Downton Abbey/Characters

Crawley Family:

Robert Crawley, Earl of Grantham (Hugh Bonneville)

"You see a million bricks that may crumble, a thousand gutters and pipes that may block and leak, and stone that will crack in the frost...I see my life's work."

• Benevolent Boss: He presents a firm but fair approach to managing his staff.
• Big Screwed-Up Family
• Blue Blood
• Gentleman and a Scholar
• Gold Digger: He married Cora purely for her fortune, in order to save his ailing estate. He subsequently came to love Cora and feels very ashamed about his motives in marrying her.
  • This was quite common in Real Life. During the nineteenth century, many impoverished British aristocrats married American heiresses to maintain their wealth. One of these heiresses was Winston Churchill's mother.
• Good Old Ways: He derides Sir Richard Carlisle's modernisation plans for Haxby Park, including all mod-cons and an ensuite bathroom in every bedroom, as "like living in a hotel."
• Happily Married
• Officer and a Gentleman: He served in the Boer War, prior to series 1.
• Papa Wolf: He's incredibly protective of his daughters, but Sybil in particular.

Robert (To Branson): If you mistreat her, I will have you ripped apart by wild dogs.

• The Patriarch
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Most of the time.
• Succession Crisis: He has no son of his own, meaning that his first and second cousins, James and Patrick, were to inherit the estate - until they were killed on the Titanic in the first episode. As a result, distant relation Matthew is the new heir, a development that drives much of the series' plot.
• Your Cheating Heart: He strikes up a lustful dalliance with Jane Moorsum, a new maid, which leads to a few stolen kisses, but he soon breaks it off, following a My God, What Have I Done? realization.

Cora Crawley, Countess of Grantham (Elizabeth McGovern)

• Ambiguously Jewish: While this may or may not have been intended by the writers...her father's name is Isadore Levinson. A more stereotypically 19th-century Ashkenazi Jewish name could not be imagined (and indeed, it's hard to imagine anyone named Levinson being anything but Jewish, even if only ethnically). Given that a Catholicism plot is planned for Series 3, this may pop up, too.
• Blue Blood: In the loosest sense of the term: her father seems to have been a Self-Made Man.
• Blue Eyes: Of the piercing kind.
• Gorgeous Period Dress
• Happily Married: She even confirms it when asked by Robert.
• Horrible Judge of Character: Stop trusting O'Brien!
• The Matchmaker
• Proper Lady
• Raven Hair, Ivory Skin
• Sacred Hospitality
• Shiny Midnight Black: Her hair is a very deep black.
• Silk Hiding Steel
• Spoiled Sweet: Cora's father was a dry goods millionaire from Cincinnati, making her less like the NY old guard and more like the rest of the Buccaneers - American heiresses who couldn't get into the American elite, so they came over to England and France where their wealth could be, ah, appreciated.
• Surprise Pregnancy: Which ends in a tragic miscarriage - see O'Brien's entry below.
• Token Minority: She's American, a fact that her mother-in-law and even her own daughters rarely let her forget.

Lady Mary: You're American, you wouldn't understand these things.

Lady Mary Crawley (Michelle Dockery)

"When you laugh with me or flirt with me, is that a duty? Are you conforming to the fitness of things?"

• Belligerent Sexual Tension: Between her and Mathew.
• Big Sister Instinct: She exhibits this to Sybil in spades, refering to her as "my darling" most of the time and sticking up for her to their parents. Never to Edith, however.
• Blue Blood
• Break the Haughty: Following the scandal over the death of Kemal Pamuk....in her bed.
  • Fallen Princess
• Christmas Cake: She's on the cusp, and this is the reason why the family wants her (in her early 20s) to be married off as quickly as possible, "before the bloom is quite gone off the rose," as the Dowager Countess puts it.
• Defrosting Ice Queen
• English Rose
• Establishing Character Moment: "Do I have to be in full mourning?"
• Femme Fatale
• The Glorious War of Sisterly Rivalry: She and Sybil appear very close, but her and Edith are at each other's throats constantly.

Edith: Why was cousin Mathew in such a hurry to get away?
Mary: Don't be stupid.
Edith: I suppose you didn't want him when he wanted you...and now it's the other way round.....You have to admit, it's quite funny.
Mary: I'll admit that if I ever wanted to attract a man, I'd steer clear of those clothes and that hat.

