Downton Abbey will end this Christmas but it could one day be revived as a television series by future generations, its executive producer has said.
Former hits are often given a new lease of life, as has been shown by the BBC adapting Poldark for a new generation and the mooted return of former ITV hit drama Cold Feet.
Carnival Films managing director Gareth Neame said he realised recently that although “it definitely is the end of the television show … It suddenly occurred to me that in 30 years’ time somebody could [bring it back].
“There’s nothing to stop a whole other generation of people when we’ve all retired. It’ll be whoever owns NBC Universal at that point could say: ‘Well we own this property. We made it 40 years ago and let’s set it on another planet or something.’”
Neame added: “It’s over, the television show will finish at the end of next season … I know everyone’s now going to write down it could have a future lease of life. There are no plans to do that, but it’s a weird thing that happens with some titles that are 40 years old or so, but we won’t be involved in it.”
He added that “one of the things I will miss about the future is that we’ll never see baby George as the Earl of Grantham, that could be a great spin-off”.
ITV director of television, Peter Fincham, said about a potential revival one day: “Who knows? But funnily enough, when we commissioned Downton Abbey, there was another script circulating which was a revival of Upstairs Downstairs.
“You can’t say ‘never revive’. Nobody can tell, but we are united at this point, this is the end, not a provisional end.”
There has been talk of a film, but for the moment audiences for the final series should prepare themselves for some tears as it shows the characters setting off on different paths.
Premiering the trailer for the final series at The Guardian Edinburgh International Television Festival – which will be on-screen within the next week – Neame admitted that during one of the edits, there were “four middle-aged men trying to make it look like they were not crying.”Jim Carter, who plays butler Carson, said: “I am not going to give a spoiler but these characters, we say goodbye to them, but it is not final. We see them setting off on different paths.
“It is really satisfying and you will need two hankies on Christmas night.”
He admitted he succumbed to the emotion during the filming of final scenes: “I thought I would say goodbye to the crew who work so hard.
“Seeing their faces sobbing, it just did me in. We were puddles.”
