Downton fans: Show will likely end after next season

[Vespasia]

Julian Fellowes is moving on to a project about Gilded Age New York. I will definitely be checking that out. DA has lost it's must watch status for me so this isn't really sad news. I just hope they wrap it up well.

*Article has some minor almost-spoilers because the current season has already aired int he UK*

www.mirror.co.uk/tv/tv-news/downton-abbey-end-year-cast-5061146

Downton Abbey WILL end this year as cast look for job offers in America

This is not the news Downton Abbey fans will want to hear, but the period drama is coming to an end this year.



Writer Julian Fellowes is ditching the popular ITV show, which stars Hugh Bonneville as the Earl of Grantham, after its sixth series so he can work on a new project about 19th century New York.



Last week, agents were seeking work for some of the main stars while they were in Los Angeles at the Screen Actors Guild Awards.



One source said: “It’s an open secret that Downton is ending this year.

"Some of the actors are keen to let it be known they will be available for work after the summer. Some are interested in the US, where Downton is as popular as it is in the UK.



“Joanne Froggatt, Edith Carmichael and Allen Leech were in Los Angeles for the awards last week and there were several meetings about both TV and film roles.”



The stars collected the gong for outstanding performance by an ensemble cast for the second time.



Michelle Dockery, who plays Lady Mary, has spoken in the past about working in America.


She said: “It feels as though there are more opportunities for us over there. “I love spending time there.”



Stars such as Dan Stevens and Jessica Brown Findlay have already left Downton after getting offers from Hollywood.



The sixth and final Downton is due to start filming in the spring and will finish in the summer before airing on ITV from September.



ITV declined to comment but drama chiefs are looking for a ­replacement show for autumn Sunday nights, which generates some of the highest ratings of the year.



A source said: “They want something long-running and ­ambitious.”

Independent production companies have been asked to pitch for the slot, which traditionally generates some of the highest ratings of the year.



One TV insider revealed: “They are looking for something which is long-running and ambitious and which could appeal to the mass audience in the way that Downton has done.”



Anticipation over the plots for the final run of Downton will now be immense.



Last month the Christmas special ended with the revelation that Mrs Hughes the housekeeper (Phyllis Logan) and Carson the butler (Jim Carter) are to be married.



But viewers will also want to see Lady Mary (Dockery) settled with a new husband after dallying with a string of suitors and also for Lady Edith (Carmichael) to find happiness after the death of her newspaper editor lover in strange circumstances in Germany.

Fans would also love to see Isobel Crawley marry Lord Merton despite his interfering sons and for Anna and Mr Bates to become parents.



Writer Fellowes confessed a year ago that he needed to get on with new NBC drama The Gilded Age, set in 19th century New York.



He told the Wall Street Journal: “It will happen when Downton finishes, because I just couldn’t do both at once.”



He added at the time, “Downton is not going to go on forever. It won’t be Perry Mason.”

Speaking at the National Television Awards last week, Fellowes confirmed he was looking forward to getting his teeth into The Golden Age.



“I am interested to do another series because Downton was the first series I’d ever written.



"Now I feel I know much more about the game. I suppose there is something interesting about the idea of going on and using it somewhere else.”

[Melissa W.]

It was so weird seeing the actor that plays Lord Grantham as the dad in Paddington.

[Miss Phryne Fisher]

Jan 30, 2015 6:55:22 GMT -5 Melissa W. said:

It was so weird seeing the actor that plays Lord Grantham as the dad in Paddington.

You want weird? Go find the movie Blow Dry and watch him in that. It is a cute movie. 

I love Downton but I am not surprised. I will watch Baron Fellowes' new show though, that sounds interesting. I want one more focused on the Dollar Princesses/Buccaneers since they barely go into Cora being one at all. 

[lg28]

I haven't actually watched this show, BUT I like it when shows have a definite end date in mind. They are always better executed than shows that don't (I'm looking at you Grey's Anatomy)

[AJL]

It's time for the show to end. I've enjoyed it, but I think it's run it's course.

[ECB]

Yeah, I'm not upset by this. I tend to like knowing that a show is coming to an end, and I feel like there is a lot of good TV out there, I'm not going to be lacking for good shows to watch.

[Vespasia]

This has some funny suggestions for how the show should end. Again, minor spoilers for this season.
www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/tvandradioblog/2015/jan/29M/downton-abbey-what-should-happen-in-the-final-episode


My favorite:
"The evil impostor child is foiled at last

Lady Edith’s imposter daughter, Marigold, becomes the first child spy for the Germans when she receives a series of invisible-ink telegrams from Berlin. Mrs Patmore intercepts the telegrams and, using a unique steam-iron method, gets Daisy (bound for Harvard after securing the first Open University degree*) to help her read them. Edith is forced to choose between the Traitor Ginger Impostor Child and her burgeoning career as the next Rupert Murdoch (a job for which she never does any work but occasionally mentions over breakfast)."

[hopecounts]

My ideal ending is (cue the kleenex) Robert dying and Mary running the estate while George is a minor, de facto becoming the heir despite the entailment which is what she has pretty much always wanted.