(birds chirping)
ALLEN LEECH: Downton in 1924, as it always is
in this time in history,
is going through a period of change.
Society is continuously adapfing
to a new way of life,
and Downton's still struggling to hold on
to so many of its ideals,
its beliefs, its normal functions.
JULIAN FELLOWES: I think the '208 is
a very interesting era, actually,
and we're chugging through it quite gently.
LEECH: Politics always plays a major role in Downton
and in the running of the house,
and the fact that a Labor government is in
doesn't sit very well with a lot of the people upstairs.
The Labor party up to that point
had made great play of the fact that, you know,
they were anti-land ownership,
they were anti-this, they were anti-that,
and so there was a real fear among the land-owning classes
and the rural economy, actually at all levels.
Ramsay MacDonald, the new prime minister,
has awoken society to the reality
that the working man has power.
The political landscape is less in favor
of this privileged way of life.
What worries me is that our government is committed
to the destruction of people like us
and everything we stand for.
I think we should wait and see what happens before we panic.
Taxation on these big houses was huge,
and so many of them were going under.
ELIZABETH McGOVERN: Robert, of course,
is fighting it all the way.
You know, there's one view
that maybe we should start selling off land,
but Robert is the one who,
having thought that initially, says,
"No, that's the last thing we should do,"
and beginning to see how his contemporaries of other estates
are doing exactly that,
and these estates are beginning to eat themselves.
Anyone downstairs is quite happy,
but still kind of unsure
what a Labor government's going to bring.
FELLOWES: The servants are starting to think about,
Where will they live if this way of life goes belly-up?
I don't think until now, anyone's really believed
that the way of life could literally stop
and that those careers could end.
LAURA CARMICHAEL: Downstairs characters
are fighting more for their education
and their, you know, sort of place in the world.
Carson is approached to head the war memorial committee.
A decade or so ago, it would have been Robert's expectation
that he would have been asked
to head a committee of this sort,
and that causes a great deal of discomfort in the house.
We see in this series that they are having to adjust
to the changing nature of modern Britain.
This is not a world that's going to go on forever.
It's not a world that is known now.
And so there must be a point
where it's started to come to an end.
Which makes, for me, an interesting background
to our tales of the Crawley family and their dependents.
We do try to cover the events of the time,
and we've seen this right across the previous four seasons
and again in this current one.
KING GEORGE V (on radio): It gives me
the greatest pleasure and satisfaction
to come here today with the Queen
for the purpose of opening the British Empire Exhibition.
BRUCE: Well, the wireless brings to Downton
what I don't think even the royal family
had envisaged at the time that it did in 1924,
which was the capacity of a monarch to speak and be heard
not just by those who are in earshot, but the empire,
this extraordinary gathering of nations around the world.
We discovered that it was the first time
that the king, the sovereign had made a speech on the radio,
and we thought that was really a great opportunity for us.
JOANNE FROGGATT: You know, that would have been really quite an event.
The king back then, you know, that was really something.
Not many people would have heard the king's voice.
The idea of your king and ruler speaking through it,
that's enormous.
I suppose he can't hear us.
No, it doesn't work like that.
Lady Rose is an amazing facilitator
of bringing this kind of thing into the house.
I mean, what young girl wouldn't want a wireless?
Suddenly, there's an opportunity to have music on tap.
I'm such a music person, so I could totally understand
her complete, heightened excitement
at the idea of this wireless.
BRUCE: They're going to have endless entertainment,
which will open their minds
and of those who work for them.
And they're going to learn more
about the way the world is changing.
And with all communication,
the world becomes smaller and opportunities grow.
McSHERA: Daisy just loves stuff like that.
You know, she had a mixer back in the day.
She's loving the new technology.
Robert sees the wireless
as, I think he calls it "a thief of life," you know,
a strange little box in the corner
that people huddle around while someone talks at you.
He can't see the appeal in that
and calls it a fad that will pass.
It's too much for them to even imagine.
Once he's actually seen it employed,
he's rather thrilled by it and wants to keep it in the library,
which of course, you know, cheeses Carson off no end,
because Carson can't bear change of any form whatsoever.
Carson's reaction to it is hysterical.
Downton is catching up with the times we live in.
That is exactly what I am afraid of.
