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Carson: "His name is Charles Grigg. We worked together at one time."
Grigg: "Oh, I'm a little more than that, aren't I, Charlie? We're like brothers, him and me."
Carson: "We are not like brothers!"
Charles Carson and Grigg.[src]

Charles "Charlie" Grigg was a stage performer and, alongside Charles Carson, part of The Cheerful Charlies duo that performed as entertainers in Victoria Theatre in the 1880s.

Biography[]

Series 1[]

Their performances were successful, but after Grigg "couldn't keep [his] hands out of the till", the two went their separate ways. While Carson became a butler at Downton Abbey under the employ of the Earl of Grantham, Grigg presumably kept performing until the early 1910s, when he was charged with a "petty crime". He remained on the run, until he got at Downton asking Carson for a place to hide and money, threatening to expose his past to make him a laughing stock. Carson put him in an empty cottage and stole from the kitchens at Downton Abbey to feed him. Carson did not, however, give him any money so that he wouldn't return to the village after he had spent it. Grigg went up to the house, and confronted the Earl with Carson's story. The Earl gave him twenty pounds and a warning that if Grigg was ever found in Downton again, he would personally see to that he was convicted for theft and blackmail.

Series 4[]

Charlie-grig-cropped-1-

Charlie Grigg in a workhouse in 1922.

In February 1922 he writes to Mr Carson asking for help, as he is in the workhouse. Mr Carson throws the letter away but Mrs Hughes reads it and decides to help him herself. She visits Charles in the Ripon Workhouse and sees his condition for herself, afterwards first asks Mr Carson to help him and then appealing to Isobel Crawley after Mr Carson refuses. Isobel takes Charles from the workhouse and into her own house to help him get back on his feet and find work. Grigg repeatedly asks about Carson.

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Grigg and Carson.

Eventually he gets a job in Belfast, and Carson (to the womens' surprise) goes to see him at the train station before he departs. It is revealed he and Carson fell out over a woman, Alice Neal, who had chosen Grigg over Carson. Grigg tells Carson she died five years ago, and that they had separated long before because their relationship failed. But he had visited her before she died. She had expressed her love for Charlie Carson, saying he was the better man, but she had been a fool not to know she loved him. Grigg is far more courteous and respectful than he was in his last encounter with; he shakes his hand, desiring to part this time as friends.


Appearances[]

Appearances and Mentions
Series 1 Episode 1 Episode 2
Appears
Episode 3 Episode 4 Episode 5 Episode 6 Episode 7
   
Series 4 Episode 1
Appears
Episode 2
Appears
Episode 3 Episode 4 Episode 5 Episode 6 Episode 7 Episode 8 Christmas Special
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