MRS HUGHES: That’s all I need.
ANNA: What is it?
MRS HUGHES: Never you mind. Jane, come along. No day-dreaming today, please.
The hall boy coughs again.
MRS HUGHES (CONT’D): Anyone ill, will you please take yourself to bed! Don’t stay down here and spread infection!
38 INT. CARSON’S BEDROOM. DOWNTON. DAY.
Carson is reading the letter. He looks terrible.
CARSON: Why did you invite them?
MRS HUGHES: Because I didn’t see any harm in it. No one was ill then.
CARSON: You must put them off.
MRS HUGHES: But how? They’re coming this afternoon. How can I stop them?
CARSON: Well, I’m no use to you. I got up a while ago and nearly passed out.
MRS HUGHES: I could use a dose of ’flu myself…
39 INT. CORA’S BEDROOM. DOWNTON. DAY.
O’Brien tends Cora, with Edith and Mary. Mrs Hughes arrives.
MRS HUGHES: What can I bring to help?
O’BRIEN: Ice. To bring her temperature down.
MARY: Mrs Hughes, Sir Richard telephoned this morning. He’s coming down to help. I wonder if you could have some rooms made ready for him and his valet, and tell Mrs Patmore?
MRS HUGHES: Very good, m’lady. As long as he’s here to help.
She clearly has her own views on how this will help.*
* Mrs Hughes obviously does not believe that Sir Richard’s coming will help, and most of us can remember similar situations, when we are obliged to accept an offer of help, but we know very little help will be forthcoming. I do think people coming in to help when they don’t help at all is the bane of all our lives, making everything more difficult and time-wasting than it needs to be.
40 EXT. DOWNTON VILLAGE. DAY.
Robert is walking towards the Grantham Arms.
41 INT. BRANSON’S ROOM. GRANTHAM ARMS. DOWNTON VILLAGE. DAY.
Robert is with Branson.
BRANSON: But I don’t accept that I am ruining her life, nor that I’m cutting her off from her family. If you want to cut her off, that’s your decision.
ROBERT: But how will you look after her? How can you hope to provide for her?
BRANSON: With respect, m’lord, you seem to think that she can only be happy in some version of Downton Abbey. When it’s obvious that if she wanted that life, she would not be marrying me.
Robert considers this, then reaches inside his jacket for a large chequebook. He sits at a table and takes out his pen.
ROBERT: Very well. I’d hoped to avoid this, but I see that I can’t. How much will you take to leave us in peace?
BRANSON: What?
ROBERT: You must have doubts. You said your own mother thinks you foolish.
BRANSON: Yes, she does —
ROBERT: Then yield to those doubts, and take enough to make a new life back in Ireland. I’ll be generous if we can bring this nonsense to an end.
BRANSON: I see… You know your trouble, m’lord? You’re like all of your kind. You think you have the monopoly of honour. Doesn’t it occur to you that I might believe the best guarantee of Sybil’s happiness lies with me?
ROBERT: Well, if you’re not prepared to listen to reason —
BRANSON: I’m not prepared to listen to insults.
ROBERT: Then I will bid you a good day. And I want you to leave the village.
BRANSON: Even though she’ll come to me the moment I call? Do you really want me to leave now, when I will take her with me that same hour?*
* Robert is unable to resist his own ingrained instincts, and so he assumes that a cheque will sort it out. But I agree with Branson. It is nonsense to believe that the upper classes have the monopoly of honour, and Robert is letting himself down by taking this particular tack. It is just possible, if he had put forward a reasoned argument explaining how Branson would be taking Sybil into a life she would find difficult to deal with, that Branson might at least have given it ear time. But once Robert had offered him money, it meant that Branson was not going to listen to him for one more minute, so in fact Robert’s rare coarseness in this instance works against him.
42 INT. HALL. DOWNTON. DAY.
Robert walks in to find consternation. Isobel greets him.
ISOBEL: Ah, there you are. Doctor Clarkson’s here. Cora’s not at all well. Sybil and Edith are with her. Mary’s gone to meet Sir Richard from the train —
ROBERT: What’s he come for?
ISOBEL: I gather he wants to be useful.
ROBERT: I don’t see how.
Edith comes downstairs as Mrs Hughes arrives.
