Jim Carter

Carter stands straight in Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale (2025) and lets his voice carry the feeling. His scene with Phyllis Logan concerns Carson and Mrs Hughes, their decades of service and what the house owes them. We were moved more than we expected because Carter gives the work they have done its due without making a speech of it. Simon Curtis's film is thin, and the upstairs goodbyes are less affecting despite being more talkative. This is the Carter we value: an actor who can suggest why a formal man cares so much about doing things properly, without asking us to find him quaint.

Earlier parts included Mr Marlow in the television serial The Singing Detective (1986), Fox in The Madness of King George (1994) and Ralph Bashford in Shakespeare in Love (1998). Of the films we have reviewed, Nicholas Hytner's The Madness of King George earns our strongest recommendation, for its acting and Alan Bennett's wit. Shakespeare in Love also gave Carter a comic supporting part, a useful reminder that solemnity is only one of his tools. The television Downton Abbey (2010–2015) brought widespread recognition after decades of supporting work. Three feature films followed in 2019, 2022 and 2025, with Carter returning as Carson.

Recognition does bring the risk of being cast simply because a familiar face will do. In Paul King's Wonka (2023), Carter's Abacus Crunch is good company with Natasha Rothwell in the laundry, within a film that is kind and too steadily sweet. We enjoy his comic warmth, but his presence cannot supply the sharpness the film lacks. The exchange with Logan in The Grand Finale makes better use of his restraint, with a quiet conversation about work carrying more feeling than the upstairs farewell speeches. For Carter, begin with the television Downton Abbey, and approach its final film for the people below stairs rather than the speeches above them.