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New faces to Downton Abbey.

Post by tats. Posted in News on March 23, 2012.

Mr Carson better be ready for the new trainees, Matt Milne (War Horse) has already been confirmed as a new footman named Alfred and yesterday Digital Spy reported that Ed Spellers (Eragon) will play a footman named Jimmy, the second new footman in the series.

The 23-year-old is currently starring in horror comedy Love Bite and previously featured in Echo Beach.

Spellers’s Downton Abbey casting follows the announcement last month that Cara Theobald will play a new kitchen maid named Ivy and Lucille Sharp will be Miss Reid – Lady Cora’s mother Martha (Shirley MacLaine) lady’s maid .

So many new faces! We can’t wait for it.

Downton Abbey is expected to air in UK on ITV later this year.

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Unlikely Tourist Hot-Spots!

Post by val. Posted in Features on March 14, 2012.

Brit Movie Tours is obviously interested in everything that is British, however I’ve noticed that a lot of my time and attention seems to focus around the main tourist hot-spots in Britain. As a tour company, this makes a lot of sense, but it seems unfair to the rest of the country, so I’ve been looking at other places that Britain has to offer.

One county that has become more and more prominent in recent years is Essex. Billericay, Essex is the home of Gavin, Mick, Pam and Smithy in Gavin and Stacey, and recently Brentwood, Essex has become an unlikely tourist attraction for fans of the BAFTA award-winning show The Only Way is Essex. So what is it about this county that has got us talking about it? After all, this is the county where brides ‘totter down the aisle in a mini skirt and white stilettos’ to quote Stacey’s Mum in Gavin and Stacey. Or is it?

Although it is only recently that Essex has started making a name for itself, it has produced some very well known names in the past. St Trinians actor Russell Brand is an Essex boy, as is Russell Tovey from Being Human. Would it surprise you though to find out that some of the cast from the much loved Downton Abbey are actually Essex girls? The great Maggie Smith who plays Dowager Countess of Grantham and the elegant Michelle Dockery who plays Lady Mary Crawley are in fact Essex girls!

It seems that with the help of some fantastic TV series and amazing actors, Essex is grabbing our attention and becoming one of Britain’s TV tourism hot-spots!

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The surprising success of Downton Abbey

Post by lewis. Posted in News on December 20, 2011.

The creator of Downton Abbey Lord Julian Fellowes was perplexed with the success of the show. Not expecting it to be such a big hit, Fellowes admitted not to know what attracted so many viewers.

The Lord who does not consider himself an aristocrat believes the popularity of the show is due to an equally balanced set of characters, not all being upper class baddies nor all the servants comical.

The writer admitted he cannot be sure of that though or he would write popular shows that attract many viewers for the rest of his life.

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Downton Abbey makes it big down under

Post by lewis. Posted in News on June 12, 2011.

Classic costume drama Downton Abbey has become a surprise hit in Australia.

It pulled in almost two million viewers when it hit the screens last weekend, rivalling Aussie favourite Packed To The Rafters.

Media analyst Steve Allen said: “Downton Abbey is definitely Australia’s most unlikely 2011 hit.”

The ITV1 series, set in an Edwardian country house in 1912, stars upper-crust actor Hugh Bonneville as Robert, Earl of Grantham.

It is in complete contrast to Packed To The Rafters which portrays a struggling working-class family.

Bonneville, 47, has won rave reviews. One TV critic said: “Hugh Bonneville is fantastic.

“He’s so posh and obviously can do no wrong.

“The audience just love him, he’s so British.”

In the series, due to return to television in Britain later this year, Bonneville’s character worries about his sexually adventurous daughter, Lady Mary Crawley, played by Michelle Dockery, 29, and fears for the future of his estate.

Off screen Dockery is a part-time jazz singer and occasionally appears with Sadie And The Hotheads, a band formed by Elizabeth McGovern, 49, who plays Bonneville’s wife in Downton Abbey.

Related Links: Downton Abbey Tour of Locations

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