MRS HUGHES: M’lord, we’re two more maids down. I hope you can forgive some catch-as-catch-can in the days ahead.
ROBERT: Which maids? Not Jane?
MRS HUGHES: No, m’lord. Not Jane.
She registers this. No one else does. Men carry in greenery.
ROBERT: What are they doing?
EDITH: Decorations for the wedding. It still hasn’t been cancelled. Until it is, they have to prepare for it.*
* I liked the irony of the fact that while Lavinia may be upstairs with Spanish ’flu, they would still have to continue to pin up the greenery and prepare for the wedding, until it had been cancelled.
43 INT. SERVANTS’ HALL. DOWNTON. DAY.
The coughing hall boy is resting his forehead on his hands.
THOMAS: Go to bed.
HALL BOY: If I do, there’ll be no one on duty.†
THOMAS: I’m on duty. Go to bed.
Mrs Hughes arrives in a fluster.
MRS HUGHES: If Anna or Jane appear, tell them to come and help me do the room for Sir Richard. I’ll be in Armada.
THOMAS: Right, I can help you with the bedroom, then I’ll sort out a room for his man and I’ll serve at dinner.
MRS HUGHES: But I’ve no money to pay you.
THOMAS: Call it rent.*
She doesn’t argue, but hurries out, past the sick hall boy.
MRS HUGHES: Do what he says and go to bed.
† I gave the hall boy a line, and then it was cut, which must have been maddening for him, and I am sorry. The hall boys and those maids who have no lines take their contribution very seriously and we are lucky that they do. In fact, they do a superb job. These parts may not have much in the way of lines, but they are very important to the show. I can tell you that when the supporting actors are not good, when they don’t take it seriously, they can undermine the whole thing, like a bad apple in a barrel. So I’m sorry he had to lose the reward for his excellent work.
* Mrs Hughes has a budget when it comes to wages, and she’s spent it. Every now and then, it feels right to remind the audience that this is a workplace. In fact, Downton Abbey is essentially a workplace drama, where we show the workplace of the servants in the early twentieth century. The point here being that, if you want people to do something, you must pay them, which some employers, then or now, can forget when they make extra demands. One of the basic questions of any drama is: why do these men and women stay? If things are so difficult, why don’t they go? But with a workplace drama you have a built-in fundamental imperative to stay, because this is how they earn their living. We are just reminding the audience of those realities here.
44 INT. LAVINIA’S BEDROOM. DOWNTON. DAY.
Isobel and Matthew are with Lavinia.
ISOBEL: The awful truth is, the wedding simply cannot go ahead.
MATTHEW: Oh, don’t say that.
ISOBEL: I must. Doctor Clarkson says you’ll be groggy for at least a week, maybe even longer. We have to face the facts. I’d be leading you on if I said any different.
LAVINIA: What about my father?
ISOBEL: Well, Matthew can telephone him.
LAVINIA: He can’t come here while everyone’s ill. He has a weak chest and mustn’t take the risk.†
MATTHEW: All right. Well, I suppose we’ve made a decision, then? To delay?
LAVINIA: I don’t think we’ve got any choic
e.
ISOBEL: No. I’m afraid we don’t.
MATTHEW: I should get started. I’ll go home now for the lists. What a palaver.
Matthew and Isobel talk quietly at the door.
MATTHEW (CONT’D): Well, at least she doesn’t seem too serious.
ISOBEL: No, no. I’d say she’s been lucky. But I am terribly sorry about the wedding.
MATTHEW: These things are sent to try us.
† We didn’t really have anything for an actor playing Mr Swire to do. We would need him at the funeral, of course, but we could have him played by a supporting artist for that (the man who did it was very good), and the fact remained that we didn’t really want him in the mounting emotional drama. We needed it to be played out between Matthew, Lavinia and Mary, and we had no room for a sobbing Papa. So, in the end, we gave him a weak chest, and kept him away.
45 INT. CORA’S BEDROOM. DOWNTON. DAY.
Cora is feverish and delirious, covered only in a sheet.
ROBERT: Why didn’t anyone tell me she was like this?
SYBIL: She took a turn for the worse about half an hour ago. Where were you?
ROBERT: Out. I went for a walk.
Sybil is in her nursing uniform. She acknowledges his look.
