What we know about the Downton Abbey movie

The Downton Abbey movie is out next week and we can’t wait to hear the witty barbs from grandmama.

Are you ready to return to a different era, with silver service, the last of the white-gloved footmen and the cutting remarks of Lady Violet Crawley, the Dowager Countess of Grantham?

Don’t you just wish you had Maggie Smith on hand every time you need to deal with Telstra?

The Downton Abbey movie is only a week away and we’re champing at the bit for a trip back to the 1920s, the last vestiges of a certain time when the restrictive power structures of the British aristocracy were being challenged by the modern world.

And in the middle, a landed gentry family learning to find their way and place in a new epoch.

Ooo, look at the art deco pattern on Cora’s dress

The grand dame herself

Downton Abbey ran for six series between 2010 and 2015, and even though it ended on a perfect note, its popularity meant creator Julian Fellowes had much leeway to bring everyone back for another story.

Here’s what we know so far about the Downton Abbey movie, which will be released in Australia on September 12.

The first thing to note is everyone is back except the now very in-demand Lily James.

There’s always room for a side eye

From mechanic to a cravat wearer

Hugh Bonneville, who plays Lord Grantham, told Deadline: “The biggest testament to the film is that everyone turned up to play. We had some hurdles getting everyone in the same place at the same time, but there was a will to do it.”

That “everyone” includes the upstairs crew Bonneville, Elizabeth McGovern (Cora), Michelle Dockery (Mary), Laura Carmichael (Edith), Allen Leech (Tom Branson), Maggie Smith (Violet), Penelope Wilton (Isobel), Harry Hadden-Patton (Bertie) and, of course, the delightful Matthew Goode, who returns as Mary’s husband Henry.

The returning downstairs crew include Jim Carter (Carson), Phyllis Logan (Mrs Hughes), Sophie McShera (Daisy), Lesley Nicol (Mrs Patmore), Rob James-Collier (Tom Barrow), Joanne Froggatt (Anna), Brendan Coyle (Bates), Kevin Doyle (Molesley) and Michael C. Fox (Andy).

The film will be set two years after the TV show’s finale, and it’s now 1927, with a story set around the impending visit of King George V (Simon Jones) and Queen Mary (Geraldine James) to Downton. As you can imagine, much fuss ensues.

In the official trailer, Mary is sporting a fashionable flapper bob, Bertie proclaims, “It’s 1927, we’re modern folk!” and Mrs Patmore is freaking out over having to serve all those royal meals.

There’s also a hint that after years of scheming and self-loathing, Tom Barrow will finally find happiness.

The movie was written by Fellowes and directed by Michael Engler (who directed four episodes of the TV series).

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Originally published as What we know about the Downton Abbey movie