‘I’m Really Proud Of The Theme Of Female Empowerment’

After six seasons and two movies, Downton Abbey is coming to an end with a third and final movie, Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale, now out in U.S. theaters.

This article contains important spoilers past this point.

I spoke with Simon Curtis, the director of Downton Abbey: A New Era and of The Grand Finale, about the final scene of the movie which will be, without any doubt, very nostalgic for the fans.

After Mary finally inherits Downton, Lord and Lady Grantham leave the house for good, and move to the Dower house, as Lady Violet did when Lord Grantham inherited Downton, decades ago. As any fan of the series will tell you, only Mary deserved to inherit the house, especially after everything she went through and after caring so much for this house.

In a very poignant and nostalgic final scene, we see Mary entering the great hall of Downton and relieving some of her best memories, such as her first dance with her one true love, Matthew Crawley, or simply seeing her late sister Lady Sybil, smile to her. The creator of the show, Julian Fellowes, was there alongside Curtis during the filming of this scene, although at the time, neither of them quite knew what Mary was thinking about at that moment.

The director said, “We weren’t entirely sure at that time what the images she was seeing were going to be, I just knew we were going to dig in the wonderful legacy of Downton Abbey. And it struck me that we were dealing with quite a unique -I wouldn’t say absolutely unique-, but the idea that Mary in 1930 could look back at an image of Mary 15 years earlier, and that we actually have the footage of that, was a wonderful gift. So there’s that and we just wanted to underscore that fact that we, the characters, the audience have all been on this deeply emotional journey, as we all do in our own families, whether they’re chosen families or blood families, go through wonderful things and horrible things, and that really is the spirit of the show.”

On his collaboration with Julian Fellowes, Curtis said, “I have a tremendous admiration for Julian Fellowes. It is quite remarkable that he has written every word of every episode in every series and every film. That in itself is extraordinary, but he’s also a master at writing ensemble stories. He told me that when he did Gosford Park, he studied all the great ensemble films of Robert Altman. I think it shows and as a director, it is a gift to work with this ensemble of actors and seeing them each having a satisfying arc within two hours. It’s kind of incredible.”

Throughout the movie, Fellowes and Curtis pay tribute to Dame Maggie Smith, who passed away in September 2024. She portrayed the iconic and delightfully funny Lady Violet, who dies at the end of the second film. However, this third movie found a way to pay tribute to this character in a very subtle, charming and funny way, by making references to some of her most iconic and hilarious lines, for example.

Curtis said, “Julian was very clever [about it]. When we shot this, Maggie was still alive, but I wondered at some point if we might have too many references to her, but in the final cut, I think we got the balance right.”

In the final scene, we can see the portrait of Lady Violet, watching over Lady Mary, passing the baton to her, as she so often did throughout the show. “I think we aren’t actually allowed to hang it, so I often wonder when people visit Highclere Castle, how disappointed they will be that Maggie’s portrait isn’t actually there,” said Curtis.

Noël Coward, the famous British playwright is also portrayed in this movie, just like many historical figures were also featured in the show over the years (such as the famous lyric soprano Dame Nellie Melba, or British political figure Neville Chamberlain.) The beautiful and colorful opening sequence of The Grand Finale takes us across the London streets and into a West End theatre, where the family is watching Coward’s operata, Bitter Sweet.

“I’m a big theatre guy, so that opening sequence in that lovely West End theatre means a great deal to me. And I’ve been trying to make a film about Noël Coward for 25 or 30 years.”

But if huge set pieces like this one were crucial to the film, some more intimate scenes between the characters, like the goodbye scenes, were absolutely critical in terms of writing and directing.

Curtis said, “As a director, it’s a gift, because these actors were so intimately and deeply connected to their characters. I’d be a complete fool not to lean into that.”

He added: “The dialogue scene as Robert and Cora walk away from the house is phenomenal. And also the two sisters having that sort of very English, ‘Julian Fellowish’ dialogue, as they say goodbye to each other is very powerful. The actors were saying goodbye to the characters, the audience was saying goodbye to the characters, but the characters weren’t necessarily saying goodbye to each other.”

From Mrs. Patmore passing the baton to Daisy, whom she considers like her daughter, to the rocky relationship between Edith and Mary, who have now become friends and allies, or even Mary and Anna, who will ask the former to be the godmother of her unborn child, this final movie proves once again that Downton Abbey was always about connection and friendship.

Curtis said, “You put it very well, that’s the rich texture of it, and as I said, Laura (Carmichael) and Michelle (Dockery) are very, very close friends, they’re like real sisters now, as well as playing sisters. And like with any family, for these characters, it’s not always easy, you can become touchy or whatever, but their relationship has blossomed on camera, and I was the lucky recipient of that.”

Of course, fans of the show will be able to hear some of the most famous themes written by John Lum for the show, one last time. “I had worked with John before, and the music is brilliant, but I remember saying, ‘I am not sure we need new themes in this film’, because part of the nostalgia is hearing those luscious, emotional themes again. And also we have the music of Noël Coward featured in the film. So, John did some great work, but we were celebrating the body of work of this historical score that had an emotional resonance that really helped us.”

But the end is never truly the end, and Curtis made the choice of adding some lovely vignettes in the credits, to show what the characters will be up to, when the lights come on at the end of the film.

He said, “I urge people to stay for what I call the vignettes during the credits. They are lovely images and love letters of couples, relationships and families. We wanted to give a sense of where they are all going to carry on in their lives, and how they bonded with each other.”

More than anything, Curtis wanted the female characters of the show to receive the flowers they rightly deserved: “I’m really proud of the theme of female empowerment with those characters. Obviously Mary and Daisy get the status they always deserved. But Edith, Cora, Isobel, they all have more agency and more voice that perhaps they did earlier, in those early iterations, and maybe that’s a sign of the time. The actresses all seized that and delivered brilliantly.”