On the DL in 'Downton Abbey' – About that Gay Bar Scene

By far the most tweeted about scene in the hit, lavish film of "Downton Abbey" follows what happens when butler Tom Barrow (Rob James-Collier) goes on the DL and is picked up by a man in a pub who takes him to a crowded gay speakeasy. Who knew there were so many hunky homosexuals ready to party in Yorkshire in 1927?

Tom, as fans of the show know, was seen in the celebrated PBS series first episode blackmailing the Duke of Crowborough with the letters that proved their summer affair. His attempt fails, but, years later (and after much drama, including an attempt at conversion therapy), he's now the head butler, having replaced Carson (Jim Carter) as Downton's head butler. But when Lady Mary Talbot (Michelle Dockery) finds the silver isn't polished to her liking for the Royal visit (the event around which the story spins), he is replaced for the duration by Carson. Put out, he finds solace with Richard Ellis (Max Brown), a visiting member of the Royal household, which puts the audience's gaydar into high gear.

Spoiler alert: Tom ends up in the speakeasy – a large warehouse space filled with gay men drinking and doing the Black Bottom (a popular dance of the time) – following a chance encounter with a man at a pub. The scene is short, but easily the most lively in the film, ending, not surprisingly, with a police raid and Tom getting arrested – a serious offense in England at the time due to the Labouchere amendment of 1885, which made "gross indecency"–a.k.a. sex between men–a crime. (It was the law with which Oscar Wilde was prosecuted under.)

Tom's story, though, ends happily: Ellis uses his influence to get him out. The two bond in the moonlight; then, the next morning, they smooch as Ellis prepares to leave, with a hint of some sort of relationship in the future.

The film's director, Michael Engler, was asked by Buzz Feed News as to why he and screenwriter Julian Fellowes included the scene in the film.

"As tough as things were for LGBTQ people," this scene served as "the kind of reminder that there were always times and places in the world were people could find each other in a way that was not seedy, or purely sexual."

It was "about sort of connecting," he told Buzz Feed.

"It was like finding a group of like minded people and just letting your hair down and dancing together, and having a good time without worrying about it," Engler said.

What Engler ended up deleting from the film was a scene where Tom calls Ellis and his wife answers the phone. Engler explained the decision to cut that scene, saying that it was realistic for the time because if one was in the service of the kind, they would likely try to "fit in as much as possible," he told BuzzFeed.

"The scene was cut, Engler said, because it felt 'more like a defeat' when their intention was to give Thomas 'some hope and optimism, even though it was a little mixed.' "