The war is over and, for most of the Crawley family, that means trying to re-establish order at Downton Abbey as quickly as possible. But for a few, peacetime brings an acute awareness that life can never be the same again.
Lady Sybil and chauffeur Branson are keen not to resurrect the class barriers that had started to fall during the four years the Crawleys and their servants were working so closely together on the war effort.
This week, Lady Sybil, played by Jessica Brown Findlay, is frustrated after giving up her nursing job and Branson spies an opportunity to once again try to persuade her to run away with him.
Allen Leech, who plays the Irish driver, says, ‘He has always been madly in love with Sybil and he is a character who doesn’t give up easily.
Although she has been quite elusive so far in this series, Branson can tell that she does care for him, so he persists in asking her to run away with him.
‘Several things have changed for Sybil. Like many people, she has learnt from the war that you only get one chance, and that life is precious. You have to grasp every chance you can.
'If she does finally relent, they will have to decide whether to face the family together or whether to elope, which is something the family would never forgive. If they do get together, he’ll be doing a little celebratory Irish jig, believe me. He’s waited years for her.’
But the Dowager Countess and Lady Mary have both noticed the spark between Sybil and Branson, and will do everything in their power to keep them apart. Allen jokes, ‘The Dowager is a wily old thing and Mary is determined to stop her sister’s happiness.
‘The family won’t accept Branson’s forward-thinking view that the class system has started to irreparably break down. We saw William throw himself on his master Matthew to save him from a blast in the trenches, and that gratitude and sense of servitude is still strong at Downton. The war may be over, but these things don’t change overnight.’
Lady Sybil and chauffeur Branson are keen not to resurrect the class barriers that had started to fall during the four years the Crawleys and their servants were working so closely together on the war effort.
This week, Lady Sybil, played by Jessica Brown Findlay, is frustrated after giving up her nursing job and Branson spies an opportunity to once again try to persuade her to run away with him.
Allen Leech, who plays the Irish driver, says, ‘He has always been madly in love with Sybil and he is a character who doesn’t give up easily.
Although she has been quite elusive so far in this series, Branson can tell that she does care for him, so he persists in asking her to run away with him.
‘Several things have changed for Sybil. Like many people, she has learnt from the war that you only get one chance, and that life is precious. You have to grasp every chance you can.
'If she does finally relent, they will have to decide whether to face the family together or whether to elope, which is something the family would never forgive. If they do get together, he’ll be doing a little celebratory Irish jig, believe me. He’s waited years for her.’
But the Dowager Countess and Lady Mary have both noticed the spark between Sybil and Branson, and will do everything in their power to keep them apart. Allen jokes, ‘The Dowager is a wily old thing and Mary is determined to stop her sister’s happiness.
‘The family won’t accept Branson’s forward-thinking view that the class system has started to irreparably break down. We saw William throw himself on his master Matthew to save him from a blast in the trenches, and that gratitude and sense of servitude is still strong at Downton. The war may be over, but these things don’t change overnight.’
Allen, 30, who is single, won the part in Downton after a career including theatre and parts in Rome and The Tudors. And he reveals Branson was originally written for an English actor.
‘I moved to London seven years ago because there are more parts here,’ he says. ‘I don’t think I would even have been auditioned for Downton if I had still been in Ireland.
‘In fact, at the audition I did a Yorkshire accent, but Julian Fellowes was quite interested in the idea of Branson being Irish, and wrote in the extra material about the Easter Rising in Ireland and so on. It gave a lot more to the character, which was fantastic.’
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