'Downton Abbey' Episode 5 Review - More Trauma For Mr Bates And Anna, While Alfred Thinks His Destiny Lies Elsewhere

REVIEW: 'Downton Abbey' - Sob Story Continues For Mr Bates And Anna

'Downton Abbey', and the estrangement between Anna and Mr Bates ploughed on - until Bates forced poor Mrs Hughes' hand, and we had some great, sad acting from both Joanna Froggatt and Brendan Coyle. In the midst of lots of 'Downton' soap these days, this was first class and moving, especially when Mr Bates showed his calm but ruthless side. I forgot he had it in him.

Mr and Mrs Bates - all out in the open, but by no means done with

Upstairs, by contrast, Lady Mary was going back into weary wooden plank mode, on the news that Gillingham had somehow recovered from their one stolen kiss and gone and got betrothed elsewhere. But fear not, because Mr Napier was "in Yorkshire on some government Royal economy business".

Writer Julian Fellowes did his best to bring a little lighter fare along too, which on telly these days obviously means one thing... cakes! The BBC might have 'BakeOff', so here we had Alfred's mucking in and trying to perfect his profiteroles, under the beady eye of Gordon Ramsay's Ritz Hotel real-French-accent-my-foot predecessor.

Everyone's after bettering themselves, including would-be Masterchef contestant Alfred

What with this, talk of a refrigerator AND the advent of the sewing machine, there were some serious changes going on downstairs - enough to curl the brow once again of an almost paralysed-in-the-past Earl Grantham. If Hugh Bonneville gets another Emmy Award nomination this series, I'll eat my hat.

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