Vanity Fair UK – September 2019

This September, royal mania hits

Downton Abbey, and even the lord and

ladies succumb to palace obsession. When

creator Lord Julian Fellowes sat down to

spin his period drama series into a film,

he knew he needed a premise sumptuous

enough to satisfy the fans who will have

spent nearly four years awaiting Lady

Mary’s return. “You’re looking for a central

story that will bind everyone together—

affect the characters upstairs, downstairs,

and in the village,” says Fellowes, who

dreamed up a visit by the king and queen

of England to the Crawley estate in 1927,

picking up a year and a half after the series

finale takes place. The film’s story line was

inspired by an actual royal visit that King

Spotlight

PHOTOGRAPHS BY

MARK NEVILLE

Abbey

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