BONNEVILLE: This is just another example of modern life
creeping into the walls of Downton
and making it echo with the outside world.
ROBERT: I have been awarded a bumper prize:
Beauty, brains, a heart, a conscience, all in one.
I give you my Cora.
The best companion in the world.
ALL: Cora.
BONNEVILLE: In this season, we see they've been married
for 34 years.
That's, I think, in the opening episode we celebrate that.
Cora would have had a certain expectation
about her 34th anniversary,
and Robert has a completely different expectation.
FELLOWES: Robert's totally unaware.
He's taking Cora for granted.
He just kind of knows what she thinks.
BONNEVILLE: I think there's no question that Robert
isn't aware of the effect
that his going about his daily life is having on Cora.
I think as the years have passed,
Cora is a little bit chafing at the reins that hold her back.
Even where a marriage is very good and very successful,
it doesn't mean you don't have to keep trying.
There's a wakeup call coming
that you can't take each other for granted,
that things do need to be kept alive.
What happens, which he is unprepared for,
is that an intelligent man comes in
who is interested by her.
What were you doing in Alexandria?
Escaping the winter and looking at beautiful things.
Beautiful and very ancient things.
I don't agree.
From the moment he meets her, he thinks she is everything
that he could possibly want in a woman.
He's fascinated by Cora.
That's as much as we know or Cora needs to know about him.
Now, we've never heard her talk
about her arrival in England in four years.
Suddenly, here is a man saying,
"What was it like when you arrived?
"Were you happy here?
Did you know you were going to stay?"
And you know, that's very beguiling.
She's so enjoying the fact
that What she thinks, what she's done,
her journey through life has suddenly become interesting.
His perception of how she's treated Within the family,
especially by her husband, is that she's ignored.
She is somebody that blossoms in his company.
If somebody's going to come in
and get in between this relationship,
it has to be an actor
of a similar standing to Hugh Bonneville.
The description of the part sort of shouts "Richard E. Grant."
Just out of the blue, I got sent these episodes
and was asked if I wanted to do it,
and so I said yes immediately.
I'd been in Gosford Park a dozen years ago
that Julian Fellowes had written.
Gosford Park was very much a turning point for me.
I mean, it was when my writing career really started.
I was downstairs.
I was a footman to Alan Bates's butler,
so I suppose that sets up being promoted upstairs.
And I'm delighted.
Goodness!
Is this what they call a lively exchange of views?
Well, it was wonderful having Richard E. Grant join us.
He has an incredible nose,
and by that I don't mean the shape of it physically,
but ever since childhood, he's had an obsession with smell.
He goes around literally sniffing the furniture,
and so before each take,
you'd see him sniffing the table or sniffing the curtains
and sort of storing the smell in his memory.
I've worked with him a couple of times before
and known him forever,
and it was really a lot of fun for me.
I'm afraid I'm taking up far too much of your time.
Not true.
I'm enjoying myself.
MARK ELLIS: The National Gallery
was probably one of the biggest nights
I've ever, you know, experienced on Downton.
LIZ TRUBRIDGE: There was something magical
about being inside the National Gallery after opening hours.
It's kind of strange, having the gallery to yourself.
You know, everyone had gone.
This building that on average gets 18,000 visitors a day,
we had it to ourselves.
The problem is the painting we wanted to use,
the della Francesca, The Nativity,
is hung in a modern part of the National Gallery,
which we obviously could not use.
But they very kindly said they would move it for us
and moved it to a part of the gallery
which was right for the period for us.
And we see the public were in there.
So it was going in at 5:30 in the afternoon,
waiting for it to close,
and then we had to be out by 9:30,
so it was very focused filming.
I was doing a talk just after Christmas,
and someone said to me,
"Which script pages do you dread seeing?"
It's a true story.
And I said,
"I dread seeing either a flood or a fire at Highclere."
And so I come into the office on the first day of prep,
and they put the first draft of episodes one and two,
series five on the desk.
I open it up, and what does it say?
"Fire at Highclere."
I just went, "Oh no, you're killing me!"
That was our biggest challenge, to be honest.
I think our hearts sank, but also it's exciting
to be presented with a challenge like that.
It's a fire, thankfully, contained in one room,
but it's in a bedroom, and therefore,
there was going to be smoke on the galleries.
