Warning: SPOILERS for Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale are forward!
Whereas each of the earlier Downton Abbey motion pictures felt like they may have been efficient conclusions to this era drama saga, the critically well-received Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale has lastly introduced issues to an official shut! So I used to be happy to see so many acquainted faces again for this 2025 film launch, together with Paul Giamatti reprising Harold Levinson for the primary time since his debut within the Season 4 Christmas particular. Nonetheless, after watching The Grand Finale, I used to be disenchanted to understand that there was one notable solid member from the TV sequence who was absent from this final chapter.
Why Didn’t Dr. Clarkson Seem In Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale?
David Robb performed Dr. Richard Clarkson for the whole lot of Downton Abbey’s TV run, first in a recurring capability, after which as a sequence common. Because the Crawley household physician and normal practitioner working the hospital run by the household, he was continuously in touch with each them and members of their workers. A few of his notable storylines on the sequence included working Downton as a army commander when it was become a convalescent residence throughout World Battle I, in addition to when his medical recommendation on learn how to deal with Girl Sybil when she went into labor went unheeded, leading to her dying after giving start.
After being absent from the primary Downton Abbey film, Robb reprised Clarkson in Downton Abbey: A New Period, the place he each recognized Cora with pernicious anaemia and was current when Violet Crawley handed away. Nonetheless, Clarkson was nowhere to be seen in The Grand Finale, which struck me as odd. In any case he went by means of with the Crawleys, and this being the final time we’ll see these characters, why wasn’t he included within the film?
How Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale May Have Used Dr. Clarkson
It could must do with how there weren’t any plot threads that required Dr. Clarkson’s medical experience in Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale, however that may be a flimsy excuse. There have been a handful of occasions when Clarkson was utilized in non-medical capacities, like when he briefly had romantic emotions for Isobel Crawley. I’ve an thought on how this might have been completed in The Grand Finale.
One of many film’s subplots sees Isobel inviting Mr. Carson and Daisy onto the planning committee for the annual county honest to offer recent views, a lot to the ire of the traditionalist Sir Hector Moreland. I feel Dr. Clarkson would have been an awesome match for this committee, particularly contemplating his connection to Isobel, each for the aforementioned romantic causes and being the chairwoman for the Downton Cottage Hospital. If that wouldn’t have labored, then on the very least, David Robb may have cameoed as Clarkson when the honest was taking place. It might have been straightforward sufficient to point out him talking to one of many Crawleys on the occasion, maybe in the course of the Honest Man Award ceremony.
Dr. Richard Clarkson might not have been one of many extra vital Downton Abbey characters, however he definitely deserved higher than being omitted of The Grand Finale and never being acknowledged in any respect. He was a useful and upstanding member of this group, so I can solely hope he’ll proceed to be in order these characters enter the Nineteen Thirties. Revisit his previous appearances by streaming the Downton Abbey TV present and A New Period with a Peacock subscription.