Downton Abbey

[Chloe O'brien]

Never mind all that - when's the sex scene?

I bed the wedding will be Mr Carter and Mrs Hughes.

[Perdita]

Downton Abbey's executive producer has suggested that the period drama could run for as many as six series.

Gareth Neame revealed the information while discussing the eight-part second run of the ITV programme, which will premiere this September and conclude with a Christmas special.

Forthcoming episodes of Downton Abbey, which depicts the lives of the Crawley family in the early 20th century, will feature sequences set in the First World War and a steamy sex scene - but Neame told The Sun that he was already thinking about future seasons of the show.

"I think it can continue for series four, five and six!" he claimed. "It could move up to the 1930s, as long as the audience wants it."

Series two of Downton Abbey was further teased by Brendan Coyle (Mr Bates), who confirmed that viewers could expect to witness both a wedding and a funeral upon its return to air.

"There are so many twists and turns," he said. "Things happen in this series that you definitely won't see coming. We were shocked every time we picked up a new script."

The second series of Downton Abbey, which features five new cast members including Iain Glen and Amy Nuttall, began filming in March.

[Perdita]

The success of ITV1's excellent period drama Downton Abbey is hugely refreshing in these reality TV-dominated times.

Starring Hugh Bonneville and Dame Maggie Smith, Downton - an unexpected smash in 2010 - enjoyed massive ratings, gushing acclaim (on both sides of the Atlantic) and a haul of awards.

How is the Downton Abbey series two shoot progressing? See photos in our gallery

For many, Downton Abbey evokes memories of quality ITV period dramas of the past; classic Upstairs Downstairs, for example, and lavish 1980s epics The Jewel In The Crown and Brideshead Revisited.

The new series, which begins in September, sees the cast plunged into the horrors of the First World War.

Familiar names and faces are returning, but they will be joined by: former Emmerdale actress Amy Nuttall, Spooks star Iain Glen, Sons of Anarchy's Zoe Boyle, Holby Blue's Cal Macaninch, Spooks' Iain Glen, The Tudors' Maria Doyle-Kennedy and Mistresses actress Sharon Small.

Personally, I am very excited that definitive English gent Nigel Havers, lately seen in Coronation Street, has signed up as aristocrat Lord Hepworth.

[alan45]

Downton Abbey was last autumn's TV hit, with its Edwardian drama offering an escapist antidote to austerity Britain. On Friday ITV previewed the drama at Highclere Castle, the show's Berkshire stately home setting. The first episode will open not with a witty but icy quip from the peerless Violet, Dowager Countess of Grantham, played by Maggie Smith, but with the massive explosion of a shell in the battle of the Somme, where the heir to Downton, Matthew Crawley (played by Dan Stevens), is fighting.

The drama's producers hope that the darker wartime storylines, and the aristocratic ensemble dressing down in the "we're all in it together" clothing of wartime, will not deter the fans.

The first series finished in November with more than 10 million viewers, a huge figure in today's TV terms. ITV hopes for more of the same with an eight-part run starting in September, with a two-hour Christmas special to follow. "We have a lot to live up to," said executive producer Gareth Neame, who admitted to "second album nervousness" about series two, which is understood to have cost £12m to make.

"This time, the characters are in the middle of the war. That forces us to tell different stories. A world that was unassailable in the first series is now very much under threat."

Neame believes audiences "would have become bored if we had more stories of people stealing snuff boxes and stuff", a past storyline, and is keen to explore the breakdown in the social certainties brought on by the war.

The first series had ended on an August 1914 cliffhanger as Britain declared war on Germany. Among the young men in France at the start of series two is the scheming footman Thomas (Rob James-Collier), so traumatised by his experiences at the front that he has forgotten his feud with his fellow Downton servant, Bates, and seeks to find a way back to the house.

The war also changes things for those above stairs – the Earl of Granthan (Hugh Bonneville) is bitter that he is too old to serve. His daughter, Lady Sybil Crawley, who holds the distastefully modern idea that women should be allowed to vote, does the unladylike thing and becomes a nurse, giving her the melancholy line to deliver: "Sometimes it feels as if all men that I ever danced with are dead."

The drama is noticeable for its obsessive attention to detail. Downton Abbey creator Julian Fellowes and the production team had a long debate about whether aristocrats of the period – the second series takes us from 1916 to 1918 and the Christmas special takes place on New Year's Eve 1919 –would eat asparagus with their hands or a fork. In the end producers cut the asparagus up and pretended they were green beans, which they knew were eaten with a fork, so keen were they not to put a foot wrong.Five days of the 23-week shoot was done in replica Western Front trenches. "Because the show is so popular, we've a special role in teaching, particularly young people, about the war," said Neame. "ITV wanted more of the same [as the first series]. But because this is wartime, we had a duty to show the social impact of war."

One person who does not like the upheaval, unsurprisingly, is the dowager duchess. At one point, asked if she wants everything to return to the way it was before the war, she replies: "I certainly do, and as quickly as possible."

She will be grateful to learn that writer Julian Fellowes is already storylining scripts for a third series, which will take Downton Abbey into the devil-may-care, swinging 1920s.

