With a global audience of 120 million, a trophy cabinet that includes 61 gongs and 231 nominations, and a cinematic universe spanning six series and three films, Downton Abbey is nothing short of a cultural phenomenon. Having first graced our screens in 2010, the latest film landed in cinemas on Friday (12 September 2025), closing the highly-anticipated final chapter in a story that began nearly 15 years ago to the day. For Raquel Cassidy, who plays Phyllis Baxter, the ending has been bittersweet. “I’ve watched it three times – one was an early viewing, then in London and New York – and by the end of the third time I felt really ready to say goodbye,” she explains. “I’ve loved playing Baxter and I’m really looking forward to playing other characters.”

For the first three seasons, Cassidy was merely another person in the audience until she got the call to play the lady’s maid to Cora, Countess of Grantham, in 2013. Her unassuming, likeable character quickly became a firm fixture and, more than a decade on, Cassidy still recalls her first day on set with remarkable clarity. “I was literally leaving my sofa, where I had been watching [Downton Abbey] and been completely obsessed for three years, to walk onto a set I felt I knew so well, but I hadn’t met a single one of the cast as an actor. That was an immense, exciting but nervous moment.” 

Some of the nerves are owed to the character Cassidy was to take on – and Baxter’s character development has been nothing short of extraordinary. “It’s huge. She crawls into the Abbey and is very much at the lowest ebb in her life. Liz Trubridge, our producer, came into the hair and makeup truck on my first day and gave me a rundown of where Baxter was. She said she was essentially a good human being but her options right now are either this [job] works or she can go into prostitution. If she doesn’t keep this post, whether it’s by further subterfuge and following Thomas’ path, or whether it’s through forgiveness and redemption, she has very little hope in her life. 

Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale. Image: UPI Media

“Luckily through Molesley’s nobility and friendship, and Lady Cora’s generosity and trust, she manages to step back into the human being that she always was; someone who was noble, true, trustworthy and someone you want on your team. Not someone who is secretly stealing your jewels.” 

That memorable scene in season five, when footman Thomas Barrow blackmails Baxter until she’s forced to unveil her past criminal escapades to Cora, is one of Cassidy’s most memorable – “that’s the richest moment for Baxter” – but the new film is even more moving, giving her something she never thought she was worthy of: love. 

For many fans (spoiler alert), it was high time Baxter got the proposal they were all waiting for. “You can tell when [Molesley] proposes to her that she has been dying for this moment, even if she didn’t dare to hope for it. The way Julian [Fellowes] set it when they’re both dressed to the nines for once makes it a stolen moment. After Matthew and Mary, we were the most wanted couple because we were the most unlikely.”

While the final film set out to close a chapter, it also marked a new one without Dame Maggie Smith, who died last autumn having played the beloved Violet Crawley, Dowager Countess of Grantham, for the entire run of the show. While her fictional passing occurred in 2022 film, Downton Abbey: A New Era, Cassidy says this last story also pays homage to her. “With Maggie Smith passing on, it felt like the right time and that we were honouring her and the character that led the way for so long. It feels like a really good full stop. We’re all going to carry this moment and this family in our lives.” 

But the question on many fans’ lips is: is this really the end? “There’s been talk of a prequel; people have bandied that about. I’ve heard whisperings. It makes sense to perhaps see what the Dowager’s life was because it’s so rich and it’s been alluded to. 

“Some of the older cast members joke about the fact that they’ll have to be wheeled in and carried out in a casket if we go again. I think from that point of view we really need to say goodbye for real this time.”

Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale (2025). Images: UPI Media

It would certainly seem that Fellowes wrote the new film that way, having tied up all the loose ends with a neat bow and offering a happy ending for the Crawley family and their staff. Cassidy says: “It ended in a wonderful way for all of the characters but for Elizabeth McGovern’s character, Cora, I loved how she and her daughters stood strong. I’ve always loved how strong the women are in this show. At the time that it’s set, that’s particularly powerful, because it’s when women begin to step into their power and find some independence. We should really hold on to that in the current times.” 

Naturally Downton Abbey had to move with the times, starting in 1912 just after the Titanic disaster and concluding in 1930, thereby documenting the momentous societal changes that Britain went through, including the First World War and women’s suffrage. One thing that remains relatively unchanged throughout the series and films, however, is the class system, and playing the role of a servant was enlightening for Cassidy. “I did watch Upstairs, Downstairs with my mum when I was growing up and we all have a sense of the class system in this country – hopefully less and less so now. I didn’t know about having servants or being one, and that service was a career choice, perhaps the only choice for a certain few. 

“At the end [of the film], there’s a beautiful scene with Lady Mary and [her maid] Anna, Lord Robert Crawley and his valet Mr Bates, and Lady Cora and Baxter that shows how their relationship and the work they do is really, really important. There’s no turning back on that for certain characters, and others have different aspirations. They’re not better, they’re different – and the wonderful thing is that there’s choice.”

Talking of Upstairs, Downstairs, the latest film also signifies the end of one of the most popular period dramas in UK history – yet Cassidy reveals it very nearly didn’t come to fruition. “When Downton came out, I don’t think there had been much period drama. Gareth Neame, one of the producers, said to me that when he presented it, people said period dramas won’t work. I think there was quite a turn away from period drama and Downton was the forerunner of it all coming back – and it’s come back with a vengeance. 

The genre is a successful, tried-and-tested cinematic formula; just think of Hollywood blockbusters like The Age of Innocence (1993) and Pride and Prejudice (2005), as well as more modern takes such as Bridgerton and The Buccanneers. Downton Abbey is, no doubt, one of the most successful – but why? “I think it works because it’s beautiful to look at, partly because it feels slightly removed from us, so although the characters are just as human as we are and go through all the suffering and the joys of life, they’re doing it at a remove that feels more palatable. I think it’s those ingredients that make period drama so appealing. That time feels simpler although I’m sure in reality it wasn’t.”

Cassidy at Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale premiere at Lincoln Center, New York. Image: Lev Radin/Shutterstock

Raquel Cassidy, Joanne Froggatt, Laura Carmichael, Michelle Dockery, and Elizabeth McGovern at Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale premiere at Lincoln Center, New York. Image: Lev Radin/Shutterstock

While Downton Abbey fever continues to spread across the UK, Cassidy is looking to the future and other, as yet undisclosed, projects “all of which would be very different to Baxter and Downton Abbey. I think I’ve never been as ready to say ‘thanks Baxter, it’s time for me to sign off’. 

“I have never been in anything like Downton because there haven’t been many things that burst into the world and grabbed so many hearts in so many cultures. That’s a phenomenon and if I’m ever in anything near that again, I would be twice blessed.”

There are many projects on Cassidy’s CV that are worthy of being extremely proud – she singles out Teachers and Party Animals, a before-its-time political comedy starring Andrea Riseborough and Matt Smith, as particular highlights – yet when I ask her about her proudest achievement, it is not awards or fame but the effect her work has on an audience that she says matters most. 

“People often say we are not saving lives, which is true, but I’ve sat on my sofa or gone to the cinema and been in a low ebb and it’s got me through. During Covid, it saved a lot of people and that’s probably one of the reasons Bridgerton became so enormous and people took it to their hearts, because it happened to come out when we were all locked up. 

“I think surviving as a human is a pretty proud thing to do. It’s quite hard to be human and, if you’re halfway decent and you get to a certain age, good on you.”

Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale is in cinemas now.

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