The Final 'Downton Abbey' Featurette Will Leave You Teary-Eyed

It is rare for a franchise to conclude in the 21st century, when the landscape is heavily marked by reboots, revivals, and reimaginings of older titles. It's not just shows like The Forsytes remaking The Forsyte Saga for a new century, or boyish comedy All Creatures Great & Small recast as cozy family programming. Outlander has given way to Outlander: Blood of My Blood, Motherland to Amandaland, and so on. That's why it's such a big deal that Downton Abbey is really and truly ending. Or, at least this cast and iteration of the series is being allowed to have a good send-off, with little fear of being asked to reprise the characters ever again outside of the odd Red Nose Day sketch.

The irony is that this sort of franchising rarely happens to a series like Downton, or to your average working British actor whose main bread and butter is BBC and ITV series with occasional forays to Channel 4 and 5. I think that's part of what charms Americans about the cast, and why they're all viewed as so likable; most of them have never experienced this sort of hoopla and never will again, unless they accidentally luck into a film festival darling that gets real Oscar buzz. The result is that they're all deeply sincere in their graciousness and humility about having the chance to experience this, something that is essentially impossible to manufacture.

That sincerity comes across in the new featurette "Farewell to Downton," where the actors discuss what it was like making the final film.