Dame Maggie Smith stars as the Dowager Countess of Grantham in "Downton Abbey" returning to "Masterpiece Classic" on PBS in January 2013.
Carnival Film & Television Limited 2011 for Masterpiece
Rebecca Eaton, executive producer of "Masterpiece Classic" spilled secrets about the third season of "Downton Abbey" this week.
"Matthew and Mary do get married," she told the Orlando Sentinel at a party for central Florida’s new PBS station, WUCF-TV,” according to orlandosentinel.com.
In the third "Downton" season, Cora’s (Elizabeth McGovern) mother, Martha Levinson played by Oscar-winner Shirley MacLaine, is coming to England. Cora's American family has wealth – something the aristocratic Crawley family needs. Oscar-winner Dame Maggie Smith plays the matriarchal head of the family, the Dowager Countess of Grantham.
"There are some wonderful scenes between Maggie (Smith) and Shirley MacLaine - Shirley MacLaine being ditsy as ever," Eaton reportedly told the newspaper. "And Maggie barely restraining her sneer in having to deal with this American. Maggie Smith is a handful, it's true. She's very difficult. She knows her worth and she's tricky on the set, but she delivers when the time comes. ...
"Somebody will be born, and somebody will die - somebody pretty key in the cast, unfortunately, not going to make it. It's the 1920s now," she said of the series which is in production in England.
"Downton Abbey" was such a huge hit in the United States in January 2011 that it was renewed for a second season before it finished its first. The next season aired in January 2012 to the highest ratings in "Masterpiece" history on American public television. The third season is expected to return to PBS in January 2013.
Eaton told the newspaper that she originally declined to have "Masterpiece" co-produce the British period drama because she didn't think American viewers would be interested in another "Upstairs Downstairs."
"Thankfully, no one else in this country snapped it up," Eaton said in the article.
"Then I heard that Maggie Smith had been cast to be in it, and I thought, 'We have to do it.' Because she, like Judi Dench, like Eileen Atkins — there are a few British actors, if they're in, I want it because I just think they're going to be good.
"... Nobody had any idea it would take off the way it did," Eaton said.
The period drama follows the lives and loves of the Crawley family and those who work for them in the manor known as Downton Abbey.
Cast members talk about their hopes for season three of "Downton Abbey":
Watch Downton Abbey: Hopes for the Roaring Twenties on PBS. See more from Masterpiece.
