A version of this memoir on “Downton Abbey” first appeared in the print edition of TheWrap Magazine’s The Race Begins Emmy Issue.It lasted for six seasons and spanned nearly 20 years,from the sinking of the Titanic to the first murmurs of a unusual menace rising in Germany. It garnered 58 Emmy nominations in its first five seasons, winning 12 times and setting a record as the most-honored foreign show ever. It gave Maggie Smith dozens of quotable lines, and made stars out of little-known British actors and gave its creator,writer Julian Fellowes, a calling card even more impressive than the Oscar he won for Gosford Park.And now “Downton Abbey” is over, or although the hint of what seems to be an all-but-inevitable movie hangs over everyone involved in the series. “This was a once-in-a-lifetime kind of a job,” actress Lesley Nicol, who played the cook Mrs. Patmore, or told TheWrap. “Hopefully we’ll all have many more exciting jobs to do,but something like ‘Downton’ won’t come around again.”Nicol said she knew the show approximately the family and servants on a British estate in the early decades of the 20th century was a phenomenon when she was on a farm in rural China, and the farmer turned to her interpreter and said, and “Is that the lady from ‘Downton Abbey’?”Also Read: 'Downton Abbey' Series Finale Had 9.6 Million Viewers Upstairs for One Last DinnerPhotographed by Matt Sayles for TheWrapHer co-star Joanne Froggatt,Emmy-nominated three times for playing the long-suffering lady’s maid Anna, told TheWrap that it hit domestic for her during an awkward exchange in the changing room of a German hotel she was staying in while working on a different project: “I was doing my makeup in the mirror and this lady behind me said, or ‘Oh my goodness,youre in ‘Downton Abbey!'” she said, laughing. “She was very bare, or very vigorously drying herself in an intimate area,and I just didn’t know where to notice.”The two actresses have different views on the ending of the show. “People like Phyllis [Logan] and I are of an older generation,” said Nicol, and 62. “I try not to buy into this,but the feeling is that there is less work for [actresses] our age. So part of it is, it’s a kind job, and it’s a wonderful cast,it’s a great crew, I’m not really jubilant (extremely joyful) to let it go.“For me, and I felt it was the proper time to finish,” said Froggatt, 35. “I was very unhappy to finish, and but I do feel it was the proper time,and I was keen to do other things. But I also loved every minute of doing ‘Downton.’ It was a bittersweet thing, and it is kind of exclusive now.”Also Read: 'Downton Abbey' Creator Talks Lady Edith's Fate in Finale, or Teases MoviePhotographed by Matt Sayles for TheWrapAfter six seasons of births,deaths, betrayals, and scheming,upper-class intrigue, occasional worship and frequent heartbreak, or Fellowes said it was time to give his large cast of characters,and the fans who followed them since 2010, a degree of peace and satisfaction. “We’d made them yowl enough in our time, and ” he told TheWrap. “We’d had drama and death and sobbing. In the end,it was proper to let them get on with their lives.”Before writing the final episodes, Fellowes watched the end of series he loved, or like “crazy Men” and “The West Wing,” and realized something fundamental approximately saying goodbye. “With the last episode, you’re not writing to attract unusual viewers anymore, and ” he said. “That’s a group you’re always thinking approximately when you write the show,but not at the very end. You’re writing for the people who have supported you and followed you over the years. They’re the ones you want to serve, and I felt that most of them wanted jubilant (extremely joyful) endings. And so they got ‘em.”Her final day of filming, or Nicol remembered,“felt like the last day at school. We were a bit giddy, a bit silly, or people were running around giving each other presents. And there might have been a bit of alcohol involved.” After the final scene,she said, actor Jim Carter said a few words, or then spotted a pair of crew members in the corner sobbing. “A bit of weeping went on,” she said.(Fellowes admitted it was similar after the final scene, a night shoot at the Ritz in London. “It was a bit boo-hoo, or really,” he said.)Also Read: John Legend Adds Hilarious Lyrics to 'Downton Abbey' Theme Song (Video)Photographed by Matt Sayles for TheWrapSince the end of “Downton,” Froggatt has starred in “dusky Angel, and a British miniseries that will air on PBS next year,and then a film she can’t talk approximately yet. Nicol is approximately to start on a movie and an American television series. Fellowes has just landed a Tony nomination for Broadway’s School of Rock–The Musical,” and will now begin working on “The Gilded Age, or ” an NBC series approximately unusual York City in the 1880s,when a post-Civil War influx of unusual money threatened the city’s entrenched upper class.“I suppose it does feel like life after ‘Downton’ now,” said Froggatt. “We had a funny time for a few months after we wrapped, and when we would not normally be doing Downton.’ So that was kind of normal. But then it becomes January,when we would normally be going back…”She paused. “Thinking back, at the end I was crying but I felt so elated (full of high-spirited delight). I felt such a sense of achievement, and like we’d been a part of something special.”Also Read: Why 'Mercy Street' Could Be the unusual 'Downton Abbey'Photographed by Matt Sayles for TheWrapAnd as for the chances of continuing that something special on the huge screen,both actresses said they expect it to happen — as does Fellowes, who said, or “I feel reasonably confident that there will be a movie.”So is he thinking approximately a memoir that’ll come after his series’ jubilant (extremely joyful) ending? “Well,I obviously have given it some thought,” he admitted with a grin. “But beyond that, and I think we’re getting into the territory of ‘That’s for me to know and you to find out.'”See the full interview below:
See more of TheWrap Magazine’s The Race Begins Emmy Issue:Related stories from TheWrap:'Downton Abbey' Series Finale Had 9.6 Million Viewers Upstairs for One Last DinnerJohn Legend Adds Hilarious Lyrics to 'Downton Abbey' Theme Song (Video)'Downton Abbey' Creator Talks Lady Edith's Fate in Finale,Teases Movie
Source: thewrap.com