Downton Abbey’s Jim Carter warns fans to buy tissues for ‘tearjerker’ final

It is a TV show that has captured the imagination of the nation – and one that bowed out in spectacular style with a two-hour special on Christmas Day. He revealed, “We easily could have gone for a 7th season, but if I’d have said “We haven’t got Maggie” it would have been a shadow of itself”. Not everyone gets the happy endings, but ultimately we are a positive show.

An average overnight audience of 8.6 million viewers, including those time-shifting on ITV +1, watched as Matthew Crawley (played by Dan Stevens) proposed to Lady Mary (Michelle Dockery) four years ago, according to the Broadcasters’ Audience Research Board (Barb).

He tells The Sun newspaper, “Production were checking our pockets (to make sure) that we weren’t stealing anything!”

“I’m glad about the movie question because it replaces the question of three years which was always, “When is the show going to end?” We can expect a sumptuous Christmas spectacular from the show’s creator Julian Fellowes and plenty of caustic wit from the Dowager Countess, played by national treasure Maggie Smith.

The final ever episode of Downton Abbey aired on STV tonight (Friday December 25) and as the credits rolled on the Christmas special, you might have wondered how the cast and crew feel about waving goodbye to the universally loved period drama.

Meanwhile, on Downton Abbey, sources say Carson the butler “struggles to come to terms with developments which prove that even he is not invulnerable to change”.

The real ratings victor was the Queen, whose 3pm broadcast had the biggest overall figures for the day, drawing 6.1 million on the BBC and 1.1 million on ITV, excluding +1 and catch-up services.

Downton Abbey beat an hour-long EastEnders episode which went head to head with the ITV drama.

She admitted: “One of my favourite purchases is a fur-trimmed high-collared orange and green coat that Lady Edith [Laura Carmichael] wears when she first kisses Bertie Pelham [Harry Hadden-Patton] when she’s staying in Gregson’s apartment”. Still, Lord Grantham maintains an optimistic outlook on the future, later saying: “We never know what’s coming of course, but who does?” Not a single show broke the 7 million viewer mark this year, down from the most recent peak in 2010 when three shows – all on the BBC – each attracted more than 10 million.