Emmy submissions: PBS ‘Masterpiece’ category placements for ‘Sherlock,’ ‘Dark Angel,’ ‘Victoria,’ 'Churchill's Secret' ... Benedict Cumberbatch, Martin Freeman, Matthew Macfadyen, Keeley Hawes, Joanne Froggatt, Jenna Colman, Rufus Sewell, Mark Gatiss...many more

GOLD DERBY
Chris Beachum
TV May 3, 2017 2:30 pm

In a Gold Derby exclusive, we have learned the category placements of the key Emmy Awards contenders for PBS and its legendary “Masterpiece” programming. The network does not have perennial winner and nominee “Downton Abbey” but does have champ “Sherlock” returning with past winners Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman. Other TV movies include “Churchill’s Secret” (Michael Gambon), “Dark Angel” (Joanne Froggatt), “King Charles III” (Tim Pigott-Smith), and “To Walk Invisible: The Bronte Sisters.”

Below, the list of PBS lead and supporting submissions for drama series and telefilms. More names might be added by the network before ballots are finalized this season. Also note that performers not included on this list may well be submitted by their personal reps.

'CHURCHILL’S SECRET”
TV Movie
Movie/Limited Series Actor – Michael Gambon
Movie/Limited Series Actress – Lindsey Duncan
Movie/Limited Series Supporting Actor – Matthew Macfadyen
Movie/Limited Series Supporting Actress – Romola Garai

“DARK ANGEL”
TV Movie
Movie/Limited Series Actress – Joanne Froggatt

“THE DURRELLS IN CORFU”
Drama Series
Drama Actress – Keeley Hawes
Drama Supporting Actor – Josh O’Connor, Milo Parker, Callum Woodhouse
Drama Supporting Actress – Daisy Waterstone



REAL MORE EMMY SUBMISSIONS HERE: http://www.goldderby.com/article/2017/emmy-submissions-pbs-masterpiece-category-placements-sherlock-dark-angel-victoria/

Downton Abbey to end after six series

BBC NEWS
March 26, 2015



The next season of ITV's period drama Downton Abbey will be its last, its makers have announced.
"Inevitably there comes a time when all shows should end and Downton is no exception," said the programme's executive producer Gareth Neame.

Created by Julian Fellowes, the show follows an aristocratic family's fortunes from 1912 to the mid-1920s.

Hugh Bonneville and Elizabeth McGovern have played the Earl and Countess of Grantham since the show began in 2010.

The drama has won a string of awards since its inception, including two Baftas, three Golden Globes and 11 Primetime Emmys.

Its success both at home and abroad was recently demonstrated when the Duchess of Cambridge went to see it being filmed at Ealing Studios in west London

"The Downton journey has been amazing for everyone aboard," said Lord Fellowes, whose next project will be The Gilded Age, a period drama set in New York.

"People ask if we knew what was going to happen when we started to make the first series and the answer is that, of course we had no idea.

"Exactly why the series had such an impact and reached so many people around the world, all nationalities, all ages, all types, I cannot begin to explain."

"But I do know how grateful we are to have been allowed this unique experience."


READ MORE HERE: http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-32074921

(SPOILER ALERT) ‘Downton Abbey’ Recap: In the Finale, Mary Meets Mr. Handsome, With a Who Could-Care-Less Attitude (SPOILER ALERT)

NEW YORK TIMES
By LOUIS BAYARD  MARCH 1, 2015 10:37 PM


Michelle Dockery as Lady Mary with  one of the twin Barkers portraying Lady Mary's son, Master George Crawley.Credit Nick Briggs/Carnival Films for Masterpiece

Season 5, Episode 9

Oh, Abbots. It can’t be over, can it? Another season, gone as quickly as a grouse flying over Brancaster Castle.

So let us keep sorrow at bay by reminding ourselves: We’ve finally pulled abreast. Oh, sure, those viewers in Britain got their usual three-month head start on us (just as the Brits used to get first crack at the latest Dickens installment). Viewers in the United States who were too impatient to wait for the weekly drip of revelation snapped up their DVDs and sometimes blurted out key plot developments over a few too many Manhattans. They had us in their spoiler-alert grip, Abbots, but no longer. Democracy reigns.

So now that we’re all on the same plane of knowledge, what can we say for sure about this fast-receding season? (For Baron Fellowes’ thoughts, read this.)

