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Downton Abbey in
Bampton
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Book Two
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The photographs of the filming of Downton Abbey in this publication have been taken by Bampton residents. Jules Carr John Grout Mike Renwick Janet Rouse James Wildmam
A Bampton Archive Publication Revised July 2015 BCA-26/A
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A Carnival Films production Produced by Julian Fellowes and Gareth Neame Written by Julian Fellowes Filmed on location at Highclere Castle, Newbury, Berks, and Bampton, Oxfordshire
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The series is set in the fictional Downton Abbey, and follows the lives of the Earl of Grantham, his family and their servants, in the reign of King George V. The first series spans the two years prior to the Great War, commencing with news of the sinking of the Titanic, an event that sets the story in motion. The second series is set after the declaration of war that we saw at the end of series one and includes Matthew Crawley in graphic battle scenes. Downton Abbey becomes a convalescent home for wounded officers. Matthew is seriously wounded and is paralysed from the waist down. Bates is arrested for the murder of his wife. Series three and World War I is over, and the British Empire is already in its twilight, but somehow the devastation of the epoch hasn’t fully sunk in. Change is in the air, but not yet in the bloodstream. The inhabitants of Downton Abbey, upstairs and down, talk of progress (an electric toaster scandalizes the butler), but without much awareness of what it will do to their way of life. The series ends with the introduction of a new character, the 18-year-old Lady Rose, the great-niece of the Dowager Countess of Grantham. A Christmas Special saw the death of Matthew Crawley. Series four moves further into the 20th Century, 1922, and life is a lot more cheerful, unless you are Mary, of course, who has just lost her husband. Below stairs Thomas the footman is up to his nasty ways again, particularly as his partner in crime, O’Brien, has left. And we meet some new characters, including the series first black actor. Highclere Castle in Berkshire, home of the Earl and Countess of Carnarvon is used for Downton Abbey, whilst Bampton is used for filming most of the outdoor scenes, most notably St Mary's Church - scene of the wedding, and the Bampton library, which serves as the entrance to the Cottage Hospital, whilst a house in Church View is the Post Office where the first series begins with the telegraph boy cycling to Downton Abbey with the telegram bringing news of the sinking of the Titanic and the loss of the heir to the family estates.
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Cast
Robert Crawley, Earl of Grantham Cora Crawley, Countess of Grantham Lady Mary Crawley Lady Edith Crawley Lady Sybil Branson (nee Crawley) Violet Crawley, Dowager Countess of Grantham Tom Branson Matthew Crawley Isobel Crawley
Hugh Bonneville Elizabeth McGovern Michelle Dockery Laura Carmichael Jessica Brown Findlay Maggie Smith Allen Leech Dan Stevens Penelope Wilton
Lady Rose MacClare
Lily James
Lady Rosamund Painswick (nee Crawley)
Dr Richard Clarkson Martha Levinson Hugh “Shrimpie” MacClare Susan MacClare
Samantha Bond David Robb Shirley MacLaine Peter Egan Phoebe Nicholls
Mr Carson Mrs Hughes Mr Bates Miss O’Brien Thomas Barrow Anna Bates (nee Smith) Mrs Patmore Daisy Mason Joseph Molesley Alfred Nugent Edna Braithwaite
Jim Carter Phyllis Logan Brendan Coyle Siobhan Finneran Rob James-Collier Joanne Froggatt Lesley Nicol Sophie McShera Kevin Doyle Matt Milne MyAnna Buring
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Highclere Castle is the home of Lord and Lady Carnarvon and has been the home of the Carnarvon family since 1679. Built on an ancient site, the original house was recorded in the Domesday Book.
St. Mary’s Church, Bampton (12th Century). It is in Bampton that most of the outside scenes for Downton Abbey are filmed. Bampton is a village (some would say a town) in Oxfordshire whose history goes back to the Iron Age. The area around the church has many old properties and some of the streets have changed very little since Edwardian times. The green outside the church and in front of Mrs. Crawley’s house is where the Fairground scene was filmed in an early episode. 6
Church View in Bampton is used as Downton High Street and is the scene of much to-ing and fro-ing, mainly to Mrs. Crawley’s house or to St. Michael and All Angels Church, better known to Bamptonians as St. Mary’s.
Early morning in Church View as it awaits the arrival of the film crew and the actors.
