Downton Abbey/Trivia

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • Actor Allusion: In Episode 2, Lady Mary tells the story of Perseus and Andromeda at dinner - with the Dowager Countess trying to shush her. Maggie Smith previously starred in Clash of the Titans, which adapted the story. What's more is that the Dowager Countess reacts with shock that Andromeda was chained naked to a rock - when in the movie she is wearing clothes.
  • Actor Shared Background:
    • Mrs. Hughes wasn't originally written as Scottish, but that changed after Phyllis Logan auditioned.
    • Also, Branson was originally envisioned as being from Yorkshire, but after Allen Leech's audition, Julian Fellowes realized making the character Irish opened up a whole new list of storytelling opportunities, and made Branson Irish instead.
    • Cora is an American who married an Englishman, moved to England with him, and spent the next several decades with him there raising their daughters. The same is also true of her actress, Elizabeth McGovern.
    • Michelle Dockery, Laura Carmichael, and Jessica Brown Findlay all grew up in households where they had multiple siblings who were all girls. Laura Carmichael was even the middle child in a family with three daughters.
  • Big Name Fan: Queen Elizabeth II, though it didn't stop her from pointing out a WWI soldier incorrectly wearing a WWII medal. She's also been a guest at Highclere Castle, where it is filmed.
  • Contest Winner Cameo: When Downton creator Julian Fellowes' friend's daughter was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes, he supported research into the condition by donating the centrepiece auction prize at a fundraising event; the opportunity for a lucky bidder to have a character in the next season created in their name. The winning bidder opted for the new character to take his son’s wonderfully Downton-esque name.
  • Creator Backlash:
    • Maggie Smith has been quite vocal on how glad the show is ending as she finds its immense popularity annoying since she can no longer go around in public without being approached by fans.
    • Elizabeth McGovern revealed shortly after filming finished that she was quite dissatisfied with the show for most of its run, feeling like she was "strangled" as Cora had hardly anything to do.
    • Everyone in the cast hated shooting the dinner scenes, which often took far longer to film than they should have, with the food quickly starting to stink.
  • Dawson Casting: The series starts out by doing this; for example, Lady Sybil is 16 at the time the show begins, but played by the 21-year-old Jessica Brown Findlay. Since the show's time progresses considerably faster than real time, this doesn't last; by the end of Series 2, Sybil has actually passed Findlay's real age.
  • Dueling Shows: With the revival of Upstairs, Downstairs. Downton came out the clear winner as an international mega-hit for all six series, while Upstairs was cancelled after its second series.
  • Edited for Syndication: Originally aired in the UK as 7 episodes, most of which are about 45 minutes long, except for the first and the last episodes, each of which clock in at a little over an hour. When Downton Abbey first aired in the US, it was condensed into four 90-minute episodes of Masterpiece on PBS. The U.S. DVD restores the full-length UK version.
  • Fake American: Gary Carr is English — and unfortunately his rather stage-school attempt at a generic American accent makes this obvious.
  • Fan Community Nicknames: Downtonians.
  • Hey, It's That Guy!:
  • Hey, It's That Voice!: Ivy Stuart is Tracer.
  • McLeaned:
    • Sybil was killed off because Jessica Brown-Findlay wanted to leave to pursue her film career.
    • Matthew had an even more obvious case than Sybil's, because there had been buzz for months before his character's death about Dan Stevens possibly leaving the show. The writers have since admitted that they would have preferred not to kill off Matthew.
  • No Export for You: An unusual example that took place within the UK. Viewers in Scotland missed out on the series when first broadcast, as the local ITV station had decided that the series was overpriced and unlikely to be a hit.
  • One of Us: In the Behind the Drama interview videos, Jessica Brown-Findlay and Allen Leech talk about scanning scripts of their scenes together and wondering when Sybil and Branson are finally going to kiss.
  • Reality Subtext: In Series 2, Downton is turned into a recovery house for troops from World War I. Highclere Castle, where the show is filmed, was opened as a hospital during the war.
  • Real Life Relative: Kevin R. McNally, who played Mr. Horace Bryant, is married to Phyllis Logan, who plays Mrs. Hughes.
  • Separated At Birth Casting: Ruairi Conaghan is particularly well-cast as Tom's older brother, and shares similar features, the same sandy hair colour and even the same pale blond eyebrow colour with his on-screen sibling.
  • Stunt Casting: The casting of Shirley MacLaine as the Grande Dame Martha Levinson is done for all the right reasons — what other American actress could possibly go head-to-head with Dame Maggie Smith in the battle of the matriarchs?
  • What Could Have Been:
    • Gillian Anderson was offered the part of Cora Crawley, but turned it down.
    • Steven Waddington auditioned for the role of Bates.
    • The show was originally thought up as a spin-off to Gosford Park, also written by Fellowes. It later became a separate entity set a couple of decades earlier.
    • A wild rumour circulated that Series 6 would end with the Crawleys leaving Downton Abbey and settling into Downton Place. The scenes that suggested this later turned out to be the Crawleys attending an auction at another house.
    • Fellowes has stated that even if the elderly Maggie Smith ever became unable to continue with the show for any reason, he would not have killed Violet off and would have come up with some reason for her not appearing onscreen, likely going on a long trip. Luckily, she remained with the show for its entire run.
    • Allen Leech has revealed that Matthew was originally going to end up with Sybil, until both actors tired of the show.
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