• Gorgeous Period Dress
  • Of Corsets Sexy
• Kissing Cousins: She was engaged to Patrick Crawley, her 2nd cousin, and Matthew is her 4th cousin.
• Lady in Red
• Master of the Mixed Message: She seem to want what she can't have. If a suitor suddenly becomes available, Mary finds a reason to break it off.
• Prophetic Name: The old Hebrew translation of Mary includes "bitterness" and "rebelliousness."
• Raven Hair, Ivory Skin: Just like her mum.
• Rebellious Spirit: Mary does not crave advice.

Mary: [derisively] Have you seen the new boy's haircuts the ladies are wearing in Paris?
Matthew: I hope you won't try that.
Mary: I might!

• Rich Bitch
• Shiny Midnight Black
• Single Woman Seeks Good Man: Sort of. Mary is nothing if not picky.
• Spirited Young Lady
• Tall, Dark and Bishoujo
  • Tall, Dark and Snarky
• Used to Be a Sweet Kid: According to Carson, who dotes on her.
• Volleying Insults: With her sister Edith, constantly.
• Wanting Is Better Than Having: Has an instinctual aversion to the most available man.
• Will They or Won't They?: With Mathew. They Do.

Lady Edith Crawley (Laura Carmichael)

• Blue Blood
• Clingy Jealous Girl: She exhibits this with Mathew.
• The Dog Bites Back: Having endured Mary's taunts for most of the early part of series one, she takes revenge by writing to the Turkish Embassy to explain Mary's direct involvement in the circumstances surrounding Pamuk's death.
• Driven by Envy
• The Glorious War of Sisterly Rivalry: Her and Mary. Whereas Mary is derisive about Edith's appearance and fashion sense, Edith is as equally snide and disapproving of Mary's behavior and attitude.

Mary:... I don’t think I would have gotten down, no matter how lame the horse.
Edith: No, I don’t believe you would.

• Green-Eyed Monster: Oh yes.
• I Just Want to Be Special
• Malicious Slander
• Middle Child Syndrome: She's over-looked by her parents and sandwiched between her confident, beautiful sisters.
• Plain Jane: Probably the politest way to describe Edith.
• Sliding Scale of Beauty: While not exactly ugly, poor Edith isn't a patch on sexy, sultry Mary and downright adorable Sybil.
• Sour Prude: Oh yes - Especially where Mary is concerned.
• The Unfavourite: Particularly evident with this exchange:

Robert: Poor old Edith, we never seem to talk about her.
Cora: I'm afraid Edith will be the one to care for us in our old age.
Robert: What a ghastly prospect.

• Throw the Dog a Bone: Season 2 episode 3 has a moment where Edith is finally given praise by General Sir Herbert Strutt for her actions to help the recuperating veterans at the convalescent home. Although this is something she has been doing on the quiet, the other officers have noted and appreciated all the help she has provided them with. The entire table is shocked and impressed, with her mother even giving her a warm smile. The look on Edith's face afterwards is heartwarming.

Lady Sybil Crawley (Jessica Brown-Findlay)

"We shouldn't laugh, it's so unkind."

• Beauty Equals Goodness
• Blue Blood
• Dating What Daddy Hates: Her relationship with Branson.
• Dawson Casting: Kind of unavoidable due to the rapid passage of time. Particularly notable here is episode 7, series 2 (set in 1919), in which Mary confirms Sybil is 21. This then established Sybil was fourteen in the first episode, set in 1912.
  • There's some confusion about Sybil's age: in 1x07, set in 1914, Robert says she is 18; in 2x07 (1919), Mary says she is 21; and in the official companion book, it's stated that she was 17 in the first episode, which is set in 1912. If she was 17 in episode one, that would mean she was 25 in 1920, actually making her older than Jessica Brown Findlay, the actress who portrays her.
• English Rose
• Gorgeous Period Dress
  • Of Corset Hurts
• Hello, Nurse!
• Nice to the Waiter: She's particularly kind to the house-hold staff, especially Gwen, her ladies' maid.
• Purity Personified: Arguably the nicest person on the show.
• Raven Hair, Ivory Skin: Again, just like her mum.
• Rebellious Princess: Well, rebellious daughter of an earl.
• Shiny Midnight Black: As noted above, her hair is a deep black.
• Spirited Young Lady: When it comes to politics, and fashion - the harem-style culottes she has tailored shock her family, and in series 2 she goes so far as to--shudder--actually get a job as a nurse.
• Spoiled Sweet: She's sweet, kind and considerate.
• Tomboy: In manner, not appearance.
• Uptown Girl: For Branson.
• Wide-Eyed Idealist

