Time to make more history with Downton If it seems that you’ve been waiting forever for Downton Abbey’s third season, you’re among the more than 17 million fans who made the show’s second season the most watched series in Masterpiece history. Your patience will be rewarded as the new season premieres with a two-hour episode at 8 pm Sunday, Jan. 6, on WILL-TV. The seven new shows build on the drama of last season—which included Downton’s reluctant heir, Matthew Crawley (Dan Stevens), recovering from his war wounds and planning to finally marry the eldest of Lord and Lady Grantham’s daughters, Lady Mary (Michelle Dockery); youngest daughter Sybil (Jessica Brown-Findlay), eloping to Ireland with the political minded chauffeur, Branson (Allen Leech); and middle daughter Edith (Laura Carmichael), seeming to lose out on all prospects for love. Sweeping change was also at work among the servants, including the marriage of head housemaid Anna (Joanne Froggatt) and valet John Bates (Brendan Coyle) before his arrest for the murder of his ex-wife. As the third season opens, we meet Martha Levinson (Shirley MacLaine), the very American mother of Cora (Elizabeth McGovern), whose arrival sets up a clash with Robert’s mother, Lady Violet (Maggie Smith). Other glimpses of new drama include: lovebird servants Anna and Bates face
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new ordeals in their star-crossed marriage; Downton’s impeccable butler, Carson (Jim Carter), breaks in a new footman, who happens to be the nephew of the scheming lady’s maid O’Brien (Siobhan Finneran). Following Matthew and Mary’s engagement, Robert (Hugh Bonneville) sticks to his duty to maintain Downton more firmly than ever—even as other great houses are crippled psychologically and financially in the wake of World War I. In this changing landscape nothing is assured, and the war-weary Crawleys may need to fight a new battle to safeguard their beloved Downton.