Downton Abbey

Downton Abbey is a British live-action television series that ran for 6 seasons between 26 September 2010 – 25 December 2015. The series aired on ITV in the United Kingdom and in the United States on PBS. This costume drama follows the life of the Crawley family, a titled aristocratic family with an estate in Yorkshire, and their household staff, from 1912 through the interwar years.
A feature film continuation was released in 2019, renewing interest in the fandom. 
==Fandom == 
Downton Abbey is a gateway fandom into other British costume dramas and romances and to first-time participation in fandom. Many of these new-to-fandom fans host tea and viewing parties, recreate character costumes, and post episode reviews on their blogs but would not necessarily identify these activities or they themselves as belonging to fandom. see, for example, 1, 2, 3 and 4 
===Shipping===
Popular ships in Downton include het, slash and femslash ships. They can be canonical (such as Mary Crawley/Matthew Crawley, Tom Branson/Sybil Crawley or Thomas Barrow/Richard Ellis, introduced in the 2019 feature film) and non-canonical (for example Thomas Barrow/Jimmy Kent and Cora Crawley/Sarah O'Brien). The stories with the most kudos tend to center around canonically queer character Thomas Barrow, in many cases with canon pairings serving as background for his frequent redemption arcs. 
Most popular ships on AO3 as of March 2020: 
*Thomas Barrow/Jimmy Kent: 838 works on AO3
*Charlie Carson/Elsie Hughes: 333 works on AO3
*Mary Crawley/Matthew Crawley: 320 works on AO3
*Tom Branson/Sybil Crawley: 274 works on AO3
*Anna Bates/John Bates: 245 works on AO3
*Thomas Barrow/Edward Courtenay: 173 works on AO3
*Thomas Barrow/Richard Ellis 135 works on AO3
*Cora Crawley/Sarah O'Brien: 105 works on AO3
*Thomas Barrow/OMC: 88 works on AO3
==Notable Works==
*Thomas and the Society of Sentinels by Alex51324, an AU where Sentinels and Guides are Known, starring Thomas Barrow and a cast of original characters, Thomas/OMC, (2012)
*Perdition by sunsetmog, a Season 3 AU where "Thomas might be mean but he also needs a hug." Thomas/OMC. (2012)
*Tony Stark Meets an Extremely Unimpressed Time Traveler, or, Thomas Barrow Makes a Surprisingly Good 21st Century Butler by Alex51324, Avengers crossover, Thomas Barrow is transported to the 21st century, Tony Stark hires him as the Avengers' butler. Thomas Barrow/Tony Stark (2014)
*Hollowing Stone by shuofthewind, a soulmarks AU focusing on the Crawley sisters, Tom/Sybil, Mary/Matthew. (2015)
*A Question of You by CosmicZombie, a slow burn Thomas Barrow/Jimmy Kent story (2017)
*The Halo Effect series (AO3 link) by Alex51324, an AU where Thomas's heroic actions during the S1 Turkish Gentleman Incident/fire grant him the benevolence of his colleagues and employers, changing the face of the canon. Part 1: 81k, Part 2: 445k, Thomas/OMC (2019-2020)
==Resources==
*Series' TV Tropes page
*Downton Abbey Wiki on Wikia
==Archives & Communities==
*Works tagged Downton Abbey at AO3
*Works tagged "Downton Abbey" at FFN
*The Highclere Fan Awards, an archive for "recognizing the best in Downton Abbey fanfiction" (still online though not active as of December 2015)
*downton-abbey at Livejournal
*Love Below Stairs, on LJ, "a community dedicated to the relationships downstairs at Downton Abbey." (online but not active as of October 2015)
*Welcome to Downton on LJ
==References==
Category:Downton Abbey
Category:Fandoms by Source Text