Downton Abbey returns with new love for Lady Mary

Sunday, Jan. 5, 7 p.m. MT, 8 p.m. CT, 9 p.m. ET/PT, PBS

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. - It has been nearly 10 months since Downton Abbey last aired a new episode. Downton Abbey devotees in the colonies are still reeling over the death of handsome, honourable, new father Matthew Crawley, who died at the wheel of his car at the very end of Downton's third-season finale.

Matthew's death, which aired in the U.K. as a Christmas special last year, was a reminder that, unlike so many of today's respected serialized TV dramas, it's an originally scripted series, not adapted from a book or a graphic novel series.

There's little way for even the most ardent fan, or book reader, to guess what happens next, or prepare for the inevitable shocks that come along life's path.

Matthew's death was hastened by actor Dan Stevens's decision to leave the program at the end of its third season. The Cambridge-educated Stevens decided, midway through Downton Abbey's second season, that he wanted to take on new challenges. It had nothing to do with money or ego, he insisted in a December, 2012 interview with London's Daily Telegraph newspaper. He had a desire for freedom, to take on as wide a range of roles as might come his way.

Downton Abbey has grown to become one of the most widely viewed television programs in the world, a dramedy of Edwardian manners avidly watched in countries as far flung as Russia, South Korea and Cambodia - a small part of England where the sun never sets.

As the new season picks up on Jan. 5, Matthew's sudden departure from this world has left a deep void in the heart of young Lady Mary Crawley, mother to a newborn baby and heiress to the Crawley estate, now widowed.

The story picks up several months later. As actress Michelle Dockery admitted, though, time doesn't heal all wounds.

Soft-spoken and quietly elegant, the 31-year-old London native and self-admitted stage rat - she was a Laurence Olivier Award nominee for her performance in the U.K. National Theatre production of Burnt by the Sun in 2009 and played Eliza Doolittle in an Old Vic production of Pygmalion that same year - confessed that Stevens's decision to leave took her by surprise.

'My first reaction,' she said suddenly, cropping her elegant reserve, 'was, 'Oh, crap.' '

Dockery had flown to California from the U.K. the day before, to appear alongside her Downton Abbey castmates Laura Carmichael, Joanne Froggatt, Phyllis Logan and Sophie McShera at the Television Critics Association's summer meeting in Beverly Hills.

'We'd spent all this time having this on-off, will-they-or-won't-they relationship, and suddenly it ended,' Dockery said. 'I thought to myself, 'Where can the story go now?''

Lady Mary changed, and the story changed with her. Lady Mary eventually comes to terms with her new life, as does the rest of the Crawley family. The new season is a better season for it, Dockery believes.

In any event, Lady Mary's suitors have a habit of dying before their time, Dockery said, with a wry laugh. When the story picks up, Lady Mary is single again, untethered and available - legally, if not emotionally - but the new men in her life would be wise to be wary.

'The new actors coming into the show, as suitors, are really brave,' Dockery said. 'Because God only knows what can happen. I'm pretty sure Richard Carlisle is in there somewhere dead, and we don't even know about it.'

There have been suggestions that Lady Mary might become linked with the dashing Tom Branson, played by Irish stage actor Allen Leech.

'There are suspicions about Tom and Mary's relationship, but they are very much friends, and he is her brother-in-law still,' Dockery said. 'They become close because of what they have gone through together, having lost a partner. Mary becomes more of a partner running the estate with Tom. We do have a lot of scenes together. Romantically, though, I don't think it's going anywhere. I hope not. It's very inappropriate.'

Lady Mary was never the maternal type, but life's unexpected events will reshape her perspective over the weeks and months ahead.

'She's from that aristocratic class that doesn't see their children very much. There's a nanny, and eventually there will be a governess looking after baby George. To begin with, you don't see much interaction between the baby and Mary. It's hard for her to bond with the baby because, of course, she's going through the grief. When she looks at him, she sees Matthew. Motherhood is a slow process, I think, for Mary.'

Dockery hasn't had time to think about her own future beyond Downton Abbey.

'What's so wonderful about the show is that it's opened doors for all of us. So many of us are doing other things. Dan is doing brilliantly since he left the show, but the rest of us can do other things in between. As far as we know, we are all doing a fifth season next year. Beyond that, we don't really know. It's all in fate's hands, and Julian Fellowes. I think if other actors started leaving, that would be a worry.

'It's been fine so far, though. As long as it remains an ensemble, which essentially is what the show is, we'll see.'

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