MOVIE NEWS – Julian Fellowes, creator of Downton Abbey, still cannot accept that the late Maggie Smith never watched a single episode of the series, nor either of the movies.

Smith, who passed away in September last year at the age of 89, played Violet Crawley, the Dowager Countess of Grantham, from the show’s very first season in 2010. Despite being one of its central figures, she repeatedly told Fellowes both publicly and privately that she never even peeked at an episode. “She was such a perfectionist that I long thought it impossible she wasn’t interested in how the episodes looked once finished,” Fellowes told The Times. “An artist is usually curious about the result of a shared effort, but apparently, that was not the case with Maggie. She invested incredible energy into every performance, but what came after barely concerned her.”

The series and the films will conclude with a grand finale. Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale gathers all major characters and ties up the storylines. Fellowes believes that if Smith were still alive and, for some reason, decided to watch it, she would certainly enjoy it.

(Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale – Hungarian release: September 11, 2025)