stone not to laugh. Otherwise, there are sad and sombre moments, closing on a rousingly reactionary and entertainingly preposterous big-up for the country house culture: a note of finality to signal that this really is it now. Or is the franchise just beginning? You’ve heard of Fast and Furious. We could be in for The Languid and Lugubrious: Downton 2.

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Film Review: ‘Downton Abbey’

Years after the serialized drama whose story it continues left the air, “Downton Abbey” is doubly nostalgic.

By Daniel D'Addario

Daniel D'Addario

Chief TV Critic

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This new feature film about the lives of a family scrapping to preserve their fortune, and those of the servants attending them, is explicitly designed as a balm for the aching hearts of those who loved watching the TV version. (Stateside, that program aired as part of PBS’s “Masterpiece” franchise from 2011 to 2016.) And, just like that series, the “Downton” film looks back even further than the early-to-mid-2010s, recalling a time of innocence and of understated glamour. That the film opens with the revelation that King George V and Queen Mary are to visit the estate and tracks the visit to its conclusion provides, among other things, an opportunity for the cast to dress in decadent, richly jewel-toned formalwear.

Not that they need a reason. The Crawley family, inhabitants of the massive estate that gives the film its name, dress for dinner nightly. But a big, multistage party in honor of the royals gives “ Downton Abbey ” something at its center with high enough stakes and the requisite amount of retro luxury. It also provides an opportunity for writer Julian Fellowes to stage the conversation he seemed, throughout the series’s run, to prefer having, an emphasis on the value of tradition that comes on so strong as to arrive at a stifling sort of social conservatism. “Downton Abbey” has always been, above all, about the value of preserving tradition; stripping away its muscularly written soap plotlines in favor of a thin picaresque tale of a royal visit reveals just how much of the show’s appeal is ideological.

After all, the story here is so slight that even several characters seem not to notice it’s happening. The Crawleys’ reaction to the royal visit is a certain arch bemusement; Mary (Michelle Dockery) seems put out that she’ll have to organize tasks for the servants to do in order to prepare. (As a character, Mary remains the show’s single most original, subversive idea: A sympathetic protagonist who’s less an antiheroine than an unapologetic brat.) She is eventually witness to an attempted act of grave violence and then moves on, as does the movie; she has a momentary crisis and decides she should sell the house, but is convinced by her maid (Joanne Froggatt) that the house is too important for the people who work there — not merely as a place of employment but as the center of their emotional lives. Mary moves on. 

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Similarly blithe-spirited are the lord and lady of the house (Hugh Bonneville and Elizabeth McGovern), who make expressions of vague concern while remaining basically assured that the situation will sort itself out. And the Dowager Countess ( Maggie Smith ), more than ever a one-liner machine deployed to pick up the energy level regardless of whether her utterances track with the situation, is consumed by a feud with the Queen’s lady-in-waiting (Imelda Staunton), who just happens to be a Crawley cousin. The family is as benignly far from dazzled by the power of the throne as the servant class is in awe of it, and the below-stairs plotlines through the film tend to focus on how unfair it is that the servants are to be deprived the opportunity to wait on royalty (the King and Queen, you see, travel with their own cooks and footmen). 

This injustice finds itself resolved through a heist-like scheme that feels strangely unworthy of a franchise whose past deviations from credibility tended to move in the direction of soapy dramatics and not loopy comedy. But it is, at least, a throughline. Juggling many characters, all of whom have been through many years of melodrama, director Michael Engler — who previously helmed episodes of the series — won’t or can’t invest real time into any one. As such, we glide over the surface of, say, Edith (Laura Carmichael), who on television had been a slow-burning surprise, the unlucky Crawley sister who discovered independence before love. Here, her storyline is that she has a disagreement with her husband that they work to figure out. The servants almost to a one share the story of trying to meet the queen; an exception is the ever-thwarted gay servant Thomas Barrow (Rob James-Collier), who gets a romance that’s both warming and so unstintingly syrupy a plotline for one of the show’s most cynical characters that it’s hard to take seriously.

As a series, “Downton Abbey” sprawled, giving viewers the drama and chaos they wanted before a season-ending resolution of conflicts. Here, there’s only time for the resolutions, even before the drama happens. So much of this film’s diffuse plot works this way, explicitly granting characters whatever had been their wish with only the most perfunctory of obstacles in their paths, that the greatest impression is left by the battle that’s hardest-won, on the part of the servants to help the royals. The undistinguished direction has the ironic effect of bringing the royals down to earth — little about their visit seems special or unique — but the script pushes back, hard. 

The inhabitants of Downton Abbey have no real take on the monarchy other than that it is exciting and fun, just as they tend to think of their employers in glowingly positive terms. The Crawley’s Irish son-in-law (Allen Leech), a former family employee who believes in the Republican cause, remains silent on the matter out of respect for the family, while a ditzy scullery maid (Sophie McShera) makes anti-monarchist noises before abandoning the cause, as if to prove the case that dubiousness about the nation’s unelected ruling class, rather than dignified silence, is strictly for dilletantes. For their parts, the King and Queen are pleasantly empty, with the dramatic heavy lifting going to their daughter Princess Mary (Kate Phillips), who at one point tells her parents that she values the crown more than her own happiness. The dutifulness, from those who putatively serve the nation and those who literally serve them, is so thick in the air that it grows hard to make out a single free-willed character — which stops the drama dead in its tracks. 

“Downton Abbey” makes an interesting comparison piece not merely with its source TV show — which, though every bit as uncritical in its depiction of a historical moment, was vastly richer on a character and plot level and a bit less conservatively shot, too — but with “Gosford Park.” That 2001 film was also written by Fellowes, the Cambridge-educated son of a diplomat, but, whether thanks to the input of director Robert Altman or Fellowes’s ability to surf the tides of culture as it changed, was vastly more ironic and cynical about the vapidity of the elite. 

In both films, Maggie Smith plays a basically idle woman dependent on inheritances and allowances to stay afloat; in only one of them is her situation portrayed as outright heroic rather than somewhat pathetic, and is she given an eleventh-hour speech to the effect that cultural evolution is to be expected, but family continuity remains an important core value. Elsewhere in “Downton Abbey,” her feud with her cousin reaches rancorous heights due to that cousin’s decision to leave her fortune to her maid rather than her distant Crawley relations. The question of why the Crawleys would be entitled to an estranged relative’s money rather than lucky and grateful to get it is evidently beneath the film.

A film based on a show as beloved as “Downton Abbey” would have to do a lot wrong to alienate its core fans. While this attempt cannot juggle all its characters and isn’t nimble enough to find a new way to make its story work, this feature does not err quite that much. It’s reminiscent in this way of the 2008 film “Sex and the City,” which was strangely, lumpily paced and told a basically unnecessary story, but which was still true enough to its characters that it was embraced by fans. Those who love the Crawleys will find things to love here, from Mary’s insouciance, unchanged by the years, to the pleasant coziness of moments in the village surrounding Downton Abbey. But for some viewers who watched the show with an increasing sense of its fundamental coolness towards the idea of progress, its creepy-Crawley sense that to hope for or work for a more equitable world was not to know one’s role, this journey to the past may end up feeling ultimately less nostalgic than backward-looking.

Reviewed at Digital Arts Screening Room, New York, Aug. 28, 2019. MPAA Rating: PG. Running time: 122 MIN.

• Production: A Focus Features release and presentation, in association with Perfect World pictures of a Carnival Films production. Producers: Gareth Neame, Julian Fellowes, Liz Trubridge. Executive producers: Nigel Marchant, Brian Percival. Co-producer: Mark Hubbard.
• Crew: Director: Michael Engler. Screenplay: Julian Fellowes, based on the television series created by Julian Fellowes and produced by Carnival Films. Camera (color): Ben Smithard. Editor: Mark Day. Music: John Lunn.
• With: Hugh Bonneville, Jim Carter, Michelle Dockery, Elizabeth McGovern, Maggie Smith, Imelda Staunton, Penelope Wilton, Laura Carmichael, Joanne Froggatt.

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Downton Abbey

1927. The Crawleys prepare to host King George V and Queen Mary at Downton Abbey. 1927. The Crawleys prepare to host King George V and Queen Mary at Downton Abbey. 1927. The Crawleys prepare to host King George V and Queen Mary at Downton Abbey.

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• Trivia The royal visit of King George V to Downton Abbey was based on his real-life visit to Wentworth Woodhouse, a mansion in Yorkshire which was used in this movie for the ballroom scenes at Harewood House.
• Goofs While King George V inspects the troops, he is accompanied by a man dressed in lord lieutenant clothing. This is incorrect as Lord Grantham is the lord lieutenant of the local area, yet he is sitting in the 'VIP' area instead of with the king.

Robert Crawley, Earl of Grantham : Let's not argue.

Violet Crawley : I never argue, I explain.

