DOWNTON ABBEY's Fifth Season to Premiere on PBS January 4th!

According to USA Today, the fifth season of Masterpiece's historic drama DOWNTON ABBEY, will premiere on PBS on January 4. By that date, the entire season will have completed its run on UK's ITV network.

Cast members from the series participated on a panel talking to members of the Television Critics Association late Tuesday.

"There is what we all hope for and expect, which is drama, love, comedy," shared Emmy nominee Joanne Froggatt, who portrays Anna on the series. "There's all of those elements still there really, really strongly. And I'm really proud of Season 5. ...There's new. There's old. There's those stories we want to find out about, and there's new stories happening, as well."

Emmy nominee Michelle Dockery also weighed in on the love triangle romance her character, Lady Mary faced in Season 4, "She's embracing her new life, really. I think she's through the grief now. And I kind of see (Season) 5 for Mary as the new Mary, in a way. And so with that, she's got a bit of her bite back that we had in (Season) 1, which I've enjoyed playing. It was lovely to do (Season) 4 with playing all of that emotion and everything, but this is a lot more fun."

Producer Gareth Neame reflected on some of the more controversial elements of Season 4, sharing, "When I look back at (Season) 4, I actually think it was one of the strongest seasons that we have ever had. I think one of the difficulties with some of the earlier seasons - for example, Season 2 - and having to cover the war, it sort of slightly took us out of our environment. Characters left the home and went elsewhere, and we had to try and cover those things. There's something very core Downton about Season 4. It's all very rooted. I'm not saying everything we've done is perfect and I wouldn't change a thing. We certainly would. But Season 4, I'm very pleased with."

Read the article in full here.

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