Earlier this month, lovable jokester Maggie Smith got a hearty chuckle out of everyone involved in the production of Downton Abbey when she declared that she “can’t see how it could go on” much longer. Such droll comedy! Why, that almost made us spit out our tea and biscuits! But no, Smith’s handlers quickly stepped in a day later and assured Downton Abbey fans that she was just goofing around—a classic example of that wickedly dry British wit that some of us foreigners can’t quite grasp. In fact, the show might just go on forever!
Actually, though, it seems like Maggie Smith was telling the truth the first time, and everybody who said she was joking were the ones who were really joking. Curse the English and their maddeningly refined sense of humour! This comes from TVLine, which reports that Downton Abbey‘s upcoming sixth season might really be its last. Nothing has been made official yet, but the cast’s contracts apparently run out at the end of the sixth season, and most of them—like Maggie Smith—acknowledge that it’s time to move on.
Hopefully, another report won’t come out in a few days that reveals that all of this was also a joke. We can’t keep politely chuckling like this forever.