Lady Mary’s brush with scandal in season 1 of “Downton Abbey” is based on actual events according to series creator Julian Fellowes.
Lady Mary (Michelle Dockery) was enjoying a brief-but-steamy romance with Turkish diplomat Kemal Pamuk (Theo James) only to have her paramour wind up dead while in a compromising position, namely, Lady Mary’s bed.
With a dead man in her bed and her reputation on the verge of tatters, Lady Mary enlists her lady’s maid (Joanne Froggatt), and her mother, the Countess of Grantham, Cora Crawley (Elizabeth McGovern) to help her carry Pamuk back to his own bedroom so it could appear he died in his sleep, all alone.
Speaking in episode 1 of the new “Downton Abbey” rewatch podcast, Fellowes says the idea was lifted out of the tale a friend once told him.
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