What better way to honor Dame Maggie Smith, who passed away on September 27th at the age of 89, than by revealing little-known facts about the world of Downton Abbey’s Crawley family and their servants.
Six seasons and one movie.
That’s what Downton Abbey fans were in for when the period drama premiered in the U.S. on PBS on January 9, 2011. Yes, it’s actually been more than 13 years since we first met the Crawley family and their servants in their great mansion in the English countryside. Then again, who could forget how Theo James’ character died deflowering Michelle Dockery’s Lady Mary during the first season?
The Julian Fellowes-created series became a pop culture phenomenon that catapulted Dockery, Dan Stevens, and other cast members to megastardom and introduced one of the most popular characters on TV, Maggie Smith’s Countess (also known as the woman who became famous for her clever twists). And then… the insult was born to become a meme. (Of course, this is just one of the many incredible characters Dame Maggie Smith played before her death on September 27th at the age of 89.)
The original run ended in 2015, but audiences returned to Downton Abbey when the first film hit theaters in September 2019, followed by Downton Abbey: A New Era in May 2022. Smith won three Emmy Awards during the series’ six seasons and reprised the role in the 2019 and 2022 film adaptations.
But in 2013, when asked if she was interested in her celebrity status, Smith told CBS News, “I’m not interested at all.” I mean, why should I be?
“I don’t feel any different than I did before, and I have no idea what it means,” she continued, but noted that people have started to recognize her on the street since Downton Abbey. “I didn’t before, and now people are familiar with me. It’s all because of TV.”
In honor of Smith and her incredible work, we reveal some behind-the-scenes facts about the series, including the real reason behind the show’s most shocking death and which star nearly canceled her audition. We’re not Laura Linney. 15 secrets about Downton Abbey revealed…
1. The idea for the period drama was loosely born out of creator Julian Fellowes’ own childhood with his diplomat father. “My mother wasn’t featured. She wasn’t [debutant],” he explained to Closer about his own family drama. “My great-aunts thought they ‘got it’ [my father], but they never changed.” They eventually tolerated her, as she gave birth to four healthy sons and fulfilled her dynastic obligations.”
2. Oh, did we mention that Fellowes is actually a baron and a member of the House of Lords?
3. Casting director Jill Treverick admitted backstage that “we had pretty much a first-time candidate for every role,” and that Maggie Smith, Hugh Bonneville, Michelle Dockery, and Dan Stevens were her “favorites” for their respective roles.
4. The hardest role to cast was valet John Bates. After over 60 actors were considered, Brendan Coyle got the job, but only because the studio wasn’t convinced that Coyle was the right man for a very specific reason.
“We had Brendan in mind from very early on,” Trevelick explained. “I would even say that Julian wrote the role with Brendan in mind, because he had seen Brendan in North and South and felt that Brendan was the perfect actor for the role. We saw Brendan very early on, but then there were some concerns from the network. Not because they didn’t like Brendan, but because he was in a period genre piece, they were worried that it might be a bit too harsh, and they were worried that maybe he would be on a TV show at the same time, on a different channel… I think in the end we just ran out of them.”
After six weeks, they were able to offer the role to Coyle.
5. The first OMG moment for Downton came when Matthew Crawley, the show’s spunky male lead, was killed off in the season 3 finale. “There were a lot of people who were very upset and wanted an apology,” Stevens told Entertainment Weekly about his decision to leave the series at the end of his three-year contract.
When asked why he was ready to say goodbye to Downton, he explained: “But now I’m looking at how I can challenge myself and entertain myself.”
6. In an interview with E! News, Fellowes stressed that Stevens’ decision to leave the series (and not return to star in the fourth season) led to the character’s sudden death. “To them it looked like the production team had just decided,” he continued, in a throat-slitting motion, noting that contracts tend to be longer in the US, “but in reality his three-year contract had just finished and he wanted to move on and do other things… We had to make it work. Some of the letters I received made my hair stand on end!”
7. Matthew’s devastating death didn’t put viewers off, however, as the season 4 premiere broke all ratings records, drawing in 10.2 million viewers.
8. If Stevens had told Fellowes he was leaving the series sooner, he would have staged fan-favourite Lady Sybil’s departure differently: “I probably would have killed them both in a car crash.”
9. Highclere Castle is a filming location for Downton Abbey, and the 17th-century castle has become one of the UK’s most popular tourist destinations. The countryside oasis is also available to rent through Airbnb, and two fans spent a night in the 9,300-square-foot castle ahead of the series’ film premiere in September 2019.
10. But these tenants could have been dealing with ghosts, as the show’s historical consultant explained the widespread paranormal rumors in an interview with Travel + Leisure.
“I remember my cousin [Jean Margaret Herbert, Countess of Carnarvon] going white in the face when I told her what the opening sequence of the show would be,” Alastair Bruce explained. “Daisy gets up and runs the whole house and cleans it up before the Earl of Grantham comes downstairs. Mrs. As Hughes walks around, the camera focuses on the chain around her waist with all the keys hanging from it. And Jean (she’s the Countess of Caernarvon) goes blank because the house is haunted by the ghost of a former housekeeper. She’s there because she can hear the keys jingling on the end of the chain. ”
11. Though Lady Edith Crawley became her breakout role, Laura Carmichael almost didn’t show up to audition for the series.
Carmichael had starred in a touring production of Shakespeare’s What You Want, so she admitted to Tribune News Service, “I thought it would be a half-day shoot, maybe one line of ‘Yes, my lord.'” It’s good to have worked in television on your resume, though. And I thought, “I’m going to have to turn down this dream Shakespeare for this TV job.” What a disaster!’
12. In 2012, Gillian Anderson announced she had turned down the role of Cora Crawley, and Elizabeth McGovern was set to transition from Downton’s American heiress to the Countess of Grantham.
13. According to Vanity Fair, Queen Elizabeth II is a huge fan of the series and has fact-checked it for fun. “She loves to find fault,” Brian Hoey, author of At Home with the Queen, claimed to People magazine. Prince William also admitted to watching the series, according to star Alan Leech.
“I shook his hand and he actually said, ‘I’m a huge fan of the show, but now my wife has a baby,'” Leech recalled on Watch What Happens Live in 2013. “Obviously, he had a lot of free time, so [Kate Middleton] got him to check it out. ‘Watch it with me!'”
14. Smith, who played Countess Violet Crawley, admitted to never having seen the series. “Maybe I’ll watch it when it’s all finished because I’ll be frustrated,” she told The Telegraph about why she won’t be watching her own work. “I always look at things I wish I’d done differently and think, ‘Why in God’s name did I do that?'”
15. Because it was a period piece, the female stars often had to wear corsets underneath their costumes, which caused “huge problems,” according to lead costume designer Susanna Buxton.
“It was a nightmare for the poor souls,” she told the Mirror. “They felt very, very uncomfortable.” You have to learn to wear it, and of course the girls are not used to it. It was so narrow that the actors could not even eat there.
