Could Downton Abbey’s Sussex stars be reuniting? The rumour mill goes wild...

It’s a definite “no comment” from West Sussex-based star Hugh Bonneville who has played Robert Crawley, the Earl of Grantham, in the series so far plus the two films. But nothing is going to stop the Downton rumour mill going into overdrive, especially this week with a number of national newspapers “revealing” renewed Downton activity.

The rumours are that the core cast and crew from the second film are returning to the set in Highclere Castle, Hampshire, where a third film will transport us to the late 1920s, the story resuming where it finished two years ago in Downton Abbey: A New Era. All this comes after the suggestion last month that filming is already under way on a new TV series.

Much of the speculation is focusing on whether, despite having died in the second film, Maggie Smith’s character – Robert Crawley's mother Violet, Dowager Countess of Grantham – might somehow be making a return. The mind boggles quite how. Again, there is particular resonance in this county, though. Dame Maggie lives in West Sussex and has done so for years. Hugh Bonneville, also star of the hugely successful Paddington films, is not too far away near Midhurst.

But maybe all the speculation tells us two things principally – quite how far the celebrated series has permeated all our consciousnesses and quite how much it is still adored with its depiction of a certain kind of England in its early-20th century history.

The series first aired in the United Kingdom on ITV on September 26 2010. It made its US debut on January 9 2011. The show ran for six series and fifty-two episodes, including five Christmas specials. Then came the first film Downton Abbey in 2019, written by series creator Julian Fellowes. Then came, to even greater acclaim, the second film, Downton Abbey: A New Era, released in the United Kingdom on April 29 2022.

Before the first film happened, Hugh Bonneville had spoken of his interest in a movie but suggested getting the cast together would be like “herding cats”. The cats have now been herded twice. Are they now being herded for a third time?

The second film would certainly bring its own momentum. It had a remarkable cast – Michelle Dockery as Lady Mary; Maggie Smith as Violet Crawley; Tuppence Middleton as Lucy Smith; Hugh Dancy as Jack Barber; Elizabeth McGovern as Cora Crawley; Dominic West as Guy Dexter; Laura Haddock as Myrna Dalgleish; Allen Leech as Tom Branson; Imelda Staunton as Maud Bagshaw; Joanne Froggatt as Anna Bates; Samantha Bond as Lady Rosamund Painswick; Laura Carmichael as Lady Edith; Hugh Bonneville as Robert Crawley; Raquel Cassidy as Phyllis Baxter; Sophie McShera as Daisy; Penelope Wilton as Isobel Merton; Robert James-Collier as Thomas Barrow; and Phyllis Logan as Mrs. Hughes.

And the film certainly wowed the critics. Beautifully filmed, intriguing, entertaining, poignant and with a gorgeously light touch, Downton Abbey: A New Era was everything you could possibly want it to be – a genuine delight expertly delivered.

Of course, a cast of characters that we all know so well brought a wealth of reassurance right from the start, but it also brought challenges: just what on earth was anyone going to find new to do with them?

The answer was in twin storylines which each broke new territory in their own way, stories which alternated and then were brought together masterfully before an ending which movingly underlined that the times really were changing.

In the film Downton’s roof is leaking. Something needs to be done if the family is going to enter the 1930s with confidence – and that’s the point at which a film crew, offering an undisclosed sum which immediately raises eyebrows, announces it would like to move in to make a silent film amid all the opulence. Meanwhile, the Dowager Countess (Maggie Smith on the finest form) drops her own little bombshell with guarded hints at a long lost mystery in her past: a French aristo, seemingly out the blue, has left her a villa on the south coast of France…

And then it left us – as indeed did the Dowager Countess. But the fact is that the public’s demand for Downton could probably never be satisfied. Is it that demand alone that has created the rumours this week? Or is there substance to them? An awful lot of people are going to be hoping the latter…