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The film crew start to assemble on the green by the church of St. Mary’s.
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The film crew setting up a shot in front of Mrs. Crawley’s house by the church.
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There are two pubs in Downton and this one, The Dog and Duck, is further down Church View, past the Post Office.
Someone’s house becomes a pub and all that wiring will have to be hidden!
The Grantham Arms, opposite the east end of the Church. 10
There was a crisis when the wall opposite to Mrs. Crawley’s house collapsed and the design department came to the rescue with this very decorative wall which looks much better than the original. Eventually the wall was rebuilt and they no longer had to reinstate it every time they wanted to film!
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Mrs. Crawley’s house on the green, by the church.
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St. Mary’s Church, or St. Michael and All Angels, to give it its Downton name - scene of weddings, some not completed, and funerals.
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Dame Maggie Smith awaits her scene.
Meanwhile the ‘Vicar’ signs autographs for Bampton children. 15
Violet, Dowager Countess of Grantham Dame Maggie Smith
Dame Maggie began her career at the Oxford Playhouse. In 1969, she won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance as an unorthodox Scottish school teacher in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. She was also awarded the 1978 Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role as the brittle actress Diana Barry in California Suite, acting opposite Michael Caine. More recent films are Tea with Mussolini, where she appeared as the formidable Lady Hesterand, the judgmental sister in Ladies in Lavender, and the cantankerous snob Constance, Countess of Trentham in Gosford Park, for which she received another Oscar nomination. On stage, her many roles have included starring as Amanda in a revival of Private Lives. She won a Tony Award in 1990 for Best Actress in Peter Shaffer's Lettice and Lovage, in which she starred as an eccentric tour guide in an English stately home. In 2007, she appeared in Edward Albee's The Lady from Dubuque at Theatre Royal Haymarket. Dame Maggie was made Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1970, and was raised to Dame Commander (DBE) in 1990. 16
Filming is boring with an awful lot of waiting around!
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Robert, Earl of Grantham Hugh Bonneville
On television, Hugh Bonneville played the title role in Philip Larkin. Other screen credits include Daniel Deronda, Tipping The Velvet, Take a Girl Like You, Madame Bovary and the Emmy Award-winning Churchill drama, The Gathering Storm. On stage, work includes Sam Mendes' production of Habeas Corpus. His work for the Royal Shakespeare Company includes Laertes to Kenneth Branagh's Hamlet, The Alchemist, Two Gentlemen of Verona and 'Tis Pity She's a Whore. 18
More waiting...
‌and the car wont start!
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Cora, Countess of Grantham Elizabeth McGovern
Elizabeth was born in Evanston, Illinois, USA, and studied at The Juilliard School in New York City. In 1980, while studying there, she was offered a part in her first film, Ordinary People, in which she played the girlfriend of a troubled teenager. In 1981 she earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Evelyn Nesbit in the film Ragtime, and in 1984, she starred in Sergio Leone's gangster epic Once Upon a Time in America. In 1989 she played Mickey Rourke's girlfriend in Johnny Handsome, and the same year appeared as a rebellious lesbian in Volker Schlรถndorff's thriller The Handmaid's Tale. In 1999 and 2000 McGovern played Marguerite St. Just in a BBC television series based on the novel The Scarlet Pimpernel and in May 2007 she played Ellen Doubleday, Daphne du Maurier's paramour, in Daphne, a BBC2 television drama. In December 2008 McGovern appeared as Dame Celia Westholme in an episode of Agatha Christie's Poirot and in the same year she appeared in the BBC comedy series Freezing. McGovern played an American expatriate actress living in Chiswick with her publisher husband, played by Hugh Bonneville .
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The director explains a shot.
A busy day on Downton High Street.
Shooting a ‘moving car’ scene on a low loader.
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Martha Levinson Shirley MacLaine
Shirley MacLaine was born on the 24th April 1934, and has won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress twice, for her roles in The Apartment and Irma la Douce, and also the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress twice for Terms of Endearment and Madame Sousatzka. In 1976 she was awarded the Emmy Award for Outstanding Variety, Comedy or Music Special for Gypsy in My Soul and was nominated for an Academy Award five times before winning the Academy Award for Best Actress in 1983 for her role as Aurora Greenway in Terms of Endearment. In 1988 she was honoured with the Golden Globe Cecil B. DeMille Award. She is known for her New Age beliefs and interest in spirituality and reincarnation and has written a large number of autobiographical works, many dealing with her spiritual beliefs as well as her Hollywood career. In 2012 she was honoured with the 40th American Film Institute Life Achievement Award, the highest honour for a career in the US film industry. 22
The cars and the men who look after them.
