Downton Abbey finale: Hugh Bonneville's Robert Crawley finally gets on with time

Downton Abbey is coming to an end. Even after 6 season, Crawley family, and the servants who work for them, remain inseparably interlinked as they face new challenges and begin forging different paths in a rapidly changing world. In the upcoming season, the viewers’ will see how secrets threaten the unity of the family while those downstairs continue to navigate social changes, which put their futures in jeopardy. This season of the multi-award winning series offers all the highs and lows, joy and sorrow, that viewers across the globe have grown to love, and follows the characters as they strive to find happiness once and for all.

Hugh Bonneville, Lord Grantham and the patriarch of the family talks about his journey with the one of the most beloved drama of small screen. 

How does it feel saying goodbye to Downton after all these years?

It’s an extension rather than a curtailment of the show, in that we were originally going to finish off the five seasons but Julian Fellowes and the creative element said it would feel a bit truncated that way so he wrote these further nine episodes to bring all the characters in to land in a way he felt was more satisfying. So it feels like we’ve had an extra slice of the cake and you don’t want to eat too much more.

It must still be a wrench, though?

Oh sure. We’ve had such pleasure playing around with these characters and with each script as it arrives finding new twists, turns and foibles you didn’t know were there. Of course, I’m sad to see the relationships between these characters go, but Robert will be alright. Robert and Cora will survive somewhere in some fictional afterlife.

Where do we find Robert at the start of season six?

Things are brought home to him about the shifting sands of social change and economic change because he goes to visit a neighbour, Sir John Darnley, who is having to sell Mallerton – his family home and estate. He’s literally auctioning off every piece of furniture, family portrait and the silver. The Crawleys go to visit him as an old pal and John says ‘Don’t let this be you’. That gives Robert and the Crawleys a wake-up call that they can’t be complacent. They’ve been fairly good at adapting to change but they now really have to get on with it. They can’t deny the fact that if you start selling pieces of land then that eats into your income, expenses start going up etc, and you end up spiralling inwards and eating yourself. So they start going about how to cut costs and rationalising staff, how to hopefully get more income for the estate, and Robert has to step up to the plate. It’s a situation of nervousness at the start of season six about what the future holds.

He seems to be turning into quite the Renaissance man and moving with the times this season…

He reminds me of the Robert from the first season. There have been times over the years where I’ve thought ‘This guy is such a dinosaur’ and Elizabeth [McGovern, who plays Cora] is quoted as saying that sometimes she just wants to throttle him. But Julian is very clever like that; whenever you think you’ve got a character nailed or you’ve written them off there’s always some note of redemption that makes you think ‘Actually they’re just trying to get through life’ or ‘They’re OK really’. That’s been the joy of all these characters, like Thomas who you’re loving to hate then actually he’ll do an act that is deeply touching. You reassess all these characters. None of them are pure evil or pure good. They’re all mixed up, just like the rest of us.

What’s your fondest memory of doing the show?

There have been so many. I remember standing on the lawn with Maggie Smith on season one between takes waiting for them to set up. It was during the ash cloud so there were no planes in the sky. It was a beautiful clear sky with no vapour trails and she said ‘This is what it would have been like’. There was silence and it sort of took one back to, in our case, 1912 and I thought ‘Yes, it would have been like this’. All you could hear were the birds in the trees. But there are myriad other moments, from the quiet satisfaction of no-one, in the UK certainly, knowing about Sybil’s death until the moment it was screened and the reaction to that was very profound from the loyal fans. The fact we’d managed to keep it a secret was a very proud company moment. It’s about teamwork and seeing really tough, hairy sparks and grips getting overcome with emotion at the thought of it coming to an end has been quite touching as well.

Of all the cast members who left over the years who did you most miss?

Oh my goodness, probably Isis the dog. We’d finally become quite good pals. And of course, we all missed Jessica Brown Findlay, Dan Stevens, Siobhan Finneran and Rose Leslie. They’ve all been part of the family and they’re still very special to us. We’ve had some fantastic guest artists coming in. It’s been a proper sort of family experience and the good thing about family is that you’re always related.

Speaking of guest stars, who were you most excited to have on the show?