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Review: is 'downton abbey,' the movie, worth the wait.

NPR's David Greene talks to Kenneth Turan, film critic for Morning Edition and the Los Angeles Times , about the new movie based on the popular TV series: Downton Abbey . The film opens Friday.

Copyright © 2019 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

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Downton Abbey delivers warm-crumpet comfort on the big screen

Life is hard; Downton Abbey is easy. Nearly four years after ending its six-season run, the show already feels like a relic of some kinder, gentler era of television; a warm PBS crumpet in a cold-donut world. The screen may be bigger, but the decorous upstairs-downstairs melodrama still revels in small moments: the candy-apple red of a mail truck; the rolling green of a manor lawn; the waft of lavender in the air as various soapy subplots work themselves into a gentle, easily resolvable lather.

Here, the plot impetus is a royal visit (Queen Elizabeth’s grandparents, actually, so think of it as a sort of Jazz-age prequel to The Crown ). Word that the monarchy will be making an overnight stop at Downton sends the manor into a frenzy of silver-polishing and social anxiety, but most things otherwise remain the same: Lady Mary (Michelle Dockery) keeps her internal temperature set to cucumber; once-working-class widower Tom (Allen Leech) pressure-tests his political loyalties; the Earl and Countess (Hugh Bonneville and Elizabeth McGovern) waft serenely through drawing-rooms; and the Dowager Countess (Dame Maggie Smith) maintains her status as the verbal ninja of landed British gentry. (“I don’t argue,” she tells one naysayer with withering calmness. “I explain.”)

There are various bits about the imperious royal household staff clashing with the locals; secret pregnancies and love affairs and assassination attempts — even a sensitively explored gay-awakening subplot for closeted butler Thomas (Robert James-Collier). But nothing in creator Julian Fellowes’ script ever strays too far from its genteel comfort zone; solving problems in Downton -world is like unknotting a tangled necklace: There may be difficulties, but rest assured that by the 122-minute mark, as above, so below; all will be right and dreamy with the Abbey. B

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Downton Abbey Cordially Invites You to Fall in Love With It Again

Downton Abbey , the movie version, is a very good season premiere and season finale of Downton Abbey rolled into one, multiplex-accessible-only, two-hour package. If this sounds like an insult it’s not meant to be. The ideal case scenario for this addendum to the enormously popular period piece, which ended its six-season stateside run on PBS in 2016, is a supersized episode of Downton Abbey that is enjoyable and substantial enough to justify its existence. The film, written by series creator Julian Fellowes and directed by Michael Engler, who directed multiple episodes of the TV original, is exactly that.

If you were a regular Downton Abbey viewer, you’ll likely feel satisfied by this motion picture experience, which brings back nearly all of the show’s key characters, bumps up the production value a few notches for the big screen, and structures its one-off story around a special visit from King George V (Simon Jones) and Queen Mary (Geraldine James).  If you weren’t a regular Downton Abbey viewer, honestly, I can’t imagine you’re going to go see this movie.

The filmmakers can’t imagine it either, which is why Downtown resumes its British aristocratic action in the fall of 1927, just shy of two years after the events of the series finale, and makes no attempt to provide exposition or background to anyone who may be unfamiliar with the members of the Crawley family or the staff who serves them. It’s a smart, efficient move, and appropriate for a work so fixated on politeness and protocol. Downton Abbey assumes you already know the rules of this society and therefore doesn’t need to bother explaining them.

The movie opens with the arrival of a fateful letter from Buckingham Palace announcing that the royals will visit Downton, an occasion that will involve a parade and a dinner. (When you’re the King and Queen of England, I guess it’s completely fine to invite yourself over to other people’s houses?) This news causes much excitement and stress among the downstairs staff, all of whom must determine how to feed and attend to the monarchs. That includes good ‘ol Mrs. Patmore (Lesley Nicol), still in charge of the kitchen and working alongside the pleasantly contrary Daisy (Sophie McShera); ultra-practical head housekeeper Mrs. Carson (Phyllis Logan), formerly known as Mrs. Hughes; and Thomas Barrow (Rob James-Collier), who has taken over as butler in the wake of Carson’s retirement. In a way, Thomas has also retired in that he’s (mostly) stopped being an asshole.

Of course when Lady Mary (Michelle Dockery) perceives that Thomas may be slightly jittery about the high-stakes royal social call, she goes to see Carson and pulls him out of retirement to temporarily take over butler duties. (Remember how Carson retired because he was suffering from palsy? Literally no one mentions that this happened or that it could be an issue if he returns to work.) But any bad feelings between Carson and Thomas are immediately overshadowed by the conflict between the royal staff, overseen by a snobby and rude head butler, or Page of the Backstairs as he prefers to be called, played by David Haig. When the Downton regulars are told that their services won’t be needed once the servants of the king and queen are on the premises, a tug-of-war for power — power, in this case, being the permission to carry trays of food to the uppermost members of Britain’s privileged class — ensues.

But there’s more, and by more, I mean all of the things you’ve been conditioned to expect from Downton Abbey : close-ups of wine being poured through cloths; Carson saying things like, “There must be no tomfoolery” and “This is most inappropriate”; concerns (still!) about whether Tom Branson (Allen Leech), former Irish revolutionary and loyal member of the Crawley family, will be able to control his political impulses; close-ups of clocks being wound; Thomas wrestling with his homosexuality; a subplot about items that have gone missing from the Downton household; conversations about whether a traditional estate like Downton can still exist in a changing England; concerns about an inheritance (Imelda Staunton plays Lady Maud Bagshaw, a cousin of Hugh Bonneville’s Lord Robert Grantham who is his closest blood relation but does not plan to make him her heir); and an overenthusiastic Molesley (Kevin Doyle), who rejoins the Downton staff to help with royal preparations, completely mucking up in the most embarrassing way possible. Oh, and yes, before you ask: Dame Maggie Smith is very present as the Dowager Countess, who is not happy about that whole inheritance situation involving her son and plans to make an issue of it. Also, yes, she and her bestie Isobel (Penelope Wilton) are still constantly snipping at each other and, yes again, Granny still is not shy about sharing her opinions. (“Machiavelli is underrated,” she says at one point. She does not seem to be joking.)

Story-wise, Downton Abbey reinvents no wheels, but that’s just fine. There is a comfort and a pleasure in simply being with these characters again and marinating in their lives, where everything seems very high-stakes but, for the most part, isn’t really. Plus, everything looks even more beautiful than it did on television. There are more wide shots of autumnal leaves falling on the lush green of the Crawleys’ estate and extra magic in the magic-hour shots captured beautifully by cinematographer Ben Smitherd. Even the costumes, designed by Anna Robbins, who made the clothes such a signature of the series, pop off the screen with more texture and beading that sparkles a bit more brightly.

Because the cast is so large and there is a fair amount of story to cover, Downton Abbey bounces around quite quickly from moment to moment, giving some characters shorter shrift than others (sorry, fans of Mr. Bates) and dropping some pretty major plotlines, including an assassination attempt, rather swiftly to move on to other things. But the show always operated this way, too, and regulars will reacclimate pretty quickly to its rhythms. There are a couple of bombshells — one minor, one major — that get dropped that make it clear that Fellowes is still genuinely interested in creating new stories about these beloved characters as opposed to purely going for a recent-TV nostalgia play. There’s a scene between Smith and Dockery late in the film, in particular, that aims straight at the tear ducts and hits a bull’s eye.

Downton Abbey , the series, has only been gone for a little more than three years. But that’s just enough time to make its return very welcome, and to make this feel like  the right moment to usher it back into the zeitgeist again. How nice to spend a couple of hours in a world where manners matter and the nastiest word anyone says is “bloody.” How lovely to immerse oneself in an England where Boris Johnson is not an authority figure and where the crassest American is Elizabeth McGovern in a tiara. How pleasurable to once again escape to this thoroughly ridiculous, richly rendered place and live there, if only for a couple of hours until the credits roll.

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• DVD & Streaming

Downton Abbey

• Drama , Romance

Content Caution

In Theaters

• September 20, 2019
• Michelle Dockery as Lady Mary Talbot; Allen Leech as Tom Branson; Joanne Froggatt as Anna Bates; Phyllis Logan as Mrs. Hughes; Jim Carter as Mr. Carson; Maggie Smith as Violet Crawley; Penelope Wilton as Isobel Merton; Elizabeth McGovern as Cora Crawley; Hugh Bonneville as Robert Crawley; Laura Carmichael as Lady Edith; Robert James-Collier as Thomas Barrow; Sophie McShera as Daisy Mason; Lesley Nicol as Mrs. Patmore; Brendan Coyle as Mr. Bates; Imelda Staunton as Maud Bagshaw; Tuppence Middleton as Lucy Smith

Home Release Date

• November 26, 2019
• Michael Engler

Distributor

• Focus Features

Movie Review

It’s been four years since Downton Abbey last graced our small screens, chronicling the charming, privileged lives of the Crawley family and their many, many servants. The movie, much like the TV series, takes us back to a time before televisions and smartphones, a time when the class system ruled and voting was still considered a privilege, not a right.

