British period-drama Downton Abbey that became a global sensation since hitting the screen in 2010 is back with a third series set in the roaring 1920s, a new Oscar-winning star and a string of award nominations. Perhaps unsurprisingly Downton Abbey writer and co-creator Julian Fellowes feels a bit like he is “riding a whirlwind”. An [...]

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The Downton Abbey ‘phenomenon’

The third series which begins airing today on British TV sees the residents of Downton Abbey take on the roaring 1920s
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British period-drama Downton Abbey that became a global sensation since hitting the screen in 2010 is back with a third series set in the roaring 1920s, a new Oscar-winning star and a string of award nominations.

Shirley Maclaine

Perhaps unsurprisingly Downton Abbey writer and co-creator Julian Fellowes feels a bit like he is “riding a whirlwind”.

An almost instant hit in the UK, series two cemented Downton as a worldwide “phenomenon” and one of the UK’s biggest exports, with more than 100 countries owning the rights to broadcast the show.Later this month the show will battle TV drama giants such as Mad Men and Homeland as it competes for 16 awards at the Primetime Emmys.

Fellowes is both pleased and “overwhelmed” by the show’s success stateside, and while he has “no idea” what the secret is, he thinks Downton’s “modern pace” compared with other costume dramas is key.

The cast is full of praise for Fellowes’s writing talents. Jim Carter, who plays butler Mr Carson, one of a handful of Downton stars in the running for acting Emmys on September 23, says: “It’s the age-old thing, people like stories. The fact that it’s period, I mean it could be set in space. If you’ve got good characters and good stories, people will follow them.”

Downton’s mass appeal has already translated into awards from Bafta, the Emmys and the Golden Globes, and now US casting directors are starting to take notice of cast members such as Dan Stevens, who plays “cousin Matthew” Crawley.
He makes his Broadway debut next month in The Heiress, alongside The Help’s Jessica Chastain. “It’s amazing. It’s the sort of artistic aspiration of a lot of people to crack America and it was never the intention of any of us to do that when we started out,” says Stevens.

His character’s will-they-won’t-they love story with Lady Mary, played by Michelle Dockery, was central to the first two series.
But after the 2011 Christmas special ended with them canoodling in the snow – which “took long enough”, according to Dockery – series three begins with love’s young dream planning their nuptials.

But Stevens drops some heavy hints there are still “thrills and spills” to come. “As anybody who’s married knows, it’s not all plain sailing after the wedding either,” he says.Much of the excitement surrounding series three centres on the arrival of Oscar-winner Shirley Maclaine, playing the mother of Cora, the American Countess of Grantham. As a rival to Dame Maggie Smith’s matriarch, the Dowager Countess, we can expect sparks to fly, according to Stevens.

“It’s a terrific dynamic. The classic Dowager Countess one-liners are almost doubled back by having a presence like her on set and they sparked off each other incredibly well,” he says.

By all accounts, Maclaine is a “huge fan” and was “a sensation” on set, entertaining the cast with non-stop stories from her movie and Broadway career.

Courtesy BBC




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