A CARNIVAL FILMS / MASTERPIECE CO-PRODUCTION Behind the Scenes at DOWNTON ABBEY FOREWORD GARETH NEAME TEXT EMMA ROWLEY PHOTOGRAPHY NICK BRIGGS The author and publisher have provided this e-book to you for your personal use only. You may not make this e-book publicly available in any way. Copyright infringement is against the law. If you believe the copy of this e-book you are reading infringes on the author’s copyright, please notify the publisher at: us.macmillanusa.com/piracy. Contents Foreword by Gareth Neame Behind the Scripts Behind the Sets Filming at Highclere Castle Filming at Ealing Studios Filming on Location Inside the Prop Store Inside the Wardrobe Inside Hair & Make-Up Insider Knowledge The Downton Abbey Legacy Series Four Cast List Series Four Crew List FOREWORD Gareth Neame It was an inauspicious start. As I alighted from my cab outside Drones restaurant in Belgravia (a suitably traditional venue in which to have a working dinner with Julian Fellowes), there he was, hanging about outside, saying, ‘we can’t eat here, their gas is off.’ So began a meandering journey through a London neighbourhood that I suppose the Crawleys might have known well – although of course they were not invented until later that evening. Eventually we found our haven and over a touristic Italian supper I proposed an idea to Julian that became Downton Abbey. ‘I had seen Gosford Park, the movie that Julian had written so beautifully. I had been incredibly impressed by it. It was not so much the over-arching whodunnit element but just the simple depiction of its world that captured me.’ I had long thought that the setting of an English country house during the Edwardian era would make a very suitable arena for an episodic television series. I have often been drawn to cinema for ideas, adjusting and fine-tuning them for television, where in place of the one-off spectacle of the silver screen you have a much larger canvas on which to paint all the characters. Television also offers the joy of repeated pleasure because your audience is able to connect with the characters on a weekly basis. Naturally, some years earlier I had seen Gosford Park, the movie that Julian had written so beautifully for the late Robert Altman. I had been incredibly impressed by it. It was not so much the over-arching whodunnit element but just the simple depiction of its world that captured me. Having worked in British TV drama for a quarter of a