But Downton Abbey has adapted with the changing times. After all, “It’s 1927. We’re modern folk,” one resident opines.

Indeed, candles have been replaced with light bulbs. Horses are used for sport now, not transportation. Telegrams are a thing of the past. And the idea of carrying hot water up dozens of stairs just to wash your face? Well, the servants of Downton aren’t sure how they ever managed it before the boiler was installed.

Yes, things are changing around Downton—and not just the technology. Between the salaries of the servants and the upkeep required for the old castle, Lady Mary is at her wits’ (and budget’s) end. She manages the estate alongside her father, Lord Grantham, and her brother-in-law, Tom Branson. But cutting back expenses isn’t an easy task for the three, especially with the just-announced visit of none other than the King and Queen of England.

Everyone is in a tizzy. Silver must be polished. Beds must be made. And every surface must “gleam and sparkle” for the royal visit. Not to mention the estate’s takeover by Mr. Wilson, the royal butler—sorry, I mean the “King’s Page of the Back Stairs.” With the success of the visit riding on her shoulders, it’s no wonder Mary asks her own trusty former butler, Mr. Carson, to help with the preparations.

However, even with the extra help, Mary and the other residents of Downton can’t escape the building pressure. Despite their best efforts to keep the estate going, the old class system is failing, and the extra expenditures are increasingly viewed as little more than a waste of money —a sentiment echoed by members of both the upper and lower classes.

It all leaves Mary wondering if keeping up Downton Abbey is really worth the struggle.

Positive Elements

As the distinctions between the classes fade, many people treat their servants more as peers than hired labor. The Crawleys have always been progressive in this mindset, adopting Tom (their former chauffeur) as a son after the death of their daughter and his wife, Sybil. Mary tells Anna, her lady’s maid and constant encourager, that Anna has been a good friend to her over the years. Maud Bagshaw, the queen’s lady in waiting, treats her own lady’s maid, Lucy, as more of a companion than a servant. In fact, rumors are flying that Lady Bagshaw intends to make Lucy her heir!

Tom, who has always struggled to balance his old life as a servant with his new life as a member of the gentry, demonstrates to everyone that “ you can love people you disagree with .” The native Irishman hasn’t always agreed with the snooty lifestyle of the Crawleys—in fact, he’s often rebelled against it and the entire British monarchy. But he recognizes that the Crawleys were there for him and his daughter when his wife passed away and that they love him, so he chooses to be loyal to them. And loyal to the Crown as well.

Violet Crawley, the Dowager Countess of Grantham and Lord Grantham’s mother, is perpetually the “frightening old lady.” Her sharp tongue has often left her family begging her not to make things so awkward; but deep down, we once again see that she (mostly) has their best interests at heart. More than once we catch her arguing with Isobel Merton, Mary’s mother-in-law; more often than not, however, the two women come to an understanding if not an agreement.

A woman contemplates divorce, but eventually tells her husband that she wants them both to change and become friends in order to save their marriage. A man turns down a job opportunity in order to be with his wife during her pregnancy. A woman has a healthy attitude towards death, saying that it isn’t sad because she’s lived a privileged and interesting life and it’s just her time to go. Two women settle a years-long disagreement after discovering a secret truth behind a dispute.

Spiritual Elements

When Lord Grantham and a few others volunteer to set up parade chairs in the middle of a rainstorm, he asks his mother, Violet, to pray for them. Violet responds, “I’ll put in a word.” Later, Mary boldly states her belief that God will stop the rain in time for the royal visit and parade the next day. When the weather is in fact fair, she says that God must be “a monarchist.” A few other passing references to God are heard as well.

Sexual Content

Thomas Barrow, the current butler of Downton, is a gay man (as ardent viewers of the show will already know). He befriends one of the royal valets that visit Downton and is invited to have drinks with the man. While waiting for his new friend to arrive at the pub, Thomas is approached by a stranger and invited to an underground gay pub (since homosexuality was a criminal offense at the time). Upon entering, he is both shocked and pleased to see men kissing and dancing with other men (we also see a man sitting on the lap of another in the background). Thomas dances with the stranger who brought him there until police officers break up the gathering and arrest everyone present, including Thomas.

Thomas is later bailed out by his valet friend, who tells the police that Thomas only went as a joke to mess with the “queers.” Outside, when Thomas tries to talk to him, he holds a finger to his lips and then moves it to Thomas’ lips, indicating that they should both be quiet until they can find somewhere to speak without being overheard. Thomas later expresses relief at having a gay friend who he can talk to, and his friend says he would like to be more. He kisses Thomas goodbye and hopes that they’ll meet again.

A woman explains that after her husband passed away, she became romantically involved with another man and had an illegitimate daughter (whose parentage was kept secret). She goes on to say that although they were in love, she wasn’t brave enough to marry him because he was of a lower class than her. She shows remorse not because of the moral implications, but because she truly loved him and wished she had married him.

A few brief kisses are shared between heterosexual couples. Lady Edith is seen in her undergarments (a camisole and shorts over stockings) as she changes into and out of a dress, and some cleavage is visible.

Violent Content

A man hides a gun in his jacket pocket and later aims it at the king. The would-be assassin is tackled to the ground before he can pull the trigger, then disarmed and arrested.

When Thomas and his companions are arrested, the police push and shove them roughly, knocking Thomas to the ground at one point.

A man uses a shovel to smash and break the boiler at Downton. He later confesses to his fiancé that he did it out of jealousy when another man flirted with her. Rather than chastise him, she is happy to see that he isn’t as complacent as she feared and that he is willing to fight for what he wants.

Crude or Profane Language

Back when Downton Abbey was still a TV show, Violet once chastised her granddaughter for cursing, saying, “ Vulgarity is no substitute for wit .” This holds true for the movie. God’s name is, unfortunately, taken in vain three times, but other than that, the worst offense is the British expletive “bloody,” which is used twice (one of which, the user is immediately scolded for the profanity). “Blimey,” “heavens,” and “golly” are all also used a handful of times. There is one mention of “dirty perverts.”

Drug and Alcohol Content

Adults drink a variety of wine, champagne, and beer at parties and pubs throughout the film. Mr. Carson is seen hand-picking the wine to be served during the royal visit, and Mr. Wilson is later seen decanting the wine.

Other Negative Elements

When the royal servants rudely take over Downton Abbey, the estate’s servants quietly and deviously revolt (a secret mutiny that’s played for humor). They slip a sleeping draft into the royal chef’s tea, lock the royal butler in his room, and arrange for the royal footmen and maids to be out of the house during the visit so that they can serve the king and queen themselves. Mr. Carson calls this “treason” at one point, but later admits that the royal servants had it coming with their entitled attitudes. While this aspect of the plot is certainly entertaining, the characters choices are nonetheless mean-spirited and dishonest. When the royal servants say as much, the Downton servants essentially blackmail them into staying silent.

Anna discovers that one of the queen’s servants has been stealing small items from various rooms in the house. When she confronts the thief, the woman shows no remorse, claiming that she only takes things that won’t be missed. The woman rationalizes that she deserves what she takes, since she is underpaid. Anna agrees not to tell, but only if she returns the stolen items and does a personal favor for Lady Edith in preparation for the ball.

A man becomes angry when his children’s nanny breaks their usual routine and allows them into a part of the manor at a time when they’re usually forbidden from being there. Violet suggests that manipulating a “corrupt” judge is OK if it accomplishes her means. She also implies that Maud should be locked up in an insane asylum for considering making Lucy her heir. After a man describes the royal visit as the peak of his career, Daisy and Mrs. Patmore (the Downton cooks), lie to him about the nature of the visit in order to spare his feelings.

Propriety has always been paramount at Downton. However, as the rules of propriety have changed, so has Downton Abbey. Oh, its residents remain polite and keep their language at bay. The clothing is still modest and limits the amount of skin we see.

But at times, bad behavior is rationalized and rewarded if it’s for a good reason. And scheming and blackmailing are also acceptable as long as the person on the receiving end seemingly deserves it.

“A hundred years from now, Downton will still be standing,” says Mr. Carson to Lady Mary near the end of the film. And while the butler was trying to encourage his employer that it’s acceptable to adapt with the times, whether or not such change is always positive is an open question.

Fans of the show will likely delight in this big-screen adaptation, as it offers one last chance to rub cinematic shoulders with Downton Abbey’s beloved ensemble of memorable characters. But as was true on the show as well, not all of the increasingly modern values that these characters embrace—including the movie’s advocacy and embrace of homosexuality—will be equally welcomed by those who don’t completely share the film’s worldview.