Longstanding relationships (the Bateses, Robert and Cora) were tested and left standing. Longstanding plot lines were either resolved (Edith’s daughter) or abruptly discarded (Mary Crowley’s sort-of-not-really love triangle). Characters like Violet, the dowager countess, were enlarged with new layers and backstories; others showed clear signs of outliving their narrative usefulness. From all indications, we have seen the last of:



1) Mary’s dim suitor Tony Gillingham (Tom Cullen), who gets a fine consolation prize in Mabel Lane Fox (Catherine Steadman).

2) Boston-bound Tom Branson (Allen Leech), who has taken longer to quit the scene than Cher.

3) Rose (Lily James) and Atticus (Matt Barber), who are heading off to New York. (Synchronously, Ms. James has veered off toward “Cinderella,” a part she seems genetically modified for.)

One way or another, the Downton family is fragmenting. Just like the Downton estate (headed for subdivision) and the Downton ethos, a victim to those winds of sociopolitical change that Carson (Jim Carter) keeps mumbling on about. As servants like Daisy (Sophie McShera) begin to imagine better lives, as Socialists like Sarah Bunting make scenes in fine dining rooms, as Edwardian ideals give way to harsh postwar realities (excellent historical timeline here), look for the Crawleys and their retinues to feel and fight their own anachronism.

We know they’ll lose, but what’s a historical drama without gallant fools engaged in rear-guard actions? So carry on, you lovely, maddening elitists, along with your lovely, maddening retinues. We’ll be griping and grumbling, and we’ll be watching.

In the meantime, may I suggest just one incremental reform? On the evidence of Episode 9, you need better legal counsel.

I’m sure the Earl of Grantham’s lawyer, George Murray (Jonathan Coy), has a few gray cells poking around in there, but several years after botching the defense of Bates (Brendan Coyle), he seems bound and determined to do the same with Mrs. Bates (Joanne Froggatt), even going so far as to declare the police case against her airtight when — as we all know, Abbots — it has more holes than, well, a grouse flying over Brancaster Castle.

Turns out that, when Anna was a teenager, she cut her stepfather-molester with a knife, and while she was never charged, that mysteriously reconstructed incident has created some kind of — oh, I don’t know, “pattern” of violence that will sweep Anna straight to the gallows, and in the name of Perry Mason, can’t some fine lawyerly mind sweep this whole business to sea? Instead, it falls to Bates (Mr. Coyle) to confess to Mr. Green’s murder and then vamoose to Ireland.

Now if Sarah Bunting were still around, I would point out to her that, even without benefit of a welfare state, no one enjoys better job security than the Bateses. It doesn’t matter how much leave they take or how many heinous crimes they’re accused of, their jobs are always kept open, their home fires are kept burning, and free (if incompetent) legal care abounds. Sweden could do no better.

At any rate, Anna is sprung on bail, and Murray declares, “We’re going forward and not backward,” but to me, it feels like we’re on the same leaking story pontoon, which only stays afloat because Baron Fellowes’ legs are kicking as madly as they can. By episode’s end, even he must be a little fatigued because a York publican turns up to give Bates an alibi, and the witness who ID’d Anna sprouts “doubts,” and lo and behold, it’s Christmas, and who should pop out of the mistletoe, as it were, but Bates?

Love emerges when you least expect it, Abbots. Sometimes all it takes (and this will give aid and comfort to Freudians everywhere) is for a lot of men to pull out their big guns. The Sinderbys have rented Brancaster for a weeklong shooting party, and no one is immune. Even Edith (Laura Carmichael) loses a bit of her Mildred Pierce-y daughter fixation and dances a few rounds with agreeable castle agent Bertie Pelham (Harry Hadden-Paton). We wish them both well. (And by the way, Edith needs to let that hair flow. With her locks down to her shoulders, she goes from librarian to licentious.)

