Downton Abbey's FINAL CURTAIN

In an intimate chat with The Weekly, Elizabeth McGovern and Hugh Bonneville bid farewell to Downton Abbey, and to the incomparable Dame Maggie Smith. (Warning: Spoilers ahead!)

- SAMANTHA TRENOWETH

Hugh Bonneville (Robert Crawley, Earl of Grantham) and Elizabeth McGovern (Cora Crawley, Countess of Grantham) clasp hands and stroll through the green and pleasant grounds of Downton Abbey.

English afternoon sunlight scatters in golden shafts across the manicured lawns of Highclere Castle, where much of Downton has been filmed. After 15 years and as much trouble as any couple could be expected to withstand, they look at each other with the kind of relaxed affection that's earned with time. And so the phenomenally successful period drama comes to a perfectly crafted conclusion with its third and final cinema release, Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale.

Created by Julian Fellowes, on the back of the immense success of his 2001 period film, Gosford Park, Downton Abbey began as an ITV television series. It ran for six seasons in as many years and went on to break viewing records and collect a trove of awards, including multiple Emmy Awards, Screen Actors Guild Awards and Golden Globes. Finally, the series spawned three feature films. And as Hugh and Elizabeth tell The Weekly, Downton Abbey won a loyal audience that crossed generations and continents.

On the eve of the release of Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale, Elizabeth is in New York garnering rave reviews for her starring role in a play which she also wrote, Ava: The Secret Conversations, about the life of American movie star and femme fatale, Ava Gardner. Hugh is in the UK, preparing to reprise his character, Ian Fletcher, in a satirical six-part BBC series, Twenty Twenty Six. They join The Weekly over Zoom for a very Edwardian walk down memory lane.

After six seasons and three films, why is Downton Abbey coming to an end now?

Elizabeth: Isn’t that enough? [And she laughs.]