Violet Crawley, Dowager Countess of Grantham (Maggie Smith)

"No Englishman would dream of dying in someone else's house, especially someone they didn't even know."

• Blue Blood
• British Stuffiness: Played with magnificent aplomb.
• Brutal Honesty
• Cool Old Lady
• Deadpan Snarker: Possibly the finest in the series.

Violet: So put that in your pipe and smoke it.

• Good Old Ways: She even backs away in horror from electric lighting.

Violet: First electricity, now telephones. Sometimes I feel as if I was living in a H. G. Wells novel.

• Gorgeous Period Dress
  • Outdated Outfit: In the first season, her outfits are more in line with the 1900s than the 1910s, and by the time she starts wearing the high-waisted, uncorseted looks of 1912-4 in the second season, it's World War I and the other ladies are moving on to barrel skirts and proto-flapper looks.
• Graceful Ladies Like Purple: It's her signature colour - she even shares her name with a shade of purple.
• Grande Dame: She provides a definitive example.
• Hopeless with Tech: And HOW? The Countess is baffled even by a swivel chair!
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: As seen at the village flower show, and with the protective attitude she displays towards William, especially with regard to arranging his repatriation to Downton after he is mortally wounded at Amiens; she even threatens The Vicar when he initially refuses to conduct William's last request to marry Daisy. Her kind advice to Daisy when she is feeling guilty about marrying William when she did not love him as much is another example.
• The Matchmaker
• Never Mess with Granny: EVER.

Violet: We can't have him assassinated. ...I suppose.

• Screw Politeness, I'm a Senior!: "I am beyond propriety."
• Volleying Insults: She loves a verbal battle with Isobel.

Mathew Crawley (Dan Stevens)

• Audience Surrogate: Arguably. As he experiences the particulars and peculiarities of the English aristocracy, so do we.
• Belligerent Sexual Tension: Between him and Lady Mary.
• Dogged Nice Guy: When it comes to Mary.
• Fee Fi Faux Pas: Initially.
• Fish Out of Water
• Heir Club for Men: Although only a distant cousin, he is the direct heir to the Crawley estate.
• Hello, Attorney!
• The Hero
• Hollywood Healing: Shakes off his paralysis in the space of an episode.
• Kissing Cousins: He and Lady Mary.
• Rags to Royalty: He goes from being a Mancunian lawyer to the heir of the Earl of Grantham and his estate. Not that he's thrilled about it at first.
• Self-Made Man
• What the Hell, Hero?: His initial treatment of Moseley, which was dismissive and lacked empathy.
• Will They or Won't They?: With Mary. They Do.

Mrs Isobel Crawley (Penelope Wilton)

• Control Freak: Present in series 1, but by the 4th episode of series 2, her bossy attitude reaches its zenith and causes huge ructions between her and Cora.... which sees her up sticks and leave for France.
• Fee Fi Faux Pas: Although determined not to let herself and Mathew down socially when she first meets the Crawleys, this exchange with the Dowager Countess puts her well and truly in her place:

Isobel: Well then, what should we call each other?
Lady Grantham: Well, we could always start with Mrs Crawley and Lady Grantham.

• Meddling Parent: To Mathew, on Occasion.
• My Beloved Smother: A relatively mild example, but Mathew is often confounded by her pushiness.
• Nosy Neighbor
• Nurse with Good Intentions: She's actually a surprisingly good nurse, when it comes down to it - she just seems to think she's a doctor, which she's not.
• The Rival: For the Dowager Countess.
• Passive-Aggressive Kombat: She's just about the only person who will challenge the Dowager Countess.
• Samaritan Syndrome: Which the Dowager Countless exploits to boot her from the house.