For me, it was Shirley MacLaine and Dame Kiri Ti Kanawa, neither of whom disappointed. Shirley was just a mine of stories and laughter and sitting between her and Maggie, with them swapping stories about these great names from the past from Danny Kaye to Laurence Olivier and Gene Kelly, is another cherished memory. To hear Shirley talk about all those wonderful films she made was quite something and to sit next to Dame Kiri and to see she was as nervous as any actor would be coming onto the show and wanting to get it right, then sitting within a few feet of her as she sang these beautiful songs is another cherished moment. Again, having the whole crew come listen to her sing is a cherished memory.

What have you most enjoyed about your character’s story arc?

From series one, I always liked the fact that in other hands the lord of the manor would be a moustache-twirling bad guy who is merely sucking all the blood out of his staff and his estate and running it all entirely for his own selfish ends. And yes he is ultimately running it to preserve it but there is a liberal conscious underneath the conservative veneer. There have been times where I wanted to strangle Robert for his ignorance about what’s going on in front of his face and his lack of wisdom in terms of his investments and also his thick skin to deal with emotional things, like the grieving over his daughter and how bullheaded he was about that. But the great skill of Julian Fellowes’s writing is that when you think you’ve got a character written off or you’re disappointed by the trajectory of a character he’ll do something that redeems them, and that’s true of all the characters. You realise that Julian’s great skill is in writing three-dimensional characters. Even with Thomas, the evil footman, by season three you’ve begun to understand him and sympathise with him or at least recognise where he’s coming from. With Robert, that’s the same. Sometimes I want to slap him but ultimately he’s got a decent heart and is trying, like the other characters, to get through his three score years and ten without hurting too many people.

How would you hope things will pan out for him in the future?

His entire character is allied to the character of the house and to the fortunes of the house. I think if the house can survive for another ten years, or even into the decades beyond that, then Robert would too. I think he’s finally found that sharing responsibility is a sensible way forward and in Mary he’s got a fantastic advocate for that. So I think he and Downton will survive because they embrace the modern world without throwing out the best of the past.

If you could play any other character on the show who would it be and why?

Molesley, although going back to the beginning he was not a fully formed character. He was a visiting character but because of Kevin Doyle’s brilliance he has evolved. Kevin has made absolutely the most of every scene he’s been given and as a performer, he has this amazing ability to be extremely funny physically but also with a sort of clown’s melancholy so you know things aren’t necessarily going to turn out right for Mr Molesley. I adore that character, I always have, and it’s allied to Kevin’s performance so I like spending time with him, although unfortunately I don’t think Robert and Molesley have had much screen time together.

What’s been your strangest or most unexpected fan encounter?

I was on holiday with my family in Thailand. We were mooching through a shopping street and my wife said ‘Gosh, it’s quite different to be somewhere where nobody has recognized you’. Then as if on cue someone leapt out of a shop and said ‘We love Downton Abbey’. It’s when you come to those corners of the world where you really don’t think the tendrils of the show have reached that you are taken by surprise. I remember getting off a plane in Spain and going to a supermarket to get some water, on my way to the hotel, and the cashier was saying ‘Lord Grantham it’s so nice to have you here’. It’s brought home to me every time I’ve travelled how far the show itself has travelled and it’s usually with affection that people remark on it.

You were a well-established actor before Downton Abbey but how has it changed your life?

There’s no question that it’s opened doors professionally. I wouldn’t have done The Monuments Men without this and I wouldn’t have done Paddington. Paddington has become a good friend of mine. For all of us, it’s been an extraordinary calling card and it’s been an amazing experience travelling to promote it. I met the President of the United States. That wouldn’t have happened without Downton. We all feel very blessed by it.

If Julian wrote a prequel who would play you in it?

[Laughs] That’s hilarious. I don’t know, but obviously someone devastatingly good-looking with tremendous charm and charisma. Who would I cast? I don’t know these youngsters these days.

If you could have any keepsake from the Downton set what would it be?

There’s a mustard pot I like because it’s where we hid our little bits of paper for Wink Murder between takes. I was also rather welded and wedded to my writing desk and it’s a beautiful piece of furniture so I wouldn’t mind popping to Highclere House with a removal van. 

Final season of Downton Abbey airs from 17th February, Monday – Friday at 9 pm on Star World and Star World HD.