All sorts of vehicles are used in the series.
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Thomas Barrow Robert James-Collier
James-Collier was born in Stockport, Greater Manchester. He has two degrees: he studied business at Huddersfield and marketing at the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology. Having no experience as an actor, James-Collier auditioned for the series Down To Earth, where stars Ricky Tomlinson and Denise Welch were convinced by his talent, and he got the part of the womanising pub landlord. In 2006 he appeared in New Street Law and played a small part as Stud in Shameless under the name of Rob Collier. In 2006 he joined Coronation Street as one of the brothers buying a share of the local underwear factory. Lady Rose Lily James
Lily James’ theatre credits include Desdemona in Daniel Evan’s production of Othello, Ella and Taylor in Vernon God Little at the Young Vic Theatre. Most recently she starred as Nina in The Seagull at Southwark Playhouse. She starred in Fast Girls, the 2012 movie directed by Noel Clarke. Previous to this, she played the role of Korrina in the Wrath of the Titans. Her television credits include starring as Poppy in the fourth season of ITV's Secret Diary of a Call Girl starring Billie Piper and in the BBC production of Richmal Crompton's Just William with Daniel Roche. 24 24
The Doctor and Mrs Crawley take a stroll.
It’s cold outside the church, whilst waiting for your scene.
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Brendan Coyle received a Laurence Olivier Award in 1999 for his performance in McPherson's The Weir, and won a New York Critics Theatre World Award for Outstanding Broadway Debut for the same play in its New York production. In 2001, Coyle appeared in the film Conspiracy as Gestapo Chief Heinrich MĂźller and Nicholas Higgins on the BBC's North and South. Since 2008, he has played the pivotal part of Robert Timmins in three BBC series based on Lark Rise to Candleford. John Bates Brendan Coyle
Joanne Froggatt's first major TV role was as single teenage mum Zoe Tattersall in Coronation Street. Her other TV credits include Murder in the Outback, Robin Hood and Life On Mars. In her first film, In Our Name, Froggatt played Suzy, a soldier readjusting to being a mother after serving in Iraq. The 30-year-old actress is keen on more film roles after she has finished filming Downton Abbey, but her next engagement is in two plays as part of the Bush Theatre's Schools Season. In John Donnelly's play The Knowledge she played the lead role of a teacher in a failing school. 26
Anna Joanne Froggatt
Preparing the church for the wedding.
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The wedding that didn’t happen…
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‌and the one that did.
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Lining up a shot whilst the decorations for the wedding are put up.
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Lining up a shot outside The Grantham Arms.
The wedding carriage awaits the bride. 31
Jack Ross Gary Carr
Carr began his training at the National Youth Music Theatre of Great Britain, then trained at the Arts Educational Performing Arts College from 2003 through 2005, and then finally at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA) from 2005 to 2008. It was during his first year of training that he obtained a role in the play Yerma, written by Spanish playwright Federico GarcĂa Lorca, in which he acted alongside Olivier Award winning actress Kathryn Hunter, at the Arcola Theatre. Since graduating from LAMDA in July 2008, he has appeared in roles for BBC and ITV productions and in the Royal National Theatre production of Dido Queen of Carthage, written by Christopher Marlowe and directed by James Macdonald.
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One of the most impressive scenes in the first series was of the fair which included a Helter Skelter that the children of Bampton were allowed to use for free!
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Michelle made her professional debut in His Dark Materials at the Royal National Theatre in 2006 and then made her television debut as Betty in Fingersmith in 2005. She appeared in Burnt by the Sun at the National Theatre for which she received an Olivier Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress and was Eliza Doolittle in Peter Hall's production of Pygmalion at the Theatre Royal, Bath. In 2009, she appeared in the two-part Cranford Christmas special for the BBC, and starred as the lead character in a modernised BBC adaptation of The Turn of the Screw. Lady Mary Crawley Michelle Dockery Phoebe Nicholls is known for her roles as Cordelia Flyte in Brideshead Revisited and as the mother of John Merrick in The Elephant Man. An undiagnosed dyslexic, she left school early. Upon leaving, she trained at the Central School of Speech and Drama. Nicholls married Brideshead Revisited director Charles Sturridge and they have three children. Their eldest son Tom Sturridge and daughter Matilda Sturridge are also actors. Susan MacClare Marchioness of Flintshire Phoebe Nicholls 34
Mr Bates - and friend!