Lady Rosamond Painswick, Lord Grantham's sister (Samantha Bond)

• Blue Blood
• Brutal Honesty: She always says whatever is on her mind, which greatly annoys her mother.
• Meddling Aunt: Her advice to Mary - making Mathew wait until it was known whether lady Grantham's baby was a potential male heir before she accepted his proposal, which caused him to call it all off.
• No Sympathy

"Patrick Crawley", AKA Patrick/Peter Gordon (Trevor White)

• Canada, Eh?: So much for recognizing him by voice alone.
• Easy Amnesia: Or so he claims.
• Face Revealing Turn
  • Rule of Creepy: His deformed face, mad staring eyes, the strange finger gesture that Lord Grantham observes him make, and the bouts of rage he exhibits are all more than a little unsettling.
• The Grotesque
• Line-of-Sight Name: According to him, he picked up the name Gordon from a bottle of gin.
• Morality Pet: For Lady Edith, who is the only one it seems to believe his story.
• Mystery of the Week
• Never Found the Body
  • Not Quite Dead: He turns up out of the blue, with a badly deformed face and Canadian accent, claiming to be Lord Grantham's cousin (and heir), despite having supposedly drowned on the Titanic...
• Quest for Identity
• Spot the Imposter: Lord Grantham and Lady Mary in particular are not taken in by his claims to be Patrick Crawley....
  • Grand Theft Me: ....believing him to have taken on the identity of Patrick sometime after the Titanic disaster.
    • Leave the Plot Threads Hanging: So far...
• You Have to Believe Me

The Staff:

Charles Carson, the Butler (Jim Carter)

• British Stuffiness
  • "Stop Having Fun!" Guys: He won't stand for any nonsense with the staff.
• Deadpan Snarker: Deadpan everything, actually.
• The Eeyore
• Grumpy Bear
• The Jeeves
• Married to the Job: The Crawleys are all the family he has. "I had thought I would die in Downton -- and haunt it ever-after."
• The Not-Secret: He used to be a music hall performer. And doesn't pine for those days in the slightest.
• Old Retainer
• Platonic Life Partners: With Mrs Hughes.
• Principles Zealot
• Screw the Money, I Have Rules: When Sir Richard dangles a fat salary over his head.
• Undying Loyalty: To the Crawley family, especially Lady Mary, his favourite.

Mrs Elsie Hughes, the Housekeeper (Phyllis Logan)

• Kindly Housekeeper
• Old Maid: The "Mrs." is a courtesy title, because the housekeeper is always a "Mrs." She could have had a chance at marital bliss, though...see The Stoic, below.
• Old Retainer
• Platonic Life Partners: With Mr Carson.
• Stiff Upper Lip
• The Stoic: She sacrifices her own personal happiness when given the opportunity of marriage to continue serving the family.

William: You're a kind woman Mrs Hughes. I don't know how this house would run without you.

• Team Mum: To the staff.

Mrs Beryl Patmore, the Cook (Lesley Nicol)

• Apron Matron: She runs the kitchen with a rod of iron.
• Blind Mistake: She's diagnosed with cateracts, which causes her to make mistakes in the kitchen....and exacerbates her temper.
• Fiery Redhead
• Gaydar: She's well aware of Thomas's preference... unlike poor Daisy.
• Hair-Trigger Temper
• Kick the Dog: She's fairly beastly to poor Daisy.

John Bates, Lord Grantham's Valet (Brendan Coyle)

• Battle Butler: He served under Lord Grantham in the Boer War.
• Being Good Sucks: And how!
• Bully Hunter: At one point he slams Thomas into a wall in William's defence.

Bates: You listen to me, you filthy little rat: if you don’t lay off I will punch your shining teeth straight through the back of your skull.