But no one is more moved by the sight of men and their gauges than Lady Mary Crawley (Michelle Dockery), who finds herself unaccountably aroused by the marksmanship of a handsome stranger named Henry Talbot. Now I don’t mean to crow, but as soon as I heard Matthew Goode was signed up for the final episode, I immediately discerned that his plot function would be roughly the same as it was in “The Good Wife”: to melt the froideur of a stern, ashen, erotically complicated brunette. Sure enough, he shows up on the Northumberland moors without even an establishing close-up but with enough swagger to remind us that Mary needs a chap who looks as good as Tony G but treats her as roughly as Inspector Vyner. “Heavens,” exclaims Mary, watching Talbot climb into his car. “What a snappy chariot.” Now I would’ve thought she’d be a little skittish of automobiles, given how her late husband met his end, but she seems to be all over Henry T and his Bentley.

Amazing to think, Abbots, that after two seasons of arid flirtation and Liverpool lovefests, Our Miss Flint has found someone to spark off. And the secret to his allure? He doesn’t give a damn if she likes him or not. Look for Talbot to stick around.

READ THE ENTIRE RECAP HERE: http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/03/01/downton-abbey-recap-in-the-finale-mary-meets-mr-handsome-who-could-care-less/?_r=0

Downton Abbey Gets a Fresh Influx of Villainery (spoilers & review)

THE ATLANTIC
SOPHIE GILBERT, KATIE KILKENNY, AND JOE REIDFEB 22 2015, 10:00 PM ET

A sociopath, a drunk, and a tramp nearly ruined Rose's London wedding, even as the show's resident scoundrel showed his softer side.



Every week for the fifth season of PBS's period drama Downton Abbey, Sophie Gilbert, Katie Kilkenny, and Joe Reid will discuss the intrigues, upstairs and downstairs, of public television's favorite Yorkshire manor.

Gilbert: A slow clap for Shrimpy, please. And, though it burns me to say it, for Lord Grantham, because even a stopped clock is right twice a day, as the Dowager Countess might say. The penultimate episode of Downton’s fifth season saw the (second) most pompous man in Yorkshire finally peel off some of his prickly aristocratic armor and do a very kind deed for Mrs. Patmore, honoring the cook’s nephew with a specially designed memorial stone in the village. He also finally twigged that Marigold bears an uncanny resemblance to someone—not Edith, his own child, who, as we know will be ignored until the world stops turning, but Michael Gregson. All it took was Cora to gently confirm his suspicions, and suddenly the Crawleys have a new grandchild to fuss over, or a replacement for Sybbie, anyway, since Tom seems hell bent on moving to Boston. I hope he has snow shoes.



There was an awful lot to unpack in this episode, which once again blended moments of comedy and tragedy with the kind of surging string crescendos normally reserved for Nicholas Sparks movies. Those who predicted Lord Sinderby would be enshrined as the season’s villain before the wedding was out were disappointed—the true snake in the Aldridge grass turned out to be Susan, Rose’s mother, who paid a “tart” (as Mary put it) to pose as a prostitute in Atticus’s hotel room, allowing a photographer to capture the moment and send the (misleading) evidence to Rose. Downton loves nothing more than a person doing malevolent deeds for no good reason, from Thomas (more on him later) to O’Brien to the first Mrs. Bates to Edna the saucy housemaid. Is England really so full of sociopaths? I understand that the show needs drama, but it does get exhausting watching villains try to ruin everything all the time, and there’ve been Disney baddies who’ve had more psychological clarity and motivation than the poisonous Susan.

Since it was her wedding day, and all went well despite her mother’s worst intent, let’s take a moment to appreciate Lady Rose. Once a flighty party girl sent to Downton to straighten up, she seems to have evolved into a kind, sweet, and perceptive person, caring for displaced Russian aristocrats and managing to wrap her head around even Lord Sinderby. While it’s easy to dislike Atticus’ father for his cold manner, hearing his speech about wanting to preserve the legacy of his ancestors gave him a lot more heft as a character than Susan, who only cares about saving face. But can she have any friends left to save face for? It’s a mystery.

While Shrimpy was upbraiding his soon-to-be-ex-wife, Lord Grantham (suitably chastened by the death of his dog) was remembering that commoners also have feelings, and Rose was getting married, the Dowager Countess’s maid was taking Andy the temporary footman to gambling clubs and drinking for free thanks to him losing all his cash. I have two problems with this. The first is that Violet is far too exacting a person to stand for a person like Denker being her lady’s maid. The second is that no one gets that tiddly (it is a long way to Tipperary) and doesn’t have even a shade of a hangover the next day. Nevertheless, it took a villain to understand a villain, and Thomas, astute as he is, was able to figure out Denker’s con and win back Andy’s money, leaving Denker with a nasty bar bill to settle. Spratt would be so pleased if he wasn't stuck in Yorkshire pondering his grievances.

