Michelle Dockery: What's an Essex girl doing at Downton Abbey?

By Judith Woods



Last updated at 8:00 PM on 3rd September 2011

She may play a snooty aristocrat in Downton Abbey, but Essex-born Michelle Dockery is delightfully down to earth. Judith Woods enjoys a girlie lunch with the star, who happily indulges her Downton obsession

'I love Edwardian elegance - women have a lot more freedom now, but I think we've lost a bit of our femininity,' says Michelle Dockery

Ah, autumn, season of mists, mellow fruitfulness and – Downton Abbey! Has a summer ever dragged on quite so long? Have grown-ups ever yearned quite so much for those sun-dappled evenings to draw in and the ultimate Sunday-night saga to continue? We have missed them so: Carson the kindly butler and Anna the darling housemaid; imperious Violet, dowager countess; beleaguered paterfamilias Robert, Earl of Grantham. And, above all, Lady Mary.

Lady Mary, how do we love thee? Let me count the ways. Those fabulously arched brows, the porcelain features and breathtaking snobbishness, the sly way she put the kibosh on her sister Edith’s marriage hopes, the dark-eyed sensuality of her tryst with the Turk, the aching vulnerability beneath the studied carapace of cool. There was surely not a dry eye in the land when she was spurned by cousin Matthew at the end of series one, for snootily, foolishly dithering over his marriage proposal.

And yet here she is, daringly uncorseted, tucking into a salad. She is tall, luminously beautiful as an arum lily, slim as a (highly bred) whippet and every bit a lady. All right then, I’m lunching with the actress Michelle Dockery, but she’s so synonymous with her role it’s almost impossible not to curtsey. Except – and here’s the ultimate shocking secret at the heart of Downton – she’s not quite what she seems.

‘When I was a child, I went to stage school three times a week in the evenings – singing, ballet, tap, modern and acting, and I loved it,’ she says.

‘At the age of eight I auditioned for The Sound of Music, and made it through to the third round, where we all stood in a row like the Von Trapp family and had to sing. I belted out my line with real confidence and I could see the casting director and the other adults were impressed by my singing voice. Then we were asked to give our names. The children before me were all enunciating perfectly. When I was asked what experience I had, I replied, “Well, I’ve done lots of shows round Essex but I ain’t done nuffink up the West End.” I instantly suspected I’d blown it. And I had.’

From left: Dame Maggie, Michelle and Laura Carmichael in Downton Abbey; with Tim Pigott-Smith in Pygmalion, 2008

Oh my days! An Essex girl, you say? Anna, clear away Lady Mary’s things – from now on she will bunk with Daisy in the woodshed!

It is, of course, unlikely that such an unmasking could ever come to pass, not least because Michelle’s accent now is definitely upstairs rather than downstairs, which she attributes to a combination of drama school and living in London for the past 11 years. But the roller coaster of emotion that we are to experience over the coming weeks will nevertheless be very dramatic. For the Great War is underway, and Downton’s hermetically sealed bubble of privilege has been
well and truly burst by the bayonets of international conflict. The seat of the Earls of Grantham has been transformed into a convalescent home for wounded officers, and Ladies Mary, Edith and Sybil pressed into something approaching service.

‘Mary doesn’t get her hands quite as dirty as her sisters because she is such a crashing snob, but the war has been a huge wake-up call for the girls,’ says Michelle.

‘There’s an influx of wounded men, work to be done and a terrible sense of death looming over the nation. Mary has realised that she made an awful mistake when it came to Matthew, who has now gone off to war while she nurses a broken heart. She tries to move on because she runs the risk of being left on the shelf if she doesn’t marry soon.’

Scottish actor Iain Glen plays Mary’s new suitor, but as always the path of true (or indeed false) love never runs smooth. ‘We are revisiting Downton at a harrowing time, and I think viewers will need an enormous box of tissues to get through this second series. There were audible gasps from the cast whenever we got a new script to read, because the plot twists are so unexpected yet so clever. I love playing Mary; she’s absolutely fascinating. She seems cynical and calculating, but in truth she’s indecisive and troubled, which makes her complicated and human and, as a result, hugely rewarding to play.’