• Cannot Spit It Out: For a variety of reasons, the man refuses to explain anything.
• Can't Stay Normal: Attempted to correct his limp, but the prosthetic proved rather less effective than advertised.
• Don't You Dare Pity Me!: He pretty much says this word for word to Anna.
• Frame-Up: As series 2 concludes, he is carted off by the police, following his estranged wife Vera's last desperate act of revenge - framing him for her murder, when she had in fact killed herself.
• Handicapped Badass: He walks with a pronounced limp.
• Honor Before Reason
  • Blackmail: He is forced to come back to his wife when she finds out about the Kemal Pamuk scandal. Yes, he's blackmailed with someone else's dirty secret.
• Manly Tears
• May-December Romance: He and Anna.
• Mysterious Past: Which is only revealed midway through series one, where it is revealed that he was imprisioned for theft.
  • You Didn't Ask
• Oops, I Forgot I Was Married
• The Stoic
  • Stoic Woobie: As seen when he is initially asked to leave Lord Grantham's service.
• Team Dad: To the younger staff.
• Will They or Won't They?: He and Anna.

Sarah O'Brien, Lady Grantham's Lady's Maid (Siobhan Finneran)

• Card-Carrying Villain: Ostensibly, with Thomas.
• Consummate Liar: O'Brien's all honey around around Lady Cora. ...and arsenic with everyone else.
• Deadpan Snarker

O'Brien: If she's got a boyfriend, I'm a giraffe.

• Didn't See That Coming: A reckless plan to save her job turned into a Type 5 situation. After miscarrying, Cora's baby was revealed to be male. Furthermore, Cora had planned to keep O'Brien on anyway. And Downton is in just as bad financial shape as its ever been.
  • Type 2 occurs when she summons Vera to collect Bates. Instead of focusing her wrath on Bates himself, Vera finds out about Mary's dalliance with Kamel Pamuk and threatens to tell the newspapers. Mary is forced to accept Sir Richard's proposal of marriage in order to kill the story. Whoops.
• Driven by Envy: So it would appear - she hates her lot in life.
• Evil Duo: With Thomas
• For the Evulz: Some of her malice is inexplicable, such as disseminating info about Mary's sexual dalliances to Edith. It's possible that O'Brien enjoys the game of exploiting secrets for its own sake.
• Good Smoking, Evil Smoking: The two evil characters frequently plot whilst having a sneaky fag.
• Gossipy Hens
• Hazy Feel Turn: The business with the soap obviously preys on her. She is even softening towards Bates, testifying in his defense at trial.
• Karma Houdini: Cunningly, she has remained Cora's most beloved and trusted servant.
• Maid
• Malicious Slander: Her speciality.
• Manipulative Bitch: Her schemes include trying to get Bates fired and to expose Lady Mary's affair with Pamuk, riling Cora up against Sybil becoming a nurse, repeatedly sending Ethel on fool's errands, getting Thomas transferred to the Downton hospital, and then getting him placed in charge of the convalescents in order to take Isobel down a peg, trying to get Mrs. Bird and Mrs. Patmore in trouble for feeding the indigent veterans and telling Vera that Bates is back at Downton. So far.
• Mirror Monologue: Briefly, just before she regretfully realises the implications of placing a bar of soap on the floor of Lady Cora's bathroom....

O'Brien: Sarah O'Brien, this is not who you are.

• Morality Pet: As of series 2, O'Brien gets a few Pet the Dog moments when she's the only one to really sympathise with Shell-Shocked Veteran Lang, as her brother went through the same thing. Lady Cora becomes one for her as well after Cora's miscarriage, though O'Brien is still not above underhanded schemes to protect her.
• My God, What Have I Done?: O'Brien first only seems to show moderate guilt when she knows that she is the direct cause of her mistress' friggin miscarriage, but the look of this trope is truly visible on her face when she learns that Cora had never intended to get rid of her and she's now caused them exquisite pain for no reason whatsoever.
• Old Maid
• Perpetual Frowner
• Politically-Incorrect Villain: Thomas sneers at Bates's limp, too. But O'Brien is the one who kicks Bates's cane out from under him.
• Resenter
• Two Rights Make a Wrong: For all her lecturing at Thomas about playing it smart, O'Brien's schemes have an uncanny knack of blowing up in her face.
• Ultimate Job Security: Carson comes down a lot harder on other servants for smaller offenses. Mrs. Hughes catches O'Brien ransacking her room in search of a stolen snuff box, which seems pretty damming, but nothing comes of it.
• Would Hurt a Child: Managed to kill Cora's unborn son with a handy bar of soap.
• Zany Scheme