There’s so much we haven’t covered. Katie and Joe, what did you think of Daisy’s decision (and then reversal) to move to London and live a life of culture? How long until Mr Molesley puts a ring on it? (“It” being Miss Baxter, obviously.) Will Tom actually leave for Boston or is this just one of those insufferable problems that gets mentioned over and over again before reaching a predictably tidy conclusion? (Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the war memorial.) Why does “The Velvet Violin” sound so offensive to my ears? And, most importantly, did Lady Sinderby have the best comeback of the season?



READ MORE HERE: http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2015/02/downton-abbey-season-5-episode-8/385723/

‘Downton Abbey’ recap - **** makes her escape!!! (SPOILERS)

WASHINGTON POST
By Joe Heim February 8 at 10:00 PM

 

After a dully-dull Downton last week, the show returned Sunday night with its best episode in ages, filled with intrigue, nasty sniping and a number of critical plot revelations.

Where to begin? Well, Mr. Bates almost certainly didn’t kill Mr. Green. Edith is officially a pre-marital widow. Lord and Lady Grantham are back to sharing the same bed. Horse races don’t always end with the death of a rider even when you think they will. And Lady Mary has all the sympathy of a mongoose. Not bad for a 50-minute episode.

(Ooops, wrong Mr. Bates)

The show opened with a telegram arriving for Lady Edith. Stop. Telegrams were the text messages of their day. Stop. This one informs her that the business partner of her lover, the missing Mr. Gregson, is coming to Downton with news. Stop.

Everyone at the Abbey assumes, correctly it turns out, that the news is bad. Mr. Gregson, the father of Edith’s child, has been offed by Adolf’s gang of Brownshirt thugs in Germany. The news confirms Edith’s fears and she is understandably upset. Her sister Mary? Not so much. “Well of course it’s terrible,” she says to Anna. “But what did she think he was doing? Living in a tree?”

Oh Mary, you are a dear.

I’m afraid that’s just the beginning of her awfulness this week. In Edith’s moment of despair (admittedly, she has a lot of those), Merciless Mary sharpens her heels for an extra kick or two. More about that in a bit.

The Dowager Countess hears from beanless Shrimpy that he may be close to finding Prince Kuragin’s wife alive in Hong Kong. The DC, who had a fling with the noble Russian refugee many moons ago, decides she should travel to his rundown tenement in York to tell him the news about his wife. Kuragin is not exactly elated to hear it. I think he would have been happier if his wife met the same fate as poor Mr. Gregson.

The randy Russian is much more interested in rekindling the magic with the Dowager Countess. He tries to work his charm. “I wanted you from the moment I first saw you. More than mortal man ever wanted woman,” he tells her. It’s a good line, Kuragin, but the DC isn’t that easy.



Lord Grantham is still feeling quite frosty toward his wife. He found another man in their bedroom, after all. Even though she claims nothing happened, it’s not the kind of thing you just casually dismiss. Cora wants to patch things up, but she’ll need quite a bit of super glue to put this all back together. She visits him in his dressing room to ask him to return to their bedroom. Lord G refuses, but Cora is having none of it.

“If you can honestly say that you have never let a flirtation get out of hand since we were married, if you have never given a woman the wrong impression, then by all means, stay away,” she tells him.

“Otherwise I expect you back in my room tonight.” Tell him, Cora! Grantham huffs and puffs and then pulls himself out of the tiny, tiny bed, tucks his tail between his legs and heads off to join her.

Speaking of sad puppies, I’m worried about Isis. I don’t know what’s going to happen to her, but I think we’re in for an Old Yeller moment later this year. Get your hankies ready.

Big news this week: Mary is off to York for haircut. It’s a mod bob! Now she’ll no longer have to go upstairs to take off her hat.

The haircut sets the scene for another splendid showdown in the Downton drawing room (which I believe was designed to look like the office of Congressman Aaron Schock). No, Bunting is not involved. But it turns out the regular crew is perfectly capable of creating their own drama. Edith is still mourning Gregson, but Mary seems to think this is a swell time to show off her new do. This causes a stir. Grandma gets in a dry dig. “Ah, it is you,” she says. “I thought it was a man wearing your clothes.”

