'Downton Abbey' Postmortem: Inside the Series Finale's Big Moments

When the Downton Abbey series finale aired in the U.K. last Christmas, some fans found it a bit too cheery. “Some people liked it, some people didn’t like it because they said it was just such a happy ending for everybody,” director Michael Engler says. “My feeling about it was, it’s not that it was a happy ending for everybody, but there’s a sense that everybody has found where or with whom they belong. It’s like the right ending. … You wanted to leave the characters in a place that would be memorable and would be hopefully promising a future that you could imagine for them, that you would want for them.” 


Now that America has seen the last of the Crawleys (for now), Engler and executive produce Gareth Neame spoke separately with Yahoo TV about the scenes that made us tear up (who’d have guessed it’d be the handshakes from Robert that would get us?), the moments that made the cast misty, and the sweet hug from Sybbie that wasn’t scripted.

Let’s start with Lady Edith (Laura Carmichael) getting her happy ending with Bertie. As Robert (Hugh Bonneville) hilariously points out in this episode, Edith is someone who “has hardly known a day’s happiness in the last 10 years.“ As wonderful as it’s been to watch her come in to her own, it’s equally gratifying to see Robert appreciate that she’s an interesting woman. What was their pre-wedding conversation like to film?


Michael Engler: When we were rehearsing, the first time Laura came down the stairs in the full dress and veil, Hugh turned and looked up at her and he started crying. He literally just started crying. You could see he has become a kind of father figure to her, or, certainly a big brother. They had developed that kind of relationship over time, and he could just look at her and feel such pride — the same sort of pride and sadness and joy and everything a father would feel in a moment like that, of knowing that he’s not going to see her very often anymore in the same way. All of it was infused by that awareness the cast had of the show coming to an end.