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Downton Abbey Biography & Facts

Downton Abbey is a British historical drama television series set in the early 20th century, created and co-written by Julian Fellowes. It first aired in the United Kingdom on ITV on 26 September 2010 and in the United States on PBS, which supported its production as part of its Masterpiece Classic anthology, on 9 January 2011. The show ran for six series and fifty-two episodes, including five Christmas specials. The series, set on the fictional Yorkshire country estate of Downton Abbey between 1912 and 1926, depicts the lives of the aristocratic Crawley family and their domestic servants in the post-Edwardian era, and the effects the great events of the time have on their lives and on the British social hierarchy. These events include news of the sinking of the Titanic (first series); the outbreak of the First World War, the Spanish influenza pandemic, and the Marconi scandal (second series); the Irish War of Independence leading to the formation of the Irish Free State (third series); the Teapot Dome scandal (fourth series); and the British general election of 1923 and the Beer Hall Putsch (fifth series). The sixth and final series introduces the rise of the working class during the interwar period and hints at the eventual decline of the British aristocracy. Downton Abbey has received acclaim from television critics and numerous accolades, including a Golden Globe Award for Best Miniseries or Television Film and a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Miniseries or Movie. It was recognised by Guinness World Records as the most critically acclaimed English-language television series of 2011. It earned 27 Primetime Emmy Award nominations after its first two series, the most for any international television series in the awards' history. It was the most watched television series on both ITV and PBS, and became the most successful British costume drama since the 1981 television serial of Brideshead Revisited. On 26 March 2015, Carnival Films and ITV announced that the sixth series would be the last. It aired on ITV between 20 September 2015 and 8 November 2015. The final episode, the annual Christmas special, was broadcast on 25 December 2015. A film adaptation, a continuation of the series, was confirmed on 13 July 2018 and released in the United Kingdom on 13 September 2019, and in the United States on 20 September 2019. A second feature film, Downton Abbey: A New Era, was released in the United Kingdom on 29 April 2022 by Universal Pictures, and in the United States and Canada on 20 May 2022 by Focus Features. Plot overview Series 1 (2010) The first series, comprising seven episodes, explores the lives of the fictional Crawley family, the hereditary Earl of Grantham, and their domestic servants. The storyline centres on the fee tail, or "entail", governing the titled elite, which endows title and estate exclusively to male heirs. As part of the backstory, the main character, Robert Crawley, Earl of Grantham, had resolved his father's past financial difficulties by marrying Cora Levinson, an American heiress. Her considerable dowry is now contractually incorporated into the committal entail in perpetuity; however, Robert and Cora have three daughters and no son. As the eldest daughter, Lady Mary Crawley had agreed to marry her second cousin Patrick, the son of the then-heir presumptive James Crawley. The series begins the day after the sinking of RMS Titanic on 14/15 April 1912. The first episode starts as news reaches Downton Abbey that both James and Patrick have perished in the sinking of the ocean liner. Soon it is discovered that a more distant male cousin, solicitor Matthew Crawley, the son of an upper-middle-class doctor, has become the next heir presumptive. The story initially centres on the relationship between Lady Mary and Matthew, who resists embracing an aristocratic lifestyle, while Lady Mary resists her own attraction to the handsome new heir presumptive. Of several subplots, one involves John Bates, Lord Grantham's new valet and former Boer War batman, and Thomas Barrow, an ambitious young footman, who resents Bates for taking over the position he had desired. Bates and Thomas remain at odds as Barrow works to sabotage Bates's every move. After learning Bates had recently been released from prison, Thomas and Miss O'Brien (Lady Grantham's lady's maid) begin a relentless pursuit that nearly ruins the Crawley family in scandal. Barrow – a homosexual man in late Edwardian England – and O'Brien create havoc for most of the staff and family. When Barrow is caught stealing, he hands in his notice to join the Royal Army Medical Corps. Matthew eventually does propose to Lady Mary, but she puts him off when Lady Grantham becomes pregnant, understanding that Matthew would no longer be heir if the baby is a boy. Cora loses the baby after O'Brien, believing she is soon to be fired, retaliates by leaving a bar of soap on the floor next to the bathtub, causing Cora to slip while getting out of the tub, and the fall resulting in a miscarriage. It is later revealed that the miscarried foetus was a male. Although Lady Mary intends to accept Matthew, Matthew believes her reluctance is due to the earlier uncertainty of his heirship and emotionally rescinds his proposal, leaving Lady Mary devastated. The series ends just after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and the outbreak of the First World War in August 1914. Series 2 (2011) The second series comprises eight episodes and runs from the Battle of the Somme in 1916 to the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic. During the war, Downton Abbey is temporarily converted into an officers' convalescent hospital. Matthew, having left Downton, is now a British Army officer and has become engaged. His fiancée is Lavinia Swire, the niece of a Liberal minister. William Mason, the second footman, is drafted, even after attempts by the Dowager Countess of Grantham to save him from conscription. William is taken under Matthew's protection as his personal orderly. Enduring trench warfare and charging against machine guns and artillery, both are injured by an exploding shell. William dies from his wounds, but only after a deathbed marriage to Daisy, the kitchen maid. While Daisy does not believe she loves William, she marries him in his last hours as his dying wish. It is not until a brief encounter with the Dowager Countess that she begins to realise that her love was real, but she could not admit it to herself. Matthew is now paralysed from the waist down by his battle injury, and seemingly unable to father children. Lavinia remains true to him despite his attempts to set her free, and he finally accepts her devotion. Mary, while acknowledging her feelings for Matthew, becomes engaged to Sir Richard Carlisle, a powerful and overbearing newspaper mogul, but their relationship is rocky. Bates's wife, Vera, repeatedly causes trouble for John and Anna, who are now engaged. Vera threatens to expose Mary's past scandalous in.... Discover the Downton Abbey popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Downton Abbey books.