Sex-mad snob Lady Mary sets sights on a dashing driver. Progress swept through English society but some things never change in Downton Abbey, by Jim Shelley

By Jim Shelley for MailOnline

Published: 16:17 EST, 11 October 2015 | Updated: 19:53 EST, 11 October 2015

Lady Mary Crawley has the reputation of being Downton Abbey's elegant English rose, tragic widow, and most stylishly-dressed pig farmer.

This is despite a sexual history that includes shagging a Turkish diplomat to death in series one and being blackmailed a few weeks ago over her dirty weekend in a Liverpool hotel with Lord 'Tony' Gillingham.

So perhaps Sunday's episode should have included the announcement: 'Warning! Contains scenes of sex-mad snob and man-eater Lady Mary on the loose again!'

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Sex-mad snob Lady Mary returns: Michelle Dockery's man-eating alter-ego came back to the fore in Sunday night's Downton Abbey

When the Dowager's ally Lady Shackleton turned up for the latest of the Crawleys' interminable debates about the local hospital with her nephew unexpectedly in tow, Downton devotees knew what was coming.

Inevitably, Henry Talbot was a dashing, darkly handsome, eligible, aristocrat/lady-killer and - as luck would have it - an old friend of Mary's.

'What?! Who is this man?!' harrumphed the Earl, rocked by the news they had an extra guest for dinner even though it happens every week.

'I don't know!' cried his wife. 'Lady Shackleton's sister's son.'

Fishing: 'I'm sorry if I look rather shabby,' Lady Mary told her date, knowing she looked anything but

Darkly handsome: Matthew Goode makes a welcome addition to the cast as motor racing driver Henry Talbot - an equally fast mover with the Ladies

Thanks Cora, for explaining what a 'nephew' is.

'What are his prospects?' demanded the Dowager about the daring motor racing driver. 'Mary needs more than a handsome smile and a hand on a gear stick,' stressed the Countess, possibly metaphorically.

Mary's opening gambit with Talbot confirmed what a strange, socially inept, creature she was – reacting to his passion for cars by gushing: 'people do such very odd things these days. I once met a man who spent all his time importing guinea pigs from Peru!'

It was a shame we hadn't seen this encounter actually IN Downton Abbey.

Predictably it wasn't long though before Mary was working her icy magic on him, deploying her favourite method of flirting: disdain.

The debate wages on: the Dowager was still consumed with her interminable to-do about the local hospital

'I couldn't be less interested in cars if I took a pill to achieve it,' she offered loftily.

This time she appeared to have met her match though.

'That's because you haven't been taught about them properly,' Talbot challenged, like a caddish Don Drapper or Roger Moore. 'Telephone me. We'll have lunch, or a drink. Or something…'

With Mary's track record, I think we all knew which one she would vote for.

It was hard to believe Downton creator/writer Julian Fellowes was seriously suggesting that, after her experiences with Tony Gillingham, Charles Blake, et al, Henry Talbot could be The One.

Mind you, with four episodes gone and only five remaining the final series of Downton Abbey could still go either way. On the one hand, Julian Fellowes has grown steadily more sentimental about saying goodbye to his characters, bestowing soppy storylines upon them like a lottery winner writing his will.

Cheers: Lady Cora celebrates the decision to give Mr Mason the chance of a lifetime looking after Lady Mary's magnificent porkers - as it were...

Carson and Mrs Hughes have got married and Anna is pregnant, having seemingly surmounted the problem of her 'cervical incompetence.' Most movingly of all (according to the violins accompanying it) Mr Mason has been given the chance to run Lady Mary's pig farm.

Having said this, there is some hope that Fellowes has been luring us into a false sense of security and is building up to a devastatingly dramatic finale.

Tom 'Bring Out The' Branson is taking up the life-threatening sport of motor-racing and there have been hints the Earl is suffering from a posh person's illness so serious he has already lamented: 'I can't drink port any more.'

Bates still looks frankly murderous every time he suspects Anna is outside his control and exerting her free will. And Thomas Barrow is becoming so bitterly disenchanted with his treatment as a servant, he may yet go on a killing spree of the Crawleys using the giant solid silver soup ladle or take out his sexual frustration by abducting Andy.

The American Way: Tom 'Bring Out The' Branson predicted 'the times they are a-changin' with astounding insight, almost as if Julian Fellowes knew what was going to happen

What's his next move? Thomas Barrow is becoming so bitterly disenchanted with his treatment as a servant, he may yet go on a killing spree of the Crawleys or take out his sexual frustration by abducting Andy

Anything is possible given the way the Downton crime wave has continued, despite the best efforts of Sergeant Willis.

