'Downton Abbey' season 6 news, cast, spoilers: Hugh Bonneville on what makes the finale a tearjerker
Many were quite sad with the announcement that the ongoing sixth season (in the United Kingdom at least) of "Downton Abbey" will be its last one. In the TV age where vampires and werewolves rule primetime television, many felt that the British period drama was an incredible breath of fresh air. Despite the finale being a couple of episodes far away still, many already anticipate crying their eyes out once it premieres.
In a recent interview with Collider, Hugh Bonneville, who plays Robert Crawley, Earl of Grantham, talked about the last episode awaiting fans this season and why he thinks handkerchiefs should be prepared. He goes, "For the last episode, you'll need some handkerchiefs. I needed handkerchiefs reading it. It wasn't because it necessarily moved me while reading it, but it was the experience of reading it when I realized it was the last time I was ever going to be reading one of those scripts. That was quite terminal. I suppose the theme is that it's the end of an era. This estate has to face an uncertain future."
Although viewers have watched the estate go through a lot of difficult moments in the past five years, it seems that the changing era will be too much even for it. A lot of letting go and adapting to what can possibly happen will somehow become the main theme of the rest of the season. Bonneville further added that these struggles will be "characterized in the first episode when a friend from across the county has to sell the family silver to keep going, which so many of these estates did. These estates started eating themselves and their land because that piece of land no longer brings an income. It spirals in on itself until you ultimately have to sell the house, and that is looming on the horizon."
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As of now, many hanging story lines and relationships are yet to be concluded, or at least be given a satisfying direction. It has been made clear before that the show will make sure that all of these are taken care of before the series finally wraps up.
Season 6 of "Downton Abbey" is set to premiere on Jan. 3, 2016 in the United States on PBS.
