What will Prince Andrew think of this movie?
Inman: Well, he’s just Andrew now.
Andrew Dawson: I think getting a ticket to this is top of his priorities at the moment.
Inman: He’s got nothing else to do.
Andrew Dawson: Even within Britain, there’s often a thinking, as ridiculous as it is, like, “The aristocracy, they’re different to the rest of us.” Like they exist in a different set of rules, and we somehow accept it—particularly when you put 100 years between us and Downton.
O’Hanlon: It goes back to fairy tales.
Has Downton Abbey creator Julian Fellowes seen the movie?
O’Hanlon: Not that we know of, but he did, would you believe, come to Knowsley Hall where we were shooting. We weren’t shooting on weekends and they said, “Lord Fellowes was going on a shooting party.” Plus he is good friends with Sue Johnston, who played Great-Aunt Bonaparte. That shows you the authenticity of the location: It’s still where lords gather for very expensive shooting parties.
Your movie is done with care. I’m sure he’ll like it.
Inman: It’s done with love.
O’Hanlon: And Hugh Bonneville has been replying to Damian Lewis’s Instagram posts with the thinking-man-with-the-monocle emoji.
Andrew Dawson: It was built to appeal to people who love that genre. Someone in our crew mentioned that [kitchen] staff are always chopping herbs, and so we made a joke out of that.
O’Hanlon: I had seen a YouTube interview that said there’s a practical reason—because they’re really easy to reset.
Okay, for Americans: Why is Blackpool funny?
Andrew Dawson: It’s a very famous seaside town where many people go, but it isn’t glamorous. Arcades and penny gambling. Illuminations and donkey rides. But the tower there sort of resembles the Eiffel Tower.
Oh, now I get the joke.
Andrew Dawson: She holds up the picture and you think she’s going to say Paris, but it is Blackpool. Listen: I didn’t know who Robert Goulet was until The Simpsons. Honestly, I didn’t know what the Spanish Inquisition was before Monty Python.
Should this movie be a financial success, is there a Return to Fackham Hall script in the works?
O’Hanlon: Fackham Harder?
Inman: We’d love to do a sequel. We’ve got ideas bubbling.
