A period drama about the British upper crust and those who serve them has created devotees over its six seasons. At a special screening of the series finale in Portland, fans say Sunday nights will never be the same.
Elaine Desilets set out from her home in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, on Sunday with her husband, Larry Vigus, not knowing where their car was headed.
Her husband would only give her two clues: the words “top hat” and a photograph of the inside of a theater.
He stopped in front of the State Theatre on Congress Street in Portland, handed her two tickets and told her to hold a place in the line while he parked the car. Then she glanced at the tickets.
“I burst into tears,” Desilets said.
Her husband had scored tickets to “Downton Abbey: The Final Episode,” a special screening by the Maine Public Broadcasting Network. Desilets was about to take in a special showing of the last episode of her favorite program, which has run for six seasons on Sunday nights.
She and about 1,200 other fans, many in period dress, gathered to say goodbye Sunday afternoon to the popular TV series chronicling the vicissitudes of the Crawley family and its servants in post-Edwardian England.
Before everyone else, they would learn the fates of Lady Mary, Lady Edith and Tom, an occasion not to be missed by hard-core fans. Everyone else had to wait until the program aired on TV Sunday night.
The event included a three-piece jazz ensemble, snacks and drinks, and the raffling off of the actual silver vanity set that graced Lady Edith’s dressing table in the series. There was a New Year’s Eve atmosphere, a last blast before Sunday nights became empty and long again without the droll observations of Violet Crawley, the dowager countess of Grantham, and her run-ins with her nemesis, Isobel Crawley Grey, the Baroness Merton.
Sisters Kelly Gleason of Bath, Brenda Merrill of Bowdoin and Nicole McSweeney of Readfield, and McSweeney’s daughter, Brenda Merrill of Bowdoin, were among the first in line.
“We are thinking it is all going to wrap up nicely for Edith,” said Gleason.
The four said they wanted to join other fans in a final tribute. They planned to go home and watch the final episode again Sunday night.
“This is a bonus,” McSweeney said.
Hope Bramhall and a friend, Susan Greven, both of Falmouth, were dressed in historically appropriate dresses and fur coats. They said they would miss following their favorite characters.
“It is sad, really sad,” said Bramhall.
She said she just wanted Lady Edith to get married, a sentiment shared by a fair number of others in the crowd.
Tom Gallagher of Portland, sporting a tweed cap and matching jacket, said his favorite character is Tom Branson, the former footman who went on to marry Lady Sybil.
“He started out at the bottom and pulled himself up,” Gallagher said.
Beth Forbes of South Portland came dressed in the flapper-style outfit she wore to her daughter’s wedding, complete with gold-spangled clutch.
“I just thought it would be a lot of fun because I have been a fan since it started,” Forbes said.
She said that without “Downton Abbey,” there could have been a hole in her Sunday nights. But she has found a good way to fill it.
“I am taking ballroom dancing lessons,” she said.
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