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'Downton Abbey': Here's when the show is ending

'Downton' executive producer Gareth Neame recently revealed when the show will be concluding. The 'Downton' creators 'wanted to close the door of "Downton Abbey" when it felt right and natural for the storylines to come together,' Neame said.

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Nick Briggs/Carnival Film & Television Limited 2014 for Masterpiece
'Downton Abbey' stars Michelle Dockery (l.) and Oliver/Zac Barker (r.).
  • By Associated Press

The producers of "Downton Abbey" say the upcoming sixth season of this popular drama will be its last.

Executive producer Gareth Neame said its creators "wanted to close the door of 'Downton Abbey' when it felt right and natural for the storylines to come together," and promised "a final season full of all the usual drama and intrigue."

The Emmy Award-winning show follows the fates of the aristocratic Crawley clan and their servants amid the social upheavals of the 1910s and 1920s.
The fifth season of "Downton" aired in the United States on PBS this winter. It first aired in the United States in 2011, becoming part of a global phenomenon.

Stars include Hugh Bonneville, Jim Carter, Michelle Dockery, Elizabeth McGovern, and Maggie Smith. Actors who previously appeared on the show include Dan Stevens and Jessica Brown-Findlay.

So what can we expect for the final season? Neame and "Downton" creator Julian Fellowes have revealed a bit for fans. The most recent season finale included Carson, a butler, proposing to Mrs. Hughes, the housekeeper. But "'Downton' is a bumpy path," Fellowes told the New York Times.

As for eldest daughter Mary Crawley (Dockery), in the most recent season finale, she appeared interested in a guest at a shooting party (Matthew Goode). "We like this idea that Mary has now been single for a while, and she’s had enough time to grieve her marriage and to honor her late husband, but to know that she will marry again one day,” Neame said of creating the character in an interview with Entertainment Weekly. “She just has no idea who. That’s why she’s had all of these different suitors that she’s considered, but she hasn’t done anything about it. I’m also interested in how her first marriage to Matthew was relatively straightforward, and when you get married a second time, whether because of divorce or bereavement, it’s much more complicated. A mature marriage in your thirties compared to a first relationship in your twenties, there’s a lot more at stake, and I think that’s interesting."

Of selecting Goode for the part, Neame said, "We really like Matthew, and we’ve been interested in him being on the show for a while. We liked the idea of what it would be like if he met Michelle’s character. We thought it worked well."

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