Free Downton Abbey Script Book Season 1 by Julian Fellowes Page A

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    MATTHEW: If you mean I am accustomed to a very different life from this, then that is true.
    Naturally, the simplicity of his reply wrong-foots Mary.
    SYBIL: What will you do with your time?
    MATTHEW: I’ve got a job in Ripon. I’ve said I’ll start tomorrow.
    This is a total bombshell. To family and servants, alike.
    ROBERT: A ‘job’?
    MATTHEW: In a partnership. You might have heard of it. Harvell and Carter.
    ROBERT: The lawyers?
    MATTHEW: They need someone who understands industrial law, I’m glad to say, although I’m afraid most of it will be wills and conveyancing and other, lowly activities.
    He smiles around, but this has not made things any better.
    ROBERT: You do know I mean to involve you in the running of the estate? *
    MATTHEW: Oh, don’t worry. There are plenty of hours in the day, and of course I’ll have the weekends.
    ROBERT: We’ll discuss this later. We mustn’t bore the ladies.
    VIOLET: What is a ‘weekend’?
    She feels she has been transported to an alien planet.
9 INT. KITCHEN. DOWNTON. NIGHT.
    Mrs Patmore is in the thick of her main work event of the day and is increasingly irritated by the rest of them.
    DAISY: Why shouldn’t he be a lawyer?
    O’BRIEN: Gentlemen don’t work, silly. Not real gentlemen.
    ANNA: Don’t listen to her, Daisy.
    MRS PATMORE: No! Listen to me! And get those kidneys up to the servery before I knock you down and serve your brains as fritters.
    DAISY: Yes, Mrs Patmore.
    She scurries away with the tray.
    ANNA: I wonder what that Mr Molesley makes of them.
----
    WILLIAM: Mr Bates, you know Mr Molesley, don’t you?
    BATES: I do. We were footmen together. In a house near Stafford. Before the South African War.
----
    THOMAS: Poor old Molesley. I pity the man who’s taken that job.
    BATES: Then why did you apply for it?
    Thomas is caught out, but he bounces back.
    THOMAS: I thought it might help me to get away from you, Mr Bates.
    He looks round the company, satisfied with his response.
----
    THOMAS (CONT’D): And I didn’t know then that Mr Crawley wasn’t a gentleman.
    MRS HUGHES (V.O.): Might I ask who is serving the savoury?
    She is in the doorway. Thomas and William hurry out.
----
10 INT. HALL. DOWNTON. NIGHT.
    The ladies leave the dining room together. Cora walks with Isobel on their way to the drawing room.
----
    CORA: How do you find Molesley?
    ISOBEL: He seems very willing.
    CORA: We felt combining the roles of butler and valet was more suitable for a house of that size. Don’t you agree?
----
    Isobel smiles her agreement. She is out of her depth.
    ISOBEL: I am so interested to see the hospital.
    Violet is walking just behind them with Mary.
    VIOLET: Ooh, well, you would be. With your late husband a doctor.
    She makes it sound roughly equivalent to a plumber’s mate. Isobel understands this, and defies it.
    ISOBEL: Not just my husband. My father and brother, too. And I trained as a nurse during the war.
    VIOLET: Fancy.
    ISOBEL: I’d love to get involved somehow.
    VIOLET: You could always help with the bring-and-buy sale next month, that would be most appreciated.
    They’ve reached the drawing room door, held by Thomas.
----
11 INT. DINING ROOM. DOWNTON. NIGHT.
    The men are alone drinking Port. Robert’s still bewildered.
    ROBERT: How will you manage it?
    MATTHEW: Like many others, I shall bicycle to the station, take a train there and back, and bicycle home. *
    This is astonishing to Robert. And disappointing.
    ROBERT: But I’ve brought you to Downton so the people here will know you.
    MATTHEW: They will know me. They have many years to get to know me, before any change of leadership. But I’m afraid I must keep busy.
    ROBERT: And you can’t be busy at Downton?
    MATTHEW: I can and I will be. But it won’t keep me busy enough.
----
12 INT. SERVANTS’ HALL. NIGHT.
    Daisy, Anna and Bates listen to Thomas, as William comes in. Anna has her sewing