‘Downton Abbey’ season 5 spoilers: Exec on big Maggie Smith, Michelle Dockery stories
We know that there have been some out there who have rolled their eyes at Maggie Smith’s continuous Emmy nominations for “Downton Abbey,” including some years where she has not had all that much to do. However, she may come back at you with a knockout during season 5, and remind you that she was deserving of every bit of acclaim she received all along.
Speaking to TVLine, executive producer Gareth Neame promised a “brilliant” storyline for the Dowager Countess for the fifth season, though he would not tease too much when it comes to what it was. Last we saw Violet she had fought her way through an illness, and also dealt with a bout of suspected thievery.
Meanwhile, Neame also teased some of what could be coming up next for Michelle Dockery’s Mary, as her decision between Charles Blake and Anthony Gillingham will finally be made at some point:
“When Dan Stevens decided to leave the show — and we tried very hard to keep him — we thought, ‘Well, OK, let’s get on with it.’ That door was closed. And we suddenly thought, ‘Actually, this is the best thing that could have happened to us.’ I’m actually really, really glad it happened. It gave us such a new direction to travel in for the show. Everyone wants Mary to be happy and for her to marry again, but nobody would want that to happen too quickly because they want to respect the memory of Matthew. It’s about timing all those things correctly, and I really like the way we juggled two, maybe even three, suitors in the last season. She’s still not quite sure, and I think there’s a good hook for the audience in the fifth season to see which decision she’s going to make.”
Personally, we hope that Neame takes a page from his own book and “gets on with it” when it comes to the Mary storyline. While we did like the “will she or won’t she?” part of the story last season, we can imagine us getting progressively more and more tired of it if it lingers.
The new season starts in September over on British station ITV, while fans in America will still be waiting the start in January.
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Photo: ITV