Lady Mary faced growing pressure to keep Downton Abbey running while expenses grew. And while that may had been the way it was always done, everyone began to question if that was still the right way. It is a good practice to ask questions. Families may want to think through how they are called to steward their own “castle” and finances. For some ideas, check out these offerings from Focus on the Family.

Parents Disagree About Offering Financial Assistance to Grown Child

Do Your Adult Kids Really Need Your Money ?

Equipping Your Kids to Handle Money with Dave Ramsey (Part 1 of 2)

Give Them Wings

Emily Tsiao

Emily studied film and writing when she was in college. And when she isn’t being way too competitive while playing board games, she enjoys food, sleep, and geeking out with her husband indulging in their “nerdoms,” which is the collective fan cultures of everything they love, such as Star Wars, Star Trek, Stargate and Lord of the Rings.

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Downton Abbey (2019) Review

A LAVISHING CINEMATIC ENDEAVOR

For the first half of the 2010s, the television show Downton Abbey served as a hallmark achievement in dramatic TV series that gain popularity and acclaim from both critics and viewers. Created by Julian Fellowes, the series, set in the fictional Yorkshire country estate of Downtown Abbey between 1912 to 1926, depicts the lives of the aristocratic Crawley family and their domestic servants in the post-Edwardian era, with the great events in history having an effect on their lives and on the British social hierarchy. As mentioned, Downton Abbey , which ran for six seasons (2010-2015), received universal acclaim from TV critics and won numerous accolades within its fanbase as well as awards, including a Golden Globe for Best Mini-series or Television Film and a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Mini-series or Movie. In addition, the show went on to win several other milestone achievements, including Guinness World Records recognizing the shows as the “most critically acclaimed English-language television series of 2011”, earned the most nominations of any international television series in the history of Primetime Emmy Awards, and was the most watched television series on both ITV and PBS; becoming the most successful British costume drama series since the 1981 television series Brideshead Revisited . Now, four years after the end of final episode of TV series, it’s time to return to the Crawley Family (and those who work for them) as Focus Features (as well as Carnival / Perfect World Pictures) and director Michael Engler proudly present the follow-up continuation movie titled Downton Abbey . Is this long-awaited movie to the popular period piece drama worth a look or does the movie squander its chance for viewer with drawn-out narrative?

It’s 1927 and Downton Abbey has just received word that King George (Simon Jones) and Queen Mary (Geraldine James) are planning to come to the Crawley family estate for an overnight visit while on a cross-country tour. While the royal visit creates a natural “buzz” in the community, the Downton Abbey staff excites and panics, forcing Mary (Michelle Dockery) to cut retirement short for former head butler Carson (Jim Carter), replacing current head butler Barrow (Rob James-Collier) while the demands of the royal staff are sorted out. Realizing that the royal staff has no intention of using the Downton Abbey employees, workers, such as Mr. Bates (Brendan Coyle), Mrs. Hughes (Phyllis Logan), Mrs. Patmore (Lesley Nicol), and Anna (Joanne Froggatt), hatch a plan to reclaim the glory for the estate. Coming along with the royal entourage is Lady Maud Bagshaw (Imelda Staunton), the Queen’s lady-in-waiting, joined by her maid Lucy (Tuppence Middleton), and while’s a cousin to Robert (Hugh Bonneville), her choice to keep her fortune away from the Crawleys raises ire from matriarch Violet (Maggie Smith). While plans commence for the King and Queen’s visit, Tom (Allen Leech) is put in a difficult position when his patriotism is called into question a mysterious man named Major Chetwode (Stephen Campbell Moore), leaving the Irishman uneasy about the important royal visit.

THE GOOD / THE BAD

Yes, I’ll the first to admit it…. I do love Downton Abbey TV series (and proud of it). What can I say…. I’m a sucker for costume period pieces (be it television shows or theatrical features films) and Downton Abbey is probably the best example of a costume period piece. Of course, I wasn’t immediately hooked on the show as I think I started watching it when the third season was being released that year, so I quickly got caught up the two previous seasons and instantly fell in love with the show. Yes, it’s not exactly the most “riveting” or original story to follow in television history, but Downton Abbey provides plenty of dramatic nuances within its characters as the show is rooted within its various multitude of characters and how their daily lives play a part with the “big house” of Downton….whether that’s upstairs of people of note and of titles are pampered and deal with upper class issues or downstairs where maids and grooms scuttle about in the humdrum of life. Personally, with the show running six seasons, I think the success of Downton Abbey is captured beautiful not only within its cast of well-talented actors and actress, but also in creator Julian Fellowes, who helms project and gives us such rich character development from start to finish. As you can imagine, I was upset that the show ended, but really satisfied with its conclusion; ending Downton Abbey on a high-note and closure for this crowd-pleasing drama TV series.

Of course, this brings me back to talking about Downtown Abbey , the 2019 movie that acts as a continuation to the popular television series. Like I said, I was happily satisfied with the conclusion to the Downton Abbey TV series, but always secretly hoped that a theatrical movie would materialize in the same fashion as the two Sex and the City films and Entourage movie. You can imagine I was completely thrilled to learn that a Downton Abbey movie was gonna happen and that it was gonna be theatrical released in theaters, with almost all of the principal cast returning to reprise their roles. So, when the film’s various marketing promos started to appear (movie trailers, magazines, and overall internet “buzz”, etc.), I was definitely hyped to see this movie. To be honest, I actually saw it during its opening weekend, but kept on delaying on getting my review for Downton Abbey as fell a little bit behind on my reviews (because you know…. life happens). Now, I finally have the time to share my thoughts on this movie. What did I think of it? Well, I actually loved it. Despite a few minor nitpicks, Downton Abbey is a charming and lavishing follow-up movie to series of the same name. This movie doesn’t reinvent the wheel or pushes the main story into a whole new territory, but it’s just a lavishing familiarity with the Downton Abbey characters that makes the film work so well, especially if you’re fan of the TV series.

Downton Abbey is directed by Michael Engler, whose previous directorial works consist of several television series such as Sex and the City , Six Feet Under , and 30 Rock as well as a few episodes of Downton Abbey . Thus, given his familiarity with the Downton Abbey TV series (i.e. characters, setting, story, pacing, etc.), Engler seemed like a suitable choice to helm a project like this. To his credit, succeeds on this front Engler by directing this particular movie in way that feels similar to the TV show’s presentation and storytelling, but also feels slightly more cinematic than what’s been done in the past. Of course, the source material from the show is there, so Engler doesn’t have to recreate the wheel in translating Downton Abbey from an episodic television drama to a feature length film. Thus, Engler “romances” a lot of the material; feeling like a genuine continuation of the narrative thread of the TV series and able to sort of “hit the ground running” immediately from the feature’s opening shot. Of course, with a production like this, the movie, which again is a continuation of a television series, definitely caters to its fans, with Engler making sure that this Downton Abbey movie won’t alienate the show’s fanbase of which he doesn’t; offering up a two hour feature film that falls directly “in-line” with the popular show and harmonizes with what’s come before.

With Engler in the director’s chair and making sure the film “harmonizes” with TV series, the Downton Abbey movie also finds success within its script, which Julian Fellows penning the feature’s story. Like Engler, Fellowes doesn’t “shake up” British aristocratic formula that made the show successful and, while some might be a little disappointed, the setting and story feels very much an extension of the television series. Thus, the idea of having England’s royalty coming to visit the Crawley family at Downton Abbey isn’t completely out of the realm of possibilities, but still offers up a chance for a lot of “pomp” and grandeur narration befitting a feature film. Additionally, Fellowes certainly knows the various characters that have populated the TV series and makes the film’s screenplay work in delving back into the bustling lives of these individuals; allowing us (the viewers) to easily fall right back into inhabitants of Downton Abbey and exploring (once again) their personal troubles and triumphs all over again. Of course, the idea of a “royal visit” from Britain’s sovereignty acts as the main catalyst for the feature, with Fellowes creating internal chaos within all the major players of the show and certainly makes for some “Downton Abbey” drama throughout the feature.

Of a technical presentation, Downton Abbey is absolutely beautiful and a stunning piece befitting a British costume period endeavor. Naturally, the TV series already a somewhat lavishing and cinematic feel to it, so it already looked and felt beautiful as the camera followed the Crawley family (and their staff) throughout the opulent rooms and back hall corridors of mansion estate. Of course, being a movie in all, Engler is able to achieve a little more cinematic nuances with the show than what the show was able to produce. This means that the movie offers a few new locations within Downton Abbey itself as well as in the surrounding area, with Engler and his team achieving more technical nuances to polish up the Downton Abbey experience for a theatrical release. This includes more wide-angle shots, more heavenly lightning in certain outdoor exteriors and gorgeous interior shots to fill up the room with characters in lavishing gowns. Thus, the film’s background / technical team, including Donal Woods (production designs), Anna Robbins (costume designs), Mark Day (film editing), and Ben Smithhard (cinematography) offer up an exquisite cinematic feature from start to finish; something worthy of epitome of a costume period piece. Also , Downton Abbey series composer John Lunn returns to the project in composing the films score for the feature and definitely brings his “A” game, with the main theme being played beautifully as well as some sweeping orchestra composition as well.