SYBIL: It’s cleaner and safer, and some people find it comforting.
ROBERT: I’m sure they do.
O’Brien has arrived with a bowl of ice water. She starts to bathe Cora’s brow gently, talking softly, as to a child.
O’BRIEN: There you are, m’lady. That’s better, isn’t it?
Sybil whispers to her father.
SYBIL: She’s been with her all night.
ROBERT: O’Brien, you must have a rest.
O’BRIEN: Not just now, m’lord, if you don’t mind. I want to see her through the worst, if I can. Now, I’ll just make this cooler for you.
She goes on with her work. Robert returns to Sybil.
ROBERT: How is she? Really. Tell me the truth.
SYBIL: I can’t, yet. Doctor Clarkson says we will know more in a few hours.
ROBERT: God almighty. How can this be? My whole life gone over a cliff in the course of a single day.
SYBIL: Don’t give up hope, Papa. It’s much too early for that.
But her words are more alarming than comforting.*
* My own thinking was that, by this stage, the audience would have begun to work out that if you have as many major characters as this with Spanish ’flu, one of them has had it. So, hopefully, they are asking themselves which one has drawn the short straw. I wanted them to assume it was Cora, because then Robert would be on the horns of a dilemma, having just fallen for the charms of another woman. And then they would consider the plot possibilities of our finding another wife for Robert, and maybe his having more children, maybe a son who would change everything… Anyway, all of this was quite deliberately suggested to make them think it would be Cora who was on the way out. I don’t know if anyone was taken in.
END OF ACT THREE
ACT FOUR
46 INT. SERVANTS’ HALL. DOWNTON. DAY.
Anna looks in to find Bates, who is talking to a hall boy.
BATES: Take care of that. Thank you.
The hall boy leaves.
BATES (CONT’D): How are you doing?
ANNA: I’m not sure. Her ladyship’s worse.
BATES: I’m sorry.
ANNA: Jane said you wanted to see me.
BATES: It’s only to say that I’ve done it. I’ve booked the registrar.
ANNA: When for?
BATES: He’s had a cancellation. So it’s… it’s Friday afternoon.
ANNA: This Friday?
ETHEL (V.O.): Hello?
Ethel is there with Charlie, as Jane comes downstairs.
ANNA: Ethel? What are you doing here?
JANE: Those Bryants have turned up again.
ETHEL: That’s what.
ANNA: I’ll find Mrs Hughes and come back for you.
47 INT. DRAWING ROOM. DOWNTON. DAY.
Mr and Mrs Bryant sit in silence, when Mrs Hughes enters.
MRS HUGHES: I hope I haven’t kept you waiting.
MRS BRYANT: No, no.
MRS HUGHES: I’m afraid we have illness in the house, so I hope you can excuse Lord and Lady Grantham.
MR BRYANT: It’s not them we’ve come to see, is it? Is she here?
MRS HUGHES: She’s just coming now. Ah.
Anna ushers in Ethel with the boy. Ethel is very torn.
MRS BRYANT: May I meet him properly?
ETHEL: Come along, Charlie… This nice lady is your… grandmother.
MRS BRYANT: Perhaps you could call me Gran?
MRS HUGHES: He’s a stout little chap, isn’t he?
MRS BRYANT: And so like Charles. I thought it when we were last here. I know what was said at the time, and Mr Bryant’s sorry for it now, but I could see he was just like Charles.
MR BRYANT: Never mind all that. Let’s get down to business.
ETHEL: Business?
MR BRYANT: That’s what you want from us, isn’t it? To find out what we mean to do for little Charlie in the future?
This is such good news to both Mrs Hughes and Ethel.
48 INT. KITCHEN. DOWNTON. DAY.
Mrs Patmore is with O’Brien and Daisy.
DAISY: What do you mean, she might die?
O’BRIEN: She’s very ill. She may die.
DAISY: I know, but… I mean, die?
O’BRIEN: What do you think happens with a fatal illness? The fairies come?
The truth is, she is very upset, which Mrs Patmore can see.
MRS PATMORE: By heaven, if anything happens to her it won’t be your fault, Miss O’Brien. I’ve never seen such care.
This catches O’Brien off-guard. She has to confide.
O’BRIEN: I wish I could talk to her, that’s all. But she doesn’t know me.
