Downton Abbey, series four, episode six, ITV, review In Downton Abbey there was a lot going on. There are only two episodes of this series left after this, and there was a definite feeling of things being put in place for the finale. Early on, the Earl of Grantham (Hugh Bonneville) opened a letter and announced that Uncle Harold in America, had got himself into "a proper fix" over oil leases. This sudden shoehorning in of a plotline that is quite clearly going to have massive reprecussions was as conspicuous as a hippopotamus in the breakfast room. Later in the episode, two other truly shocking pieces of news were dealt with with a rather impressive lightness of touch - although with a sure sense of earthquakes to come. The first was that Lady Edith (Laura Carmichael) discovered that she was pregnant. Her lover, Michael Gregson, has vanished into thin air, as Edith's admirers are wont to do. She's fearing he's kidnapped or dead, we're fearing she's merely jilted. Still, the point is, a daughter of the Earl pregnant out of wedlock is a calamity guaranteed to shake the Abbey to its foundations. Brace yourselves. The other shocker, predictable though it was, was slipped in at the end: a noisy kiss in the shadows between Lady Rose (Lily James) and the black singer Jack Ross (Gary Carr). Lady Mary (Michelle Dockery) saw them, and with one arch of her eyebrow we knew that was merely the beginning, not the end of it. All that said, with a lot of diffuse plotlines, the episode lacked pace. This series of Downton started well enough but recent instalments have started to slow down. It feels as if the attack on Anna in episode three was the main event and only now does writer Julian Fellowes feel he is obliged to start teeing up other serious plot developments. Although, to be fair, in the duller episodes he may also simply be trying to please that body of his audience who found the rape a dreadful EastEnders-style eruption into a drama they like to watch chiefly for its ability to comfort them over a Sunday evening cup of cocoa. I predict there will be little comfort forthcoming as Downton reaches its conclusion. But true romance may also get a look in: Mary is getting on just as badly with new character Charles Blake (the inarguably handsome Julian Ovenden) as she did with Matthew when she first met him. It has to be love.