Edith can’t comprehend how inconsiderate Mary is being. “I’m amazed that even you would choose the day after I learned the man I loved is dead to try out a new fashion,” she says. “And if that weren’t enough, you’ve planned a jolly picnic for Saturday. Am I really expected to join in?”

“Hopefully not, as you usually spoil everything,” Mary replies icily. Mary will have her own wing in hell.




(Again, these very rude pictures were provided by Karen V. Wasylowski, not the distinguished Washington Post)

READ THE REST HERE: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/style-blog/wp/2015/02/08/downton-abbey-recap-edith-makes-her-move-and-mary-is-so-so-cold/

‘Downton Abbey' To End This Year After Six Series As Cast Go Job-Hunting In The US

HUFF POST ENTERTAINMENT UK
The Huffington Post UK |  BY Matt Bagwell
Posted: 29/01/2015 07:20 GMT Updated: 29/01/2015 07:59 GMT



The next series of ‘Downton Abbey’ will be the last, according to reports.

The ITV period drama, which stars Hugh Bonneville and Dame Maggie Smith, will end after the sixth series airs later this year.

The final installment is set to be filmed over the spring and summer and will hit our screens in September.

Writer Julian Fellowes is set to begin working on a brand new series, ‘The Gilded Age’, about 19th century New York, whilst agents for the cast are already in talks to find them new roles.

A source told The Mirror: “It’s an open secret that Downton is ending this year.

"Some of the actors are keen to let it be known they will be available for work after the summer. Some are interested in the US, where Downton is as popular as it is in the UK.

“Joanne Froggatt, Laura Carmichael and Allen Leech were in Los Angeles for the [SAG] awards last week and there were several meetings about both TV and film roles.”

Michelle Dockery, who plays Lady Mary, has spoken in the past about working in America.

She said: “It feels as though there are more opportunities for us over there. “I love spending time there.”


READ MORE HERE: http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2015/01/29/downton-abbey-ending_n_6568420.html

‘Downton Abbey’s’ Joanne Froggatt Emotional Over Upset Win

VARIETY

Cynthia Littleton
Managing Editor: Television
@Variety_Cynthia

“Downton Abbey” player Joanne Froggatt pulled off an upset win for supporting TV actress — a victory that was all the more meaningful because of the trauma her character endured during season four.

Froggatt said she felt a strong sense of responsibility to rape victims when she had to tackle the storyline in season four that saw her character suffer a sexual assault.

When she learned that her character, lady’s maid Anna Bates, would be raped, Froggatt did research on how the issue was handled for working-class women of the 1920s.



“This is this is a big responsibility,” Froggatt said backstage while she was still trembling from the excitement of winning her first Globe. “Yes it’s a fictional character but maybe people watching at home had been through similar experiences. My worst fear was for people to watch and feel that I wasn’t honest.”

Part of the trauma for Anna was the feeling that she could not tell anybody after the assault in the Downton kitchen. Froggatt said she questioned the decision but was assured by the show’s historical adviser that a working class woman would have been very unlikely to disclose the crime, which compounded the emotion for Froggatt. It took her some time to “get my head around what it meant to be a working-class woman in the 1920s.”


READ MORE HERE: http://variety.com/2015/tv/news/downton-abbeys-joanne-froggatt-emotional-over-upset-win-1201400471/

As 'Downton Abbey' heads into season five, it maintains its magic touch

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
BY DAVID HINCKLEY
Sunday, January 4, 2015, 2:00 AM


NICK BRIGGS

Laura Carmichael as Lady Edith Crawley on “Downton Abbey”; the plotline for Season 5 will spend a fair amount of time with Lady Edith.

The magic touch that “Downton Abbey” has wielded from its opening scene is the kind of gift that, like a lavish British country estate, you have to be born with.

From the moment the Titanic went down right up to the show’s fifth season, which launches on PBS at 9 p.m. Sunday, that touch has not diminished.

Take it from Rob James-Collier, who plays Thomas Barrow, better known to fans of “Downton Abbey” as Evil Thomas, the downstairs servant whose own nefarious touch routinely turns gold into sawdust.

James-Collier earned two university degrees and spent several years in marketing before deciding at age 28 to become an actor.



