Downton Abbey bosses have locked stars into watertight contracts – to avoid another shock exit like the death of Matthew Crawley in last year’s Christmas Day episode.
为了防止 《唐顿庄园》上一季圣诞特辑中大表哥马修突然离世的剧情重演，投资人和演员们签订了无懈可击的合同。

The move comes after creator Julian Fellowes failed to stop Dan Stevens, who plays Crawley, from quitting the ITV drama despite going to extraordinary lengths.
由于制作人朱利安·费罗斯没能成功阻止饰演大表哥的演员丹·史蒂文斯的离开，剧组不得不下此狠招。

Fellowes, the Oscar-winning writer of the film Gosford Park, told The Mail on Sunday last week he even offered Stevens alternative storylines that would give the actor time to pursue other projects.
曾因《高斯福庄园》荣获奥斯卡最佳编剧的费罗斯上周日告诉《每日邮报》，他甚至提出为了便于丹·史蒂文斯同时接拍其他剧集而修改故事主线。

His suggestions included relocating Stevens’s character to Washington so that he would only have to appear in a few episodes.
他提出的建议把包括让“大表哥”远赴华盛顿，这样丹·史蒂文斯可以在后面剧集中再露面。

Fellowes also tried to postpone Matthew’s death at least to the beginning of the next series, so that the Christmas Day episode could have ended on the good news that Matthew and Lady Mary had become parents.
他甚至希望将“大表哥”的死推迟到第四季开头的几集，以便第三季圣诞特辑能以马修和玛丽为人父母圆满结局。

Fellowes said: ‘We asked Dan if he’d come back at the beginning of series four and die in the first episode so that we could have Christmas sort of clean with the arrival of the new baby. But Dan was set on a clean break at the end of series three and he said, “I really feel it’s right for me to go and finish now.”
费罗斯说：“我们问丹能否在第四季回归，然后第一集再安排死去，这样圣诞特辑就能以迎接新生儿作为结局。但是丹决定在第三季彻底结束，他说‘我真的觉得还是让我离开，并在这里结束好’。

Fellowes added: ‘I was terribly disappointed at the time but Dan was totally within his rights.
费罗斯补充说“我对于这个时间点很遗憾，但是丹有这个权利。”

‘I don’t want to pretend he did anything out of order, because he definitely did not. He gave his notice but it caught us on the hop.’
“我并不想假装他违反了什么规则，因为他完全没有，他给了我们提醒但依然让我们措手不及。”

The death of Matthew Crawley provoked an angry backlash from viewers who believed that the Christmas Day episode should have had a more upbeat ending.
马修·克劳利的突然死亡让观众们愤怒不已，因为他们坚信圣诞特辑应该是个充满希望的结局。

The character was killed just weeks after Lady Sybil, who was played by Jessica Brown Findlay, died in childbirth.
这个人物的死亡仅仅在杰西卡·布朗·芬德利扮演的三小姐茜玻因难产而死亡的几周后。

There was a further setback for the show when it was revealed that Siobhan Finneran, who plays the scheming but hugely popular housekeeper Sarah O’Brien, had also decided not to appear in series four.
这部剧集也遇到了更多人员离开的挫折，当时有消息披露饰演诡计多端而又极受欢迎的贴身女仆沙拉·奥布莱恩的西沃恩·芬纳兰也决定不出演第四季。

点击查看唐顿庄园又走人：坏女仆O'Brien嫌角色太卑鄙离开>>

Fellowes said: ‘The advantage of a servant character leaving is that you don’t have to kill them off. They go off to do another job and that’s fine and you don’t have to explain why they never came back.’
费罗斯说：“仆人角色离开的好处就是不用安排他们死去，可以安排他们去做其他工作，而你又不用解释为什么他们不再回来。”

It is understood that there will be fewer departures and deaths in the new, fourth series, which is Britain’s most successful TV export ever and has been shown all over the world, attracting an estimated global audience of some 120 million.
不用说，在第四季里离开和死亡将越来越少，这部剧集是英国有史以来最成功的海外输出范例，并在全世界播出，预计吸引了1.2亿观众。

Key characters including Hugh Bonneville (Lord Grantham), Michelle Dockery (Lady Mary), Elizabeth McGovern (Lady Cora), Maggie Smith (the Dowager Countess of Grantham), Laura Carmichael (Lady Edith) and Lily James (Lady Rose) have all signed contracts that will bind them to the show at least until the end of series five.
主要角色包括休·博内威利（饰演格兰瑟姆伯爵），米歇尔·道克瑞（饰演大小姐玛丽），伊丽莎白·麦戈文（饰演夫人寇拉），麦吉·史密斯（饰演格兰瑟姆伯爵老夫人），劳拉·卡尔迈克尔（饰演二小姐伊迪丝）和莉莉·詹姆斯（饰演表小姐罗丝）都已经签订了长期合约，确保他们都能拍到第五季结束。

Gareth Neame, the show’s executive producer, said: ‘I can tell you that we have now signed up the main cast members until series five, so there won’t be any more shock exits for a while.’
《唐顿庄园》的执行制作人加雷恩·尼姆说：“我可以告诉大家，我们已经和主要演员签约到第五季，所以接下来暂时不会有演员突然退出。”

Fellowes also eased the minds of fans by confirming that Maggie Smith, who plays the irresistible Dowager Countess, would be appearing in every episode of series four, including the Christmas Day episode.
费罗斯同时确认饰演受人喜爱老夫人的麦吉·史密斯将在包括圣诞特辑在内的第四季中的每一集出演，以此安慰广大粉丝的心。

声明：沪江网高度重视知识产权保护，发现本网站发布的信息包含有侵犯其著作权的链接内容时，请联系我们，我们将做相应处理。