TV Couples
Down Bad for ‘Downton Abbey’: The 12 Best Couples, Ranked
While times may change and the mighty may fall, one thing that fans of Downton Abbey could always count on is that love never goes out of style.
The PBS drama-turned-big-screen film series has enchanted audiences for 15 years with the story of the Crawley family, their majestic home, and the staff that keeps it running smoothly. But the story is finally coming to an end — at least for now. Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale is set to close out the film trilogy that has kept the story going since the original series wrapped its lauded run in December 2015.
Across six seasons, 56 episodes, and a trio of movies, Downton Abbey has brought together and broken apart more couples than most series could only dream of, giving the Crawleys and company plenty of romantic tension amid the real-life woes of the upper class and working one.
So, to celebrate the end of Downton Abbey, here are the 12 best couples, ranked.
12. Matthew & Lavinia
It may be sacrilegious in Downton Abbey circles to mention anyone other than Mary (Michelle Dockery) in the same breath as Matthew (Dan Stevens). But don’t pretend that there wasn’t something sweet and selfless about the fleeting relationship between him and his war-time sweetheart Lavinia (Zoe Boyle). He gets wounded in battle, and she sticks by his side, until she contracts Spanish flu and ends up on her deathbed. The drama of it all! She has never been blind to his residual affection for Mary, and even gives him permission to go back to Mary with her final breaths. But Lavinia’s love for Matthew was a genuine tragedy in and of itself, giving their brief time together a powerful alternative case of “what if?” to the love the show and the fans wanted with him and Mary. What could have been if not for a war, a pandemic, and the force of nature that is Mary Crawley?
11. Daisy & Andy
With so much of her young life spent inside the four walls of the kitchen, Daisy (Sophie McShera) can’t be faulted for stumbling in her pursuit of love. First, she reluctantly married ill-fated footman William (Thomas Howes), who just wanted to be helpful and loved in the final moments of his life. She lived with some semblance of guilt and gratitude for years after that moment, until Andy (Michael C. Fox) came strolling into her life as a new footman for the house. Ever since, he has been devoted to her, without asking to compromise who she has become as a woman in her years at Downton. They had their rough patches, but she found a man who met her on her terms, and that’s what she deserves.
10. Baxter & Moseley
Molesley (Kevin Doyle) has bounced around more than most in the world of Downton Abbey, moving from the Crawley house to the main house and then to the school and everywhere in between. But through it all, he has become an endearing and lovable fixture in the lives of these families, blood and found. So it was with pride that audiences and the families at Downton got to watch as he fell in love with Baxter (Raquel Cassidy), Cora’s lady’s maid. Even more exciting was that Molesley’s long-awaited proposal came not in a quiet corner of the home but rather while hooked up to microphones in the cinematic climax of the second film. If you are going to do it, Molesley, do it big!
9. Mary & Henry
Following up a love like Mary and Matthew was never going to be easy, especially because Matthew’s death at the end of Season 3 is when some fans turned off the show or never forgave it for cutting their favorite romance short. She also swore off ever finding another love, so that’s a rough place to start. However, the show was smart to cast eternally youthful and handsome Matthew Goode as racecar driver Henry. His job certainly brings up rough memories for Mary (Matthew died in a car accident), but they pushed back the PTSD and found a nice life in the second act of their lives. Sadly, the trailers reveal they do end up divorcing. But while it lasted, these two were hotter than the tires on Henry’s race car.
8. Isobel & Richard
Who are we kidding? The greatest love story of Downton Abbey may be the hilariously heated and heartfelt coupling of Isobel (Penelope Wilton) and Violet Crawley (Maggie Smith), who traded some of the best written insults in TV history. But that was platonic, and this isn’t that kind of list. So instead, Isobel’s second great love story is her slow-burn romance with Dickie Grey aka Lord Merton (Douglas Reith). The baron has some nightmare children who tried to end this marriage before it could truly even begin. However, love won out in the end, and a seemingly fatal diagnosis failed to keep them apart as well. They may have found each other later in life, but Isobel and Dickie are going strong with the years they have left.