“I discovered I hated marketing,” he says. So he took some acting classes and the kind of small roles aspiring actors always take before landing Barrow.

“Now I love what I do,” he says. But sure, he allows, all that marketing experience can at times still hover about.

Like it did this summer, when “Downton Abbey” was rocked by plastic water bottle scandal.

Lord Grantham (Hugh Bonneville) and Lady Edith (Laura Carmichael) posed for a Season 5 publicity picture in front of a stately mantelpiece on which was nestled a plastic water bottle.

Plastic water bottles had so not been invented in 1925.

The scandal abated when the cast quickly shot a followup picture acknowledging and joking about their grievous error.

But scandal it was, and James-Collier says it was nothing short of brilliant.

“I have no idea if it was accidental or deliberate,” he says. “But my immediate reaction, from my marketing training, is that this did everything a good marketing campaign is supposed to do.

“It got that picture onto front pages all over the world. It got people talking about the show when it wasn’t even on the air.

“If I were running the campaign, it’s exactly what I would have done.”

Wherever The Case of the Mysterious Water Bottle originated, it’s hardly the only time “Downton” has emerged shining, or scored in a way that PBS shows just don’t score.

Over the last week and a half, more than a millions viewers have watched a nine-minute video in which George Clooney joins the “Downton” cast to promote Britain’s Text Santa charity.

Best of all, for PBS, “Downton” has become the most popular drama in PBS history. The fourth season U.S. premiere drew 10.2 million viewers, more than most commercial broadcast network shows, and while the fifth season audience dropped a bit when it ran this past fall in the U.K., it was still at the top of the pack.

It was primarily “Downton,” PBS officials will happily admit, that lifted PBS from being the 13th most-watched TV network a couple of years ago to the fifth most-watched last year.

So PBS itself, like the show’s fans, wish it could run forever.



That doesn’t happen, though, and executive producer Gareth Naeme remains coy about just how long it will actually run.

“It will end somewhere between Season 5 and Season 10,” he said in early December.


READ MORE HERE: http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/tv/downton-abbey-retains-magic-season-article-1.2059841

‘Downton Abbey’ Renewed for Sixth Season

VARIETY
Alex Stedman
News Editor, Variety.com
@a_sted



“Downton Abbey” has been renewed for a season six, ITV and producer Carnival Films announced on Thursday.

The official “Downton Abbey” Twitter account also tweeted the news.

Friends, #TeamServants have such wonderful news to share with you all! #Downton pic.twitter.com/obIk3aFrz4

— Downton Abbey (@DowntonAbbey) November 6, 2014

The British drama will go into production in 2015 with Julian Fellowes writing.

The news comes months before season five debuts in the U.S. on PBS on Jan. 4. Season five will complete its run in the U.K. on Sunday.

“We have had an amazing reaction to the story lines, acting and production values of Downton Abbey this year and the whole team is thrilled to be moving ahead with a new season of the show,” said executive producer and Carnival’s managing editor Gareth Neame in a statement. “This will provide audiences with a fresh opportunity to see what will befall our much loved characters.”

READ MORE HERE: http://variety.com/2014/tv/news/downton-abbey-renewed-sixth-season-1201349590/

Spoilers: Downton Abbey actor Brendan Coyle says his 'jaw dropped' when he learned of his character’s fate

DAILY MIRROR
Sep 28, 2014 22:00 By Mark Jefferies

Downton Abbey actor Brendan Coyle says the scripts for the new series “dropped his jaw” as he learned of his character’s fate.

Brendan plays Mr Bates, who is suspected of killing the man who raped his wife Anna – fellow valet Mr Green.

It seemed Bates had got away with it, but at the end of the latest episode on ITV viewers learned a new witness to the death had come forward.

The rape has also put a strain in the relationship between Bates and Anna, played by Joanne Froggatt.

Brendan called the upcoming storyline, penned by show creator Julian Fellowes, “a surprise”.

He added: “Julian never fails to drop your jaw.



“We couldn’t begin the series with that storyline. We had to have some abatement from that.

"And there’s a sense of them trying to heal. But it’s very difficult.

Brendan Coyle and Siobhan Finneran try to force-feed Sophie McShera

Brendan insisted Downton’s downstairs cast are more wild than those who play the posh roles upstairs.

“It’s a great bunch,” he said.

“We’re a bunch of old hams sitting around gossiping and talking food.

