Downton Abbey star Allen Leech says good manners and eye contact are history

 
“Common courtesy”: Allen Leech and Michelle Dockery in Downton Abbey (Picture: Nick Briggs)
Alistair Foster27 April 2015
The Weekender

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Downton Abbey star Allen Leech says modern society is lacking the manners of the period drama’s characters and regrets that people on the Tube “barely make eye contact”.

The 33-year-old Irish actor, who has lived in London for 11 years, believes that part of the reason the Julian Fellowes series is so successful is because people yearn for a return to traditional etiquette.

He told the Standard: “I think there is a politeness that has been lost. To be honest, when I look at society today, you’re more surprised when a door is held open for a lady than when it isn’t. I’m sorry to see that get lost.

“Common courtesy for people I think has gone, but people have less time. People always put it down to that. People are too busy these days to be polite to each other.

The Duchess of Cambridge visits Downton Abbey

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“I was actually recently researching a project looking at pictures of the Tube in the Fifties, and everyone on it was talking. Nowadays you’d be lucky to make eye contact with anyone on the Tube. It’s just funny how people are a lot less open. Maybe the conventions, the etiquette and the rules [of period Britain] actually allowed people to act in a certain way.”

He joked: “Can you hold onto those values without needing servants? That would be a good thing.”

Leech played Tom Branson in Downton Abbey, who was seen at the end of series five leaving to live in Boston. But he will be reunited with his cast members after organising the Downton Abbey Ball on Thursday, at which the likes of Michelle Dockery, Phyllis Logan and Rob James-Collier will be performing cabaret. Jim Carter, who plays butler Mr Carson, will host an auction at the event at The Savoy Hotel, which will raise money for homeless charity Centrepoint.

Leech added: “The whole idea is that you know the characters for who they are but they are going to get up and do something completely different.”

Series six, which will be the last, will be broadcast in November.

A limited number of tickets are available from centrepoint.org.uk.

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