Downton Abbey series finale: Julian Fellowes talks saying goodbye in Masterpiece Podcast preview

Julian Fellowes brought the world into the gilded halls of Downton Abbey and introduced us to the characters fans have grown to love over the past six seasons. And now, it’s time to say goodbye.

Ahead of Sunday night’s series finale, the Downton creator, writer, and executive producer shared what he wanted the finale to be like, and how he hopes fans will feel as they sit down with the Crawleys and their staff for a final time.

“I didn’t want it too tidy, but I did want a sense of warmth,” Fellowes says on this week’s episode of the Masterpiece Studio podcast, which you can hear a clip from exclusively below. “I wanted a sense of generosity towards these people we’d come to know so well.”

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“I wanted everyone to kind of go to bed that night feeling content because, in a way, you watch the final episode in a slightly different mood. You watch it to say ‘goodbye’ to them because you know it’s the end,” he continues. And I felt that I wanted that atmosphere where people around the world were sort of raising a glass as they bid them farewell.”

Downton producer Gareth Neame has also promised a “satisfying” close to the British period drama.

“Although the show has light and shade and it’s got good and bad things going on in it — there have been big shocks and surprises even in the finale season — the overall direction of travel is one of optimism,” Neame told EW recently. “It really felt that because these characters are so beloved, they had to have decent endings.”

Fellowes’ full interview can be heard in this week’s Masterpiece Studio podcast, which will be available Sunday at 11 p.m. ET on iTunes, Stitcher, and the Masterpiece website. The final episode of Downton Abbey will air at 9 p.m. ET on PBS.