‘Downton Abbey’ season 5: See George Clooney, Jeremy Piven, more in Text Santa video

For those of you wondering whether or not American audiences were going to have an opportunity to watch the “Downton Abbey” sketch featuring George Clooney, we have good news for you right now: The bit in its entirety is below!

This video is mostly a fun one, since the premise has a distinct “It’s a Wonderful Life” sort of flavor to it. Robert (Hugh Bonneville) basically sees what would happen if he never existed, and if someone else, a certain Hollywood (Clooney), managed to be in charge of the establishment.

As you would expect, there is some great parody in here. We have a lively bit featuring Jeremy Piven as Mr. Selfridge, Clooney dancing with Cora (Elizabeth McGovern), and many of the “Downton Abbey” characters making fun of their own standard roles on the show. The moment with Thomas hiding behind a curtain was in particular priceless / very funny to watch.

This entire sketch was for a Text Santa charity special, and the contributions to a good cause is probably one of the reasons, coupled with Clooney’s ties to Bonneville, that managed to get him on board the event. It seems to have been a wise move, since his casting for this allowed the sketch to get a whole lot more publicity than it probably would have received otherwise.

There is another important episode of “Downton Abbey” airing on Christmas Day, and we will of course have some further insight into that as we inch a little closer to it ultimately coming on the air. Stay tuned!