Downton Abbey winds up with Season 6

The cast and crew of British period drama 'Downton Abbey' were presented with a special award in a BAFTA tribute earlier this week to celebrate the global success of the programme.

 

Downton Abbey creator Julian Fellowes walked the red carpet outside the Richmond Theatre in London along with cast actor Hugh Bonneville and actresses Michelle Dockery and Elizabeth McGovern.

 

The hugely successful television show about an aristocratic British household in the early 20th century will wind up after the sixth season.

 

Asked whether a Downton Abbey film was a possibility, Fellowes said he was not against the idea - but said that a film based in the fifties would be "another show."

 

"I think that's a distant show when George is grown up, and the whole thing has moved in to trying to keep a place like Downton going, in the fifties and sixties, which of course plenty of families have done, and are now actually doing pretty well, because the bad years are behind them to a degree. But I think that's a whole other show, this is about our Downton," he said.

 

Actress Michelle Dockery said she would like to take part in a film, adding "I mean it's all rumours at the moment so we'll see what happens."

 

Actress Julie Walters, who presented the award to the cast on stage, said that she would like to play Hugh Bonneville's lover if she were cast for a Downton Abbey film.

 

The story began with the loss of Downton heirs in the sinking of the Titanic and took the audience through the devastation of World War I, the shifting upstairs-downstairs class divisions, the emergence of women's rights, struggles with homosexuality and the dwindling wealth of Britain's landed gentry.

 

Set in Highclere Castle in Berkshire, England, the series has become one of the biggest international hits ever for British television. It is watched in countries as diverse as China, Sweden, Russia and South Korea, with American viewership surpassing all expectations and setting records for U.S. public service broadcaster PBS.

 

The cast has included some big names in the British theater and acting world, including Hugh Bonneville as Robert Crawley, Earl of Grantham; Maggie Smith, as his mother the Dowager Countess of Grantham and Laura Carmichael as Lady Edith Crawley.

 

Season six will start airing in September 2015, with the final episode being broadcast at Christmas.  — Reuters