Shortly before the third season of Downton Abbey aired in the United States in 2013, 62-year-old teacher Laurie set her pupils an unusual assignment. “My sixth grade English class had the same homework for a week – root for me to win tickets to see the premiere,” she says.
Clearly their collective positive thinking paid off. Laurie ended up securing tickets to a special New York City screening of the new series, as well as a meet and greet with the cast of Julian Fellowes’ upstairs-downstairs period drama. “I got the email about winning during class and was able to announce it to the kids,” she recalls. “They were so happy.” She also told them that if she happened to be mysteriously absent the day afterwards, “it would be because Hugh Bonneville would have asked me back to England. I took the next day off, so there was quite a rumour running around school.”
