From left, actors Phyllis Logan, Tom Cullen, Lesley Nicol, Sophie McShera, Joanne Froggatt, Raquel Cassidy, Kevin Doyle, Julian Ovenden, Allen Leech and Jeremy Swift, winners of Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series for "Downton Abbey," appear backstage during the 22nd annual Screen Actors Guild Awards at the Shrine Auditorium & Expo Hall in Los Angeles on January 30, 2016. Photo by Jim Ruymen/UPI |
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NEW YORK, March 6 (UPI) -- The British costume drama Downton Abbey wrapped up its six-season run on PBS in the United States Sunday night.
The show -- which followed the lives of the wealthy Crawley family and those who serve them at their country estate -- starred Hugh Bonneville, Elizabeth McGovern, Maggie Smith, Brendan Coyle, Michelle Dockery, Laura Carmichael, Jim Carter, Matthew Goode, Penelope Wilton, Lily James, Phyllis Logan, Tom Cullen, Lesley Nicol, Sophie McShera, Joanne Froggatt, Raquel Cassidy, Kevin Doyle, Julian Ovenden, Allen Leech, Rob James-Collier, Michael Fox, Harry Hadden-Paton and Jeremy Swift.
The 1925-set finale saw a round of happy endings, including the wedding of the hapless Lady Edith Crawley [Carmichael] to her estranged beau Bertie Pelham [Hadden-Paton,] the birth of a son for Anna [Froggatt] and John Bates [Coyle,] romance for servants Daisy [McShera] and Andy [Fox,] and a less-demanding, supervisory role for head butler Mr. Carson [Carter,] whose shaking hands meant a promotion for the newly redeemed schemer Thomas Barrow [James-Collier.]
"I think the more adaptable we are, the more chance we have of getting through," McGovern's Lady Cora Crawley observed near the end of the episode, acknowledging the many changes her family has experienced.
"We'll do it. The estate is safe in Mary's hands, with Henry and Tom to help her," Bonneville's Lord Robert Crawley summarized in reply. "Edith has risen from the cinders in the hearth to be kissed by her very own Prince Charming. What more can we ask?"
"A long and happy life together, just we two, to watch the children grow. That's all I want," Cora told him.
"And why not? We never know what's coming, of course. Who does? But I'd say we have a good chance," Robert assured her.
The last lines of the series belonged to Smith's Lady Violet Crawley and Wilton's Mrs. Isobel Crawley as they share a New Year's drink.
"It makes me smile, the way, every year, we drink to the future, whatever it may bring," Violet said.
"Well, what else can we drink to? We're going forward to the future, not back into the past," Mrs. Crawley noted.
"If only we had the choice," Violet chuckled.
The show closes with snow falling on the stately home as its inhabitants sing "Auld Lang Syne."