“Downstairs we can be quite rowdy. There’s a lot of comedians. We laugh a lot doing those scenes when we’re all sitting around talking about picnics or whatever.

"I believe we are more raucous than upstairs.


READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE AT http://www.mirror.co.uk/tv/tv-news/downton-abbey-actor-brendan-coyle-4341775#ixzz3Eeasr5YU 
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Downton Abbey spoilers: Lady Mary asks for ??? as she plots naughty weekend with ???

THE MIRROR
Sep 26, 2014 11:40 By Danny Walker



Lady Mary will sensationally asks for contraceptives in the next episode of Downton Abbey as she plots a naughty weekend away with Lord Gillingham.

Lord Grantham's daughter, played by Michelle Dockery, will ask her maid to buy contraceptives for her.

Lord Gillingham, played by Tom Cullen, has been growing ever closer to the Downton Lady and it seems everything will be put in place for them to finally seal the deal - even though they are not married.

In the forthcoming episode it will be Anna Bates, played by Joanne Froggatt, who will sneak off to the chemist to play her part.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/tv/tv-news/downton-abbey-spoilers-lady-mary-4327408#ixzz3EQqZFjSz 
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"Downton Abbey" Season 5 Begins With A Jolt (spoilers)

Jace Lacob
BuzzFeed Staff

Period drama Downton Abbey had begun to show signs of wear and tear, particularly in its fourth season, where the creakiness of the subplots began to match that of the house’s ancient stairs.

It was, simply put, not the best year for the drama, which had come off the narrative highs of its third season, including the highly emotional deaths of two linchpin characters, Matthew Crawley (Dan Stevens) and Lady Sybil (Jessica Brown Findlay). But, in its fourth, Downton sagged into overt melodrama with storylines involving murder, blackmail, and the shocking and highly controversial rape of Anna Bates (Joanne Froggatt). For a series that once had such great promise and potential, it felt like the life had been sucked out of the show somewhat as it was forced to restructure in light of those two high-profile departures.

Allen Leech as Tom Branson, Tom Cullen as Lord Gillingham, and Michelle Dockery as Lady Mary Nick Briggs/Carnival Films 2014 for MASTERPIECE

Resurrecting my crackpot theory that odd-numbered seasons of Downton Abbey are far superior to their even-numbered counterparts (I’m looking at you, Season 2!), the fifth season opener of Julian Fellowes’ period drama — which airs Sept. 21 on ITV in the U.K. and Jan. 4, 2015, on PBS’s Masterpiece in the U.S. — offers a reinvigorated Downton, one full of downstairs intrigues and domestic drama. The first episode back is a bit of a whirling dervish: There are so many subplots that it’s almost impossible to account for all of them.

But rather than feel overwhelming, there’s a particularly pleasing rhythm to all of this narrative dance work, with scenes that are short on time but long on significance. Long-simmering plots come to the boil. The ongoing love triangle between Lady Mary (Michelle Dockery), Lord Gillingham (Tom Cullen), and Charles Blake (Julian Ovenden) twists in a most unexpected direction, at least by the standards of the time. (It’s 1924, after all.) The relationship between James (Ed Speleers) and Lady Anstruther (a particularly aptly cast Anna Chancellor) is explored with clarity, humor, and a potential resolution. Isobel (Penelope Wilton) and Violet (Maggie Smith) are once again at odds — their temporary cease-fire marred by a new twist in their rivalry, this time over Isobel’s romantic prospects.



Throughout it all, the spectre of Gillingham’s dead valet Mr. Green (Nigel Harman) hovers uneasily over the proceedings, threatening to destroy the fragile happiness of Anna and Mr. Bates (Brendan Coyle), whose devotion to each other appears even stronger now, despite suspicious eyes turning toward the couple. And the dark secret harbored by the tremulous Miss Baxter (Raquel Cassidy) — or at least part of it — is finally revealed after being teased out so thoroughly by both Fellowes and by the malevolent Thomas (Rob James-Collier), using it to gain a Svengali-like hold over the lady’s maid.

Then there’s poor Lady Edith (Laura Carmichael), whose anguish over secretly giving up the child she conceived with missing paramour Michael Gregson (Charles Edwards) becomes even more palpable with the baby — the adorably named Marigold — living on the estate, just out of her grasp. That Edith should still be able to check in on Marigold, as much as propriety might allow for, might help to assuage the loss that she feels, but the gravitational pull between mother and child may prove impossible for Edith to resist, even as she risks exposure.

