Downton's Back!

It's back! The period drama/Edwardian blockbuster that had us pining for beautiful dresses, immaculately manicured lawns and a basement full of service staff returns to our screens on Sunday 16 September for a third series. After the hugely successful last season, which saw the outbreak of war and the flu pandemic, series three of Downton Abbey begins at the start of the Roaring Twenties, an era of post-war adjustment and shifiting social mores. Expect colourful new characters, gripping storylines, and more ups and downs than the staircases at Highclere Castle. So what is getting us so excited? Well...

Following a romantic proposal in the snow during the Downton Abbey Christmas special, the new season kicks off with the wedding of Lady Mary to Matthew Crawley, or does it? Michelle Dockery, the actress who plays Mary, has revealed that it's not all plain sailing for the notoriously hot-headed couple. Let's hope they last long enough for us to see the wedding dress...

Lady Sybil returns from Ireland with her new husband, former chauffeur Branson and a baby on the way, but will the family fully accept him and how will his former colleagues react? Expect to see the upstairs-downstairs divide become even more complicated.

Might this be the season that Lady Edith finally finds true love? We hope so. Former suiter, Sir Anthony Strallan, returns and if images released from filming are anything to go by a second Downton marriage might be on the cards...

New faces arrive at Downton and no doubt the most entertaining among them will be Cora's mother Martha Levinson, played by Shirley MacLaine. An American millionairess with an open mind to change (not always a welcome view within the walls of Downton), get ready for more of Lady Grantham's gloriously acerbic one liners as the two formidable dowagers go head to head.

Miss O'Brien's nephew Alfred is another new arrival, replacing Thomas as footman following his promotion to valet. Will he be as troublesome as his predecessor? Perhaps, if this romantic clinch with Martha Levinson's lady's maid, Miss Reed, is anything to go by...

They spent much of series one and two standing outside plotting mischevious deeds and sneering through clouds of cigarette smoke, but rumour has it that with the third series comes a fall-out between villainous Thomas and hard-nosed O'Brien. And then there's the footage of Thomas crying in the season three trailer: are we about to see a softer side to the scheming cad?

And Mr Bates; how we can forget poor Mr Bates? He may have escaped the hangman's noose but oh how we bawled our eyes out when he was sentenced to prison for the murder of his ex-wife, Vera. But what now? Expect many a tearful reunion between the former valet and his newlywed Anna as she strives to clear his name.