MRS PATMORE: I’m sure she knows how hard you’ve worked for her.
O’BRIEN: It’s not that. There’s something I need — never mind. Either I will or I won’t.
During this, Mrs Patmore has poured the contents of a saucepan into a cup on a tray. O’Brien carries it away.
MRS PATMORE: You never know people, do you? You can work with them for twenty years, but you don’t know them at all.
49 INT. BEDROOM PASSAGE. DOWNTON. DAY.
Robert is walking along when he sees Sybil with a full tray.
ROBERT: Can you manage?
SYBIL: I’m taking these up for Carson and the hall boys.
ROBERT: I suppose you’ll be leaving soon? Now the wedding’s been put back.
SYBIL: Of course I’m not leaving. Not ’til Mama is well again. We may disagree, but I’m still your daughter.
He opens his dressing-room door. She gives a querying look.
ROBERT: I’m going to wash and change and then I’ll go back to sit with Mama.
50 INT. DRAWING ROOM. DOWNTON. DAY.
Ethel and Mrs Hughes are less pleased than they were.
ETHEL: What? You mean give him up? Never see him again?
MR BRYANT: Those are my terms.
MRS HUGHES: But would it hurt if Ethel were to care for him in your own house? She could be his nurse.
MRS BRYANT: That might be poss—
MR BRYANT: Of course you can’t be his nurse! Just think for a minute! We mean to bring him up as a gentleman, send him to Harrow, say, and Oxford. And all the while his mother’s down in the servants’ hall? How does that work?
ETHEL: Well, I — I could —
MR BRYANT: No, no. Don’t you see? We want to raise him as our grandson, not as a housemaid’s bastard.
The word has a shocking effect on the room.
MRS HUGHES: Well, he has to know the truth sometime.
MR BRYANT: Maybe, but not for a long time. ’Til then, his father had a wartime marriage until he died. And his mother succumbed to Spanish ’flu.
MRS BRYANT: A lot of people have.
MRS HUGHES: We’ve quite a few upstairs.
MR BRYANT: And that, for many years at least, is all that Charlie will be told.
ETHEL: So I’m just to be written out? Painted over? Buried?
MR BRYANT: What matters is what’s good for Charlie.
ETHEL: What’s good for Charlie and what’s good for you!
She turns to Mrs Bryant, whose eyes are full.
ETHEL (CONT’D): You’ve got a heart. I know you have. You see what he’s asking —
MR BRYANT: Ethel, consider this. In the world as it is, compare the two futures: the first, as my heir, educated, privileged, rich, able to do what he wants, to marry whom he likes; the second, as the bastard —
MRS HUGHES: I think we’ve heard enough of that word for one day.
MR BRYANT: Very well. As the nameless offshoot of a drudge. You’re his mother. Which would you choose for him?
ETHEL: Suppose I could be his nurse and never tell him who I am? Suppose I promise that?
MRS BRYANT: Surely —
MR BRYANT: Come on! We all know that’s a promise you could never keep.
The door opens and Anna comes in.
ANNA: I’m sorry, Mrs Hughes, we must send for the doctor to come at once. Her ladyship’s much worse.
Mrs Hughes turns to the others.
MRS HUGHES: I — I’m afraid —
MR BRYANT: You go where you’re needed. We’ve had our say, and you know how to reach us when you’ve made your decision. Come along, Daphne.
Mrs Bryant is with Ethel. They look at each other.*
* Just as the early episodes of the Bryant story were, in part, to give us a break from the war, so now they come as a slight relief from the ’flu. In a show like this, you normally try to have one story that is nothing to do with whatever it is that’s concerning everyone else. Although I’m sure the Bryants are sorry that Spanish ’flu is in the house, it doesn’t really bother Mr Bryant, certainly. He’s come to see the baby, and that’s all. This is constructed to be a Downton moment, because in one way we dislike Mr Bryant, and we dislike the offer he makes to Ethel. But on the other hand, is Ethel right in refusing his proposal, because of the reality of the situation? As a matter of fact, after it went out, some people attacked me for being sentimental in allowing Ethel to keep the boy and throw away his chances. I was speaking in a library in Hampstead, when a woman came up and absolutely shook me by the scruff of the neck. I could only suggest that she wait to see the next series before she unleashed her wrath.
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