Victoria Brooks/Carnival Films Julian Fellowes on the set of “Downton Abbey.â€Another year, another bushel of Emmy nominations for the PBS period drama “Downton Abbey.†The series received 12 writing, acting and technical nominations, including one for best drama, making a total of 39 nods for its three seasons, with 9 wins.
“I’m pleased that it went across so many departments,†said Julian Fellowes, the creator, writer and executive producer. “It reminds people that these things are teamwork.â€
Mr. Fellowes called from London to discuss the show’s success, the new season and something called “Downton Arby’s.†These are excerpts from the conversation
Does “Downton Abbey†acclaim ever start to feel routine?
With something like a TV series, when you go on getting them as the years go on, it becomes more and more flattering. Because by then you have lost the charm and bloom of novelty, and it does seem that you sort of made your way to the nation’s consciousness. And that’s a very nice feeling.
Do you feel like you’ve been forgiven for the way you abruptly killed off Matthew Crawley, Dan Stevens’s character, at the end of last season?
Once people had realized it was Dan’s choice and not us, then we were forgiven. Dan felt three years were long enough for him and he wanted to get on with his film career and all the rest of it. We wish him nothing but good things.
Any chance he would come back? You don’t have any supernatural subplots, planned do you?
Well we have the disadvantage of there not being too many showers. So I don’t think we can just walk ’round the corner and find him in the shower, and that the last series has been a dream. Maybe you could just find him in the bath.
You write every episode. How much gas do you have left in the tank?
I don’t know. A day is a long time in show business. You just see how it’s going now. At the moment, now, we have a terrific and loyal following. The trick is not to question it.
You’re almost done shooting the next season. What can you tell me about it?
Well the advantage of Dan dying at the end of last season as opposed to the beginning of the new one is we are able to have a six-month gap. So we don’t have to do funerals and memorials and all that stuff. That has all happened â€" we rejoin the family six months after his death. The sort of subtitle of the series is the rebuilding of Mary, really.
You’ve talked about Diddy’s spoof of the showâ€"
I thought it was fabulous. I don’t know how they did it, the way they put him into the scenes.
Do you have any other favorite “Downton†parodies?
I love the “Saturday Night Live†one as well. And one of my favorites was “Downton Arby’s.†Did you see that one?
I missed that one.
I like all of them. They all make me laugh. And it’s very flattering that people should bother to imitate you.