Michelle herself, who is 29, is every bit as intriguing as her alter ego. Her Irish immigrant father worked his way up from driving a van to becoming a surveyor; her mother delivers meals to the elderly in and around their home village of Chadwell Heath in Essex. The youngest of three sisters, she not only acts but is an accomplished jazz singer – most recently she performed at the 50th anniversary celebrations of the London jazz club Ronnie Scott’s, in a line-up including Will Young and Mick Hucknall.

Although she professes to be unacademic, and felt intimidated when, aged 18 with just two A-levels, she won a place at London’s Guildhall School of Music & Drama, she exudes an emotional intelligence that shines through every performance, and after graduation was taken on at the National Theatre.

She served her time in the ranks, understudying and appearing in the likes of Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials until she landed the plum role of Eliza Doolittle in a 2008 production of Pygmalion at the Theatre Royal Bath, which then toured and transferred to the Old Vic in London. She was roundly feted for her ‘statuesque, breathtaking beauty’, ‘perfect portrayal’ and ‘exquisite performance’. Then, almost immediately, she was slated by the critics for her Ophelia to John Simm’s Hamlet at the Sheffield Crucible.

‘One review was so awful that I thought it was indelibly etched on my soul, but now I can’t actually recall a word – I’ve erased it from my memory in an act of self-preservation,’ she laughs.

‘Ophelia is the most difficult character to play because it’s so weighed down with other people’s expectations, and whatever our interpretation is, half the audience will probably hate it. There should be some organised group hug for all actresses who’ve played Ophelia and survived!’

As will be clear by now, Michelle is open, relaxing company, refreshingly content with her looks and comfortable in her own skin. She lives with her architect boyfriend in a cavernous studio flat in trendy Clerkenwell, East London, home to galleries and clubs, underground artist collectives and musicians. They have been together two years but she prefers to keep him out of the limelight; they socialise a lot, eat out frequently and she ‘adores’ the buzz of Central London, even if she does yearn for a garden.

Dressed, edgily today, in Topshop lace and Diesel skinnies, her willowy figure lends itself well to structured tailoring and she borrows Armani for grand occasions. She also has a passion for Burberry as ‘it’s important to support British brands’. Is not Lady Mary the ultimate brand ambassador? Given her abiding affection for hooped earrings – ‘my little bit of Essex bling’ – she certainly gives English Rose a streetwise twist.

From left: Singing with the Ronnie Scott’s Big Band in 2009; attending a charity do with Downton co-star Laura Carmichael last month

Working on Downton Abbey has been a joy, she declares. Viewing figures peaked at 11.6 million in the UK, making it the most successful ITV costume drama since Brideshead Revisited 30 years ago. During filming, the actors stay together at a local hotel near Highclere Castle, the picturesque Berkshire pile chosen to play Downton, where they eat, sleep and socialise together.

‘I daren’t say which hotel it is, in case we get inundated with Downton groupies,’ she says, not quite joking. ‘Brendan Coyle, who plays Mr Bates, is especially popular with the ladies. At a recent benefit night, in aid of the international medical relief charity Merlin, he was wolf whistled as he went on stage, and when he mentioned his wife in passing, there was a collective gutted sigh. He’s very funny and charming and I’m really fond of him.’

Another favourite on set is Dame Maggie (as the dowager countess), whose daunting professional reputation is, mercifully, ameliorated by her keen sense of humour – and her kindness. ‘When you are doing a scene with Maggie, you really want to give more than your best, in a wholly impossible bid to match her,’ says Michelle with a wry smile. ‘She’s got a mischievous sense of fun, but I was really touched by how much she cares about the minutiae of other people’s lives. At one point I mentioned that I had toothache – then, a full fortnight later, she asked me how my tooth was doing, which was so sweet.’

