Downton Abbey

by Julian Fellowes

  Robert puts an arm around his daughter’s shoulder.

  ROBERT: I’m afraid this will put paid to wedding talk for the time being.

  She takes a moment to understand his words.

  MARY: What does that matter?*

  * Mary, being engaged to one man and in love with another, is at the very centre of her own dichotomy. The concealment of this has been possible as long as everyone was fine. But, obviously, it gets much harder for her to hide her feelings as Matthew’s fortunes take a turn for the worse. In the previous episode, when Matthew was missing, she started to give herself away, and now we are going to test her to the full.

  10 EXT. KITCHEN COURTYARD. DOWNTON. DAY.

  Bates is cleaning shoes and boots. Anna comes out.

  ANNA: Lady Edith’s back. William was caught in it. He’s gone to some hospital in Leeds. She took his father to the station.

  BATES: I’m very sorry.

  ANNA: We might have known. We couldn’t be the only household left untouched.

  BATES: Will he come through it?

  ANNA: Her ladyship said it sounded bad, but we don’t know more than that. Can you walk with me to the church this afternoon?

  BATES: If you want me to.

  ANNA: Because I’d like to say a prayer for them. For both of them. I know you don’t believe in any of it —

  BATES: You’re quite wrong. Since I met you, I believe in everything.

  11 INT. DOCTOR CLARKSON’S OFFICE/PASSAGE. DAY.

  Violet and Edith are with Clarkson.

  CLARKSON: We only cater for officers.

  VIOLET: Doctor Clarkson, I am no Jacobin revolutionary. Nor do I seek to overthrow the civilised world. We just need one bed for a young man from this village.

  CLARKSON: And if it were within my power, you should have it.

  VIOLET: Sir, you don’t understand. William’s father cannot afford to leave his farm and move to Leeds.

  CLARKSON: I’m very sorry. Really. But this is a military hospital, and it’s not up to me to challenge the order of things.

  EDITH: I’ll nurse him. I’m happy to do it. It wouldn’t add to your workload.

  CLARKSON: If I were to break the rule for you, how many others do you think would come forward to plead for their sons? The answer is, and must be, no.*

  * This is a typical Downton argument, where hopefully you’re on both sides. It would be completely impossible for Clarkson to waive the rule for the big house, while refusing to accommodate everyone else, but of course Violet thinks he’s being outrageous.

  12 INT. HOSPITAL PASSAGE. DOWNTON VILLAGE. DAY.

  As Violet and Edith emerge into the passage.

  VIOLET: It always happens when you give these little people power. It goes to their heads like strong drink!

  13 INT. SERVANTS’ HALL. DOWNTON. DAY.

  Thomas is with O’Brien, at a table laid for tea.

  THOMAS: I’m sorry for him. I am. I don’t mind Captain Crawley. He’s a better man than most of them.

  O’BRIEN: And William, too. He’s not a bad lad, whatever you say. He should’ve had his life ahead of him… I wish I’d not written that letter to Bates’s wife, telling her he’s back here.

  THOMAS: What’s that got to do with it?

  O’BRIEN: I wish I’d not done it, that’s all. What with everything else going on. I know she’ll come up here and make trouble.

  THOMAS: Don’t blame me. It wasn’t my idea.*

  Daisy arrives with the tea things. Others start to drift in.

  O’BRIEN: Any news?

  DAISY: Only that the doctor won’t let William come to the village.

  O’BRIEN: He never.

  DAISY: It’s for officers only, he says. So William’s got to stay among strangers in Leeds.

  Mrs Patmore has arrived with a cake.

  MRS PATMORE: And his poor father staying there with him, spending money he’s not got and travelling miles to do it.

  DAISY: It’s not right.

  THOMAS: No, it bloody well isn’t.

  The others are rather surprised by this intervention.

  THOMAS (CONT’D): Well, I’m a working-class lad and so is he, and I get fed up seeing how our lot always get shafted.*

  * I’ve tried to set up O’Brien as someone who is malicious and a troublemaker, but not black-hearted through and through. And this is one moment where she realises that her desire to make trouble for Mr Bates, which is all it is, has made her act on it at an inappropriate time. The household also hears from Thomas an expression of solidarity with William in this scene, which surprises them. But it doesn’t surprise me, because I think in war your fundamental solidarities come to the fore. I always remember my mother saying that when you were in the bomb shelters you were all in it together, in a way that was quite novel, really, and quite moving, too.