Edith has, most remarkably, of late become an incredibly sympathetic figure, and even her more damning actions in this episode (I won’t spoil what they are exactly) don’t derail the character’s redemption. Carmichael infuses Edith with such pathos and barely restrained emotion — she appears to be perpetually on the verge of tears so far — that it’s difficult not to empathize with the character, even when Lady Mary deploys a typically cutting remark against her sister toward the end of the episode.


READ MORE HERE: http://www.buzzfeed.com/jacelacob/downton-abbey-season-5-premiere-review#2gloo6x

Downton Abbey episode one: love is in the air, Lord Grantham v Carson (SPOILERS)

STV
16 September, 2014



Downton Abbey is back on our TV screens this Sunday September 21, and today we can share a breakdown of what to expect from the first episode from series five.

A new Labour government is in power, leaving the aristocratic classes uneasy as the prospect of social change becomes a reality, and their way of life begins to come into question.

Plans for a war memorial in the village unexpectedly pit Lord Grantham and Mrs Hughes against Mr Carson, something that leaves the butler and his master very uncomfortable.

Meanwhile, romance is in the air, as Tom Branson’s head is turned by local schoolteacher and political activist, Sarah Bunting, and Lady Mary is finally ready to move on and find love again. And with many suitors to choose from, she’s going to have a bit of fun before making her choice...

READ MORE HERE: http://shows.stv.tv/downton-abbey/latest/292283-downton-abbey-episode-one-love-is-in-the-air-lord-grantham-v-carson/

'Downton Abbey' cast responds to water bottle photo goof with goofy photo

HITFIX
By Dave Lewis  @HitFixDave | Saturday, Aug 16, 2014 2:45 PM



Earlier this week, PBS released an image from the upcoming season of "Downton Abbey" that mistakenly featured a 21st century water bottle in background of a scene set in 1924.

Now they're at it again, releasing another photo with even more historical inaccuracies. This one includes modern hairstyles and trendy 2014 fashions, and each and every cast member is holding a water bottle this time around. Is anyone paying attention to these promos?

Read more at http://www.hitfix.com/news/downton-abbey-cast-respond-to-water-bottle-photo-goof-with-goofy-photo#lfvzcgTFQl3hUfev.99

'Downton Abbey' Season 5, Episode 1: The First Review - The Earth Is Shaking At Downton (NO SPOILERS)

FORBES
Neil Midgley
Contributor



Today is the press launch of the fifth season of ITV's hit drama series Downton Abbey – even as I type, the actors and execs are doing a Q&A with journalists. But the first episode of this new season has just been screened to the press for the first time, and these are my thoughts.

This was as strong a season opener as we’ve seen since that very first season four years ago. And this time, writer Julian Fellowes didn’t have the sinking of the Titanic to help him on his narrative way.

Indeed Downton Abbey is finally – inasmuch as this potboiling manor ever can be – back to normal. Last year’s season opener started with special sad music, and the great house in darkness. Not only was Matthew (Dan Stevens) dead, but Miss O’Brien (Siobhan Finneran) had left in the dead of night.



This fifth season opener has neither of those sadnesses to contend with (although, as you will see, that doesn’t mean it is without sadness). We started with the usual, familiar theme music – and with a much more well-adjusted Downton.

But before the episode started, Steve November, who is ITV’s director of drama commissioning, gave a few brief remarks. He said that we would see ‘surprising stories’ in this new series, and as far as Downton’s great set-pieces go, ‘some of the best we’ve ever seen’.

Even in this first, feature-length episode, November was proved right. The script was tight and incredibly well-plotted – you could imagine the producers and cast literally turning the pages quicker and quicker to see what happens next. (Indeed I understand that, at the read-through when the cast saw the script for the first time, that’s exactly what happened.)

Fellowes has perhaps taken some inspiration from ITV’s other big recent drama hit, Broadchurch, in his plotting. Before every commercial break, there was a cliffhanger. One of them made me cry: another made me gasp.


READ MORE HERE:  http://www.forbes.com/sites/neilmidgley/2014/08/14/downton-abbey-season-5-episode-1-the-first-review/