During an event at the Cheltenham Literary Festival in 2011, “Downton Abbey“s creator Julian Fellowes discussed the inspiration behind the Pamuk scandal. The story actually stems from an event that occurred in the 1890s, that Fellowes learned about from a friend of his wife who had a great house. “About 15 years ago he was looking through the diary of a great aunt, and in it was this account of a diplomat,” Fellowes explained, per the Evening Standard.
In the house, there was a passage made for only single women. However, “one of them had smuggled this diplomat into her room and he died,” Fellowes continued. “He said she was at her wits’ end and woke up the matron,” as Mary does with Anna in the episode. “The older woman realised that if the story got out, the house would be tainted by scandal.” So, like Mary, Anna, and Cora, they moved the corpse to his own bed.
Fellowes said that his friend then looked in his great-grandfather’s diary, which read, “We had a great tragedy this weekend. [The diplomat] was found dead by his valet in bed.” The plan to move the body worked, and a scandal never occurred.
