Peter Viney's Blog

2025
Screenplay by Julian Fellowes
Directed by Simon Curtis

Out with a whimper.

Even its normal excuse, that it looks gorgeous, was eclipsed by the Outrageous TV mini-series about the six Mitford sisters in the 1930s. Better scripts, better frocks, better storyline.

Should I have bought the DVD? It was a tenner in Waitrose, the only DVD I’ve seen in a supermarket for a couple of years. I had a £10 voucher off an £80 spend (not hard at Xmas), so I decided. Cold evening comfort viewing? I’ve done the first two. I guess I needed to watch the third.

• It’s 1930. Everyone is retiring and handing over.
• Lord and Lady Crawley are handing over the estate to Lady Mary.
• Carson is handing over the role of Butler to Andy Parker.
• Mrs Patmore is handing over the role of cook to Daisy.
• Anna will be moving to the dower house with Lady Cora and handing over her role as Lady Mary’s maid.

Then they’re all squeezing in for a final pay day. The fault is the same as the last one, but more so. In the TV series, different sets of characters were allotted episodes with stories about them, e.g. Daisy and Mr Mason, the farmer. In the 2019 film we were near the TV series. 2022? Further away. Now? It’s too long ago unless you’re a dedicated re-watcher of box sets of the TV series (which can be found in any charity shop).

So, characters who had exciting storylines, such as Master Mr Bates which involved allegations of murder, and prison, are now confined to a walk-on and a few lines. If you had never seen the TV series you’d be hard pressed to work out why they were there, or who they were. It’s a waste of talent – we saw Brendan Coyle (Mr Bates) in Hedda at Bath Ustinov this year in a towering stage performance.

Through the series, various episodes saw characters getting married or partnered, so now the partners linger as shadow characters next to them – so Anna retains an important role here, but Mr Bates doesn’t. Mr Molseley retains a comic role though now a scriptwriter, but I can’t recall who his partner is. Lady Merton is important in planning the village fete, but I can’t remember who her partner is.

Obviously Hugh Bonneville as the Earl of Grantham and Elizabeth McGovern as the Countess Cora remain important. Jim Carter’s Carson remains strong, but Phyllis Logan’s Mrs Hughes is diminished.

Guy Dexter, the Hollywood star (Dominic West) from the second movie returns with the dubious Mr Barrow, (Robert James-Collier) his gay lover, but Barrow seems to have eschewed his devious scheming of the TV series. They’ve forgotten he was the baddie through several series. Dominic West only appeared in the 2022 film, but is now a fixture. This is why the cast grows and grows.

The teams keep turning up in dizzying fashion. The publicity photos have gone with it. So we have Daisy, the new cook, Andy Parker, the new butler and Mrs Patmore the retiring cook. Lady Mary (Michelle Dockery) remains the star. Then Tom Branson returns, promoted as he was from chauffeur to the (late) Sybil’s husband, and now wise financial advisor. Lady Edith (Laura Carmichael) is with Lord Hexham, but I don’t remember where he came in or why.

Lady Cora’s brother, Harold Levison (so is she Jewish? It never came up in my memory) is visiting with his financial advisor, Gus Sambrook (Allessandro Nivola). Harold has lost Cora’s fortune in stock market deals, but then Gus is a serious con-man. Harold was in the TV series. The Crawleys are now in financial trouble and will have to sell their London mansion and seek a flat for those London visits.

Noël Coward (Arty Froushan) is added to allow the normal downstairs excitement (previously Guy Dexter and royals). The film starts with the Crawleys watching Coward’s Bitter Sweet, starring Guy Dexter, in a London theatre. There is the obligatory shot of the downstairs team gathering to peek at the famous person.

There are a lot of Coward songs in the soundtrack and he sings. The scandal of Lady Mary’s divorce gives him the title for Private Lives.

The visiting star turn is Simon Russell-Beale (who was in Titus Andronicus this year at the RSC)as Sir Hector an irascible and right wing member of the local gentry caricature. AfterTitus, it reminded us that he is a wonderful comic actor when he turns to it. Joely Richardson is Lady Petersfield, the snotty London hostess who expels Lady Mary. Lisa Dillon pops up very briefly as Princess Alexandra (a minor part well below her abilities).

So the added plot. First everyone is shunning the divorced Lady Mary. All the locals decline the invitation to dinner. She is asked to leave a London party because the princess is coming. Never mind, she can get down to some serious business with the grasping Gus, though mentioning the Turkish incident from early in the TV series was probably poor taste.

Then they have to work out that Gus is a con artist. Edith will be the heroine here, though she’s only referred to as Lady Hexham, which confused me. Or possibly it was Lady Hexagon.

The big scenes are the village fete, with Penelope Wilton aka Lady Merton now in charge and democratically adding Mr Carson and Daisy to the committee, to Sir Hector’s fury.

Then there’s a day at the races. Ascot.

There are at least three bits that seemed to echo the Upstairs / Downstairs spoof comedy series You Rang M’Lord, such as Carson having saved Lord Crawley in the war (Which war? Boer war?)

At the end, Lady Mary imagines dances of the past so we get to see Maggie Smith (whose portrait dominates the hall), Matthew, killed in Season 2 and Lady Sybil. Also deceased.

I think the title is right. They can’t do another. Even Julian Fellowes dialogue seems unusually creaky. In a way it must be fun for the cast, an old friends reunion. We have sat near Leslie Nicol (Mrs Patmore) who was watching Daisy (Sophie McShera) on stage in the theatre (Jerusalem) and sat behind Brendan Coyle watching Phyllis Logan (Switzerland) at Bath.

I’d say it’s the weakest of the three film spin-offs. There are simply too many characters, and there isn’t time for enough of them to get a decent chunk of script.

Downton Abbey: A New Era (film 2022)
Downton Abbey (film) 2019
My 2012 comedy piece THE CURSE OF THE CRAWLEYS. DOWTON ABBEY SERIES 10 (LINKED)