Whiling away the hours until the next period drama is out?
We must just have found your next fixation: Downton Abbey now has its own official re-watch podcast.
The weekly show, which launches today, will be serving up all sorts of treats in the run-up to the release of the hotly-anticipated film Downton Abbey: A New Era.
Hosted by Rotten Tomatoes’ editor Jacqueline Coley and BBC Woman’s Hour’s Anita Rani, the podcast is promising a slew of interviews with the cast and filmmakers behind the show, including the Earl of Grantham himself, Hugh Bonneville, Michelle Dockery (who plays Lady Mary), Laura Carmichael (who plays Lady Edith), and even Elizabeth McGovern, who played Lady Cora.
In addition, we’ll be hearing from Dominic West later on in the series, who is set to join the Downton family in the upcoming film.
Downton Abbey: A New Era is billed as the successor to first feature film Downton Abbey and is set to arrive in cinemas on April 29.
Featuring returning old favourites such as Maggie Smith as Violet, the Dowager Duchess, Joanne Froggatt as Anna Bates and Jim Carter as Charles Carson, the film is expected to be set in 1928 or 1929.
This would place it shortly after the events of the first film which saw Downton Abbey receive a royal visit from King George V and wife Queen Mary.
The first episode of Downton Abbey: The Official Podcast, which was released today, features an interview with Julian Fellowes, the man who created and wrote much of the show when it hit our screens in 2010.
Though the episode doesn’t offer listeners much new information – and features rather a lot of Fellowes dissecting his own writing decisions and characters with interviewer Foley – there’s plenty to enjoy for the discerning Downton fan.
If you want to know what inspired Fellowes to write that scene where Lady Mary’s lover dies of a heart attack in bed – or if he gets choked up by the death scenes he helped write (spoiler: he does) – then this is the pod for you.
The podcast is available to stream on all major platforms.