There are a few minor criticisms that I do have Downton Abbey that I feel I can’t overlook or might be a little “off-putting” for some out there. Of course, the easiest criticism to point out is on whom the movie is gear towards…. its fans. Like other similar ideas of movies being a continuation / follow-up to popular TV shows (i.e. Sex and the City , Entourage , Deadwood , etc.), Downton Abbey is purely made for fans of the series and not so much with the causal moviegoers. Of course, the movie is quite easy to digest and is somewhat simplistic to figure out (i.e. no head scratchers or sudden unexplained twists), but Engler jumps immediately into the movie’s plot within the first five minutes with Fellowes following suit by quick reintroducing the story’s characters with no additional prolongment of bring viewers up to speed on the events of the shows, with the exception of a few minor callbacks within dialogue scenes between characters. Thus, the appeal of the Downton Abbey movie is more limited to people who’ve seeing the TV series and not much the people who walk into the film with little to no prior knowledge of the show. To me, it didn’t bother me, but (as I said), Downton Abbey is mostly for the fans of the series; acting more as a companion feature to its television predecessor rather than a standalone endeavor.

Another point of criticism that I had with the movie is fact that movie is being theatrical release. Of course, I get the idea behind it and do like the opportunity to see the Downton Abbey in theaters, but, for better or worse, the movie itself just seems like a larger extended episode of the show; something akin to the series’ famous Christmas Special episodes (an elongated episode that appears at the end of each season that dealt with a bit larger story / plot). I’m not saying that the story in this movie is bad or anything, but it just feels like the production could’ve been released on TV as Christmas special movie rather than being theatrical released. Coinciding with that notion, Fellowes (as mentioned above) keeps the Downton Abbey formula on a steady course and doesn’t really color outside the lines within the foundation he’s built. While that might not be a bad thing, it does mean that Fellowes doesn’t take creative risk within this theatrical motion picture opportunity for his popular period piece drama. Again, this makes the idea of a Downton Abbey movie more relevant to a TV movie. There’s more grandeur bigness to the film, but not so much in taking Fellowes’s vision of the show in a bold and new direction. Additionally, the movie does feel a bit long in several ways, with Engler and Fellowes making sure to give each respective main character (supporting ones as well) their moment to shine and to give them a conclusion their arcs in the movie. Thus, the movie’s ending seems to an end at one point, but then continues for another ten minutes or so. Again, it’s not a bad idea, but just a little bit of finesse in the film’s editing department could’ve been better handled for a tighter feature.

What definitely made the show was sprawling various characters that populate Downton Abbey, with all the acting talents playing those respective characters in fun and multi-façade way. So, as one could except, the Downton Abbey movie excels in this department with most of the actors and actresses from the series returning to reprise their roles once again (after a four-year hiatus) and it truly feels like they never left their Downton Abbey personas. With so many characters in large ensemble, it’s hard to pick out the main characters of the movie. So, one just has to look at the main players from the show of which Engler and Fellowes hone in on for the movie’s two-hour runtime, which consists of Lady Mary Talbot, her younger sister Edith Pelham, their brother in-law Tom Branson, and head butler Thomas Barrow and are played by actress Michelle Dockery ( Non-Stop and Good Behavior ), actress Laura Carmichael ( Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and Madame Bovary ), actor Allen Leech ( Bohemian Rhapsody and Rome ), and actor Robert James-Collier ( The Ritual and Down to Earth ) respectfully. Of course, the struggles and triumphs of Mary and Edith Crawley have always been the focal point of the Downton Abbey series and continues to do so, with Mary concern herself with the royal visit to their home (as well as the future of Downton), while Edith worries over her condition of her new lifestyle (Lady of Hexham) and a sudden surprise that she must tell her husband about.

Likewise, the character of Tom Branson has been another main focal point of the TV series and continues to be so in this movie, with the character facing several challenges. Plus, it also helps that Leech has a likeable personality (clearly shows in his performance), while the character of Tom has shown the most growth of all the Downton Abbey characters and gets more to do in the film than in the last season of the show. Finally, James-Collier’s Thomas Barrow has always been painted as the conniving individual character, who hates pretty much everyone. However, I do like how the movie portrays the Barrow in the movie; casting him in a less hostile / sympathetic light, especially since most of the “downstairs” staff are paired up together. Plus, James-Collier does an excellent job in the movie, so it’s nice to see him playing Barrow in a different light (sort of speak).

Of course, fan favorites are still present in the Downton Abbey movie, especially the character of Violet Crawley, the Dowager Countess of Grantham, who is once again skillfully played by actress Dame Maggie Smith. Known for her roles in Gosford Park , Ladies in Lavender , and The Secret Garden, Smith has always been a terrific “old school” British actress as seeing in all of her previous works, including her performance as Violet. Her tactful wit, sharp tongue, and memorable one-liners are once again a pleasure to hear as Smith continues to excel in the role, which definitely could’ve been played in a different way (thankfully it wasn’t). Likewise, her conversation along with cousin Isobel Crawley (now Isobel Merton), who is played by actress Penelope Wilton ( The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel and Five Days ) are just as wonderful and cheeky as they were in the show.

Also, I can’t forget the other two fan-favorites, with the characters of Mr. Carson (the former head butler of Downton Abbey) and Mrs. Hughes, the head household maid at Downton Abbey, returning for another round of fan-service. Of course, both actor Jim Carter ( Shakespeare in Love and King Lear ) and actress Phyllis Logan ( Secrets & Lies and Another Time, Another Place ) are terrific together and definitely seem like a tried and true “old married couple”. With the movie focusing a lot on these characters above (and a few new characters added for the movie), the characters of Lord and Lady Grantham (Robert and Cora Crawley), Mr. Bates, and his wife Anna get more reduced to secondary supporting roles. Of course, the acting talents behind them, including actor Hugh Bonneville ( Paddington and Notting Hill ), actress Elizabeth McGovern ( The Wife and Woman in Gold ), actor Brendan Coyle ( Me Before You and North & South ), and actress Joanne Froggatt ( Liar and Bob the Builder ), are all there and do certainly bringing their “quality” to their respective characters, but the movie pushes, more or less, these individuals to the side. However, most of the character growth and been on display in the TV series, so it didn’t bother me as much.

The rest of the Downton Abbey characters, including actor Matthew Goode ( The Imitation Game and Watchmen ) as Mary’s husband Henry Talbot, actor Harry Hadden-Paton ( The Crown and Versailles ) as Edith’s husband Bertie Pelham, Marquess of Hexham, actor Douglas Reith ( The Queen and Dumbo ) as Isobel’s husband Lord Merton, actress Sophie McShera ( Cinderella and Galavant ) as Daisy Mason, actress Lesley Nicol ( Beecham House and Sarah & Duck) as Mrs. Patmore, actress Raquel Cassidy ( Lead Balloons and The Worst Witch ) as Miss Baxter, actor Michael Fox ( Dunkirk and Family Affairs ) as Andy, and actor Kevin Doyle ( The Tudors and Happy Valley ) as Mr. Molesley, are dedicated to rounding out the supporting veteran players of the feature. Of course, there parts might be a bit smaller than in the series, but all of them quickly capture their respective roles (quirks and personas) immediately and become memorable in the scenes that they are in.

Of the new players in the movie, the character of Maud, Lady Bagshaw / the Queen’s lady-in-waiting stands out as the most memorable. Played by actress Imelda Staunton ( Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix and Nanny McPhee ), the character of Lady Bagshaw is indeed a welcomed addition to the whole Downton Abbey cast, with Staunton playing the part with effortless glee and theatrical poise (befitting her acting talent), especially when she paired up against Maggie Smith’s Violet Crawley. There scenes spark some terrific one-liners. Additionally, the movie also shines a focus on Maud’s servant companion Lucy Smith, who is played by actress Tuppence Middleton ( The Imitation Game and Jupiter Ascending) and plays an interesting side-story arc in the movie. Behind those two characters, the character of Richard Ellis, the King’s Royal Dresser, is another welcomed addition to the cast, with actor Max Brown ( The Tudors and The Royals ) making Ellis with enough suave and charm to certainly make him dashingly likeable. Likewise, actress Kate Phillips ( Peaky Blinders and Wolf Hall ) provides a certain type of youthful warmth within the character of Princess Mary, Viscountess Lascelles. Additionally, actor Simon Jones ( Brideshead Revisited and The Price ) and actress Geraldine James (Sherlock Holmes and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) are solid in the roles as King George V and Queen Mary. They are exactly how I pictured and handled their lofty royalty personas well. Kind of wished that their characters were in the movie more.

