The famed Yorkshire country estate of Downton Abbey will soon close its doors for good as the cast and crew finish filming on the "Masterpiece" series this week.
The sixth and final season of "Downton Abbey" will premiere in the U.S. on Sunday, Jan. 3, 2016 on PBS. The story will begin in 1925 as the Abbey is running on a skeleton staff and seriously downsizing.
The cast of the "Masterpiece" series gathered last weekend at the Television Critics Association summer press tour for an enlightening if not too informative panel. The "Downton" stars did share their feelings on the show coming to an end and what they'll miss most.
"I think we'll miss each other and our crew," said Michelle Dockery, who plays Lady Mary. "It's been their life, as much as it has been ours for the last six years."
Joanne Froggatt (Anna Bates) echoed Dockery. "I think we all feel the same," she said. "And we'll really miss working with our team every day. And I include the cast and crew in that."
With only a few more days until production wraps on Aug. 15, the cast has already said goodbye to a few iconic sets and co-stars as they wrap the sixth and final season. Hugh Bonneville (Robert Crawley) said it was the Abbey and the series' location that proved hardest for him to say goodbye to in the end.
"We finished at Highclere Castle a couple weeks ago. That was quite an interesting day and full of memories and emotions. We said goodbye to the village of Brampton that's been incredibly kind to us over the past six years where we filmed the village itself, the church," Bonneville said.
The cast has also started plotting what souvenirs from set they'd like to take home when the Abbey closes its doors one last time.
"I want to take Lady Mary, really, and Mr. Bates," Joanne Froggatt joked about her co-stars Brendan Coyle and Dockery's characters.
For Laura Carmichael, who played Lady Edith Crawley, she may need a truck for everything she wants to collect. "I want to take most of the set home from the newspaper office," she said. "It's really cool and sort of nerdy. And the typewriters, the big leather sofas, I love all the props."
Bonneville picked an item that had more to do with memories made when the cameras were off.
"I'd like to take one of the mustard pots from the dining room. That's where we stored our Wink Murder bits of paper," he said referring to the parlor game. "We'd hand bits of paper around, and one of them had a cross on it, and that meant you were the murderer, and you had to murder someone around the table. That mustard pot there has a lot of memories."
"Downton Abbey" will first premiere on Sunday, Nov. 9 in the U.K. before its U.S. premiere in 2016.