7. Barrow & Dexter
One of the newer couples in the series is a long-awaited one for the former footman and valet Thomas Barrow (Rob James-Collier), who is gay in a time when that was not only a bad word but an unlawful act. So many of Barrow’s romantic dalliances and relationships have started in secret and ended in tragedy. But in the second film, Downton Abbey: A New Era, the arrival of Hollywood at the home brings with it the actor Guy Dexter (Dominic West). Charming and undeniably forward (at least for the time) about his interest in Barrow, Guy offers the long-suffering servant a chance to see the world, with an adoring man at his side. If Barrow didn’t say yes to Guy’s offer to go with him to Hollywood, we would have said it for him!
6. Cora & Robert
The two pillars at the head of the Crawley family since day one may not be the most compelling love story, but that doesn’t mean they haven’t had their ups and downs. Let’s not forget he kissed one of the housemaids! But Robert (Hugh Bonneville) and Cora (Elizabeth McGovern) were among the steadiest parts of the series. They had to be, as their daughters entered into the world as the headstrong, confident and hungry women they raised them to be (even if Robert didn’t always approve of their progressive views on life). Cora has weathered a lot since he married her for her American family’s deep, deep wealth, but they have grown to become lovers, partners, and a timeless reminder that love can survive anything.
5. Edith & Herbert
In their own ways, each of the Crawley daughters were their own black sheep. But Edith (Laura Carmichael) may take the cake when it comes to the toughest path to love. She was shamed for trying to make it work with an ailing older man. She was duped by an imposter. She had a child out of wedlock that her sister Mary used as one of the many tactics to undermine Edith. She was also a female journalist, gasp! Thankfully, Herbert (Harry Hadden-Paton) didn’t let her past keep him from falling madly in love with her. Patience is a virtue, and in the world of Downton Abbey, it’s spelled E-D-I-T-H.
4. Mrs. Hughes & Mr. Carson
The upstairs was often in chaos, but the downstairs world of Downton Abbey was always kept in tip-top shape by the iron rule of Mrs. Hughes (Phyllis Logan) and Mr. Carson (Jim Carter). They lived and worked within each other’s orbit for decades, watching others live their extravagant lives not knowing the happy ending they thought would forever elude them was right across the hall. The sweet surprise of this cozy couple is one of the many pleasures of getting to live with characters for many years. When the unexpected but totally perfect thing happens, it feels like you were a little part of it.
3. Mary & Matthew
The love story that made the series a phenomenon was a classic enemies-to-lovers saga. She thought he was trying to usurp the throne of her family. He thought she saw herself as better than everyone. They never walked an easy road together, but Mary and Matthew were the kind of love the great authors of history dreamed they could put on the page — right down to him dying soon after they had their child and life finally seemed good. What keeps Mary and Matthew out of the top spot on this list is the fact that, frankly, they became a little too annoying for their own good. When you are screaming at the TV for them to just get together already, some of the magic has been sacrificed to keep the game going. If it’s a good love story, it doesn’t need to be one of yearning forever. Pay it off before the guy dies, will ya?
2. Sybil & Tom
Is it love if there isn’t tragedy? There’s something even more brutal about the death of Sybil (Jessica Brown Findlay) because it was all story related. Whereas Stevens wanted off the show as Matthews, Sybil’s death in childbirth was born, ironically, out of a means of moving the family forward by nearly tearing it apart. That wouldn’t have worked as well as it did without the love that Sybil shared, against all odds and the wishes of her family, with her valet and rebel rouser Tom (Allen Leech). We get why she had to die. It forced the Crawleys and Tom to bury the hatchet with Sybil and blaze a new trail forward as a modern family of the new century. That being said, we wish we had more time with the happy couple, even if it was in the tense mosh pit of a political protest. In a world devoted to old ways, they were a new kind of love.
1. Anna & Bates
Hear us out on this one. Yes, there were so many other grand romantic couples whose love stories have graced newspapers and shocked nations alike. But it was the quieter, constant, and the never ending devotion of Anna (Brendan Coyle) and Bates (Joanne Froggatt) that helped anchor Downton Abbey when it leaned more wildly into the theatrical flare of British soaps. Anna stood by her man when he was (wrongfully) imprisoned for killing his first wife. He supported her after she was sexually assaulted. They have managed to survive it all while working side by side, eventually buying a house and now expecting a child. In a way, they are the fairy tale that most people can aspire to live, realistically. Mary and Matthew have the Hollywood story about beautiful, generational wealth falling madly in love only to meet a tragic end. But Anna and Bates have the one we should all hope to enjoy. The kind of love that walks into your life and never lets go, no matter how many murder charges and other traumas come your way.
