Julian Fellowes received "hate letters" after killing off 'Downton Abbey' characters.
Julian Fellowes
The 69-year-old showrunner tried to explain to fans that Lady Sybil Crawley and Matthew Crawley died on the show because actors Jessica Brown Findlay and Dan Stevens wanted to move on to new projects, but there were still some viewers who couldn't separate fact from fiction and took the losses personally.
And Lady Carnavon, who owns Highclare Castle where the show was filmed, even received letters of condolence following their on-screen passing.
She revealed on her blog: "When Sibyl and later Matthew died, Geordie and I received quite a few extremely delicate and utterly lovely letters of condolence on 'our sad loss'.
!These really did leave me stumped as to how to reply as the sentiment behind them was genuine and well-meant and I definitely did not wish to upset or hurt anyone with a tactless reply.
"However, Julian Fellowes, the author of 'Downton Abbey', said I was the lucky one as he got hate letters about the deaths and, however much he tried to explain that the plot lines had led from the actors' desire to move on to other roles, rather than his desire to upset the viewers, the line between fact and fiction had become very unclear."
Lady Carnavon also recalled how a perplexed tourist couldn't understand why she didn't recognise any "characters" in the pictures on the walls of the castle when she undertook a tour and was furious that she was unable to meet Lord Grantham (Hugh Bonneville).
She wrote: "On another occasion one of our guides told me about a guest who rather firmly wanted to know where Lord Grantham was as, if at all possible, she would like to meet him.
"She had looked at the photographs on display in the North library, seen a whole load of unknown characters (my family and myself) and wanted to see the people she 'knew'.
"The guide politely explained that Lord G was, in fact, only a fictional character in a television series and that the photographs were of the real family who lived in the Castle. The discussion continued for some time until, in the end, the visitor, exasperated, said to the guide, 'Oh really, you are such a fool!' as she stalked away to continue her tour."
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