Thomas Barrow, First Footman (Rob James-Collier)

• All Love Is Unrequited: He appears genuinely crushed when Crowborough spurns his affections, dimissing him as no more than a "youthful dalliance".
• The Bully: To William.
• But Not Too Gay: Although the first episode showed that Thomas certainly was able to have a love life, there's been barely a trace of it since
• Card-Carrying Villain: Ostensibly, with O'Brien.
• Deadpan Snarker
• Depraved Homosexual: His encounters with Pamuk and Crowborough.
• Dirty Coward: Intentionally got his hand shot by a German sharpshooter in order to be shipped back home.
• Driven by Envy: Mrs Hughes thinks he's just jealous because everyone likes William.
• Drunk with Power: He's on the make, to put it lightly.
• Establishing Character Moment: "You're late when I say you're late."
• Even Evil Has Standards: Disapproves of the hospital's ill-treatment of William (whom he hates), causing the entire staff to look at him, stunned.

Thomas: "I'm a working class lad and so is he. And I get fed up of seeing how our lot always get shafted."

• • He also tells O'Brien she shouldn't have written to Vera, telling the latter Bates was back at Downton, and genuinely doesn't seem to want to see Bates hanged for murder.
• Evil Duo: With O'Brien.
• Evil Is Petty: He's constantly trying to get Bates fired, and flirts with Daisy, just to hurt William.
• Freudian Excuse: He was picked on for being "different," and that's why he's so mean.
  • Gayngst
• Good Smoking, Evil Smoking: The two evil characters frequently plot whilst having a sneaky fag.
• Gossipy Hen
• Malicious Slander: His speciality.
• Manipulative Bastard: Eager to be promoted to butler or valet as soon as possible, even if it means kidnapping pets.
• Red Right Hand / Scars Are Forever: Wears a black glove on his injured hand.
• Shiny Midnight Black
• Smug Snake
• Invisible to Gaydar
• Tall, Dark and Snarky
• Tyrant Takes the Helm: Promoted to first footman after weaseling his way out of service.
• Ultimate Job Security: Can be as rude as he pleases, and no one bats an eyelash. Bates catches him stealing wine, but can't bring himself to have Thomas fired. So what does Thomas do? Pin the stolen wine on Bates!
• Villain Ball: With the onset on World War I, he plots to have himself signed up to the medical corps for an easy ride, but in reality he ends up on the front line.
• Villainous Breakdown: As seen when the black market comestibles he plans to profit from turn out to be inedible, leading him to trash his storage shed in a tearful, blind rage.
• Zany Scheme

William Mason, Second Footman (Thomas Howes)

• Adorkable: He really is.
• Anyone Can Die: Having bravely saved the life of Mathew during the final push at Amiens.
  • Tear Jerker: His death-bed wedding to Daisy is particularly upsetting. Even the Dowager Countess is moved by it.
• Berserk Button: He gives Thomas a much needed thrashing after he insults his late mother.
• Beware the Nice Ones
• Break the Cutie: He tries to be positive, but Thomas's cruel teasing eventually causes him to snap.
  • The Woobie
• Dogged Nice Guy: He's clearly in love with Daisy....although she doesn't want to know with Thomas in the picture.
• Good Old Fisticuffs: Thomas vs. William and our Will valiantly carries the day.
• Heroic Wannabe: At the start of Series 2, he's desperate to sign up to the army.
  • Jumped At the Call
• Naive Newcomer
• Nice Guy

Anna Bates, the Head Housemaid (Joanne Froggatt)

• Amateur Sleuth
• Bully Hunter: She doesn't take any shit from Thomas or O'Brien, and frequently calls them out on their dreadful behavior.

Anna: Fight fire with fire, that's what my mum says.

• I Will Wait for You
• Maid
  • Ninja Maid: Anna takes to the role of plucky girl detective like a duck to water.
• May-December Romance: She and Bates.
• Nice Girl
• Plucky Girl
• Single Woman Seeks Good Man
• Team Mum: For the younger staff.
• Will They or Won't They?: She and Bates.