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Daisy Mason Sophie McShera
Sophie began her television career in 2007 where after several minor roles, she was cast as sixth form pupil, Ros McCain in the BBC drama Waterloo Road. She has also appeared on television with roles in the soap operas Emmerdale and Doctors and the drama Survivors in 2008.
Alfred Nugent Matt Milne Matt Milne was born in Hereford in 1990 and he made his film debut in Stephen Spielberg's War Horse, where he played Andrew Eaton. In Wrath of the Titans he was Elite Guard No 1. On stage he played Stanley Kowalski in A Street Car Named Desire, and Mark Renton in Trainspotting. His Shakespeare appearances have included Malcolm in Macbeth and Cloten in Cymbeline.
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Might as well do the crossword whilst I’m waiting!
More waiting around!
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Mr. Carson Jim Carter Jim Carter's film credits include A Month in the Country, The Madness of King George , Richard III, and Shakespeare in Love. He played John Faa in The Golden Compass, the film adaptation of the His Dark Materials trilogy. He also starred in House Of 9 as The Watcher, and as the executioner in Alice in Wonderland. His television credits include Lipstick on Your Collar, Cracker, The Way We Live Now, The Singing Detective, A Very British Coup, Midsomer Murders and the BBC series Cranford. Mrs. Hughes After graduation, Phyllis Logan joined the Dundee Repertory Theatre which she left in 1979 to work on stage in Edinburgh. On the BBC Scotland production, The White Bird Passes, she first met writer-director Michael Radford and in his first feature film, Another Time, Another Place in 1982, he cast her in the leading role of Janie, for which she won a Gold Award for Best Actress at the Taormina Film Festival. She also won the Evening Standard Award for Best Actress in 1983 and the BAFTA Award for the Most Outstanding Newcomer to Film in 1984. She also had a regular role as Lady Jane Felsham in the television series Lovejoy. 38
Phyllis Logan
The car drives up to the church‌
‌and arrives. 39
Tom Branson Allen Leach Leech made his professional acting debut with a small part in a 1998 production of A Streetcar Named Desire. He made his first major film appearance as Vincent Cusack in Cowboys & Angels and earned an Irish Film & Television Awards nomination in 2004 with his performance as Mo Chara in Man About Dog. Leech came to international attention as Marcus Agrippa on the HBO historical drama Rome.
Mrs Crawley Penelope Wilton Penelope Wilton’s television career began in 1972, playing Vivie Warren in Mrs. Warren's Profession opposite Robert Powell. She then had several major TV roles, including two of the BBC Television Shakespeare productions, as Desdemona in Othello, and Regan in King Lear. Her film career includes roles in The French Lieutenant's Woman, Cry Freedom, Iris, Calendar Girls and Shaun of the Dead, Pride and Prejudice, in Woody Allen's film Match Point and in The History Boys. 40
Joseph Molesley Kevin Doyle Kevin Doyle has made a name for himself acting extensively with the Royal Shakespeare Company in London. His first big break on screen was in the 1997 BBC drama series The Lakes. He has since gone on to appear in films such as The Libertine and Good as well as television series such as Midsomer Murders, Law & Order, The Bill, Casualty and The Tudors.
Laura Carmichael graduated from the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School in 2007 and was working as a receptionist in a physician's office and about to go on tour in Dubai in a production of Shakepseare's Twelfth Night when she was asked to read for a role in Downton Abbey. The rest, as they say, is history!
Lady Edith Crawley Laura Carmichael 41
Mrs Patmore Lesley Nicol
Best known for her roles as Mrs Beaver in the 1988 BBC adaptation of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and as the Queen Giant in the 1990 adaptation of The Silver Chair. She has guest-starred on numerous British television series and made her film debut in 1999's East is East, reprising her role from the stage production. She also appeared as Rosie in the West End production of Mamma Mia! from 2000 to 2002. 42
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