Time for much wringing of lace hankies and stiff upper lips - Downton Abbey returned last night for it's final season and as usual there's trouble at big house - the break-up of the big estates and those revolting working class types.
It'll be all over by Christmas and we will draw the heavy drape curtains on the old place but we have been promised plenty of resolution before then - and also plenty of tears.
The final run opens in 1925, the year before the General Strike, with Downton Abbey inhabitants Robert Crawley (Hugh Bonneville) and his daughter Lady Mary (Michelle Dockery) having to figure out new ways to keep the cash-strapped estate intact.
Another headache for the Crawleys is the future of Downton hospital, which is now being run locally but could be placed under the control of a centralised authority based in York.
"This is a series of resolution, that's why we did another one," says Downton creator Julian Fellowes. "We were going to end on season five but we just felt we needed a series to wrap it up.
"We had a fairly strong idea of where we were going. Sometimes the routes to get there changed."
Hugh Bonneville admitted that his character had to face up to the grim reality of his situation when Robert Crawley's neighbour Sir John Darnley was forced to sell his Mallerton estate.
"That's when Robert begins to realise that the writing is on the wall for estates like Downton," he said. "It's time to adapt or die."
Downton fans will be pleased to hear that there will be developments in the relationship between Mr Carson (Jim Carter) and Mrs Hughes (Phyllis Logan), who got engaged at the end of last season.
"There are also some slightly delicate negotiations about under what terms they are getting married; whether as an old bachelor and spinster, or whether it will be a 'full' marriage so to speak," said Carter.
He added that the final Downton Abbey Christmas special would be quite a tearjerker and that the audience will find it "very moving".
Romance is also in the air for Michelle Dockery's widower Lady Mary, as she falls for racing car driver Henry Talbot (Matthew Goode), who came into the show at the end of last season.
Downton Abbey can be seen at 9.00pm tonight on UTV and at 10.00pm on Tuesday, September 22 on TV3.