Gwen Dawson, a Housemaid (Rose Leslie)

• Maid
• Small Town Boredom: She's determined to make a better life for herself as a secretary.
• Wish Fulfillment

Ethel Parks, a Housemaid (Amy Nuttall)

• False Widow: How she explains away her illegitimate child. Luckily, this is the late 1910s, the era of World War I and the Spanish flu - both providing good excuses for the existence of husbandless young mothers. Ethel chooses the latter.
• Fiery Redhead
• Inferiority Superiority Complex
• Maid
  • Servile Snarker
• Rebellious Spirit: As O'Brien says:

O'Brien: You've got a cheek for your first day.

• Small Name, Big Ego: She is convinced she's going to make it big as a movie star, for no apparent reason.
• Small Town Boredom
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Let's see, an ambitious redhead that doesn't want to stay in service but go out and make it big. Hmm. Where have we heard that before?
• The Tease: With the officers convalescing at Downton...which leads to:
  • Surprise Pregnancy
• Trash Talk: Easily amongst the gobbiest of the staff.

Jane Moorsum, a Housemaid (Clare Calbraith)

• Maid
• Screw the Rules, I Have Connections: Has no shame in asking Lord Grantham to influence a prestigious grammar school to award her son a place. After breaking off an attempted affair with her, Robert then uses his connections to set up Jane's son in future employment after he leaves school.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: For another Suspiciously Similar Substitute, Ethel.
• The Mistress: Grantham considers an affair with her.
• Widow Woman
• Will They or Won't They?: With Robert. They don't.

Daisy Mason, a Kitchen/Scullery Maid (Sophie McShera)

• Butt Monkey
• Horrible Judge of Character: She's in love with Thomas of all people.
• Rear Window Witness
• Scullery Maid
• She Knows Too Much: Having witnessed Lady Mary, her mother and Anna moving Pamuk's body across the landing..
• Wide-Eyed Idealist
• Widow Woman: Becomes one after William's death, only a few hours after their marriage.

Tom Branson, the Chauffeur (Allen Leech)

• Blood on the Debate Floor: His conversations on political reform impress Lady Sybil, but land her in a dangerous situation at an aggressive rally in Ripon. (He's absolutely aghast when Sybil is injured; his anguished "Oh no, please God no" is the first overt clue to his feelings for her.)
• Dogged Nice Guy: He's really determined to win Lady Sybil.

Allen Leech: ...he falls head over heels in love, and then spends a great deal of time trying to convince her that she should do the same.

• Fan Service: His medical exam for entrance to the army features three! whole! buttons undone on his shirt. (Hey, you take what you can get with these period pieces.)
• Screw the Money, I Have Rules: When Robert offers him money to forget about Sybil, he refuses.
• Star-Crossed Lovers: He and Lady Sybil.
• Strawman Political: A little, but it's used as a Plot Device to encourage Sybil's rebellious streak.
• Token Minority: Token Irishman.
• Will They or Won't They?: With Sybil. They Do.

Joseph Molesley, Mathew Crawley's Butler (Kevin Doyle)

• Butt Monkey
• Draft Dodger: Aided by the Dowager Countess.
• Hopeless Suitor: Nice try, Molesley, but Anna's taken.
• Non-Action Guy

Andrew Lang, Lord Grantham's (replacement) Valet (Cal Macaninch)

• The Quiet One
• Shell-Shocked Veteran
• War Is Hell
• Morality Pet: For O'Brien.

Recurring and guest characters

Dr. Clarkson (David Robb)

• Dr. Jerk: He won't give a patient one grain of hope if it contradicts his medical dogmas.
• Dressed to Heal
• Innocent Bystander: He's often caught between the warring Crawley women, which leads to:
  • Face Palm: Constantly.

Miss Lavinia Swire (Zoe Boyle)

• Dark Secret: Revealed when she admits to having stolen papers from her uncle, who was in the government, and giving them to a reporter to clear her father's debts to Richard Carlisle.
• Death of the Hypotenuse
• Fragile Flower
• Hair of Gold: On the strawberry-blonde side.
• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: After hearing that Violet wanted Matthew to marry Mary and then seeing them kiss, Lavinia tries to convince him to go back to Mary for that reason, but she dies of Spanish flu before Matthew can argue with her.
• Killed Off for Real
  • Too Good for This Sinful Earth
• Mysterious Past
• Replacement Love Interest: For Matthew, following Lady Mary's dithering over his proposal.
• Romantic False Lead: Though for many viewers this was probably something of a Foregone Conclusion.