The problem of having smoke here
is that there are so many valuable paintings.
ELLIS: There's leather wallpaper, there's tapestries.
The fire alarms here are so sensitive,
they're all connected up to the Newbury fire service.
It's just...
We kind of thought, "You know what?
"It's going to be so restrictive here if we do it,
it probably wouldn't look right anyway."
So our designer just recreated
the gallery corridor upstairs on the stage at Ealing.
DONAL WOODS: We felt we'd have more control
and we could really go for it, really, in our own set.
So we built quite an extensive part
of the upstairs corridor and Edith's bedroom.
TRUBRIDGE: It was quite surreal, walking onto it.
You felt you'd just taken a very large stride
from Highclere to Ealing.
I'd have dreaded them doing a fire here, if I'm honest.
It would have been too nerve-wracking, I think.
I just knew the house was going to have a fire,
and I thought, "You know, I bet that's Edith's fault."
I sort of called it before I read it, of course.
But yes, so she accidentally burns the house down.
Or just her room, anyway, so no one minds.
Action!
(cheeflng)
WOODS: The point-to-point
will be just near Stokenchurch, at the South Oxfordshire Hunt.
ELLIS: I mean, it's a fantastic course.
You can see for miles.
They're the best days to shoot.
I love them.
And it gets us out of the castle,
away from the dining table.
Creatively, it's quite fun.
There's 19203 bookmakers
and beer tents and horses jumping over fences.
DOCKERY: You know, Alastair Bruce talks about the hunts and the races,
that there's a real kind of visceral passion
and a certain quality to that.
It's the biggest logistical challenge for us
and the one that creates the most production value on screen.
So you really want it all to come together on the day,
because we only have the budget
for a finite amount of background.
There would have been 2,000, 3,000, 4,000 people
at these events.
TRUBRIDGE: We then have to make sure we make the most of them
and move them about and get the excitement
and all the buildup to it.
It is all hands to the pump,
so you help out where you can
and just make things run as smoothly as possible.
It's not only the scale of it,
but the safety aspects of having several of our key cast riding.
DOCKERY: I love having the opportunity
to do any riding in the show,
and I was, you know, in series 2 and series 3,
because of the aftermath of the war, no one was riding,
so there was this hiatus of me not riding at all.
And last year, there was only a little bit of it.
So this year, it's been great going back to it,
and it's moments like that when I'm riding
that I really feel like the character.
There's this kind of sense
of aristocracy and status and power.
I was out on the set for the point-to-point
and saw Mary in her outfit.
Mary's change of hairstyle is a great talking point.
She really has the hairstyle of the era.
So 1924, we came across a newspaper article in America
which was called "To Bob or Not to Bob."
To have 8 bob was a massive movement.
You know, thousands of women were bobbing their hair.
It signified a big social change
and independence for women in that period of time.
There's a boyishness about it.
COLLINS: Hairdressers didn't exist; it was barbers.
So a woman would really have to go into a male environment
to have this cut.
It also showed that
they considered themselves to be equal to men.
Downstairs was one of the areas
that we felt we could tweak a little bit.
We felt that we could put a bigger divide
between the up and the downstairs,
making the downstairs styles much more simple
and maybe the upstairs styles a little bit more elaborate.
The reasoning behind this was that the maids downstairs
and the staff are working so hard,
you know, when do they have time?
We must choose the clothes carefully
so you can take them on and off without my help.
Well, I'll have his help.
The look of the show is one of the big things about Downton,
whether it be the sets, costume, makeup.
NEAME: It was a big change for us
because we changed costume designers.
I have to say, I'm absolutely delighted
with the work that Anna has done.
DOCKERY: It's been a very easy transition
between the two costume designers,
both extremely talented designers.
You know, every time a new team comes in,
it's a great thing because they take what's already there
and bring their own stamp to it as well,
so it kind of pushes things even further,
and I think it gets better and better.
Obviously, it was a massive challenge to kind of come in
and try and pick things up and keep things smooth,
but also do what I wanted to do creatively.
When you've got leading ladies that wear clothes so well
and look so good in this period, I think it's really easy
to take inspiration in a sense from that.
I love the period as a whole.
I love the '203.
