00:00The main sort of, in a sense, permanent adjustment was that it was clear that Mary was really taking over as the boss at Downton and rather taking the reins from her father, which is a theme we go on with.
00:19She's very much in charge. I mean, it's a courteous arrangement. They're not rivals in any sense.
00:26But one of the jobs of being in a hereditary business is to accept that it is hereditary.
00:35And there comes a time when your usefulness is diminished and the moment has come to hand on.
00:42And I think that we played in the first film and we play in the second.
00:47The comedy I like is real life comedy.
00:54And in all our lives, we all know people who are funnier than other people that we know.
01:00And they have the gift of making phrases that are funny, but they don't take you out of the real situation.
01:08They're funny to a degree, but they're not all about Whitehall farce.
01:14So you can return to the truth of the narrative situation without any difficulty.
01:19And that is, I think, the level of comedy that sits well in a kind of ongoing family saga, which is really what Downton is.
01:29I was lucky with Maggie Smith because I'd worked with her before.
01:38And the character I wrote that she played in Gosford Park was quite similar to Violet Grantham in Downton.
01:47She's a very rewarding actress because she has a great gift.
01:54Well, she has many gifts, but she has a great gift that she can be very funny one minute and two minutes later have you crying.
02:02And she does it without changing into someone else.
02:06Lesser actors turn into someone else when they shift gear, but she doesn't.
02:11She remains very true to herself of her own character, and she can get laughs as that character, but also tears.
02:24I'm part of a dying breed who believes that one of the jobs, at least, of the entertainment industry is to entertain.
02:34We're a diminishing number, but I want people to watch Downton and enjoy it.
02:43I want them to go to this movie and have a nice time and laugh and cry and go out and have a decent dinner and get back home and feel they've had a good evening.
02:53That that suits me. That's my that's my goal.
02:57And if people say, but is it enough for you just to entertain?
03:02The answer is yes. And and, you know, I hope every now and then I make them think about the disparity of background in an unequal society.
03:15Or I make them think of the difficulties of being homosexual in a period when it was still illegal or, you know, we touch on things.
03:23But that's not the prime purpose. The prime purpose is to give them a really good evening.
03:29You
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