Robert Crawley
"is like a member of my family. I started playing him more than ten years ago, but having had breaks, in which I have dedicated myself to so many other projects, has allowed me to never get bored with him or with the rest of the family. Then there has always been the joy of returning to that set, where a profound harmony was created with the other performers and authors. We immediately found each other, we share a common sensitivity ".
Hugh Bonneville, versatile and tireless actor, who became a global idol in the role of the Earl of Grantham, Robert Crawley in
Downtown Abbey, the cult series created by Julian Fellowes , tells ANSA
, set in England between the '10s and the' 20s, which after 6 seasons for 52 episodes, between 2010 and 2015 and 15 Emmys won, continued on the big screen with two feature films.
Downton Abbey - The film by Michael Engler arrived in 2019 and this year Downton Abbey - A new era by Simon Curtis, which after its theatrical release at the end of April and digital download from the end of June, will debut on Dvd from July 14th. and Blu-ray, packed with extras, with Universal Pictures Home Entertainment.
"I am always open to surprises, but I believe that with this chapter the journey of Downton Abbey has reached its destination and I can only say that it was wonderful," Bonneville points out, excluding, at least for now, the possibility of new sequels.
This return sees almost the complete group of Downton Abbey aristocrats and servants, played by, among others, Maggie Smith, Michelle Dockery, Elizabeth McGovern, Laura Carmichael, Jim Carter, Raquel Cassidy, Brendan Coyle, Kevin Doyle, Michael Fox, Joanne Froggatt, Penelope Wilton.
We are in 1928 and the Crawleys have to deal with two events that will hold several surprises.
Mary (Dockery), in order to have the amount necessary to repair the roof of the house, accepts the proposal of a film crew and grants the big house as a set to shoot a silent film.
"It was nice to be able to travel again after the lockdown. At the beginning we didn't have the certainty of being able to shoot in France and we were looking for locations in England that looked quite French - says Bonneville with a smile -. But in the end we could really go to the Costa Azzurra was beautiful and the film captures the different light and colors of those landscapes ".
One of the key elements of Downton Abbey's success is the way in which it "reflects today as much as the time in which it is set - underlines the actor -. Then we see a past that is not so distant, it is that of our grandparents.
Julian Fellowes
however, he rewrites it with a contemporary perspective.
One of the central aspects, for example, is the strong women who lead the story.
A side that reflects how women were really the engine of these large families and of the management of these mansions, even if they had very few protections in society.
Julian pays homage to them. "A set of ingredients that audiences continue to love, so much so that Downton Abbey II - A New Era was one of the first films not related to superheroes, fantasy or action, that brought the audience back in theaters: "All of us actors, especially in these two years of pandemic, have received messages from people who told us how during the lockdown they had discovered or reviewed the series, perhaps thinking about when the
they had seen for the first time with their parents and this time many wrote to us that the film had led them to return to the cinema for the first time.
The bond with the public has never been interrupted: the series was finished in 2015, before Brexit, before Trump, the pandemic and the war in Ukraine ... I think that many, finding these characters, also think back to a more peaceful period " .
