'Downton Abbey' Season 6 Christmas Special: Trailer Teases Both Happiness and Heartbreak For The Crawleys
The British drama series "Downton Abbey" ends its five-year six-season run with a Christmas special sure to have fans reaching for their hankies. The trailer for the final episode dropped last week, giving followers of the Crawley family some major hints about how the show's producers have opted to wrap up the stories of the various Crawley family members and their servants.
A rendition of "Auld Lang Syne" led by Mrs. Hughes (Phyllis Logan) opens the trailer, ushering in a montage of scenes and lines brimming with emotion. "I hope you're not too unhappy about the way things have turned out," Robert Crawley, the Earl of Grantham (Hugh Bonneville), tells Carson (Jim Carter), to which the butler replies, "The world is a different place from the way it was, my lord." "And Downton Abbey must change with it," he adds.
The atmosphere is festive as the Yorkshire country house is decked in holiday fittings, feasts are served, and carols are sung. But amid the flurry of Christmas celebrations, viewers will see the Crawleys - and their servants - both joyful and somber. There are smiles but also tears, warm hugs and bitter confrontations. Some are looking back while others contemplate the future. "We never know what's coming, of course; who does?" asks Lord Grantham. "But, I'd say, we have a good chance."
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"I arrived here as a boy. I leave as a man," Thomas Barrow (Rob James-Collier) says as he bids the mansion and its inhabitants farewell. Past episodes may have shown the underbutler's future to be a bleak one, but it seems that he will be leaving Downton Abbey in good spirits. Young George (twins Oliver and Zac Baker) begging him to stay will surely tug at every "Downton" fan's heart. Lady Mary Crawley (Michelle Dockery) seems to be having a good time, and so do Anna (Joanne Froggatt) and Bates (Brendan Coyle).
Meanwhile, Henry Talbot (Matthew Goode) is shown looking pensive as he strives to settle into married life. Violet, the Dowager Countess (Dame Maggie Smith), sits with Mrs. Crawley (Penelope Wilton) and waxes poetic about the passing year.
The final episode of "Downton Abbey" airs on Christmas Day at 8:45 p.m. on ITV. In the U.S., the sixth and final season premieres on Jan. 3 on PBS. The Christmas special will air on March 6.
