DOWNTON ABBEY - THE WAR

Downton's Somme... Charging across no man's land in a field near Ipswich for new series

By Nikki Murfitt
Last updated at 1:31 PM on 7th August 2011

Soldiers, shell-shocked and injured, lie dying in the mud of Northern France as one of history’s bloodiest battles explodes with unprecedented ferocity.

The horror of the Somme and squalor of the trenches may seem far removed from the manicured lawns of Downton Abbey, yet time moves on for ITV1’s much-loved historical drama.

The gritty opening scenes of the first episode of the new series reveal that a drama that began with the sinking of the Titanic now has to deal with the brutality and bloodshed of war.

Horror: The trenches of the Somme as created for Downton Abbey's new series

And, as our exclusive pictures reveal, life has been turned upside down for Matthew Crawley – played by actor Dan Stevens – who went from middle-class Manchester solicitor to Downton’s heir apparent in the hugely popular first series.

‘At the end of series one, everyone looked lovely,’ says 29-year-old Dan.

‘I was wearing a cream linen suit and everything was very genteel. In the new series, I’m covered in mud in a crater in France with explosions all around me. The contrast is extraordinary.’

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The scenes for the £12 million production were filmed over five days in a field just outside Ipswich.

Dan says: ‘It was real Boys’ Own stuff, running across no man’s land with TNT exploding in front of me.

I could feel the power of the blasts in the pit of my stomach while earth and mud flew into my face and up my nostrils.’

Executive producer Gareth Neame explains: ‘We wanted to up the stakes and make the second series bigger and better. Going straight into the Somme will make that happen.’

Spick and span: Dan Stevens as Matthew Crawley and Hugh Bonneville as Robert get kitted out in dress uniform

Mud and blood:, Matthew Crawley, played by Dan Stevens, as an officer surveying the aftermath of an attack

The social certainties of the past disappear with the outbreak of war, blurring the lines between the aristocracy and the servant classes.

But for fans who have avidly followed the tangled love lives of Downton’s inhabitants, some things will remain reassuringly familiar.

Matthew, spurned by Mary – Michelle Dockery – has sought comfort in the arms of heiress Lavinia Swire, actress Zoe Boyle.

Things to do: Jim Carter as butler Charles Carson is still running things his way with the help of second footman William Masion, played by Thomas Howes

Love affair: Brendan Coyle as John Bates and Joanne Froggett as Anna in Downton Abbey

And the show’s unlikeliest sex symbol will have millions of female viewers glued to their screens for the eight-week run. Although sombre, and not conventionally good-looking, John Bates, the Earl of Grantham’s valet, is on a par with Colin Firth’s Mr Darcy when it comes to getting fans hot under the collar.

Brendan Coyle, 47, the actor who plays him, seems bemused by the attention: ‘I’m very flattered – not sure I understand it though.’

‘I wrote John Bates for Brendan,’ says the show’s creator, Julian Fellowes. ‘He is fantastic at portraying the character’s painful past and the fact that he is lame adds a vulnerability which seems to bring out a protective streak among many women.’

Previously, scandal threatened Bates’s position and his love affair with head housemaid Anna, played by Joanne Froggatt, but could life at last be looking more promising?

‘He’s inherited a house and some money from his mother. His relationship with Anna is also in full bloom,’ says Brendan.

‘But the spectre of his wife Vera, played by Maria Doyle Kennedy, comes back to haunt him and it’s catastrophic – really powerful.’

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2023199/Downton-Abbeys-Somme-Charging-mans-land-Ipswich-new-series.html#ixzz1UMVqsVYf