‘Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale’ review: Change comes to the Abbey in nostalgic final hurrah

Dir: Simon Curtis. UK/US. 2025. 123mins

Like a stately ocean liner, the Downton franchise sails merrily onwards. Following on from the foreign intrigue and jolly film world larks of Downton Abbey: A New Era (2022), Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale restores the aristocratic Crawley family to home turf and adds new threats to their way of life. Writer and co-producer Julian Fellowes doesn’t stray from his winning formula of soap-opera scandals and sweet sentimentality, ensuring that regular fans will not be disappointed.

The regular cast don their roles like comfy old slippers

While global box-office takings for A New Era were around half those for the first big screen outing, 2019’s Downton Abbey, an appetite for comfort viewing and the opportunity to bid a fond farewell might reverse that decline.

The times they are a-changing in The Grand Finale – a point that is laboured throughout with much talk of sad endings, fresh chapters and the need for everyone to move on. Maggie Smith’s imperious Dowager Duchess Violet ruled the Downton Abbey roost ever since the beginning of the ITV television series, which ran from 2010 to 2015. With The Duchess having died in the previous film, her acid-tinged quips are sorely missed. Her presence is constantly referenced and felt in The Grand Finale – not least in a garish portrait that dominates the entrance hall. The film is dedicated to Smith, who died in September 2024.

The ’show must go on’ spirit prevails as the upstairs/downstairs saga reaches the dawn of a new decade. An increasingly irascible Lord Grantham (Hugh Bonneville) is all too aware that the world he once took for granted is quietly slipping away. That doesn’t stop director Simon Curtis and his regular craft team from conjuring up a sun-filled vision of 1930s England marked by the London season: a day at the races, tea at Fortnum and Mason, cricket on the village green, fabulous frocks and society balls. The whole film is wrapped in a rosy, cosy nostalgia.  

The threats to Downton Abbey’s future arrive from all sides. The estate is once again facing financial ruin and selling their London home to pay off debts is simply unthinkable. The times are not changing fast enough for Lady Mary (Michell Dockery) whose status as a divorcee has made her a social pariah. Will she ever be able to show her face in public again?

Lady Cora (Elizabeth McGovern), meanwhile, hopes that her brother Harold (Paul Giamatti) may hold the key to financial salvation when he arrives from New York with news of what to expect from the inheritance left by her late mother. Lady Mary finds that her path to social rehabilitation may lie through her loyal sister Lady Edith (Laura Carmichael) and a passing acquaintance with Noel Coward (Arty Froushan).

Fellowes retains his ability to make a drama out of a crisis, finding some fresh little twist or development for each of the Downton regulars. Butler Carson (Jim Carter) is struggling with his retirement. Cook Mrs Patmore (Lesley Nicol) is about to serve her last supper and embrace married life. Gay footman Barrow (Robert-James Collier) seems to have found his happy ending as dresser and lover of actor Guy Dexter (Dominic West). Lady Merton (Penelope Wilton) is set to honour Violet by bringing radical changes to the organisation of the County Fair – if she can tackle Blimp-like traditionalist Sir Hector Moreland (Simon Russell Beale).

It is no mean accomplishment that The Grand Finale manages to cram in so much plot and incident yet remain a smooth flowing, comforting confection. John Lunn’s familiar music swirls and swoons across green fields, stately piles and society gatherings, and the regular cast don their roles like comfy old slippers. Newcomers this time include Joely Richardson as the censorious Lady Petersfield, a smarmy Alessandra Nivola as the roguish financial adviser Guy Sambrook and, best of all, Arty Froushan trilling his way through an entertaining impersonation of Noel Coward, whose songs are also sprinkled throughout the soundtrack.