Downton Abbey final series: Michelle Dockery admits cast ‘didn’t want to leave’

Ending Downton Abbey with Season 6 set in 1925, rather than taking the long-running ITV/PBS series through the stock market crash of 1929 leaves “a lot of rich territory” to explore if a movie “ever happens”, Carnival Films chief Gareth Neams told grieving journalists at TCA this evening.

Viewers have been gripped by the internationally renown show, which became one of the biggest TV phenomenons of the past decade, but were stunned when bosses confirmed Downton would finish later this year.

On choosing to end the series here, Carnival’s Managing Director and Executive Producer of “Downton Abbey“, Gareth Neame said, “Millions of people around the world have followed the journey of the Crawley family and those who serve them for the last five years”.

The series about the upstairs and downstairs occupants of a stately English home will end production August. 15.

The cast also shared their feelings for the show’s final season, Laura Carmichael said from the article of EW that, “It’s unusual saying goodbye to the castle”.

The date was announced at the Television Critics Association’s summer press tour in Beverly Hills where Hugh Bonneville was present.

As the waiting game for the estate’s move to the silver screen begins, details about “Downton Abbey” season 6 are also trickling in.

“How are we going to live without it?” said Rebecca Eaton, executive producer of “Masterpiece“, the PBS showcase for “Downton Abbey“. “I think it would be a wonderful extension”.

The cast only has two weeks left of filming on the series, and they’ve already wrapped production at Highclere Castle, which stands in for Downton on the show. It was an global success and is the highest-rated PBS drama.

The worldwide Business Times reports that after Mary, played by Michelle Dockery, lost her husband in season 3, grieved in season 4 and tried to get over her past in season 5, season 6 is the time for her to choose a suitor.

Americans are patriotic, he said, but “I don’t need their flag pins to prove it. I would like them to go back to civics lessons”. “We didn’t want to leave”.

“I’ll miss being on a hit TV show”, said McGovern, getting in the last word on that subject.

Penelope Wilton (Isobel) talked about her scenes with Emmy victor Maggie Smith, and their characters’ “fractious and affectionate relationship”.

In an interview with the AP, series star Michelle Dockery said she had never heard of the Rose Parade but joked there would be a lookalike of her riding the float.