Downton Abbey’s two-hour Christmas special is set to air at 9pm on ITV, straight after Coronation Street, but you’re not limited to just watching it then, or on your TV in fact.
This year’s festive episode is set over Christmas 1924 and the family will head to Brancaster Castle in Northumberland, which Rose’s father-in-law, Lord Sinderby, has rented.
The men will head out on a Christmas shoot, as was the tradition for the middle classes back then (although the Royal family still partakes in this at Sandringham), but things don’t quite go according to plan.
Although the two families attempt to bring festive cheer, a rift between the two sides and an unhappy Lord Sinderby’s butler decides to save his anger for the special day.
Meanwhile, Lady Mary may have a new suitor on the scene, and while the servants hold the fort back at Downton Abbey itself, there’s yet more scandal.
Watch on TV
The Downton Abbey Christmas special will air at 9pm on ITV 1, available in both standard definition and HD. You can watch the channel on Freeview, Sky, BT (Vision and YouView), Virgin Media, TalkTalk, Roku and Now TV and any other TV service you may have, provided it supports ITV as a channel.
Stream live through ITV Player
If you’re ousted from the main TV in your household, you can opt to stream the channel live on your computer or using the ITV Player app on your smartphone or tablet. The ITV Player is also available on the Xbox or on your computer, provided you’re not using Google Chrome as your browser and have Silverlight installed.
Catch-up with ITV Player
If you’ve found something else to watch at 9pm, you can always catch-up with Downton Abbey’s Christmas special on the ITV Player app. It’s available on PC and Mac, Android and iOS smartphones and tablets, PS3, Freesat, YouView (BT and TalkTalk TV) and Samsung smart TVs at the moment
Downton Abbey’s Christmas special should become available on ITV Player straight after it’s shown, but the company does say it could take up to two hours after broadcast to appear.
You can find the ITV Player via the On Demand section of your TV service.
Box set
Whether you want to catch up with previous episodes of Downton Abbey or are happy to wait until the Christmas special hits box sets, you can do so via Amazon Prime, although we don’t know yet when the Christmas Special will be available to watch – we presume it’ll be released as part of the next series of the hit TV drama, which is due to air later next year.
If you’re a massive fan of Downton and you don’t get the box set in your Christmas stocking, there’s always the option to buy it in the Christmas sales to watch at your leisure.
Unfortunately, Downton box sets have been taken off Netflix, so you won’t be able to watch the series using your subscription.
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