‘Downton Abbey’ season 4 notes: Elizabeth McGovern and Rob James-Collier

Want to kick off your weekend with a dose of “Downton Abbey”? We’d be thrilled to help make that happen for you, beginning with some actual scoop on the new season via Rob James-Collier. With this set so closed off, it is difficult to get even a peep of anything story-wise, and while we are not talking about an earth-shattering revelation here, the following at least gives us a greater sense of how Thomas manages to maintain his power in the Abbey … or at least as much power as someone in his position can have.

Speaking in a new interview with Vanity Fair, the actor did his part to explain just how we could see Thomas find a new hire to replace Mrs. O’Brien (the departing Siobhan Finneran, whose character is still alive) who also serves his own means:

“O’Brien’s replacement is quite interesting because Thomas has brought her in without a reference … He, obviously, has some kind of hold on her, but what that is, who knows? He is using her, manipulating her with the secret he has on her to feed back to him the stories and goings on from upstairs so he can use it to his advantage.”

This should be fascinating, no? Let’s just hope that things don’t fall apart for Thomas as many of his plans seem to.

Elizabeth McGovern’s gig – In shifting gears, you have probably heard about McGovern’s band Sadie and the Hotheads on this site. However, what you may not know is that there is a rather prestigious gig lined up for the group opening for Sting in Switzerland.

The group will be at the Montreux Jazz Festival on Tuesday, July 16th, which you can pick up tickets for here. (Thanks to Downton Abbey Addicts for bringing this one to our attention.) While it may not be directly related to the show, we always find it nice to try and support some of the other work that these actors do.

Do you want to have a chance to see a plethora of other news related to “Downton Abbey”? The link here should do the trick, as it will provide you with an extended roundtable chat featuring Julian Fellowes and many of the writers.

Photo: ITV