Rounding out the new characters cast is actor Mark Addy ( Game of Thrones and A Knight’s Tale ) as Mr. Bakewell, actor Andrew Havill ( The King’s Speech and Les Miserable ) as Henry, Viscount of Lascelles, actress Richenda Carey ( Monarch of the Glen and The Prince and the Pauper ) as the Royal Housemaid Mrs. Webb, actor Phillipe Spall ( Final Portrait and Allied ) as the Royal Chef Monsieur Courbet, actor Stephen Campbell Moore ( Goodbye Christopher Robin and The Bank Job ) as Major Chetwode, and actor David Haig ( My Boy Jack and Florence Foster Jenkins ) as the Royal Page of the Backstairs Mr. Wilson. Despite of limited screen-time in amongst the large sprawling regular cast, these acting talents are solid and favorable and definitely lend credence to their characters involvement in Downton Abbey’s story, with most having their one “moment in the spotlight” in their minor supporting capacities.

FINAL THOUGHTS

It’s time to return to “the big house” and reacquaint yourself with the Crawley Family as they (and their staff) prepare for a royal visit in the movie Downton Abbey . Director Michael Engler’s latest film returns to the popular TV show and continues the lives of those who live (and work) at the opulent English estate; providing a motion picture that works as a perfect companion to the show. While movie fumbles in a few minor areas (i.e an elongated ending and cramming too much characters into a feature length runtime), the film finds its grace and grandeur within its polished production and presentations as well as in Engler’s direction, Fellowes’s script, and its sprawling cast of acting talents. Personally, I loved this movie. It was great, lavishing, entertaining, and just downright fun to return the whole Downton Abbey world once again. Thus, you can by glowing review for this movie that my recommendation for it is a definite “highly recommended”, especially for the fans of the TV series out there. While the idea of a possible sequel leaves the door open for more cinematic endeavors within the Crawley Family’s lives is there, it still remains a mystery if one would materialize in the near future. TO me, I welcome the idea. Even if it doesn’t, 2019’s Downton Abbey is prime example of how to do a feature film continuation from a popular TV series; producing a lavishing cinematic experience on the finest level.

Also, a personal side note, Downton Abbey is my 475th movie review since I’ve started blogging. I wanted give a special thank you to all my readers, followers, and fellow bloggers for reading my movie reviews and giving me this platform to share (with you guys) my views on cinematic tales.

4.4 Out of 5 (Highly Recommended)

Released on: september 20th, 2019, reviewed on: november 20th, 2019.

Downton Abbey   is 122 minutes long and is rated PG for thematic elements, some suggestive material, and language

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I really liked this too, but I saw an SNL skit where they said the movie was basically about housework, and it’s not not true!

Never caught that skit. But yes…I did love this movie.

That lack of pace in the end foxed me; I thought it was over, and then they all go off to the ball and I was left looking at my watch! Good detailed review, never had you down as a Downtown fan!

Yeah, I agree with you about the ending. It felt like it was gonna end at one point and kept going for another ten or fifteen minutes. Still…love it. Yes, I’m a Downton fan!!!

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Downton Abbey Reviews

The Downton Abbey movie is just a longer episode of the tv series. As a longtime Downton fan myself, I left the theater entertained, but disappointed.

Full Review | Original Score: 6.5/10 | Jan 17, 2023

Creator Julian Fellowes seamlessly moved his elegant television serial to the big screen without missing a beat.

Full Review | Dec 7, 2022

Loved visiting this world of Downton Abbey as they face a royal visit. A must watch.

Full Review | Original Score: 4.5/5 | Jul 2, 2022

...a well-upholstered, well-cast and reasonably mild way to spend an afternoon in the cinema with elderly relatives...

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Apr 20, 2022

Downton Abbey is cinematic confectionery: sweet and satisfying in the moment but with no long-term benefit. Made not for awards but for sentiment, the millions who tuned in on Sunday nights for a bit of interwar glamour will leave satisfied.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Feb 21, 2022

As with the TV series, the two Toms are the most interesting characters and get the best storylines. Probably the film's most moving subplot is in giving the necessarily-closeted gay butler, Thomas, a first requited moment of affection with another man.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Feb 19, 2022

More of a historical wink than a true political position. [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Original Score: 5/10 | Jan 20, 2022

Fans who have watched and rewatched the series will be delighted to see all these characters yet again, while non-fans and newcomers will be baffled, bored or both.

Full Review | Original Score: C | Aug 12, 2021

I honestly didn't see the reason for a movie of Downton Abbey to exist, but now I get it.

Full Review | Feb 6, 2021

While it doesn't offer much for those not familiar with the show, seeing the characters again feels like greeting old friends for those who watched all six seasons.

Full Review | Original Score: 8/10 | Feb 1, 2021

Revelations are made, storylines from the TV show are closed and, as always, life goes on at Downton. It all feels very familiar but like a comforting cup of tea, very welcome.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Jan 31, 2021

Requiring a great deal of foreknowledge of the Downton Abbey history, this cinematic continuation of the superb British television series will please only its greatest fans.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Dec 17, 2020

Even if you don't know anything about Downton Abbey (I didn't) it's an enjoyable little film.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Sep 16, 2020

For all but the most devout royalists, this is more than a little too much. It's 50% movie, 50% commemorative tea towel.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Aug 16, 2020

A reunion in the best sense: Nearly two dozen characters...each get a welcome moment in the spotlight; some to say apparent goodbyes, others to leave tantalizing hints of yet another return as the clouds of...War gather on the Hampshire horizon.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Jul 25, 2020

Established fans will have their joy solidified even further, and first-time viewers may be persuaded to go back and watch the show from the beginning. That's a win for everyone.

Full Review | Original Score: B | Jul 8, 2020

Downton Abbey is an utter delight.

Full Review | Jun 27, 2020

It's a pleasure to watch. It's just lovely.

Full Review | May 28, 2020

Director Michael Engler (with screenwriter Julian Fellowes) smooths the way with a stellar Anglo-American cast.

Full Review | May 27, 2020

The TV show was much better.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Mar 17, 2020

Flickering Myth

Geek Culture | Movies, TV, Comic Books & Video Games

Movie Review – Downton Abbey (2019)

September 13, 2019 by Tom Beasley

Downton Abbey , 2019.

Directed by Michael Engler. Starring Hugh Bonneville, Maggie Smith, Elizabeth McGovern, Laura Carmichael, Allen Leech, Rob James-Collier, Jim Carter, Michelle Dockery, Joanne Froggatt, Lesley Nicol, Sophie McShera, Simon Jones, Geraldine James, Imelda Staunton, Stephen Campbell Moore and Tuppence Middleton.

In 1927, the residents of Downton – both upstairs and downstairs – prepare for a visit from the King and Queen.

Downton Abbey is a TV show that lots of people like. I am not one of those people. It’s not that I have any particular dislike for Jullian Fellowes’ oh-so-posh stately home drama, but more that I’ve never had any inclination to step within the walls of the titular building. So it was with the expectation of bafflement that I took my seat for the movie sequel to the series. The most baffling thing, as it turns out, is that they bothered at all.

The plot, such as there is any over-arching story thread, is that King George V (Simon Jones) and his wife (Geraldine James) are stopping off at Downton for one night as part of a tour of Yorkshire. This causes considerable excitement for Lord Grantham (Hugh Bonneville) and his family, as well as the staff living downstairs led by new butler Barrow (Rob James-Collier). Outside of that, the film – scripted by series creator Fellowes – casts the net as wide as possible in giving just about every character a story of their own.

This would be fine, were it not for the fact that there are at least a hundred characters in the film, with probably a dozen staking a claim to being protagonists. The film spends time with Maggie Smith’s Dowager Countess as she sticks her nose into an issue of inheritance, sees Irish family member Tom (Allen Leech) become embroiled in a republican plot around the royal visit and follows under-cook Daisy (Sophie McShera) flirting with an outrageously sexy plumber. Each sub-plot seems more unnecessary than the last and, thanks to its decidedly televisual plotting, there’s no story the movie isn’t willing to wrap up in a flash within a few scenes of it being established.

Downton Abbey is too sprawling for its own good, determined to retain the cast of thousands from its TV days while losing sight of the fact that a film requires a tighter, more rigid approach than an eight-hour series of television. Characters which might have been compelling if they’d been allowed more room to exist are instead compartmentalised into side-quests that don’t ultimately amount to any major part of the central narrative thrust.

