Jim Carter & Raquel Cassidy on Downton Abbey: A New Era as the Speed-Dating Version of the Series

Having played their characters on television and film for ten-plus years, Jim Carter and Raquel Cassidy are old hands when it comes to the world of Downton Abbey. Starring as Mr. Carson and Miss Baxter, the exacting house butler and kind lady’s maid to Cora Crawley, the two veteran actors are pillars of the “downstairs” world of Downton, keeping the house running, food on the table, and the upstairs gentry clothed and happy — even when it means coming out of retirement to do so.

Carter and Cassidy are two of the many stars who return to the familiar and beloved house for Downton Abbey: A New Era, the second spin-off film that sees Hollywood come to the abbey as the family investigates a mysterious inheritance gained by the Dowager Countess (Maggie Smith), in the form of a villa in the south of France. Mr. Carson and Miss Baxter both follow the family to the beautiful countryside as they attempt to discern the reasoning for such a sudden bequest, and it’s there that adventure follows, as both the family and the servants take on the big, wide world outside of Downton.

Ahead of the film’s release on DVD and Blu-ray on July 5, Collider had the opportunity to fly to England and interview Carter and Cassidy at the stunning Wrest Park, the UK filming location for the French villa inherited by the Dowager Countess. Over the course of the interview, which you can watch above as well as read a transcript of below, the stars discussed what it was like taking their characters from television to film and the cinematic nature of the series itself, as well as what Miss Baxter’s wedding might look like, and what it was like for Carter to work on the film with his wife, Imelda Staunton.

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