[alan45]

For millions of viewers, the romances, in-fighting and quintessential British way of the Crawley family and their servants made Downton Abbey a must-watch.
But the idyll will be shattered in the programme’s second series, as the First World War tears the characters’ lives apart.
And, to give viewers a more authentic experience, producers have used veteran soldiers and amputees to show the ‘harsh reality’ of conflict.

Realistic: The new series of Downton Abbey is set during World War I and will use veteran soldiers and amputees to make the war scenes more authentic
Audiences will see graphic depictions of the Great War, with Falklands hero Simon Weston – who suffered 46 per cent burns to his body after ship Sir Galahad was bombed in 1982 – having acted as an adviser on the series.

More...
Decadent angel of Downton: The sexual adventuress, extravagant hostess who blew her inheritance, turning her stately home into a war hospital
The 49-year-old instructed the actors on dealing with explosions, mustard gas attacks, bullet and shrapnel injuries and the subsequent issues of disfigurement.
He told the Daily Mail: ‘For me personally, it is only right and fitting that people who have seen and experienced war are used to help portray it in film or television. Who could know and show better what it would be like than people who have faced battle, or lost a limb?

‘I think in these kinds of dramas it helps give an idea of the harsh reality of what it is like.’
In the new series, Downton Abbey becomes a convalescence home for the wounded, sick and infirm, with scenes at the stately home featuring many of the amputee actors.
Producer Liz Trubridge said: ‘We had incredible extras. Some of [those] used in the war scenes were ex-soldiers. Some of the amputees were war veterans, or people that had lost limbs in accidents. Others were real aficionados [of the First World War].
‘We were very fortunate that we came across a wonderful man called Taff Gillingham, who owns a set of trenches just off Ipswich, so we filmed the battle scenes there.’
The team used specialist agencies Amputees in Action and VisABLE People, and also worked with Armed Forces charity Help for Heroes on the episodes.
One extra, Simon Green, 44, who lost his arm in a motorbike accident 18 years ago, said: ‘It was fun to take part.
‘I get blown up in the trenches. I’m not sure how bloody it will be but I think it is a more realistic way to do those kind of scenes.’

In the series, the Abbey acts as a convalescent home for the wounded, with many amputee actors taking part in scenes filmed there
Fellow amputee Jonathan Clipton, also 44, said working on the series had been a good way to network and share experiences.
‘We have all been through a lot and this is a positive, fun, way of getting on with life,’ he added.
ITV has increased the show’s run to eight episodes, up from the initial series’ seven.
Creator Julian Fellowes said: ‘The heart of this series is how everyone copes with the country being at war.
‘None of them is unaffected. All of them change. And death does not entirely pass Downton Abbey by.’
He added that the new series would also show women’s efforts to keep the country going while the men were away.

The original series, which was set in 1912, was a huge hit and has been shown in more than 100 countries.
The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are said to be fans of the show, which stars Hugh Bonneville and Dame Maggie Smith.
ITV has revealed there will also be a Christmas special, which will be set after the war in December 1919.
A third series, expected to be set in the early 1920s, is being planned.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz...#ixzz1URQGdZQr

[Perdita]

Downton Abbey writer Julian Fellowes has claimed that the BBC would have ruined the popular period drama.

The Oscar-winning scriptwriter praised ITV for resisting the temptation to meddle with the show and allowing him to fully execute his vision.

"ITV wanted us to make our own show. That wouldn't have happened at the BBC," he told the Edinburgh TV Festival. "So I raise a glass to ITV."

Fellowes went on to describe Downton Abbey as "a posh soap opera", making comparisons with one of ITV's other highly-rated serial dramas.

"I live for Corrie," he confessed. "Like them, we tell endless stories about people to whom things happen until the audience doesn't want to see them any more."

Fellowes, who recently completed work on a new drama about the Titanic, has admitted in the past to getting upset by criticism of Downton Abbey.

The show will return to ITV1 later this year.

[Perdita]

Sunday, 18 September 2011, 9:00PM - 10:00PM


SHORT SYNOPSIS:

The Great War unsettles life at Downton and Isobel's surprising news about Matthew rocks the family further. New maid, Ethel ruffles O'Brien's feathers and Bates returns with life changing news for Anna.

[Dazzle]

Can't wait

[tammyy2j]

[Perdita]

Downton Abbey will air in the same timeslot as the last series of Spooks, it has emerged.

The BBC will schedule the spy show in the prestigious Sunday 9pm hour on BBC One, where it will go head-to-head with ITV1's hit period drama.

However, a BBC spokesperson played down the clash, stating: "Downton and Spooks are very different shows and offer a real alternative for audiences.

"This is the last ever series of Spooks and we wanted to celebrate this and make it a special event for viewers in the Sunday 9pm slot.

"It is not unusual for drama to go up against drama here, for example, David Tennant's Single Father did last year and ITV1's Vera was up against BBC One's Exile earlier this year."

Downton Abbey's first series in 2010 averaged a colossal 9m in the ratings last year, while the ninth series of the long-running Spooks took around 5m per episode.