After all this time, I didn’t expect Julian Fellowes to mess with his formula and start having radical plot twists and unexpected tragedies and mayhem. It is a comfortable family viewing franchise. If anything, except for the same-sex relationship element, it is less adventurous than it used to be. But that is all fine with me. It is like the new All Creatures Great and Small series: I know what to expect, but with an ensemble characters I know and like I don’t care.

There were a few incidents that weren’t quite believable, such as a novice writer suddenly becoming a successful playwright, b... read the rest.