Never mind the Russian aristocrat’s passion for Violet, or Isobel accepting Lord Merton’s proposal, or Edith doing a runner with her child, or even Mary getting a new haircut: Isis is listless. Did Mr. Bricker take revenge on Robert in the best way he knew, before he left? Or is a dead squirrel to blame?

Reminds me of Yes, Minister, when the Minister is told that a number of important files were lost in a flood, years earlier:

What a great RR; surely one of the best ever. Like a lot of people here, I've loved Michael Ironside since V, and I've always had the idea he was - despite his persona in so m any movies - a really intelligent, thoughtful guy with a great sense of humour. So glad to have that idea confirmed!

Rosamund to her mother: 'I'm afraid you've read somewhere that rudeness in old age is amusing. And that's quite wrong.'

I really, really want to see Essie Davis get great film roles - wherever they may be - based on her performance in The Babadook. She was nothing short of brilliant, carrying the film in a hugely demanding role.

With or without a large brown dog? 'And I'd have got away with it, too, if it wasn't for you pesky servants!'

Just ask Mr Pamuk. Oh, sorry, we can't.

Me too. I do think that Isobel would be happy with Dr Clarkson as well, but he proposed to her back in - series 3, I want to say? and she turned him down. And sad as I am to say it, I don't think Fellowes has the skill to write a scenario in which Isobel realises she was wrong to turn Clarkson down and that he is, in…

Well, he was told that as First Footman he had to do it, but complained so much that Bates just went ahead.

I really enjoy Golden Age mysteries, but servants are pretty much walk-on characters (with the odd exception, like Mr and Mrs Rogers in Christie's And Then There Were None). I'd love to see a mystery series set between the wars in which it's a particularly clever servant of a titled master who solves crimes, while…

When the series eventually ends (and apparently there have been strong hints that the upcoming sixth season will be the last), then I expect Daisy will finally - I was about to say 'buy the farm', but that's not what I mean, and it's hers anyway as soon as she wants it.

I think Thomas is trying some quack 'Cure yourself of the love that dares not speak its name' remedy, in an attempt to fit in.

Did Bates kill Michael Gregson, when he nipped over to Berlin on a weekend railway pass? Hmm; better check to see if Bates has any brown shirts in his wardrobe.

I think it was Jack the Ripper.

Spinoff shows from Downton Abbey I'd love to see:

Yes, I went from giving Miss B the benefit of the doubt ('She was goaded into that by Robert!') to just wishing she would STFU already, because every time she opened her mouth she was even worse than before. Of course, you have to give the writer the blame for making her such a one-note character; if Fellowes had been…

In the study, with a candlestick. Oops, wrong movie. . . .

"Am I a bad lover? Is that what you’re trying to tell me?”

'“I just wish we could all forget about Mr. Green.” You and me both, Anna.'

Maybe Molesley will propose to her, and she'll find happiness - at last - with a man who's not a double murderer (and forger).