Downton Abbey

We last saw Matthew Crawley on bended knee in the snow, proposing to that former ice maiden, the thoroughly thawed Lady Mary, so the new series opens with the wedding preparations in full swing.

Of course a wedding means “wedding guests”, and the most spectacular arrival is that of Cora’s mother, the redoubtable Martha Levinson (Shirley MacLaine) who’s come all the way from America. Swathed in furs, she makes a grand entrance at Downton and soon she becomes involved in verbal head-butting with the fearsome Dowager Countess of Grantham, Violet (Maggie Smith). It’s like watching two stately galleons collide in a fog, as neither has any truck with the other’s social standing.

It’s an opening episode that will thrill Downton’s legions of devotees because it’s full of what they love best — love, duty, intrigue, peril and great clothes. No one puts it better than the Earl of Grantham (Hugh Bonneville) when he declares, “I’m so happy I feel my chest will explode.” Stand clear!