A Downton Abbey comeback is precisely the comforting, low-stakes palate cleanser we need

Sign up to our free IndyArts newsletter for all the latest entertainment news and reviews Sign up to our free IndyArts newsletter Sign up to our free IndyArts newsletter SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy Hold on to your cloche hats: a seventh season of Downton Abbey is reportedly in the works, almost a decade after the wildly popular costume drama’s finale. In an entertainment landscape where every other new launch is a depressing police procedural or gruesome true-crime story, a Downton comeback is precisely the sort of comforting, low-stakes palate cleanser that we need. Things started to get a bit bonkers when Lady Mary’s paramour Matthew Crawley, the man she’d finally married after multiple series of posh yearning, was brutally mown down in a car accident moments after meeting his new son and heir, in possibly the least festive Christmas special ever. With Fellowes going back to episodic TV after giving the Crawley family a few years of breathing space, I have my fingers crossed for a return to the show’s earlier glory days.