Downton Abbey’s final Christmas special opens on an idyll. The Crawleys gather on the lush grounds of the manor,…

Browse Episodes
Cast
Creator
Julian Fellowes
Synopsis
Lord Robert Crawley, Earl of Grantham (Hugh Bonneville) sees his family heritage, especially the grand country home Downton Abbey, as his mission in life. The death of his heir aboard R.M.S. Titanic means distant cousin Matthew Crawley (Dan Stevens), a Manchester lawyer, suddenly is next in line and accepts moving onto the vast estate with his even more modernist, socially engaged mother, who clashes with his Lordship's domineering, conservative mother, the dowager countess. Marrying off the daughters is another concern. Meanwhile, the butler presides over a staff which serves the family, but also lead most of their entire lives in the servants' quarters, intriguing amongst themselves.
Recommendations
More about Downton Abbey
The series finale of Downton Abbey (with the Christmas special still to come) doesn’t pull any punches: a death, a…
This episode is transparently, cynically manipulative, and I resent how efficiently it worked on me, from the tense…
Readers, we have seen the star of tonight’s Downton Abbey, and he is us:
As Downton Abbey races toward its conclusion, everything, and I mean everything, comes out. Mary confides in Tom one…
“Tom the peacemaker is back,” Edith Crawley says after a contentious dinner, and she’s right. Over the years, Tom…
In the first scene of Downton Abbey’s wedding episode, Mrs. Hughes sighs, “I don’t mind. Not really.” Those aren’t…
For six seasons now, and over the years between 1912 and 1925, the residents of Downton Abbey have spoken of changes…
Downton Abbey’s return spotlights more than ever the era’s changing social and economic mores, the seismic shift…
In this last gasp of season five, there’s plenty to grouse about, then—as befits Downton Abbey’s Christmas…