  * The village hospital is for officers, just as Downton Abbey is an officers’ convalescent home. This is no more than the truth. As we have observed before, there was an absolute divide between the officers and the men, enforced because of the philosophy that the private soldiers needed to see every officer as someone slightly separate in order to follow their commands. This is not because all the officers were public school boys. By 1917 that would be quite untrue, since a great many men had been promoted from the ranks into being officers. But no sooner were they promoted than they were immediately absorbed into the officer culture, quite deliberately. This led to that inter-war and post-war phenomenon of the ex-Army ‘temporary gentlemen’, so called as a rather nasty play on their former rank as ‘temporary officers’ – the golf club secretary, or the forgotten major in a Terence Rattigan play, who’d be dressed in a blazer with shiny buttons and sporting a Jimmy Edwards moustache. In time, he would become an iconic English social type, and, for me anyway, is possessed of a considerable poignancy.

  14 INT. SMALL LIBRARY. DOWNTON. DAY.

  Robert is with Cora.

  ROBERT: They say they’ll get her onto a boat when they can.

  CORA: But does she even know yet?

  ROBERT: They think so, but they’re not sure. And Matthew’s already in England. He must have been mid-Channel when the telegram was sent.

  CORA: Then he’ll be here today?

  ROBERT: Today or tonight… The story is that William saved him. Apparently he threw himself across Matthew just as it went off. He sheltered him from the force of the blast.

  CORA: All the more reason for him to be treated here. If only Doctor Clarkson would see reason.

  ROBERT: He just won’t. Everyone’s tried. No, we shall have to come at it from a different direction.

  15 INT. MARY’S BEDROOM. DOWNTON. DAY.

  Mary is putting together some books and some sewing.

  MARY: I thought I’d take some things down to the hospital. Then I can wait and sit with him when he arrives.

  ROBERT: But we don’t know when that’ll be.

  MARY: It doesn’t matter. I can make myself useful while I’m waiting. I’ve read somewhere that it’s very important not to leave them alone when they’re first wounded, so no sign goes unnoticed. They can’t spare a nurse to watch over every man, so that’s what I can do.

  ROBERT: Your mother’s written to Lavinia.

  MARY: Good. Yes. I’m glad someone’s thought of that. She must stay here and not be at Isobel’s by herself.

  Robert is very moved by this proof of his daughter’s love. He stares at her. But he cannot find the right thing to say.

  MARY (CONT’D): What?

  ROBERT: Nothing.*

  * Of course, Mary simply wants to be with Matthew. She’s in love with him. But she can’t say that, not to her father, and not to herself, so she has to give a sensible reason for why she’s going to the hospital. She may even believe that’s why she’s going, but her father, of course, knows better. His saying that Cora has written to Lavinia is to remind Mary of the real situation, which is that Matthew is engaged to someone else. I don’t think it’s unloving; what he
wants is to spare her, to prevent her going in over her head and finding herself in a very difficult situation. He wants to protect her from herself, really. I thought Hugh Bonneville played this scene very well.

  16 INT. CHURCH. DOWNTON VILLAGE. DAY.

  Bates and Anna are alone in a pew.

  BATES: You should’ve had a church wedding.

  ANNA: Don’t be silly.

  BATES: No, I mean it. You in a white dress, me looking like a fool, and little girls with flowers in their hair. You ought to have had that.

  ANNA: I’d rather have the right man than the right wedding. Besides, my God’s more understanding than the vicar’s. He doesn’t hold it against you when you try to do your best.*

  BATES: Well, it won’t be long now.

  ANNA: How long?

  BATES: Hard to say, but don’t worry. The Decree Nisi means we’re safe. The Decree Absolute’s only a formality. I’m just sorry it cost so much.

  ANNA: She could’ve had my shoes and the shirt off my back, if it would only make her go away for good.

  BATES: She’s gone now.

  ANNA: I suppose I could feel guilty in my happiness, knowing the troubles they’re all facing back at home. But in another way, it only makes me more grateful. Let’s pray. Even if you don’t believe, let’s pray together.

  And as we watch from the back of the empty church, we see them kneeling, side by side.