I love the transition throughout the decade,
and 1924 is far enough in
that you really start seeing the trends.
Hems have come up across the board,
so there's definitely a bit of ankle showing
in the downstairs uniforms.
They've lost their corsets.
I know that step was taken with Daisy
at the end of series 4,
but we've done it across the board now.
Thank goodness that's gone.
Marvelous.
I think Mrs. Hughes still has hers, but that's great.
Poor Phyllis is the only lady still in her corset,
but Mrs. Hughes just stood beyond changeable
I think in that respect.
I think as the decade progresses,
there are certain characters that can embrace
the real sort of signature styles from the '20s
more than others.
You'll have Lady Rose and Lady Mary and Lady Edith
obviously picking fashion up and going with it.
There is a sense of freedom now, you know, for the women,
that it's not quite as rigid and uptight and stiff.
Women would have been going out to jazz clubs
and wearing quite risky designs.
TRUBRIDGE: People are being a bit more daring.
The makeup's more daring.
It's jazz... it's the Jazz Age.
ROBBINS: Lady Rose has got a great wardrobe.
Her wardrobe is about five times the size
of any of the other cast.
There's a lot of sort of floral,
really pretty and powdery colors.
With Lady Mary, I can't find anything out there
that I think is good enough and that sits well
within my idea of who she is,
and we're basically making everything for her.
Everything is bespoke.
She's come out of mourning fully,
so we've been able to reintroduce color
and re-explore her palette and her style.
She goes to a dress show, a fashion show with Rosamund.
In terms of costume,
it doesn't really get much bigger than that.
There was a real focus on avant-garde,
cutting-edge fashion.
That was one of the scenes
that I was most excited about playing,
and that really will be quite shocking, I think,
for the audience to see what the models are wearing
on the catwalk,
because they were quite risky, the fashions.
One outfit is pretty much see-through.
Even me and Sam were shocked at what we were seeing,
but that was happening.
TRUBRIDGE: So that's a fantastic moment, to see the slightly more
"out there" versions of 1924 costumes.
I think the '203 are really being embraced now,
and maybe I feel that more because Mary is doing that.
Mary's just sort of, like, blossoming
into this sort of modern woman.
She's embracing the changes far more
than some of the other characters in the show.
You know, you still have certain characters
that really are reluctant to embrace them.
And I think the main thing with Mary
is the decision she comes to with Gillingham
and going away to Liverpool for that weekend.
That represents the social change for her character
more than anything, really, because of course,
why shouldn't she make that choice
through that weekend together that they have?
At the time, that was something
that was incredibly bold to do for a woman.
I must be sure I'm right to want this man.
As my friend, as my lover, as my husband.
FELLOWES: The '203 was a time
when that was being challenged,
and you had people like Marie Stopes
who were treated by some members of the establishment
as if she'd been a sort of pornographer.
I was shocked when I read it,
that that kind of material was being read by women at the time.
BRUCE: Well, Marie Stopes's book was so refreshing.
You know, this stuff had never been spoken about.
You were jolly lucky if your father told you as a daughter
what was going to happen on your wedding night,
and for an enormous number of women who were incredibly naive,
when their husband climbed upon them and things happened,
they had no idea.
FROGGATT: Lots of women wouldn't have really known
what they were doing.
It's a time where sex wasn't spoken about, you know,
not in polite conversation.
DOCKERY: She's a very intelligent woman,
and she wants to know what to expect,
so why shouldn't she research it.
Do you know what I mean?
Lady Mary asks Anna
to go and buy her a contraceptive device.
Anna, for obvious reasons, is not keen at all.
Mary is, of course, terrified of being identified.
I mean essentially, Mary and the family
within the village, they're well-known,
so she couldn't get away with it really
by buying it herself,
so she has to get her maid to do it.
FELLOWES: She just wants to get the bloody thing
and get out of the shop.
Keep the change.
What about the instructions?
They can be very difficult to manage.
I'm sure it's perfect.
Thank you.
FROGGATT: For Anna, if she's recognized buying this,
that's her reputation that's at stake,
and from Anna's point of view,
it's more looking after Lady Mary's interests,
and she knows the risk that Lady Mary's taking.
She's quite old-fashioned in her views, Anna.
You know, she believes in waiting for the right person
and having one partner in your life,
and that's the man that's your husband.
