Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Catholic
Religious Music & Entertainment
Readying for the Royals in the ‘Downton Abbey’ Movie Trailer

Readying for the Royals in the ‘Downton Abbey’ Movie Trailer

Last updated on: July 18, 2019 at 12:02 pm by Kate O'Hare

Readying for the Royals in the ‘Downton Abbey’ Movie Trailer 2019-07-18T12:02:03-08:00 Kate O'Hare

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

‘Downton Abbey’/Focus Features

A teaser trailer came out last December, but now the full trailer for the film version of Downton Abbey is here, and as hoped for, it’s juicy and full of familiar faces.

It’s now 1927, and King George V and Queen Mary (Queen Elizabeth II’s grandmother) are coming to visit the elegant Yorkshire estate of the Earl of Grantham, and the entire extended aristocratic Crawley family — along with servants current and past — gathers for a royal luncheon, a parade, a dinner and no doubt lots of romance, conflict and surprises.

Take a look:

Produced in Britain by and aired there on ITV, Downton Abbey became a giant hit in the U.S. after premiering a part of PBS’ Masterpiece in the fall of 2010. The series ended after six seasons with an episode that aired in the U.K. on Christmas night, 2015, and in the U.S. on March 6, 2016.

Now it’s back for a wrap-up movie, reuniting most of the original cast and set to hit theaters on Sept. 20.

The creator and writer of Downton Abbey is Julian Fellowes, a Catholic. I dealt with his faith an its impact on the series in a 2015 piece for CatholicVote (click here for that).

From the story:

As [Fellowes] told the U.K. Telegraph in 2011, in describing his usual weekend, “On Sunday, I like going to Church. I’m a Catholic so I’m conditioned to it. Quite apart from anything else, I think it reminds you that you’re not in control of everything. I go to the local Catholic church and [my wife] Emma, who is Anglican, has the advantage of going to our incredibly pretty village church.”

He and his wife have one son (apparently that was her wish), but the boy’s godmother is Princess Michael of Kentpr, a Catholic whose marriage to Prince Michael of Kent (in a civil ceremony) knocked her Anglican husband out of the royal succession. While Princess Michael’s children have been raised Anglican (they still could inherit the throne), she and her husband later followed their civil ceremony with a Catholic one.

As I also note, the topic of prejudice against Catholics in Britain came up in season three, when the youngest Crawley daughter, Sybil, married the family’s Irish Catholic chauffeur, Tom Branson. Sybil subsequently died in childbirth. A fresh family crisis then erupted when Tom insisted on baptizing the daughter as a Catholic. That caused some of the most blatant anti-Catholic speech on the show, especially from the local Anglican vicar.

Since then, faith has not been front and center for the Anglican Crawleys.

From my earlier article:

Writing in the U.K. Telegraph in 2011, correspondent Robert Colvile noted the lack of churchgoing in the show, observing, “For a series that prides itself on its realism — and even has the word ‘Abbey’ in the title — it’s a bizarre omission. Religion, and especially the Sunday service, would have been a basic element of life in such a community, part of the warp and weft of existence. Perhaps it’s this godlessness, rather than any malice on the part of writer Julian Fellowes, that explains why Downton’s residents appear to have such a peculiarly cursed existence?”

But, Downton Abbey has remained — and we like will continue onto the big screen — as a very well-dressed and beautifully appointed soap opera about an era in which Britain’s aristocratic past was forced to give way to modernity and a more egalitarian future.

The show looks back with some nostalgia, but not all are convinced.

Catholic convert Timothy Stanley doesn’t think much of the series. In a piece for History Today in 2013, the British historian and journalist denounced the cozy picture the series paints of the relationship between upstairs and downstairs.

“It is hard to imagine,” he wrote, “another people in the world who would make such a warm drama out of such a potentially miserable era. Imagine if a U.S. company relocated the show to the Deep South in the 1910s. Would it paint a similarly rosy picture of master-servant relationships in the era of segregation? Yet the British continue to suspect that they lost something special, even moral, when their society graduated from an aristocratic empire to a modern democracy.”

Will you be going to see the Downton Abbey movie?

Image: Focus Features

Don’t miss a thing: Subscribe to all that I write at Authory.com/KateOHare.

And, head over to my other home, as Social Media Manager at Family Theater Productions; and check out FTP’s Faith & Family Media Blog, and our YouTube Channel.

About Kate O'Hare

Based in Los Angeles, Kate O'Hare is a recovering entertainment journalist, social-media manager for Catholic production company Family Theater Productions and a screenwriter. You can read more about the author here.

Previous Post

May 20, 2019

'Game of Thrones' Finale: A Filmmaker/Priest's Perspective

Next Post

May 23, 2019 'The Name of the Rose': Sundance Tackles Umberto Eco's Medieval Mystery

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category books breaking news digital media Faith practice food interview jane the virgin media movies music NFL Pope Francis Showbiz 101 social media sports technology television Uncategorized video

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz