Downton Abbey scoops four Emmy awards
11:00am Tuesday 20th September 2011
Downton Abbey won four awards at the glamorous Emmys ceremony in Los Angeles.
ITV1’s hit period drama, written by Julian Fellowes from West Stafford, picked up four gongs, including best miniseries and a best supporting actress award for Dame Maggie Smith.
Downton Abbey, which launched its second series last night, was also honoured for its writing and directing, with awards for Julian Fellowes and Brian Percival.
Lord Fellowes called the success of the show a ‘David and Goliath story’, and said: “I would like to thank you, the American industry. “Ten years ago you kick-started my second career with an Oscar, tonight you have nurtured it. This is really a David and Goliath story, except in this case Goliath was wonderful, some wonderful shows that we were up against, and it seems perfectly extraordinary that we’ve won.”
He added: “None of us know what’s going to be a hit, we make these shows, we hope for the best, but we don’t know why sometimes it comes right and this evening is such a marvellous moment in all our lives because this evening it came right.” He was joined by some of the production team and some stars of the show Elizabeth McGovern, who plays the Countess of Grantham, Michelle Dockery, who plays her eldest daughter Lady Mary and Joanne Froggatt, who plays head housemaid Anna Smith.
McGovern lost out to British actress Kate Winslet for the role of best actress in a lead role for her performance in Mildred Pierce.
Lord Fellowes said the success illustrates how the show appeals to a wide range of people. He said: “It was so broadly based and that is what is very exciting about the nature of its success.
“We didn’t have an audience profile. We had young and old and every different kind of background.
“This success is building on that. I can’t pretend to explain it but I’m very glad of it.”
He added: “We thought if we had done it right we would be picked up by a usual period drama audience. That is quite big but we also appealed to all sorts of others including the young.”
Downton Abbey triumphed in the battle of the dramas last night with double the audience of spy series Spooks.
The return of the ITV1 show pulled in an average of 9.3million viewers, against the 4.6million audience for the BBC1 programme – now on its final run.
But Downton proved to be something of a turn-off for some as it lost 1.6 million viewers over the 90-minute episode.
The ITV series – which follows the Crawley family as Britain heads into the First World War – had been expected to triumph when the two shows went head to head.
Chatting for charity
Lord Fellowes and wife Emma are returning to Dorset to take part in a fundraising event for the county’s St John Ambulance on September 23 at Lulworth Castle.They will be taking part in an ‘in conversation with’ evening, giving guests the chance to find out all about Downton and other projects.
Tickets cost £35 and proceeds will go towards funding a specialist ophthalmic nurse at the St John of Jerusalem Eye Hospital.
The event is at 7.45pm on September 23 and tickets are limited and available from St John Ambulance Dorset. Call Alison Glenn or Judith Simpson on 01305 751167 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 01305 751167 end_of_the_skype_highlighting
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