Downton Abbey is a British period drama television series created by Julian Fellowes and co-produced by Carnival Films and Masterpiece. It first aired on ITV in the United Kingdom on 26 September 2010, and on PBS in the United States on 9 January 2011, as part of the Masterpiece Classic anthology. Six series have been made, the sixth airing in the autumn of 2015 in the UK and Ireland, and in January 2016 in the United States. On 26 March 2015, the sixth series was confirmed to be the final series, with the final episode airing in the UK on 25 December 2015 on ITV. During the course of the programme, 52 episodes of Downton Abbey aired over six series.
ITV confirmed the commissioning of a third series on 3 November 2011. It entered production in early 2012, and began airing 16 September 2012 on ITV and aired in the United States beginning 6 January 2013.
August 1921. The Crawley family heads north, to Duneagle Castle in Scotland, the ancestral home of the MacClare family, to visit Lady Rose and her warring parents, Hugh ("Shrimpy") and Susan, the Marquess and Marchioness of Flintshire. Bates, Anna, Molesley, and O'Brien also make the trip. Michael Gregson, the man who hired Lady Edith on at the newspaper, tells her that he is going to be in Scotland as well. After Edith informs her family of this, Mary and Matthew disagree about Gregson's motives. Gregson later declares his feelings for Edith and hopes to find an ally in Matthew. Shrimpy tells Lord Grantham that he will have to sell his estate because he did not modernise it like Downton and now the money is all gone. Tom remains at Downton with one-year-old Sybbie. The staff looks forward to the approaching country fair, and Carson struggles to keep them concentrating on work.
February 1922. Six months on, a distraught Lady Mary mourns Matthew, and feels little motherly love for baby George, now six months old. Lord Grantham and Branson dispute the management of the estate and struggle to pay death duties. Miss O'Brien suddenly leaves to serve Lady Flintshire, on her way to India. Needing a maid in a hurry, Cora hires former maid Edna, who has trained as a lady's maid, on the strength of the reference which Tom persuaded Mrs Hughes to give her; Carson and Mrs Hughes see trouble ahead, and warn Tom to keep his distance.