Stubs - Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale

Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale (2025) starring Hugh Bonneville, Jim Carter, Michelle Dockery, Paul Giamatti, Elizabeth McGovern, Penelope Wilton. Directed by Simon Curtis. Screenplay by Julian Fellowes. Based on Downton Abbey by Julian Fellowes. Produced by Gareth Neame, Julian Fellowes, Liz Trubridge Run time: 123 minutes. Color. United Kingdom. Historical Drama

Like all good things, the Downton Abbey universe has come to an end in a fitting way with Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale, the third in a trilogy of post-television films. For people, like myself, who have watched the series and the first two films, this final film is a great culmination for a franchise that started on British television in 2010.

An upstairs/downstairs drama that shows the dependence each has on the other. Set in 1930, a year after the start of the Great Depression, the Crawley family, led by Robert Crawley, 7th Earl of Grantham (Hugh Bonneville), and Cora Crawley, Countess of Grantham (Elizabeth McGovern), finds themselves at a crossroads. Their way of life is under a strain with less money than they need to keep their estate up. And to make things more awkward, Lady Mary Talbot (Michelle Dockery), their eldest daughter, is a young divorcee, which means high society shuns her.

Their hope to end their financial woes, Cora’s inheritance from her mother’s estate, fades after Cora’s brother Harold Levinson (Paul Giamatti) travels to England to confess that he’s lost most of it. He travels with Gus Sambrook (Alessandro Nivola), his financial advisor, who turns out to be a conman.

Downstairs: (r to l) Elsie Hughes Carson (Phyllis Logan), Daisy Parker (Sophie McShera),Beryl Patmore Mason (Lesley Nicol), Charlie Carson (Jim Carter), Andy Parker (Michael Fox), Thomas Barrow (Robert James-Collier),  Guy Dexter (Dominic West) and Noël Coward (Arty Froushan).

Things are also changing downstairs with retirements, Charles Carson (Jim Carter), the longtime butler, and Beryl Patmore (Lesley Nicol), the longtime cook. But their roles are succeeded by former apprentices Andrew "Andy" Parker (Michael Fox) and his wife, Daisy (Sophie McShera). And that’s not all, John Bates (Brendan Coyle), Lord Grantham’s valet and his wife Anna Bates (Joanne Froggatt), lady's maid to Lady Mary, are expecting.

Upstairs: (r to l) Tom Branson (Allen Leech), Guy Dexter, Thomas Barrow, Lord Merton (Douglas Reith), Lady Manville (Sarah Crowden),  Lady Merton (Penelope Wilton), Harold Levinson (Paul Giamatti),  Cora Crawley (Elizabeth McGovern), Lady Mary Talbot (Michelle Dockery), Robert Crawley (Hugh Bonneville), Edith Pelham (Laura Carmichael), "Bertie" Pelham (Harry Hadden-Paton) and assorted guests listen as Coward plays for them.

Added to the mix are Guy Dexter (Dominic West), an actor who got his break in the movie filmed at the Abbey in the previous film, Downton Abbey: A New Era (2022), pays a visit, bringing with him his lover and former Abbey footman, Thomas Barrow (Robert James-Collier), and playwright, composer, director, actor, and singer Noël Coward (Arty Froushan).

While the acting is top drawer all the way around, as it has been since the beginning, the real star of the film is the script by Julian Fellowes, who also penned the TV series and the previous films. One of the themes explored in the film is whether it is the lines written by the screenwriter or the actor’s reading of them that counts the most. The Grand Finale shows that it is a combination of the two. An actor is only as good as their material and with this film, they were given a screenplay that is at times very funny and at times very sad. This is a world that Fellowes has created and is the master of his realm.

The worst thing about Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale, is that it’s our last look at this fascinating world. It is always sad to say good-bye to something you have enjoyed for so long.