'Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale' Closes the Crawley Era with Class

Downton Abbey and its fans have had a good run. Since the series debuted on PBS Masterpiece in 2011, there have been six seasons and two feature films' worth of Crawley family intrigues, affairs, deaths, and everyday existence to sate the most ardent of Anglophiles. However, the passing in 2024 of Dame Maggie Smith — who embodied the irreplaceably droll Violet Crawley, Dowager Countess of Grantham to perfection — unofficially underlined that, for many, the franchise could never be the same. As the Dowager Duchess goes, so too does the final generation of 19th-century aristocratic peerage.

Smartly, creator Julian Fellowes understood that too and is closing out this familial era of the Earl of Grantham peerage in style with a third and final feature film, Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale. 

However long you’ve remained on the Downton train*, Fellowes and returning feature film director Simon Curtis (who took over from series director Michael Engler starting with the second film, Downton Abbey: A New Era) have gifted audiences with a trilogy closer that’s worth coming back for as it brings satisfying closure to world and hits about every emotional note a fan could hope for in seeing these characters off to their imagined futures. 

(*I personally jumped off the caboose in Season 6.)

Set two years after the events of A New Era, The Grand Finale finds Lord & Lady Grantham (Hugh Bonneville and Elizabeth McGovern) taking part in the 1930 London season with their daughters, Lady Mary (Michelle Dockery) and Lady Edith (Laura Carmichael), plus a scaled back retinue of their staff including the Bates (Brendan Coyle and Joanne Froggat) and Mr. Carson (Jim Carter). They spend their time attending Noël Coward (Arty Froushan) musicals — which just so happens to feature familiar faces like actor Guy Dexter (Dominic West) and his dresser/former Downton butler Thomas Barrow (Robert James-Collier) — and balls held by friends welcoming royalty into their homes. 

Nothing particularly out of the ordinary until the local papers catch wind and report on Lady Mary’s scandalous divorce from race car driver, Henry Talbot (Matthew Goode). Suddenly, Mary finds herself persona non grata in the London social scene, unwelcome by even old family friends, so the whole Crowley contingent skeedaddles back to the more (hopefully) more welcoming rural community of Yorkshire in the Grantham family seat. 

Unfortunately, gauche money problems remain an albatross for the Grantham family, and that greets them upon return as Lady Cora’s American brother, Harold Levinson (Paul Giamatti), arrives for a visit to inform them that his bad stock market investments of Cora’s inheritance have put them all in a worse way financially. But he’s brought with him the charming Gus Sambrook (Alessandro Nivola), his financial manager, who promises to remedy the issues with a new investment by the Crowleys.

Of course, were the Dowager Countess still alive, she’d be apoplectic with the Americans’ gross discussion of money under their roof and overall the further degradation of social norms with Mary’s public divorce. Gratefully, others mention exactly how the Dowager would react, so she’s a welcome presence in the discussions, and even a pinched visage from her portrait in the central vestibule. 

Aside from the nostalgic impact, the Dowager serves as a potent reminder of how times have changed so dramatically over the course of us being part of the daily lives of the Crowleys, and how the new generation of Mary, Edith and her husband Bertie (Harry Hadden-Paton) and even Cora, are ready to nudge Lord Robert into their own changing of the guard. He’s reluctant to cede the governance of the property and the Grantham title to Mary with her personal chaos, so much of the narrative is focused on the bumpy nature of his retirement, legacy, and personal purpose that comes with aging.

The same issues are facing the Downton staff as Carson has remained far longer than expected as the Crawleys' butler. He’s well-trained his successor, Andy (Michael Fox), but he’s having a tough time relinquishing his responsibilities despite the firm but consistent nudging of his wife, Elsie (Phyllis Logan). In contrast, head cook Ms.  Patmore (Lesley Nicol) is now Mrs. Mason, and she’s ready to hand over her kitchen to a highly confident and mature Daisy (Sophie McShera). There’s a far more gentle shift in the pecking order that ends up being a powerful example for the more dramatic push and pull that is happening upstairs with the main family. 

What really struck me watching The Grand Finale is how warmly quaint it remains in portraying what constitutes major life upheavals at Downton at the time — divorce, women coming into their own, the shift from pastoral to modern life — yet how meaningful that march of time is witnessed through the eyes of these well-loved characters. Even the banal planning committee meetings of the annual Country Show showcase are fraught with the tides of change. Yet, it’s effective in allowing characters like Lady Isobel Grey (Penelope Wilton), Daisy, and Carson to determine their next chapters, albeit in the most genteel ways possible. 

Even a visit from celebrity Noël Coward is an opportunity to make consequential change in previous dispositions, and not so subtly mark how far we’ve come as a society in terms of LGBTQ acknowledgement and acceptance. Also, Froushan’s charming embodiment of Coward is ace and adds so much wit and energy to every scene he’s in that he deserves his own spin-off. 

As a piece, The Grand Finale folds us back into the intrigues of the estate and its people with aplomb and grace. Every main character gets a moment, or several, to shine. Small moments and large have importance, be they sit-downs between Robert and Carson, important sisterly conversations between Mary and a confidently empowered Edith, the welcome countenance of visiting Tom (Allen Leech), or even the satisfying comeuppances of newly introduced soft villains. 

Curtis and Fellowes pace their tissue moments well and bring it all to an emotional climax that will have even the most casual visitors to the Downton world leaving with a watery sniff and a very contented smile. 

The behind-the-scenes special Downton Abbey Celebrates the Grand Finale, featuring the cast, debuts on NBC on Wednesday, September 10, 2025, at 9 p.m. ET and streams the next day on Peacock. Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale will also premiere with special advanced screenings on Wednesday, September 10, before opening globally in theaters on Friday, September 12, 2025.