Downton Abbey: a complete guide to the award-winning soundtrack and composer

11 September 2025, 16:30

Watch the trailer for Downtown Abbey - the Grand Finale

John Lunn’s score whisks us away to Downton one final time...

The Downton Abbey theme tune is one of the most recognisable melodies on TV and has remained an earworm since it first appeared on our screens in 2010. The soundtrack of the series and the films is as grand as Downton’s inhabitants themselves and has even won an Emmy.

As the final Downton instalment arrives in cinemas this week, that famous music is still central to the film’s core.

Who wrote the Downton Abbey theme?

The theme was written by Scottish composer John Lunn, who has also worked on Four Weddings and a Funeral, BBC One’s murder mystery Shetland and The Last Kingdom.

Lunn was nominated for Emmys and BAFTAs for his work on the BBC’s production of The Mystery of Edwin Drood and Little Dorrit. He has also written several operas and a violin concerto.

Read more: John Lunn on the music of Downton Abbey

What inspired the original theme?

The main Downton Abbey theme was influenced by British composers such as Elgar and Vaughan Williams, Lunn told Classic FM. However, he ended up taking more inspiration from Coldplay, he admitted.

He told Classic FM in 2019: “The music’s really quite sweeping, romantic and epic – and the pictures of the titles themselves don’t really do that. It’s much more like feather dusters and chandeliers. And if I’d been presented with those pictures for the titles, I’d probably have written something completely different.

“It was partly budget. I thought I needed a big string section and we didn’t have that much money for any extra instruments. I did the piano myself, and we used a cor anglais and French horn as well. But actually, that sort of chamber feel started to work very well for the series. So, we stuck with it.”

“For the movie, it’s all a bit bigger – but we haven’t really expanded it that much”, he added.

The original theme tune opened the show with moody, pumping strings and a brooding syncopated piano melody, setting the tone for the drama to come throughout the series.

Read more: Downton Abbey music: listen to unreleased tracks from the original score

Downton Abbey - Intro

Lunn also discussed his use of Wagnerian leitmotifs on an NPR podcast in 2016.

He said: “You know, there are multiple storylines going on that sometimes the storylines can go through several series, not just one. And so, I kind of use the music as a sort of shorthand of reminding people of what’s going on.

“[Bates] had this limp. And I felt, you know, sort of sorry for him. He’d been in a Boer war, and he looked like he'd been both physically and psychologically damaged. And I came up with a bit of a limp, actually.”

However, he did confess that this wasn’t his dream music to be writing, saying: “It’s not music I’d do if I was left to my own devices. I’d be writing much harder, rhythmic electronica.”

How was the music adapted for the Downton Abbey films?

Discussing adapting the TV melodies for the first Downton Abbey film, Lunn said: “I was delighted to be approached to create the feature length film score to a series which has had a huge impact on audiences and fans all over the world.

“At first it was like discovering a long-lost friend, but gradually I realised that we’d never really been apart; by the end it was just such a joy to revisit this material and have the opportunity to take it to a whole new level.”

Read more: Kiri Te Kanawa makes Downton cast cry

What music will feature in Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale?

The latest film’s soundtrack features Lunn’s emblematic melancholy strings and anxious piano, and will be released in full on 12 September, the same day as the film’s release. It includes numbers such as ‘A Night in Piccadilly’, ‘Wives Can Have Secrets’ and ‘Mary Restored’.

The Chamber Orchestra of London has historically recorded the score, and it seems that will not change for the final instalment of the Downton Abbey franchise.