  * This trim saddened me as, by losing Anna’s line, we lost their philosophical difference. The truth is that Anna is a Christian, while Bates is an atheist, and, for me, her dialogue was an expression of what she was bringing into his life that had been missing before. Not simply religion in the traditional sense, but the belief in something more, the idea of something beyond. He has been so miserable that he’s shuttered his life, and she is prising open the windows.

  But before we all burst into tears, I should perhaps note the many times when we were all in agreement about what should go and what should stay. That is the norm in fact, I am happy to say.

  17 INT. KITCHEN. DOWNTON. DAY.

  Daisy is with Mrs Patmore.

  MRS PATMORE: Don’t worry. The old lady’ll sort something out, now she’s got the bit between her teeth.

  DAISY: I’m not worried. Not in that way. I feel sorry for William, that’s all.

  MRS PATMORE: Well, of course you do. We all do. I expect you’re glad now, that you let him have his little daydream.

  DAISY: I’m not glad. I feel I’ve led him up the garden path with all that nonsense, and I’m ashamed… I’m so ashamed.

  To Mrs Patmore’s dismay, Daisy starts to cry into her apron.

  MRS PATMORE: Oh. Ssh.

  VERA (V.O.): Hello?

  Daisy looks up with tear-stained eyes. Vera Bates is there.

  MRS PATMORE: Mrs Bates, isn’t it? Well, what do you want?

  VERA: Don’t sound inhospitable, Mrs Patmore. When I’ve only ever known a welcome in this house.

  18 INT. OUTER HALL. DOWNTON. DAY.

  Violet is on the telephone, watched by Edith.

  VIOLET: Hello? Hello? I want to speak to the Marquess of Flintshire. Yes, that’s right. Yes, yes — the Minister… Well, how many Marquesses of Flintshire are there?

  She turns back to Edith in exasperation.

  VIOLET (CONT’D): Is this an instrument of communication or torture?

  But it seems to have done the trick.

  VIOLET (CONT’D): Hello, Shrimpie? Yes, it’s Aunt Violet. Yes, very well, very — yes. And Susan? Good… Good — I won’t beat about the bush, dear. Whom might we know on the board of Leeds General Infirmary?*

  * Violet is totally at ease with the idea of pulling strings. She’s not embarrassed by it. Why should she be? Her kind had been governing the country for a thousand years. Naturally, they have connections at the top of anything. It may be a cousin, or someone’s husband, or someone’s cousin’s husband. And, with some selective letter writing, she’ll find out who could help. In a way, I hope we’re conveying the hypocrisy of our modern response to this sort of thing. We disapprove of it, but only until it’s in our own interests, or in the interests of someone we love.

  Shrimpie is a real name, but in my life it belongs to a woman. The four daughters of our friends Roddy and Tessa Balfour are called Willa, Tuppy, Jubie and Shrimpie, in that classic upper-class nickname way, which I wrote about in Snobs. As I have said before, I have mixed feelings about the use of nicknames in adulthood, but I like all these young women, and I am very fond of their parents, so I unashamedly stole Shrimpie’s name for a character who is much more fully developed in the Christmas Special at the end of Season Three.

  19 INT. SERVANTS’ HALL. DOWNTON. DAY.

  Mrs Hughes is going through a ledger book when Thomas enters.

  THOMAS: What are you doing in here? It’s not like you to join the hoi polloi.

  MRS HUGHES: I’ve lent my sitting room to Mr Bates… I don’t suppose you know why Mrs Bates has chosen to pay us a visit?

  THOMAS: I might do. But it wasn’t my fault.

  MRS HUGHES: So if it wasn’t Scylla, it was presumably Charybdis.

  THOMAS: You say the nicest things.

  20 INT. MRS HUGHES’S SITTING ROOM. DOWNTON. DAY.

  Bates and Anna sit opposite Vera.

  VERA: Excuse me, it is not settled. It wasn’t settled by me that you’d come back here and take up with your floozy again. As far as I recall, that was never settled.

  ANNA: How did you find out he was here?

  VERA: Wouldn’t you like to know?

  BATES: What does it matter? Just say what you want. Spit it out.

  VERA: You thought you’d got the better of me. But you were wrong.

  BATES: I never —

  VERA: I’m going to sell my story anyway. About Lady Mary, about the Turkish gentleman, about Miss Smith, here —

  ANNA: It’s got nowt to do with me.

