(crew talking)
CREW: Blue marker.
So today is day 100 on Downton Abbey.
We are just over two-thirds of the way through the shoot.
We have 41 days left to go.
It's quite a big day for Phyllis Logan
and Lesley Nicol in particular.
Today, we have got about five scenes.
I'm in four of them.
And they're all in the London house.
PHYLLIS LOGAN: Mrs. Hughes has to go down and be housekeeper in both places,
which is a bit much, really.
She should get double wages for that.
I must query that with Her Ladyship.
Well, this is the start of our day, isn't it, Nick?
Sorry, I'm not feeding you your grips.
Katharine, can we have a conversation about eyelashes?
(laughing)
You're so naughty.
Well, what about a few fake ones in the corner?
Some extensions?
Anything!
I need all the help I can get, come on.
I feel like I'm in the barber's.
(laughing)
Give me a bit of extra sparkle.
KATHARINE SCOTT: Lesley's makeup's normally about 40 minutes in the chair.
We set her hair first in bendies,
and then while that's cooling, we do the makeup.
Makeup, what's hilarious is people often say,
"God, the makeup on Downton Abbey you have is amazing!"
You go, "No, that's no makeup, actually."
So literally, they do a little bit of a base,
maybe they paint out a spot that you might have,
and that is kind of it.
Oh, that's lovely!
(laughing)
LOGAN: It takes awhile to pin your hair up
and get the wig just right
and blah blah blah, so that takes time.
And then the corset,
I've got to get strained into the corset.
That takes about 15 minutes.
And then trying to cram in breakfast
in the interim as well, with a corset on, it's not easy,
so it waits up here somewhere.
SOPHIE McSHERA: We're on a different stage today than usual.
We're in the London house,
which is so confusing.
It's sort of like a mixture of bits from the other house
made into a new set.
It's really cool, it looks good.
So you've got a new kitchen, a new servants' hall,
and all the corridors and all that stuff
built on a new stage.
Hello, everybody, welcome to the kitchen in London.
Phyllis, I'm setting you a test.
Oh, yes?
What is there in this kitchen
that you might have seen before in the other set in Yorkshire?
Well, we're heading... the salt, no?
Bigger than that.
Bigger?
The broom?
The actual cupboard?!
The actual cupboard is the same!
Ooh!
Is it practical?
You know how I know?
In that one, this opens.
Oh yeah, this opens.
Because we go in there, don't we?
Yeah, and this is exactly...
Same one, they nicked it!
They nicked it.
So you're quite at home, really, here.
I am, in a sort of upside-downy, wrong-way-roundy kind of way.
My desk is a bit pathetic.
(laughs)
She's not good on paperwork, Mrs. Patmore.
She doesn't need...
She's not big on it, no.
The set we're on today is the basement,
the below stairs of the London house.
First you've got the kitchen,
which is the most important part of any of these houses.
The stove and some of the flats we actually used
in the Ritz Kitchen last year, and we readapted that.
NICOL: We've always had an amazing art department
who do incredible work, and this is a lovely kitchen.
It's beautiful, absolutely beautiful.
But as ever, when you're working on it, it's a workplace,
so you know, you just get on with it and do the job.
You might be doing one scene,
you might be doing four or five scenes,
and you might be in from 6:30 in the morning
to half past 7:00 at night,
or you might be in for a quick fly-in visit.
McSHERA: So I can't stay with you long right now
because we're about to go shoot a scene
where Mrs. Patmore's really sad in the kitchen.
It's horrid!
Whatever's the matter?
Oh, don't mind me.
Tell me.
No.
It wouldn't be fair.
Fair to who?
To you, you daft ha'porth.
I don't understand.
(crying)
I'm crying because I don't want you to leave.
I'll miss you.
And cut.
Cut there!
In terms of preparing for a scene,
it's pretty much now the same thing happens.
You get brought to do a line run,
and then you get a kind of very quick rehearsal,
and then the crew come and watch it,
and then they send you away while they put all the lights
in the right place and make it look nice,
and then you come back and you do it.
So it's fast, whatever you're doing.
It's fast.
Action!
Where are Miss Denker and Andrew?
Not back yet, Mr. Carson.
When I said I wanted everyone in by 10:00
and it's almost midnight.
THOMAS: God knows.
It's hard for Mr. Carson.
Miss Denker's not under his jurisdiction,
and Andy won't be around long enough
to mind a black mark.
She's using him in some way, that lad.
To her own benefit.
CREW: Cut there!
