Duchess of Cambridge visits Downton Abbey set

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/mar/12/kate-duchess-of-cambridge-visits-downton-abbey-set

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Back in the day, a spluttering Carson would have been mortified had a royal ventured below stairs. But times have been a-changin’ at Downton, as the Duchess of Cambridge discovered when she was welcomed to the servants’ quarters on the Ealing Studios set of the ITV hit.

On a visit to celebrate British creative industries, the duchess watched during a shoot for the sixth series of the show and was presented with a special chocolate cake, the work of outside caterers rather than cook Mrs Patmore, played by Lesley Nicol, and her kitchen maid Daisy Mason, played by Sophie McShera.

The show’s creator, Julian Fellowes, told the duchess she had unwittingly played a significant part in the Downton story. “Just as we were trying to shift Downton in America, you actually made a visit and someone said had you ever heard of a show called Downton Abbey. And you said you’d heard of it, you’d watched it, you’d enjoyed it,” he recalled.

“This went into the media like an Exocet missile, and soon all of America and most of the world knew it and as a result out challenge faded away.”

The duchess met cast members including Hugh Bonneville, who plays Robert Crawley, Earl of Grantham, and Jim Carter, who plays butler Carson. The waspish dowager Countess of Grantham missed the visit, as actor Dame Maggie Smith was ill.

The aristocratic Crawleys are no strangers to royalty. The 2013 Christmas special featured George V, Queen Mary and the future Edward VIII and George VI in a 1923 plot line about debutante Lady Rose’s coming out, with the Prince of Wales asking Lord Grantham’s permission to open the ball.

A fervent monarchist, Lord Grantham has a pragmatic view of royalty. Dismissive of the private life of the then Prince of Wales – “I’ll be sorry if he means to revive the ways of his grandpapa [Edward VII]” – he nevertheless helped avert a national scandal when a stolen letter threatened to reveal the future king’s affair with the married society hostess Freda Dudley Ward.

In series five he allowed a new-fangled wireless to be installed at the family seat only because King George V was about to broadcast over the airwaves.

Highclere, the Hampshire home of the Earl and Countess of Carnarvon, is used for the exterior and many interior shoots for Downton Abbey, while the kitchen, servants’ quarters and upstairs bedrooms are filmed on sets constructed at the west London studios.

The duchess arrived at the hair and makeup trailer just as housekeeper Mrs Hughes, played by Phyllis Logan, was in the chair. “You’ve come just at the right time, Phyllis is about to have her Botox put in,” joked Robert James Collier, the sinister under-butler Thomas Barrow.

In the costume department the duchess was shown how the show’s period wardrobe is created. As for her own wardrobe, the duchess, who is expecting her second child in April, had chosen a £69 cream maternity coat, a choice perhaps more downstairs than up.

During the tour, the duchess watched a scene being filmed in a dimly lit bedroom between Lady Mary Crawley, played by Michelle Dockery, and her maid, Anna Bates, played by Joanne Froggatt. “Do you ever get the giggles?”, she asked them afterwards. “Oh, yes”, they replied in unison.

She watched a second take, wearing headphone customised with the initials HRH.

Downstairs, she was shown the kitchen, servants hall and Carson’s study. Jim Carter, who plays the butler, confided his favourite scenes were filmed there, “particularly when the lights are down and I’m having a glass of sherry with Mrs Hughes”.

The duchess remarked: “The sets are so much smaller than you imagine – especially when you’ve got all the crew in here as well”.