(Spoiler alert for Season 2 Episode 4/5)

Nothing is perfect  it seems – not even Downton Abbey.  Last night  my daughter and I cosied up on the sofa, hankies clasped in our fists, to watch Episode 5 (4 for US viewers) of Season 2  on PBS after a week of anticipation. What a disappointment.  It wasn’t that nothing happened – Cousin Matthew and William suffered life-threatening injuries in France, the father of Ethel’s child turned up at Downton, Bates’ wife threatened scandal again and Lady Mary confessed all to her fiance, Sir Richard Carlisle.  The problem?  No time to inhale the intoxicating effects of the storyline.

Our finger-nails had not reached our teeth before the stretchers bore Cousin Matthew and William into Downton, their fates explained.  Given more build up I might have cried at William’s slow death and Cousin Matthew becoming a cripple.  Or thumped the sofa as the father of Ethel’s baby abandoned her to poverty, or gasped when Lady Mary entrusted Sir Richard with so dark a secret etc.   As it was, I was left underwhelmed.

So let’s hope life slows down at Downton Abbey by next Sunday night and justifies the purchase of my hankies.