I'm more suspicious than you.
Suspicious of what?
London?
Of down-there London folk, funny people,
and you can't trust them.
Whereas you're a bit more...
I'm a bit more up for it.
I just like the vibe.
(laughing)
Hey, Mrs. Hughes gets down on the vibe.
She's quite tuned in, Mrs. Hughes, really.
But I'd like to see her
go walking through Soho or something.
I'd love to see it.
Down Carnaby Street or something.
The extras are so important.
I mean, they make a scene at the end of the day.
Without them, it just wouldn't look right.
A lot of housemaids, a lot of kitchenmaids,
a lot of hall boys,
and so they all have to have particular looks,
and we've been really lucky with our casting;
they're all fantastic.
I'm Jake and I'm a hall boy.
I'm Shannon Woods
and I play a maid in the background.
I'm Lottie Eustis, and I play a housemaid as well.
My mom and some of my mom's friends were big fans,
so they were like, "Ooh!"
Excited.
It's so much fun being here.
We love it.
They're all just so down to earth,
and everyone just gets on really well.
JAKE: It's surprising how friendly everyone is, even the crew.
Everyone here is really friendly and welcoming.
We're going to have to stop the interview
because you're gonna get run over.
He's about to get run over by that reversing truck.
Stop! Cut! Stop!
Mark!
We're at day 100.
So we've done 100 days of shooting, apparently.
I had no idea.
I just saw in the call sheet, it said,
"Look out for day 100 treats."
I looked out, there was an ice cream van.
EUSTIS: We have an ice cream van, which is amazing.
INTERVIEWER: Have you got to sneak in and have one?
I actually haven't.
You haven't had one?
I had too much cake.
I would be having probably,
because I've heard it's very good, a knickerbocker glory.
I had a screwball,
because you get bubblegum in the bottom and a flake.
It's good.
We had ice cream to celebrate.
The simplest things.
(laughing)
You get up in the morning and you think,
"Oh, it's a bit early, but hey,"
and you come in and you have a bit of banter with the crew
and you take the... rip the mickey out of each other.
We have fun while we're doing it, so it's great.
Oh, look, we've got bag envy.
I've got bag envy
because she had a bag before I had a bag
and now I've got my own bag.
I've got mine because mine was the first.
Mine's a bit tatty now, but mine's got a bear because...
There's a star, though.
Yeah.
I support animals, bears,
but they put him in a pan, which is a bit of a worry.
I know it is.
I think it's to keep him warm, not to cook him.
She's very funny, Phyllis is really funny,
and she has a song for every occasion,
and she sings really well.
(singing note)
Phyllis is hilarious,
and she makes everyone laugh on set,
and she's just ace, and we love her.
They're both great women, they're so down to earth,
you wouldn't think that they were stars
in one of the biggest shows at the moment.
And they're just so, so lovely.
You can't do enough for them.
So are we on?
McSHERA: Oh, I love Lesley.
I call her "telly mommy" because she's like my mom on set.
I just love her,
and I have so much fun doing my scenes with her,
and then her and Phyllis together are hilarious.
I couldn't do this, could you?
Look.
Look at the arms on the people who do this.
I know!
NICOL: This is your servants' hall, right?
It is, and it's rather lovely.
I've never seen that, it's nice.
Oh, yes, we've got little pigeonhole thingies,
which we don't have at Downton Abbey.
Do you think that comes down?
Oh!
Because she's done Antiques Roadshow.
(laughing)
The wonderful thing about Phyllis and Lesley
is that they have completely grasped
the two individual responsibilities that they have:
One as a sort of leading lady in the house,
and the other one,
the cook who runs all the output of the kitchen.
They really grasp that and act as the queens of their world.
It does become second nature, doesn't it,
all the stuff that you...
the way you have to behave and the mores and everything.
And that was from Alastair from the very beginning.
He said...
It's the hub.
Engine room.
You're the engine driver.
And I'm the stoker.
(laughing)
We're the stoker sisters.
Stoker sisters!
Stoker sisters, yeah.
Ready?
McSHERA: I think things are going well today,
but I'm so not the person to ask.
You could go somewhere else
and someone's probably pulling their hair out, going, "Ah!"
LOGAN: I've got an early off.
They're still hard at it in the other stage.
(sighs)
So yeah, it's been good.
We got quite a lot done, yeah.
Today went great, it went very smoothly.
Lesley and Phyllis were very professional as always.
(laughing)
So hopefully day 101 will be just as successful as today.
Bye!