Sir Richard Carlisle (Iain Glen)

• Blackmail: Angry at Mary's seeming reluctance to stay away from Mathew, he threatens to reveal and publish the Kemal Pamuk scandal, should she not toe the line and obey him.
• Blond Guys Are Evil
• Da Editor
• Dark Secret: Lavinia's father owed him large sums of money, so in order to clear his debts, he forced Lavinia to steal confidential government papers.
• Fee Fi Faux Pas: He makes a few, betraying his bourgeois origins.

Carlisle: Ah, Lady Painswick.
Rosamund: Lady Rosamund.

• Guttural Growler
• I Dub Thee Sir Knight: His "Sir" title is not hereditary.
• Mysterious Past
• Old Media Are Evil: His influence runs throughout England like an oil slick.
• Replacement Love Interest: For Lady Mary.
• Romantic False Lead: Though the show did play with this a bit; everyone expected Mary to leave him after Lavinia's death, but it still took her an episode or so to do it.
• The Scrooge: Sir Richard doesn't see any reason to give the staff time off for Christmas.
• Self-Made Man: He made his fortune in newspapers.
• Smug Snake
• Straw Character: Not fond of Liberals, or liberals more generally. Not surprising (especially the former: he had, after all broken a major scandal in the Liberal government.

Vera Bates (Maria Doyle Kennedy)

• Abhorrent Admirer
• Asshole Victim: She takes her own life in order to frame Bates, as a last desperate act of revenge.
  • Divorce Requires Death
• Card-Carrying Villain
• Evil Laugh

Vera: Ahaaahaahaaaha!... As if.

• Greed: Mr. Bates' inheritance brings Vera out of the woodwork.
• I Lied: Vera's response to Bates when he reminds her of their deal. Big surprise.
• I Will Punish Your Friend for Your Failure: When threats of exposing Bates's past fail to dislodge him from Downton, Vera decides to ruin Mary's name and destroy the whole family. Why not?
• Manipulative Bitch: She suddenly appears at Downton Abbey to Blackmail Mr. Bates into coming back to her.
• Psycho Ex-Wife
• Thanatos Gambit
• Woman Scorned

The Duke of Crowborough

• Aristocrats Are Evil
• Bi the Way: He dismisses his love affair with Thomas as a mere " youthful dalliance".
  • Considering the time period, he may just be gay and feigning interest in women; the fact that he seems to be selecting them purely based on money/connections doesn't help matters.
• Blue Blood
• Destroy the Evidence
• Entitled Bastard
• Experimented in College: An older variant of this - see Bi the Way above.
• Guilty Pleasure: Thomas, for him.
• Manipulative Bastard: He flirts with Mary, purely to gain access to the servants quarters to retrieve potentially scandalous letters he has written to Thomas, his lover.

Kemal Pamuk

• Asshole Victim
• Dies Wide Open: Whilst shagging Lady Mary.
• Estrogen Brigade Bait: In-universe example.

Anna: I think he's beautiful.

• Handsome Lech
• I Kiss Your Hand
• Temporary Love Interest: For Lady Mary.
• Turks With Troops: He is an Ottoman Empire Embassy attaché.

Sir Anthony Strallan (Robert Bathurst)

• Big Fancy House: A gorgeous Queen Anne mansion.
• Blue Blood
• Dogged Nice Guy: When it comes to Edith.
• Geeky Turn On: For Edith.
• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: He clearly still has feelings for Edith, but declares that Edith is too young and pretty to spend her life as his nurse (his arm was injured in the war). She's not impressed by this argument, and their storyline is left inconclusive in the Christmas special.
• May-December Romance: With Edith during series 1 and rekindled (perhaps) as of the Christmas Special.
• Second Hand Storytelling: Mary rather cruelly puts him off proposing to Edith, relaying to him (untruthfully) how her sister mentioned "some stuffy old bore that won't leave her alone" in clear reference to his courting of Edith.
• Upper Class Twit: Somewhat, he's a subtle example, but his grinning exhuberance and jolly attitude qualify him.