Downton Abbey

Downton Abbey is a British historical period drama television series created by Julian Fellowes and co-produced by Carnival Films and Masterpiece. It first aired on ITV in the United Kingdom on 26 September 2010, and on PBS in the United States on 9 January 2011, as part of the Masterpiece Classic anthology. Six series have been made, the sixth airing in the autumn of 2015 in the UK and Ireland. The fifth began airing in the United States on 4 January 2015. On 26 March 2015, the sixth series was confirmed to be the final series, with the final episode airing in the UK on 25 December 2015 on ITV.

The series, set in the fictional Yorkshire country estate of Downton Abbey, depicts the lives of the aristocratic Crawley family and their domestic servants in the post-Edwardian era—with the great events in history having an effect on their lives and on the British social hierarchy. Such events depicted throughout the series include news of the sinking of the RMS Titanic in the first series; the outbreak of the First World War, the Spanish influenza pandemic, and the Marconi scandal in the second series; the interwar period and the formation of the Irish Free State in the third series; the Teapot Dome scandal in the fourth series; and the United Kingdom general election of 1923, the Jallianwala Bagh Massacre, and the Beer Hall Putsch in the fifth series.

List of Downton Abbey episodes

Downton Abbey is a British period drama television series created by Julian Fellowes and co-produced by Carnival Films and Masterpiece. It first aired on ITV in the United Kingdom on 26 September 2010, and on PBS in the United States on 9 January 2011, as part of the Masterpiece Classic anthology. Six series have been made, the sixth airing in the autumn of 2015 in the UK and Ireland, and in January 2016 in the United States. On 26 March 2015, the sixth series was confirmed to be the final series, with the final episode airing in the UK on 25 December 2015 on ITV. During the course of the programme, 52 episodes of Downtown Abbey aired over six series.

Series overview

Episode list

Series 1 (2010)

Series 2 (2011)

Downton Abbey: Behind the Drama

A 46-minute documentary compiled in anticipation of the Christmas 2011 two-hour special broadcast, Behind the Drama features behind-the-scenes footage from the filming of the series and short interviews with Julian Fellowes, the writer, actors (Elizabeth McGovern, Joanne Froggatt, Brendan Coyle, Dan Stevens, Michelle Dockery, Jessica Brown Findlay, Laura Carmichael, Penelope Wilton, Phyllis Logan, Thomas Howes, Lesley Nicol, Sophie McShera, Allen Leech) and other members of the team that produces Downton Abbey. It was shown in the United Kingdom at 7:30 pm on Wednesday 21 December 2011 and narrated by Hugh Bonneville. 4.5 million people watched the show.

Downton Abbey (series 1)

Downton Abbey, series 1 comprises 7 episodes, and was broadcast in the UK on 26 September 2010, and explored the lives of the Crawley family and their servants from the day after the sinking of the RMS Titanic in April 1912 to the outbreak of the First World War on 4 August 1914. The ties between blood relations in family are an important part of the series. The series takes a sympathetic look at those in lower positions is life, such as the more compassionate treatment of homosexuality seen with depictions of the character of Thomas Barrow.

Series overview

The first series focus is on the need for a male heir to the Grantham estate, and the troubled love life of Lady Mary as she attempts to find a suitable husband. The device that sets the drama in motion is the fee tail or "entail" governing the (fictional) Earldom of Grantham, endowing both title and estate exclusively to heirs male and complicated by the dire financial state of the estate, the latter only resolved when the earl—then the heir apparent—married an American heiress. On the marriage, her considerable fortune was contractually incorporated into the comital entail in perpetuity. The earl and countess, who have three daughters and no son, arranged for their eldest daughter to marry her cousin, son of the then-heir presumptive. The demise of both heirs in the sinking of the Titanic destroys the plans and brings into play a distant male cousin, Matthew Crawley, a solicitor from Manchester, as heir presumptive to Downton and the countess's fortune.