A Year in the Life of Downton Abbey: Seasonal Celebrations, Traditions, and Recipes (8 page)

Sarah Bunting

In series five, we see Daisy embark on a new educational quest, aided by Miss Sarah Bunting, a schoolteacher in the village, played by Daisy Lewis. To prepare her part, the actress read a biography of Winifred Holtby, a progressive young woman from Yorkshire in the 1920s. ‘So I put Sarah as well schooled but not upper class. I think she comes from a wealthy farming family, so she had governesses and could have gone to Oxford University,’ she explains. ‘I feel like Sarah represents a new class of that time, because she is highly educated but has taken on the socialist doctrines she was exposed to at university. Coupled with her experiences during the First World War, I think that’s why she decides to return to the place she grew up. But it all also means she has been galvanised in her views about the landed gentry.’

Daisy’s education would have been deliberately basic – it was called ‘elementary education’ because it aimed to teach only the fundamental elements of knowledge (the ‘three Rs’ – reading, writing and arithmetic) and nothing more; there was no intention of teaching the working classes in order that they may go on to further schooling. Despite good progress in education provision for children, there were still country schools well into the 1930s, taught by a single schoolmistress who presided over a room divided by a curtain, with the younger pupils in one half and the older children in the other. Most pupils left as soon as they legally could, to go and work in the fields – families could not afford to feed their own children otherwise. This is most likely to be the case with Daisy and it’s a sad fact that her very cleverness could have led to her leaving school earlier rather than later, possibly hindering her own confidence in her intelligence as an adult.

Will this be the plight of Edith’s own daughter, Marigold? Eighteen months old now, Edith has taken her back from the adopted parents in Switzerland and placed her closer by, with the Drewe family, tenants of her father’s farm. Only Tim Drewe, the farmer, is privy to the secret and only half the secret at that; although he has almost certainly guessed that Edith is the real mother, it hasn’t been explicitly said.

We know that Edith weaned her own baby and it must have been unbearably hard for her to hand her daughter over to another couple; particularly as before 1926 there was no formal legal system of adoption. Edith could easily have lost all trace of her daughter and, equally, should her daughter have grown up and wished to find Edith, she would have found it almost impossible to do so. By placing Marigold with the Drewe family, Edith is ensuring that she is, at least, able to keep an eye on her. Nor should we judge Edith harshly for deciding not to keep her own child: illegitimacy was considered a stain upon both the mother’s and the child’s characters. Only in this way could she protect Marigold from being shunned by society, just as former maid Ethel took the same decision for her own Charlie.

Charlie – Ethel’s boy.

Mr and Mrs Tim Drewe

Edith holds her daughter, Marigold.

Andrew Scarborough (Tim Drewe) asked himself why his character would take on Edith’s child: ‘One reason is his loyalty to the estate and the way his father brought him up, as Lord Grantham’s grateful tenants. I think he must have had wonderful parents as he is so fair and thinks with his heart. He’s not stupid – he has a great deal of imagination to put himself in Lady Edith’s shoes and not be judgemental.’

Andrew took inspiration from his own family background to colour in his character: ‘I modelled him a little on my grandfather, who also had that gentle Yorkshire accent, using words like ‘yonder’. Tim’s warm, but it’s difficult for him to show emotion. What is dark about the situation is that although [Tim] is probably getting attached to the baby, he would be the disciplinarian. If my grandfather wasn’t pleased with you, you knew about it, despite the soft voice.’ And there’s more, demonstrating once again that
Downton Abbey
may be a television drama, but it has its roots in real life. ‘My grandmother’s sister had an illegitimate baby,’ reveals Andrew. ‘She was ostracised by the whole family – I think she ended up in a mental institution. My father wasn’t even aware that he had another aunt for years, as she was never talked about, and we still don’t know what happened to her. And my grandmother on my mother’s side had a baby with a GI and gave it to her sister to bring up.’

Andrew enjoyed filming with the children, although he admits that it can affect the way he might play a scene: ‘It’s quite difficult when you have to do a tense, argumentative scene, but then again, it’s more realistic, as you have to express what you want without shouting and do it under your breath.’

Laura Carmichael laughs when I ask her about acting with the children: ‘It’s always a challenge because they’re children and they’re not exactly dying to be at work! But they have been great and there have been some magic moments.’

Daisy

VALENTINE’S DAY CARDS

The tradition of sending Valentine’s cards on 14 February would be welcomed by servants who had scant opportunity otherwise to reveal romantic intentions under the watchful eyes of the butler and housekeeper. Cards were always supposed to be signed anonymously, however, leaving plenty of room for misunderstandings in the servants’ hall …

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