Having dragged out the macabre case of Anna, Bates, and Mr Green for several series, recently even minor figures like Spratt and Miss Baxter have become embroiled in misdemeanours by people we have never actually seen. Downton is worse than Walford.

Mind you, anything is better than the staid debates over the future of the village hospital – Fellowes' principal symbol for The Changing Times sweeping 1920s Britain.

Tom Branson had seen the new, democratic, capitalism during his time in America.

'A working man can go all the way to the top,' he enthused.

'Which still isn't true here,' Lady Mary underlined.

'Not yet,' the former chauffeur and IRA firebrand conceded. 'But I've a sense it's going to change, and in the not-to-distant future' – an eerily accurate prophecy.

A changing world: None of the Crawleys recognised Gwen as one of their former maids when she came through the front door this time as their dinner guest - mostly because they never look at their servants' faces

And to be fair, the early signs were there. Lady Edith was looking for a female editor for her little magazine The Toff and this week the Crawleys' former housemaid Gwen came back to the Abbey (through the front entrance) to dine as a guest, having Made Something Of Herself.

Admittedly, this was only with the help of Lady Sybil who had liberated her by finding and securing Gwen a better job – something that inspired Cora to adopt a new motto for decisions in her life: 'What Would Sybil Do?'

Unlike the early series, it's become increasingly hard to see whose side Fellowes is on. He endorses the likes of Gwen, Daisy, and Molesley having Opportunities but obviously wants the great traditions of the aristocracy to be maintained and for them to have servants who will help them get dressed and make them five course banquets for lunch and dinner.

It wasn't clear whether Fellowes thought the Earl was making a thoughtful gesture or being appallingly idle when he told Barrow the family would be coming down to the servants' quarters to welcome back Mr and Mrs Carson and added 'please tell Mrs Patmore we can have a cold dinner if that will make it easier.' A real sacrifice…

At the same time, these days he has no qualms about exposing the frightful snobbery of his heroes and heroines.

The Dowager boasted that she hadn't descended to the kitchens for 20 years while Lady Mary sneered about the Carsons' honeymoon 'Surely we could have managed something a little better than Scarborough!' without actually bothering to do anything about it.

The Earl was disproportionately euphoric when Carson accepted his new bride could still be known as 'Mrs Hughes' rather than 'Mrs Carson.'

Expecting: Andy (left) had no inkling that Anna (right) was still pregnant, after Doctor Ryder had treated for her 'vaginal incompetence', helping her to avoid a miscarriage

'There is a God!' cheered Lady Rosamund, who doesn't even live at Downton.

None of the Crawleys recognised Gwen as one of their former maids.

'They don't look us in the face enough!' pointed out Daisy, outraged. 'You worked here for two years and we never spoke to you! We're the ones in the wrong!' admitted Lady Edith.

'I never had any higher education,' Gwen explained to the family.

'Who did?!' exclaimed Lady Mary as if she had suffered the same disadvantages. 'All we were taught was French, prejudice, and dance steps!'

After Thomas Barrow spitefully tried to humiliate Gwen by revealing her history in service, Mary confirmed how dumb she was and what a terrible judge of character, declaring: 'Thank you Barrow for reminding us of Mrs Harding's time here'.

Welcome back The Carsons: The Earl and Lady Cora were so pleased to have their best servants back to wait on them hand and foot and dress them in the mornings that they even designed to go below stairs

Later, having gone 'up' to London (from Yorkshire), Lady Mary made the most of Anna recovering from narrowly avoiding a miscarriage when Doctor Ryder made her vaginal less 'incompetent' by calling up Henry Talbot and going for dinner at the Royal Automobile Club (built in 1911 apparently).

'I'm sorry if I look rather shabby,' Mary sighed, knowing she looked nothing of the kind, fishing for compliments.

'You're anything but shabby,' Talbot obliged smoothly, before asking if she had any passions, as he did for cars. 'Horses perhaps?' he posited when he should have plumped for 'pigs' – or sex.

'I like my work. It's rather shocking isn't it?' she mused, which was true, given that she didn't really do any.

'I hope you're building up to make a pass before you're done,' Lady Mary purred, not mincing her words or wasting any more time.

'Probably,' her prey conceded. 'But will you accept?'

'No, but I will enjoy the process enormously,' Mary claimed.

Whether this can really be true though remains to be seen.

Progess: Lady Edith (left) was looking for a female editor for her little magazine The Toff - another side that England in the 1920s was changing

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