It’s less an attempt at telling a narrative feature story with these characters than it is a victory lap for the fans. Everyone gets to walk to the front of the stage and take their bow by virtue of a perfunctory story arc, which is invariably resolved by an overwrought, melodramatic conversation or, more often than not, a throwaway line of dialogue in a crowd scene. It’s notable that the final act of the movie takes up about 45 minutes of the running time, with the script simply waltzing from character to character in order to tie a little bow on their story. This is a movie that is less than the sum of its parts, with those parts often feeling like cogs whirring away separately, rather than as a crucial piece of a coherent central machine.

It doesn’t help matters that Downton Abbey feels like a bastion of cartoonish, aristocratic Britishness, without ever really making a comment on that. The notion of republican politics is briefly discussed by some of the characters in the movie, but the finished product is a monarchist’s wet dream that loves the royals so flagrantly it’s often painful to watch. For all but the most devout royalists, this is more than a little too much. It’s 50% movie, 50% commemorative tea towel.

It’s difficult to criticise Downton Abbey on a filmmaking level, because it never feels like it’s trying to elevate itself from its TV roots. This world is already lavish and opulent in a way that made it perfect for Sunday night television but, on the big screen, director Michael Engler fails to bring any filmmaking flair that communicates a noticeable change in medium. This is all about audiences getting to see their favourite characters for five minutes before everyone has a lovely party in nice frocks at the end.

Downton Abbey is, to boil it down, two exhausting hours of posh people doing posh things in fancy houses. For the fans, it’s doubtless a lovely farewell to the show. But for those yet to fall for the charms of Fellowes’ world, this feels like a misty-eyed ode to monarchy, privilege and plummy voices. It’s certainly not about anything else.

Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★

Tom Beasley is a freelance film journalist and wrestling fan. Follow him on Twitter via @TomJBeasley for movie opinions, wrestling stuff and puns.

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Movie Reviews

Tv/streaming, collections, great movies, chaz's journal, contributors, downton abbey: a new era.

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The ITV series “ Downton Abbey ” that started this all ran for six seasons with a total of 52 episodes. A multi-generational high-end British soap opera centered on the title location, its aristocrat masters, and its loyal servants, it boasted a massive cast playing characters acting out all manner of intrigue, experiencing the joys and sorrows of having it pretty good in the early 20th century. 2019 brought a film, as the series had ended, and now we have another film, one heralding, well, you can read the title. 

My point, inasmuch as I have one, is that a lot has happened in this saga. In recognition of this, "Downton Abbey: A New Era" begins with Kevin Doyle , who plays the role of butler-turned-schoolteacher Molesley, directly addressing the audience and giving them a little catch-up. This feels kinda goofy, because it is. On the other hand, in space operas the catch-up is usually done via a printed crawl and for this recap a printed crawl might well achieve Proustian lengths. Anyway. I found the whole thing a trifle gratuitous because while the preamble is pretty good about the who’s-who, the two plot threads that push this movie are relatively unrelated to what’s gone before. 

Thread one: Maggie Smith ’s Violet, the LITERAL Dowager Countess of the Abbey and mother to its much-put-upon Earl, Robert ( Hugh Bonneville ) is told that she’s been willed a whole villa in the South of France by an old acquaintance. Very old—they last saw each other in the 1860s, and it’s about 1928 now. A large portion of the family is invited to check the place out and there’s some apprehension that the relatives of the old acquaintance might not want to give up the joint. So Robert, American-born wife Cora ( Elizabeth McGovern ), and Robert’s very proper butler Carson ( Jim Carter ) embark to Nice or thereabouts. 

They’re glad to be traveling because a film crew is going to take over the Abbey for a month. All the upper-crusters, and Carson, shudder at the prospect of hosting vulgar “kinema” people, but the servants are all over it. The production is paying a handsome fee, and as Lady Mary ( Michelle Dockery ), one of Robert’s daughters, who runs the place, points out, the roof can use fixing and money’s currently too tight to mention. So in come the moviemakers: handsome director Jack Barber (a game Hugh Dancy ), dashing leading man Guy ( Dominic West ), and stuck-up glamourpuss Myrna ( Laura Haddock ). While Guy speaks in very rounded, plummy tones, Myrna, her attitude notwithstanding, has a right Cockney honk. You can see where this thread is going.

Well if you can’t, more power to you maybe. But if you’re part of this franchise’s core demo you surely remember (spoiler alert?) “ Singin' in the Rain .” Julian Fellowes ’ script cribs from that classic, so shamelessly that it’s rather endearing. Meanwhile, in the South of France, Nathalie Baye —onetime partner of Johnny Hallyday , two-time collaborator with Godard, three-time collaborator with Truffaut—glowers as a widow who indeed wants these Brits off of her villa lawn. And even as she glowers, Robert and company try to unlock the mystery of why the villa was willed to Violet in the first place. 

Like I said—pretty standalone stuff. Nevertheless, the movie also advances a lot of the individual or dual storylines of beloved characters looking for fulfillments, mostly of the romantic kind. Director Simon Curtis and editor Adam Recht deserve a lot of credit for packing a helluva lot of story into a picture that’s only a hair over 120 minutes, including that preamble. 

It would be a little cruel to call the world of “Downton Abbey” the Marvel Cinematic Universe for the senior set. But it wouldn’t be entirely inaccurate. I’m almost eligible to collect Social Security myself, so I can say it. In any event, this film represents an excellent job of fan service on several levels. All these characters are convincingly acted, of course they are. I mentioned the handling of the storylines. And the movie is really pleasant to look at. Hard truths about British weather notwithstanding, it’s always sunny at Downton Abbey, and it’s sunnier still in the South of France. People who complain about how movies are so literally dark nowadays (and mostly these people are old) (and again, I can say that) should turn out in force to check this out. It's like having a veil lifted from your eyes. 

Now playing only in theaters.

Glenn Kenny

Glenn Kenny was the chief film critic of Premiere magazine for almost half of its existence. He has written for a host of other publications and resides in Brooklyn. Read his answers to our Movie Love Questionnaire here .

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Film Credits

Downton Abbey: A New Era (2022)

Rated PG for some suggestive references, language and thematic elements.

125 minutes

Allen Leech as Tom Branson

Tuppence Middleton as Lucy Branson

Hugh Bonneville as Robert Crawley

Maggie Smith as Violet Crawley

Jim Carter as Charles Carson

Michelle Dockery as Lady Mary Josephine Talbot

Elizabeth McGovern as Cora Crawley

Imelda Staunton as Maud Bagshaw

Penelope Wilton as Isobel Merton

Robert James-Collier as Thomas Barrow

Lesley Nicol as Beryl Patmore

Dominic West as Guy Dexter

Harry Hadden-Paton as Bertie Hexham

Hugh Dancy as Jack Barber

Brendan Coyle as John Bates

• Simon Curtis
• Julian Fellowes

Cinematographer

• Andrew Dunn

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‘Downton Abbey’ will return for a third movie spin off from the television series of the same name

Downton Abbey is back!

After a successful run from 2010 to 2015, the beloved show had two movie spinoffs: 2019’s Downton Abbey and 2022’s Downton Abbey: A New Era . Now, it’s back again, with a third installation confirmed in May 2024.

The TV series and movies follow the lives of the aristocratic Crawley family and their servants in the early 20th-century United Kingdom. The story starts with the 1912 sinking of the Titanic, leaving Downton Abbey’s future in jeopardy as the owner, Robert Crawley, 7th Earl of Grantham, seeks a new heir. 

The news of the new movie was announced by Focus Features and Carnival Films with a sweet video on Instagram of the cast reuniting on set. Michelle Dockery , who will reprise her role as Lady Mary, shared that the ensemble of actors was thrilled to come back together and work on a new story once again.

Related: 'Downton Abbey' Cast: Where Are They Now?

"It feels amazing. A tad emotional," she said in the video. "It's wonderful all to be back together again. You come back together, and it's like no time has passed at all."

From who is returning to who will helm the film, here’s everything to know about the third Downton Abbey movie so far.

Who is in the cast of the third Downton Abbey movie?

According to the official release , much of the main cast will return to the big screen in the third film, including Hugh Bonneville, Elizabeth McGovern, Michelle Dockery, Laura Carmichael, Joely Richardson, Alessandro Nivola, Simon Russell Beale and Arty Froushan. Notably, recent Academy Award nominee Paul Giamatti will also reprise his role as Cora Grantham’s brother, Harold Levinson.

Dominic West will also return to the cast as Guy Dexter, whom he played in the previous installment, Downton Abbey: A New Era .

Where did Downton Abbey: A New Era leave off?

The last installment in the Downton Abbey franchise left off with the death of a beloved character, Lady Violet, whose secret relationship with a Marquis in the South of France was explored by her family.

Meanwhile, Lady Mary, Violet’s granddaughter, entertained her own romantic relationships, lamenting the absence of her husband, Henry Talbot, and starting an affair with the director Jack Barber, who is filming a movie in her home.

