‘Downton Abbey’ Season 4, Press Launch
The Downton Abbey Season 4 press launch gave reporters a look into what will happen this time around on the popular period drama.
Over 100 journalists turned up for the event as did the cast and crew, senior producers, and ITV executives. A screening of the first episode of the new series was shown, which is under embargo until the series starts in the UK in September, so nothing to report there.
The second part of the event continued with a press conference of the cast and crew, which is mostly on camera interviews rather than print.
Some of the highlights were to see Rob James-Collier, who plays the scheming footman Thomas Barrow, with a shaved head.
The third part of the press launch saw journalists divided into 11 labeled tables for TV, magazines, radio, Sunday papers, and others. The cast members then do the rounds around the tables to talk with reporters.
Downton Abbery Season 4’s first episode is set during the 1920s, more specifically in 1922, six months after the accident which killed one of the main and most beloved characters, Matthew Crawley, played by actor Dan Stevens, who left the show to pursue other opportunities.
Neil Midgley, of the Telegraph, says the new season has a feel of the very first one, which made the show a massive international success.
As always, the new season of Downton will have something for everyone, stories upstairs and stories downstairs. New scheming, old allegiances, an old flame making their appearance, and all that was happening during the transforming time in which the story is set.
Of course, the series has to overcome the void left by Dan Stevens’ departure from the show and writer Julian Fellowes is taking the opportunity to inject new life into the show.
But much of the plot will focus on how Matthew’s wife, Lady Mary (Michelle Dockery) will move on with her life, raising the couple’s son George, the heir to Downton. At least she doesn’t have to worry about marrying if she doesn’t want to.
Whether the audiences will adapt as quickly, it remains to be seen. Downton Abbey has become part of pop culture not only in the UK but across the pond, in the US. We await the start of Season 4 in September in England.
[Image via ITV]
