Downton is back for one last hurrah this month. Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale gathers all your old favourites – Lord Grantham, Lady Crawley, Carson, Mrs Patmore, Uncle Harold – for a whopping great slice of cinematic comfort food that will satisfy long-time fans and may even win over any newbies who have wandered in by mistake. The story takes in scandals and love affairs, epic changes and old traditions – classic Downton ingredients given a seasoning of nostalgia and a fond farewell as screenwriter Julian Fellowes bids farewell to his beloved characters.
But The Grand Finale also says goodbye to some very familiar British landmarks, too, while introducing some new ones. As ever, it’s an access-all-areas pass to some of the country’s grandest country houses, but the new movie introduces some unexpected new locations as it recreates Edwardian England in flux. Here’s where it all came together.
Downton Abbey was filmed at Highclere Castle
Of course, it’s not Downton Abbey without a trip to Highclere Castle. The grand Berkshire pile has been standing in as the Crawley’s ancestral seat since episode 1 way back in 2010. ‘Julian [Fellowes] had loosely based the drama on Highclere Castle so we thought we ought to see that first,’ says production designer Donal Woods of the location. ‘After Highclere, we saw another 40 houses in Yorkshire and the south of England. Then in November 2009, we all sat down together, and everyone offered up their favourite. We all said Highclere Castle and the rest is history.’ In The Grand Finale, Downton – and Highclere – come into focus after the Crawleys make an early sojourn to London for the Season. Which brings us to…
The Crawleys’ London home was filmed in Berkshire
The Crawleys’ London pad, Grantham House, plays a key role in The Grand Finale. It’s where the family get ready for their fancy London functions and prepare to face the big boss of this level, Lady Petersfield (Joely Richardson), at her Petersfield Ball. The house is actually Berkshire’s Basildon Park, an old Downton staple that was also a key location in the 2013 Downton Christmas special. It’s open to the public (tickets are £19, free for National Trust members). Look out for its hall, dining room, drawing room and Octagon Room in the new movie.
Buckinghamshire’s Clayton House was used for London’s Petersfield Ball
And speaking of the Petersfield Ball, the London event where the newly divorced Lady Mary (Michelle Dockery) finds herself in a sticky social predicament, those scenes were filmed at Clayton House. The Buckinghamshire pile’s famous ‘singing staircase’ plays a key role in the sequence. ‘A lot of that scene takes place around the stairs and Clayton House has one of the most magnificent staircases in England right next to a ballroom,’ says Donal Woods. ‘The geography of the house worked out brilliantly for our shoot. That scene takes place quite early in the film so we all wanted to make it a real visual feast for the audience.’
Lady Mary shops in Fortnum & Mason in London
An early shopping trip, which gives Lady Mary a chance to catch up on all the gossip, takes in the royally-endorsed hamper haven that is Piccadilly’s Fortnum & Mason. The department store has been keeping society types in exotic chutneys and fine comestibles since 1707. ‘We filmed at Fortnum & Mason, Piccadilly Arcade, a central London park and near Buckingham Palace,’ says Woods. ‘We always try and give viewers locations they’ve not seen before, but with this we wanted it to be recognisably London.’
Royal Ascot was recreated at Ripon Racecourse
With Uncle Harold (Paul Giamatti) and his dubious American friend Gus Sambrook (Alessandro Nivola) in tow, the family heads to Ascot for another calendar event in the London Season. The scenes were actually filmed 250 miles to the north at Yorkshire’s Ripon Racecourse. ‘We visited Ascot and all the racecourses around London, but they've all been modernised,’ explains Woods of the decision. ‘Ascot has now got a building the size of Heathrow’s Terminal 5 and the old one was demolished in the early 2000s. We ended up at Ripon because it had the most period features that you could use without CGI and the paddock was fantastic there. We gained a lot from, strangely, one of the smallest racecourses in Britain to represent one the biggest racecourses in Britain.’
The county show was filmed at the Great Yorkshire Showground, Harrogate
The fictional Downton Abbey is in Yorkshire, of course, so it’s apt that the county plays a significant role in the new movie. Another Yorkshire location used was Harrogate’s showground. It’s where the annual country fair happens IRL, so was a natural fit for a big sequence in which the Crawleys visit their own local fair and face off with the unctuous Sir Hector Moreland (Simion Russell Beale). ‘I was really influenced by what was already there and added the fairground and other aspects to give it a 1930s look,’ says Woods of the 1930s fair. ‘[We had] livestock, a funfair, hundreds of extras and all our cast in attendance wearing their Sunday best,’ adds producer Liz Trubridge.
Is there a trailer?
There is – check it out below.
Six glorious ‘Downton Abbey: A New Era’ film locations to visit.
How to visit all of the ‘Downton Abbey’ country houses in the UK.