Just over a month after it arrived in UK cinemas, Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale is now available to rent and buy on digital platforms – and to celebrate the release, we’ve got an exclusive behind-the-scenes clip giving us a new look at how the movie’s racing scenes were filmed.
It turns out that rather than being filmed at Royal Ascot – where the scenes were set – production actually took place more than 200 miles away at Ripon Racecourse in North Yorkshire.
Alongside footage showing the camera crew hard at work, the clip also includes interviews with the cast, including Lady Mary star Michelle Dockery, who says: “Today we’re filming the scenes at Ascot, but we’re actually at Ripon.
“It’s kind of one of the main events of the film, where the family come together and they go to the races and it’s a really exciting day for everyone.”
Meanwhile, franchise newcomer Alessandro Nivola – who has a key role in the film as somewhat dodgy financial advisor Gus Sambrook – explains: “This is a beautiful old racetrack that’s meant to double for Royal Ascot, which has been renovated since the period of the movie.”
Production designer Donal Woods further details why the change of location was made, revealing that “the real Ascot looks like Terminal 5” and that it is now a “huge skyscraper of a building”.
He continues: “Ripon’s still got a lot of period features so not every shot had to be CGI [or] had to be green-screened. And it’s a very quiet course, I mean, we’re now in the middle of the flat-racing season and we had four days filming plus two days to prep – so we needed a clear time frame to actually create the physical side of Royal Ascot that we’re building.”
Since its release in cinemas, the film – which draws the curtain on the hugely popular period drama after six seasons of the TV show and two previous movies – has gone down very well with long-time fans, while also attracting broadly positive reviews from critics.
In our verdict, we called it a “pleasant stroll with characters you know and love” while also remarking on how it ended “with a touching dedication to the legendary actress” Dame Maggie Smith, who memorably played Lady Violet Crawley and sadly passed away last year.
Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale is now available to buy or rent exclusively on digital platforms and is also still showing in some UK cinemas.
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