Michelle’s passion for music is shared by Elizabeth McGovern (Lady Cora), who has a band – Sadie and the Hotheads – with whom she has sung and hopes to collaborate more in the future. ‘Elizabeth calls us her “chicks” and she is definitely our mother hen. During breaks in filming she and I can be found sitting together playing the guitar.’ Michelle, who is keen to pursue songwriting, cites her musical influences as Peggy Lee, Melody Gardot and Billie Holiday in her more melancholy moods.

On Downton, Michelle says: 'It's a wonderful feeling to be part of such a phenomenon'

But back to Downton. ‘It’s a wonderful feeling to be part of such a phenomenon. I think the success of Downton is partly because there are effectively 18 leading characters, all given equal importance, so it’s enormously involving on many levels. But also, it’s a new story. It’s not like Dickens or Austen, where everyone knows the denouement; this is a story that feels terribly immediate, despite the period setting. The first series set out the characters, now each of us is just running with our plot.’

Amid the gloom of war and the intricate, overlapping cat’s cradle of story lines, there are lighter moments too, when we can (temporarily) put down the Kleenex, Michelle hastily assures. The clash of the matriarchs – Lady Cora, head of Downton the household, versus Penelope Wilton’s Isobel Crawley, Matthew’s mother, who is in charge of Downton the convalescent home – makes for cutting comedy beneath the politesse. And the intense rivalry between Lady Mary and Lady Edith is laid aside amid the fallout from tragedy. ‘We’re still a bit horrible to one another, but not as much as before,’ says Michelle. ‘Ironically, Laura Carmichael, who plays Edith, and I are close friends; we socialise together, get ready for Downton events together and occasionally, when there’s been a mix-up over accommodation, we’ve had sleepovers in each other’s hotel rooms, all of which makes it such fun to be so unpleasant on set.’

The costumes are another source of ambivalence: restrictive yet elegant, ladylike yet oppressive. ‘The corset was like an Edwardian gastric band – it’s physically impossible to eat a lot, and slouching is not an option. I love the elegance, and I can’t help thinking that although women have a lot more freedom now, we’ve lost a bit of our femininity.’ The second series sees Lady Mary’s clothing evolve: in two costumes she is uncorseted – unthinkable in the first series – an acknowledgement of how society’s strictures were relaxing as its certainties crumbled in the shockwaves emanating from the trenches. It looks as though viewers’ certainties will come tumbling down too.

‘It will be fascinating to see how the public reacts to this next chapter of Downton Abbey,’ says Michelle. ‘I hope they enjoy it.’ Enjoy it? While sobbing, laughing, gasping with horror, wobbly lipped with wistful longing and vicarious heartbreak? Personally, I can think of no better way to spend a Sunday evening.

The new series of Downton Abbey will start on ITV1 later this month.

The official tie-in book, The World of Downton Abbey by Jessica Fellowes, will be published on 15 September (£20, Collins). To order a copy for £16 with free p&p, contact the YOU Bookshop, tel: 0843 382 1111, you-bookshop.co.uk

MICHELLE'S MUST-HAVES

BOOK One Day by David Nicholls. It’s a wonderful novel but I was slow to get round to reading it. As I sat at the Downton dining table reading the last few pages, everyone on set was watching me to see how I would react. I wept, of course.

MUSIC Fleet Foxes. Lyrical, nostalgic — right up my street.

ACCESSORIES Silk scarves are my thing. I tie them to my handbag or thread them through belt loops or wear them in my hair. Never round my neck, though.

SAVING UP FOR a mortgage. I want a house with a garden, but slap bang in the centre of London. Next door to a sushi bar.

BEAUTY PRODUCT Eyelash curlers. No one was allowed to wear make-up for Downton, but we were permitted eyelash curlers, which were a godsend as it almost makes you look like you’re wearing mascara.

STYLE ICON Charlotte Gainsbourg. Effortlessly cool.


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