because they’ve always got his character very much in charge. Carson takes it all very seriously, but when he has his little chats with Mrs Hughes that’s his one opportunity for a bit of a release. So I do enjoy those scenes.’
LIFE IN THE KITCHEN
The kitchen staff worked the longest hours of all the servants, from the early morning start baking bread and preparing a cooked breakfast, until the servants’ supper late at night, not to mention the washing up of pots, pans and crockery in between. In every large house, the kitchen was the workplace of the cook and her ‘family’, who discouraged the interference of other servants; neither the butler nor the housekeeper, nor indeed any of their staff, were welcome within it without a good reason.
Although hard on her staff in the heat and bustle of the day, Mrs Patmore has her moments as a caring matriarch of her kitchen family, dishing out advice to Daisy, as the youngest member of her staff. The division between the servants applies to meals, too, with Mrs Patmore and her kitchen staff always eating separately in their own dominion; there they can all finally put their feet up in an atmosphere that is less stuffy than that of the servants’ hall, where the butler is on alert for any cheekiness and the housekeeper keeps a beady eye on any flirtation, poised to stamp it out with a fierce glare.
Lesley Nicol is Mrs Patmore
‘The basis for everything is something the historical advisor said to me: “Consider this like a show. It’s got to be the best show.” Then I got it. When someone comes to stay, they’ve got to leave saying it was perfect. My character has enormous pride and commitment. It just can’t go wrong, she can’t allow things to go wrong. But what else has she got? That’s her life.’
Alongside the endless cooking, the cook has to supervise the preparation of everything that comes out of her kitchen. She has an army of kitchen maids to help her, as everything from consommé to horseradish sauce must be made from scratch, not to mention the constant baking – every loaf of bread, cake and biscuit is homemade, ready for elevenses as well as afternoon tea.
MRS PATMORE
‘No! Listen to me! And take those kidneys up to the servery before I knock you down and serve your brains as fritters.’
Dinner is the big event for everyone in the house. Dressed in white tie, the family would assemble in the drawing room, where they would talk but not drink. In London there is a growing fashion for cocktails before dinner, but it hasn’t reached Downton yet. At dinner, with three courses at the very least – five if there are important guests – Mrs Patmore does her best to show off her culinary finesse (for the family anyway; the servants make do with simpler fare such as lamb stew and semolina, prepared by the kitchen maids).
At the table, Lord Grantham sits in the middle on one side, his wife opposite, as the Royals do. His mother, Violet, sits at his right as the next grandest woman in the room. Carson pours the wine and Thomas and William, wearing gloves (only footmen wore gloves and only to wait at table – never for any other task), serve the food, à la Russe. They begin by serving whoever is sitting on Lord Grantham’s right and work their way clockwise around the table, men and women alternately. The modern restaurant fashion for ‘ladies first’ is continental. The serving dish is held on the diner’s left while they help themselves. Finished plates are collected from the right-hand side. Only when Lord Grantham has the decanter of port and glasses (he will pour it himself) in the dining room and the women have been served coffee in the drawing room, may the servants have their supper. It is their first chance to relax since they started their working day.
BEHIND THE GREEN BAIZE DOOR
From the early hours of the morning until late at night, the servants are permanently on duty to attend to all the demands of the house and family. Below stairs, just a few moments of calm may be snatched during the day and are a welcome relief indeed.
Once the family have finished breakfast and gone about their business for the day, everyone has a list of chores to get on with until lunch. There is a brief respite for the servants’ midday meal at around noon before the machine is set in motion again for the family to be served their lunch promptly at 1pm. At about 4pm the servants are given bread and cheese by the cook and this must keep them going until they have their supper, a substantial two courses, but only after the family have finished theirs and the dining room has been cleared away. The crockery is brought downstairs for Daisy to wash up, but the glasses are left in the servery – they will be carefully cleaned the next day.
THOMAS
‘This isn’t her territory. We can say what we like, down here.’
Supper for the servants is always looked forward to – their work is over and it is the longed-for moment when they can all breathe, kick back and relax. It is also a time when the staff can have time to themselves away from the family and can indulge in some gossip about the goings-on in the house and amongst their employers. As Alastair Bruce, historical advisor, told the actors: for the servants, observing the family upstairs was the equivalent of watching Coronation Street or EastEnders today. But although the atmosphere is informal at the end of their working hours, lapses of manners are not permitted. Carson ensures that the servants of the house continue to reflect the gentility of the people they serve. A strict order of precedence is set around the table, just as in the dining room upstairs. Mrs Hughes sits at the right hand of Carson, the footmen sit by the butler, the head housemaid and lady’s maid by the housekeeper, with the lower-ranking servants at the other end of the table. In a house such as Downton Abbey, there is no concept of ‘off-duty’.
Knowing your place
On set, there is a genuine sense of an above and below-stairs division. On the first day Alastair Bruce divided the cast into ‘above’ and ‘below’ and they were put in different rooms to hear his talk on what life would have been like for them. Once they were filming, many of the below-stairs cast worked nearly all the time at Ealing Studios, rarely venturing to the big house to film at Highclere Castle, and vice versa. Lesley Nicol, who plays Mrs Patmore, says: ‘When you do a job like this, you start to take on the genuine feelings of your character. So when I went to Highclere, I felt very small indeed! It was overwhelming to be there.’
Away from the steaming hubbub that is the kitchen, the cogs of the estate turn at a rapid pace. Occasionally, the outside world intrudes. Deliveries are made throughout the day – newspapers early in the morning (The Times for his Lordship, The Daily Sketch for her Ladyship), fresh vegetables and meat from the home farm, produce from the dairy and goods from village shops. Post was delivered and collected twice a day – the family ‘posted’ their letters into a box in the hall, which had a sign on it: ‘Post will be collected at 9am and 4pm’. The butler took these letters, stamped them and gave them to the postman. The system was efficient – if a letter was received in the morning, a reply sent in second post arrived the next day. Telegrams were sent and received within hours; the footmen were dispatched to the Post Office with any urgent message to be relayed.
While Lord Grantham does not have a paid job – hence the family’s shock at Matthew Crawley’s intention to carry on his work as a solicitor – he is kept busy with the affairs of the estate. He is helped by members of the extended servants’ family: an estate manager who oversees the farm as well as the tenants’ cottages, and a gamekeeper who rears and protects the game and their cover for the shooting season, not forgetting the head gardener and his team of several under-gardeners. There are grooms, too, for the horses used for riding, hunting and to draw carriages.
Lady Grantham does not concern herself with the business of running the estate, but she has plenty of matters of her own that need attention. As the châtelaine, she is important to anybody who wishes to use the influence of the house – a fund-raising effort or the village flower show, for example. She also works closely with Mrs Hughes to ensure that any guests are well looked after, deciding which room they are staying in and which maid or footman will see to their requirements during their visit, if needed. Placement cards for the dinner table must also be written. Lady Grantham would also decide who to put next to whom at dinner, strictly observing the precedence of rank, of course. Whether entertaining visitors or not, each morning she would consult with Mrs Patmore in Cora’s