  VERA: Well, that’s not what I’ve heard.

  BATES: You gave your word. I gave you the money and you gave me your word.

  VERA: Well, guess what? I was lying. I signed no contract. You’ve no proof.

  He looks carefully at this bitter, furious woman.

  BATES: If I hadn’t come back to Downton, back to Anna, would you have stuck to our agreement?

  VERA: Well, we’ll never know now, will we?

  BATES: You’re angry because I’m happy.

  VERA: Maybe. But you won’t be happy long.

  She stands and gathers up her handbag.*

  * Maria Doyle Kennedy continued to be marvellous, and layered and interesting, in her performance as Vera. When you arrive in an established series, and everyone else has had time to develop their character, and you have to join that troupe and yet not allow your work to look thinner than theirs, it is a real test that some actors pass better than others, but I thought Maria was superb. She came in at precisely the same weight as Brendan Coyle’s Bates, so that you had an equal tennis match going, right from the start.

  Personally, I believe that when Bates asks, ‘If I hadn’t come back to Downton and back to Anna, would you have stuck to our agreement?’ Vera’s true answer would be ‘Yes’. She is angered by him; she sees him as taking her for a ride, taking her for a fool. Why should she make all the sacrifices when he is sacrificing nothing? I hope the audience sees that because, while I don’t think it exactly justifies her position, you do begin to understand her point of view.

  21 EXT. STABLEYARD. DOWNTON. DAY.

  Sybil comes out to Branson, who is polishing the car.

  SYBIL: Can you drive me to the hospital?

  BRANSON: Aren’t you needed here? I’ve already taken Lady Mary down.

  SYBIL: I know. I want to be with her when Captain Crawley arrives. They can manage without me here for a while.

  BRANSON: Is she still in love with him?

  SYBIL: I don’t want to talk about it.

  BRANSON: Why? Because I’m the chauffeur?

  SYBIL: N
o. Because she’s my sister.

  BRANSON: You’re good at hiding your feelings, aren’t you? All of you. Much better than we are.

  SYBIL: Perhaps. But we do have feelings. And don’t make the mistake of thinking we don’t.

  She climbs into the car and he closes the door.*

  * What I hope the audience senses here is that Branson’s tone is changing towards Sybil, and hers is changing towards him. When Sybil says she doesn’t want to talk about whether Mary is still in love with Matthew, it is not because Branson is the chauffeur, but because ‘she is my sister’. She is not putting him in his place in the sense of reprimanding a servant, but putting him in his place as a social equal. From anyone, his curiosity would be impertinent. Already, as they talk about hiding feelings and the rest of it, they have moved beyond the roles of servant and mistress.

  22 INT. KITCHEN. DOWNTON. DAY.

  Daisy is working with Mrs Patmore.

  DAISY: No, I’m not going.

  MRS PATMORE: What do you mean, you’re not going?

  DAISY: What I say.

  MRS PATMORE: Don’t you want to see him? Don’t you want to learn how he is?

  DAISY: Of course I do, but I don’t want to give him any more false hopes. I feel bad enough as it is.

  MRS PATMORE: Here’s a poor lad, mortally wounded maybe, and you don’t want to give him any faith to go on?

  DAISY: That’s not what I said. But if I go to him now, he’ll think…

  MRS PATMORE: What he’s every right to think.

  But Daisy won’t budge. Mrs Hughes comes in.

  MRS HUGHES: Lady Edith’s in the hall. She’s asking if Daisy’s ready to leave.

  MRS PATMORE: Nearly ready, aren’t you, dear?

  DAISY: No. I’m not ready and I’m not going!

  She slams down a bowl and runs out.*

  * I was sorry this scene with Daisy and Mrs Patmore went, but I’m afraid we just didn’t have room enough to keep it. Daisy’s conundrum, which of course we play out, is that she has allowed William to think she’s his girlfriend as he goes off to the war, and she’s been encouraged in that by Mrs Patmore, who’s poked her into it, and will therefore have to take some of the blame. This is another Downton-esque situation, because we don’t blame Mrs Patmore. William was a young man going off to the front, and to have a girl to write to and think about would maybe make a difference and get him through it. So I don’t feel anyone’s in the wrong, but I do understand why Daisy feels trapped.