Downton Abbey star defends most controversial and brutal death a decade later

Downton Abbey star Jim Carter has defended the controversial killing of Matthew Crawley (Dan Stevens), which ‘ruined’ Christmas Day in 2012.

Downton Abbey: The Grande Finale is set to be released at the end of this month, with the cast coming together for one final third film.

Reflecting on the entire franchise, including the six series that preceded the films, Metro chatted to some of the members of the cast about the beloved series.

When questioned about the controversial moment the show accidentally ruined Christmas for devoted fans, Jim Carter defended the move.

‘Those deaths… Most people got angry with the actors, which is unfair. Julian wrote that Matthew died on Christmas, but you know, Dan Stevens didn’t know that it was going to go out on Christmas night and ruin everybody’s Christmas.

‘But I think he got blamed for it subliminally.’

Dan chose to leave the series after playing Matthew Crawley for three seasons.

His character had survived temporary paralysis after World War I and had just welcomed his first child with his love interest Lady Mary when he was killed in a car crash after visiting his wife and newborn at the hospital.

The moment was heavily criticised for putting a dampener on the Christmas festivities when it aired on December 25 in the prime slot at 8:45pm.

Jim added that it wasn’t Dan’s fault his contract was over, and reminded viewers that ‘life goes on’.

‘Characters go out and the actors go out to contract so the character goes out of the storyline. It is what it was, but that’s our life. Life moves on,’ he said.

Explaining his exit, Dan said in 2022 in an interview with The Guardian: ‘There were definitely creative itches left unscratched.

‘Genres I hadn’t worked in. Three years were up, that’s what we’d initially signed up for, and the appetite to explore further was too great.’

He added: ‘It’s not something I expect people to readily understand.

‘Some admire it, others think I was mad: that the part was the greatest thing that could ever happen to me.’

Jim played Mr Carson in the series, and was joined by his on-screen wife Phyllis Logan (who played Mrs Hughes), Raquel Cassidy (who played Phyllis Baxter) and Kevin Doyle (who played Mr Molesley) for the conversation with Metro.

The cast discussed the late Dame Maggie Smith, whose character Violet Crawley, the Dowager Countess of Grantham died in the second film, which was released in 2022. The late actress died in September 2024 at the age of 89.

The latest film includes a tribute to the late star, something that the cast believe she would have rolled her eyes at.

‘She’d have laughed at it,’ said Kevin.

Jim added: ‘She was very unsentimental, Maggie. She wouldn’t have, she’s moved on, but quietly she’d have been pleased. We all felt she was there, you know, we should, you know, because she was Maggie Smith and the Dowager Countess, was the leader of the gang.’

Raquel also revealed that while she might have been quietly cool, the actress was moved when the cast honoured her on set by lining up in front of the house to give her a grand exit.

‘I wasn’t there. But apparently, she was very moved when she came out,’ Raquel said.

‘As we do in the series, there’s a line of people often when the high-ups go out and the servants line up, and that happened for Maggie. I think she was really moved.

‘She came out with her stand-in. But it was a very moving thing. So I think she would have been touched by it.’

Reflecting on the franchise as a whole, the actors all had storylines that they wished they could have revisited, with Phyllis wishing that her husband in real life (Kevin McNally) had returned to play his nasty on-screen character Horace Bryant.

‘My horrible husband, not my husband,’ she said with a laugh. ‘Horrible Mr. Bryant, who happened to be my husband, lovely husband, took away the baby to bring him up as his grandson, because it was his son that had impregnated her.

‘I’d like to have seen the return of Amy [Nuttall]’s character and maybe the child being reunited,’ she said.

Raquel added: ‘I think if you’re allowed to bring someone back to life, I would have loved to have seen Sybil again.’

Kevin added that Siobhan Finneran returning as Miss O’Brien would be his choice as he ‘loved her character’.

Jim also shared that he would have liked to see his real-life wife return to the show, but joked that he was initially ‘livid’ that she was cast as an aristocrat ‘upstairs’ person, while he was a ‘downstairs’ butler.

‘I was furious that she played an upstairs character. What was it, Lady Maude Bagpus? Bagshaw! I was livid!’ he remarked.

‘But we got to do a scene together in a hat shop in France. Well, that was in the studios. Imelda and I had a lovely holiday – ahem, working period – in France.’

Downton Abbey: The Grande Finale is set to release in cinemas on September 26.

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