Although we don't touch on religion in Downton,
that's very much to do with the religion of the time
and people being so bound by that still.
I expect it's difficult for you, with Jimmy gone.
We all need a special friend from time to time.
Well, I don't think I'm very likable to people here.
Do you want to be?
There are times when I'd like to belong.
(chuckles)
Does that sound funny?
Not to me.
Not at all.
Thomas is a very strong personality,
but he is also someone with a sense of persecution,
perfectly logically, because his sexuality means
that if people knew about it, they would persecute him.
It's probably impossible for people today to comprehend
what it was like to be homosexual in those days.
When Thomas was around, and indeed, right up until 1958,
it was illegal.
If he had been discovered, he would have gone to prison
and faced hard labor.
It was a sin.
See, that's much more prevalently powerful
in the way society worked then.
Just for one second, put yourself in this guy's shoes.
I really wanted to get down to why Thomas was how he is,
and for me, I'd made the choice that it was his sexuality.
You know, you wake up every morning,
your religion's telling you you're condemned.
That must take its toll on a man,
to carry that secret around with you all the time
and that burden and not be able to share it
because if you did, you'd be sacked,
or worse, put in prison.
One thing he never did
up until this series was question it.
Like in series 3, when Mr. Carson called him foul,
he responded, "I'm not foul, Mr. Carson.
I'm not like you, but I'm not foul."
"I'm different, but I'm still a human being,"
is what he was saying.
And that's what I've always admired in Thomas,
that he's always tried to find love as well.
He's not been scared to go for it.
He doesn't want to end up alone and he wants to be able to love,
so he embarks upon quite a dark and quite a serious journey
rooted in his sexuality to try and change how he is.
FELLOWES: He falls for the quackery
that this can be cured, he can get rid of it,
this dumbbell that he's dragging around with him.
JAMES-COLLIER: When someone's that desperate,
there are people out there who will exploit that.
And he sees an advertisement in a magazine,
and it's all based on fact, which says, you know,
you can change your direction, you can change who you are.
They were placebos,
so what he's actually injecting unbeknownst to him is saline.
And also, I think in London,
he has electric shock therapy as part of the process as well.
And of course, it makes him terribly ill and deeply unhappy.
FELLOWES: The result he seeks is impossible.
It's not to be obtained by any medical treatment.
It's just quackery.
JAMES-COLLIER: You can accept that it existed.
Back then, people weren't as enlightened.
It was a more godly time, so people were more god-fearing,
and they would try anything to change themselves
because they genuinely thought,
"God forbids this, I'm going to burn in hell,
so I need to do something about it."
I wouldn't be surprised
if a lot of men like Thomas did do this,
because what was the alternative?
There wasn't one.
FELLOWES: It is a demonstration of strength,
and it should also make the audience realize
how strong he is,
and that's what we achieve with him this year, really.
Julian keeps the audience guessing.
He certainly keeps the actors guessing.
The great thing about Downton, it's like real life.
Because we're given the scripts, you know,
every month or whatever,
you never really know what's going to happen,
and still now, I still don't quite know.
I think we all get quite excited
to have the script land on the doorstep.
To me, that's one of the best bits
is when you get it through the post.
One came through on Saturday.
That was the first half of my Saturday gone,
because I had to read it there and then.
I think most people have a little quick flick through
to see what their bits are
before going back and reading the whole thing.
"Where's my name, where's my name?
How many scenes am I in?"
You do read it as... as invested, as a fan would,
because I want to find out what happens with Bates and Anna,
I do want Carson and Mrs. Hughes to get together.
I'm doing something interesting this year, for the first time.
I'm getting the scripts, I'm sort of looking a little bit
at scenes that might reflect on Anna and Bates,
but I want to watch it like an audience does.
You know, like the viewers,
we're itching to find out What happens next.
You just have...
You think you've got it now.
You think you know exactly what's going to happen,
and then you open the script and you're like, "Oh."
The surprises one felt
on reading the very first episode of series 1 remains.
You never know what's going to happen,
and sometimes your heart is in your boots...
(laughing)
...when you think, "Is he going to develop that story
the way I think he's going to?"
And it's always a surprise.
But that's why everyone watches!
Because Julian again and again confounds expectations.