‘Downton’ Discussion with Historical Advisor Alastair Bruce

Alastair Bruce, the historical advisor for Downton Abbey, is a real character. He’s a lively and charming actual real person, of course. Still, in a round-table interview arranged to coincide with the six-season mega-hit to re-air on PBS Masterpiece starting this summer, Bruce held forth with the easy panache of one totally comfortable being a man out of time. After learning a bit more about his career – he’s worked on all three Downton Abbey films, as well as The King’s Speech, The Greatest Showman, and the Young Victoria series – it’s easy to see that Bruce’s expertise in Edwardian-to-post-Second World War manners and customs is thoroughly integrated into his entire being.

Bruce takes his connection with Downton Abbey personally, too, having been “called on set to be Julian Fellowes’ representative on Earth” since the landmark historical drama’s inception.

(He was also very close with Fellowes’s wife, Emma Joy Kitchener, “and was perhaps key in making sure that the two of them got together,” enhancing the chums who work splendidly well together air of the whole arrangement.) 

As historical advisor, Bruce is always working “to make sure that whilst not intervening” in the storytelling itself, he’s “made sure that the environment and background of every scene can be true to the time in which it’s set.” He also navigates the boundary between believable historical fidelity and a slavish adherence to accuracy that would pull viewers out of the story. For example, fully period-accurate dialogue would be fatal to contemporary native English speakers trying to understand what they were seeing on screen. “I think it would’ve been a quaint, but not entertaining asset to the lexicon of good television.”