Some of the home’s servants also find themselves in exciting romances, including a proposal from Mr. Molesly to Phyllis Baxter. In more somber news, Barrow announces he will leave his position as Downton Abbey’s butler.

Who is directing Downton Abbey 3?

Downton Abbey 3 will be helmed by the same director as the previous film, Simon Curtis, and is written by Julian Fellowes, who originated the series and wrote the first two movies.

The show Downton Abbey was known for having many storylines going on at once, and the same energy was carried into the movies — making Curtis’ job more difficult and focused on how to bring each story to life, he told Forbes in 2022 ahead of The New Era premiere.

“Warmth, humanity and emotion,” he told the outlet of the three things he considered to be essential for a Downton story. “I always look for moments, the beats and the emotion of this scene.”

He continued, “Some are directors thinking, ‘Oh, what is the lens I can use? What’s the shot?’ I’m thinking, ‘What are the human beings in this room doing?’ For that reason, I’m very drawn to Julian Fellowes’ writing. I think this film is a masterclass in writing 20-plus storylines satisfying for the audience and the actors.”

What has the cast said about returning to Downton Abbey?

Before the news of the third movie was confirmed, one of the actors, Imelda Staunton, already teased that it was in the works in March 2024.

"There will be the final film — there you go," she said on BBC Radio 2 .

"Wow, that’s pretty huge. I hope we haven’t got you in trouble," host Zoe Ball joked, to which Staunton replied, “I don’t care.”

Where can you watch Downton Abbey and the spinoff movies?

All six seasons of Downton Abbey are available on Peacock and Amazon Prime Video. The 2019 movie is available to stream on Netflix, while the second film, A New Era , is not yet available for streaming.

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Third ‘downton abbey’ movie set with paul giamatti.

Giamatti is reprising his role from the 'Downton Abbey' series, along with 'Downton' film newcomers Joely Richardson and Alessandro Nivola.

By Mia Galuppo

Mia Galuppo

Film Writer

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Downton Abbey is coming back to the big screen.

Focus Features and Carnival Films are working on the latest Downton movie that will be written by Julian Fellowes, the scribe who created the acclaimed TV show that ran from 2010-15. Simon Curtis is returning to direct after helming 2022’s Downton Abbey: A New Era .

Paul Giamatti , fresh off an Oscar nomination for The Holdovers , is reprising his role as Cora Grantham’s brother, Harold Levinson. Joely Richardson, Alessandro Nivola, Simon Russell Beale, and Arty Froushan are among the film franchise newcomers. Elsewhere, Dominic West will also reprise his role as Guy Dexter from  Downton Abbey: A New Era.

Fellowes will produce, along with Gareth Neame and Liz Trubridge.

Downton Abbey: A New Era , the most recent film in theaters, earned $44 million at the domestic box office and $92 million at the global box office. The series first hit the big screen with Downton Abbey , which brought in $194.6 million globally.

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Downton Abbey 3rd Movie Officially Announced — with Paul Giamatti Reprising His Role from Series

Giamatti is among the new cast members in the upcoming third 'Downton Abbey' film; he joins Joely Richardson, Alessandro Nivola and more

Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images; Ben Blackall / 2021 Focus Features, LLC

Downton Abbey is officially hitting the big screen once again!

On Monday, May 13, Focus Features and Carnival Films announced a third installment of the beloved film franchise, spun off from the television series of the same name.

According to an official release , the movie will see the return of several favorites — including Hugh Bonneville , Elizabeth McGovern , Michelle Dockery and Laura Carmichael — as well as Paul Giamatti , Joely Richardson , Alessandro Nivola , Simon Russell Beale and Arty Froushan.

"Giamatti is reprising his role as Cora Grantham’s brother Harold Levinson," according to the release, which adds, " Dominic West will also reprise his role as Guy Dexter from  Downton Abbey: A New Era ."

Julian Fellowes , who created Downton Abbey and wrote the first two films, has penned the script to this one as well, while A New Era director Simon Curtis will return to helm the new film.

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The news was announced alongside a video of the cast reuniting for the production, including Dockery, 42, as Lady Mary.

"It feels amazing. A tad emotional," she said in the video. "It's wonderful all to be back together again. You come back together and it's like no time has passed at all."

Set in the early 20th century, the  Downton Abbey  TV series takes place between 1912 and 1926, and follows the lives of the aristocratic Crawley family in the U.K., as well as that of their servants. The show ran for six seasons, from 2010 to 2015.

The first  Downton Abbey  film (2019) picks up where the series left off, in 1927, while the 2022 sequel —  Downton Abbey: A New Era  — takes place directly after, in 1928.

One of Downton' s stars, Imelda Staunton , previously spilled the beans to  BBC Radio 2  breakfast show host  Zoe Ball when asked about reports that more would be coming.

"There  will be the final film  — there you go," said Staunton, 68, on the show in March.

"Wow, that’s pretty huge. I hope we haven’t got you in trouble," joked Ball, to which the Harry Potter actress (who plays Lady Maud Bagshaw in the movies) quipped in response, "I don't care."

Also returning for the new film are Jim Carter, Phyllis Logan, Robert James-Collier, Joanne Froggatt, Allen Leech, Penelope Wilton, Lesley Nicol, Michael Fox, Raquel Cassidy, Brendan Coyle, Kevin Doyle, Harry Hadden-Paton, Sophie McShera and Douglas Reith, per the release.

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Downton Abbey Star Announces Third Film Is Officially in Production with BTS Clip of Cast

Michelle Dockery announces the start of production on Downton Abbey 3 with a heartfelt behind-the-scenes clip.

• Michelle Dockery announces start of production for Downton Abbey 3 , reuniting cast for loyal fans' delight.
• Original cast set to return with some new faces in highly anticipated Downton Abbey sequel, under direction of Simon Curtis.
• Creator Julian Fellowes hints at potential continuation of Downton Abbey legacy, teasing fans with promising updates.

Michelle Dockery has announced that production has officially begun on the third installment of the Downton Abbey film series. The news was unveiled in a new behind-the-scenes video posted on the show's official X account. The clip shows the cast reuniting, including a table read featuring name cards for Hugh Bonneville and Michelle Dockery, reprising their roles as Robert and Lady Mary respectively.

It's wonderful all to be back together again. You come back together and it's like no time has passed at all. We are so happy to announce that we are in production for the third Downton Abbey movie. We can't wait to see you.

In the newly released video , Michelle Dockery expresses excitement about working on what she referred to as the third Downton Abbey movie. "It feels amazing. A tad emotional," she said. The enthusiasm is shared by Focus Features and Carnival Films, the production companies behind the series, who are both pleased to continue this storied franchise.

Originally debuting as a television series, Downton Abbey quickly garnered viewers with its intricate portrayal of early 20th-century British aristocracy. Its success led to its first film adaptation in 2019, followed by " Downton Abbey: A New Era " in 2022.

Downton Abbey Returns with a Mix of Old Favorites and Fresh Talent

As Downton Abbey series prepares for its third cinematic outing, a newly released brief video has excitedly confirmed the return of core cast members along with some fresh faces. The upcoming film, continuing the saga of the Crawley family, will see Michelle Dockery and Hugh Bonneville reprise their roles as Mary and Robert Crawley, respectively. They are joined by a substantial roster of returning actors who have become synonymous with the series' success.

Among the returning ensemble are Elizabeth McGovern, Laura Carmichael, and Jim Carter, alongside Phyllis Logan, Robert James-Collier, and Joanne Froggatt. Each actor has breathed life into their roles over the years, creating a rich narrative that fans have come to love. Additionally, Allen Leech, Penelope Wilton, and a host of others are set to return, maintaining the continuity and familial warmth that Downton Abbey is known for.

Paul Giamatti is confirmed to revisit his role as Harold Levinson, further tying the new film to the broader "Downton" legacy. Under the direction of Simon Curtis, who previously helmed Downton Abbey: A New Era — celebrated by critics and audiences alike on Rotten Tomatoes — expectations are high for this next installment.

The Best British Television of the 2010s

Downton Abbey 3 will not only revisit familiar grounds but also introduce characters portrayed by Joely Richardson, Alessandro Nivola, Simon Russell Beale, and Arty Froushan. Details about these new characters remain under wraps, adding an element of mystery to the upcoming film.

As Downton Abbey 's storied universe unfolds, Imelda Staunton's participation for the third film has not been confirmed yet, despite hinting at the movie itself. The creator, Julian Fellowes, has expressed his reluctance to definitively close the chapter on Downton Abbey, saying :

"I have said goodbye to Downton so many times, and I have written the last scene about six or seven times. Now, I've got out of the habit of making permanent statements about whether it's gone."

Downton Abbey: A New Era

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Follow-up to the 2019 feature film in which the Crawley family and Downton staff received a royal visit from the King and Queen of Great Britain. Maggie Smith returns.