“IF I could stop history in its tracks maybe I would.
“But I can’t, Carson.
“Nor you nor I can hold back time.”
Lord Grantham (Hugh Bonneville) in the opening episode of the sixth and final series of Downton Abbey, which begins early in 1925.
Setting the scene for what is to come.
I attended the London premiere of Downton Abbey 6.1 yesterday.
Followed by two press conferences and then the usual afternoon of embargoed round table interviews with the cast.
THE big house is in pitch black gloomy darkness.
Aside from one solitary light in a top floor window.
Downton Abbey series four, episode one.
It is 1922 and six months on from the death of Matthew Crawley (Dan Stevens).
His baby son George is crying in the nursery.
Somewhere else in the house Lady Mary (Michelle Dockery) lies awake in bed.
Night turns to day and an early morning mist cloaks the trees on the Downton estate.
As a specially composed variation of Downton Abbey’s opening titles music heralds the new 2013 series.
Or the 2014 season – from January 5 – if you’re watching in America.
THE world of Downton Abbey has expanded for its second series, set against the backdrop of The Great War.
There are more characters, storylines and locations than last year.
Including those 1916 scenes at The Somme.
With plenty of shocks and surprises to come.
DOWNTON Abbey returns for a second series in the UK next month.
My report and photos from last Friday’s Press Launch at Highclere Castle are here.
Among those I spoke to was new Downton recruit Amy Nuttall.
An early taste of the interview – with mild spoilers – was published in Tuesday’s Manchester Evening News, but has yet to go online.
So let’s put that right below, shall we?
“YOU’LL find there’s never a dull moment in this house.”
Just one of many classic new lines from Violet, Dowager Countess of Grantham (Dame Maggie Smith) in the second series of Downton Abbey.
The press were invited to Downton on Friday for the launch of the eight-part 2011 series, which will be followed by a Christmas special.
Or rather Highclere Castle in Berkshire, the real life location for the “upstairs” scenes in ITV1’s Yorkshire-set global hit.
Life of Wylie 