ITV announces 5th series of 'Downton Abbey'

Sunday, November 10, 2013

photo This undated publicity photo provided by PBS shows, from left, Elizabeth McGovern as Lady Grantham, Hugh Bonneville as Lord Grantham, Dan Stevens as Matthew Crawley, Penelope Wilton as Isobel Crawley, Allen Leech as Tom Branson, Jim Carter as Mr. Carson, and Phyllis Logan as Mrs. Hughes from the TV series, "Downton Abbey."

LONDON - Fans of "Downton Abbey," rejoice! There will be another season yet of period romance and upstairs-downstairs drama at the country estate.

ITV announced Sunday that it has commissioned a fifth season of the popular television show, a costume drama about a British aristocratic family and their servants in the 1910s and 1920s. As before, the new series will be written by Julian Fellowes.

ITV said the fourth season's holiday special, shown in Britain on Christmas Day, will feature Paul Giamatti, who joins the cast as Cora's playboy brother, Harold, and Shirley MacLaine, who will reprise her role as Cora's mother Martha Levinson.

The show, which debuted in 2010, has won millions of fans in Britain, the U.S. and beyond.