ITV has released the full-length trailer for Series 4 of Downton Abbey, and it is titillating.
After the shocker in the final episode of Series 3 (in the US, which was the Christmas special in the UK), we find Lady Mary (Michelle Dockey) still grieving the death of her husband Matthew (Dan Stevens) and being consoled by her granny the Dowager Countess (Maggie Smith).
But there is also new life, literally and figuratively. There’s Mary and Matthew’s baby George, of course, as well as new characters Lord Anthony Gillingham (Tom Cullen, World Without End), Lady Mary’s new suitor; the valet Green (Nigel Harman, Hotel Babylon); and the first black character on the series, the jazz singer Jack Ross (Gary Carr, Death in Paradise).
Famed opera singer Dame Kiri Te Kanawa’s performing at Downton should also be a showstopper.
Guest star Shirley MacLaine reprises her role as Martha Levinson, mother of Lady Cora (Elizabeth McGovern) and “Cora’s maverick, playboy brother Harold,” played by the award-winning Paul Giamatti.
From the dances, kisses, tears, scuffles, glances, and gestures of comfort in the trailer, we can expect more drama both upstairs and downstairs.
Is love on the the rocks for Anna (Joanna Froggatt) and Bates (Brendan Coyle? Who was Mrs. Hughes (Phyllis Logan) visiting, and was he in prison? Are Lady Rose (Lily James) and Jack Ross headed toward a relationship? Who was Lady Edith (Laura Carmichael) kissing? And was that Tom (Allen Leech) kissing baby Sybil’s nanny?
We’ll find out in relatively short order.
Downton Abbey: Series 4 premieres on ITV in the UK on 22 September 2013 (the same evening that we find out how many of Downton Abbey‘s 12 nominations become wins during the Primetime Emmys telecast on this side of the pond) and on PBS in the US on 5 January 2014.
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