Mum’s the word for ‘Downton Abbey’ stars

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Matthew (Dan Stevens) and Mary (Michelle Dockery) take up the cause for England as World War I rages in season two of “Downton Abbey.”

Updated: January 17, 2012 4:07PM

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. — It’s an irony that acid-tongued Violet, a k a the dowager countess of Grantham, would savor: One of TV’s hottest romances is playing out among English nobility, with nary a cell phone or laptop in sight and, most shockingly, on PBS.

As “Downton Abbey” returns for its second season (8 p.m. Sundays, WTTW-Channel 11), the romance of Matthew and Lady Mary resumes its rocky course as World War I scars Europe. There’s also fallout from the war within Mary’s family digs, the stately mansion that gives the series its name.

Consider it “Yorkshire 90210,” but with writer-creator Julian Fellowes’ witty dialogue and rich characters, stunning period costumes and (generally) chaste love affairs.

Michelle Dockery and Dan Stevens, who play the star-crossed young couple, said they are both delighted and surprised at the series’ international success.

“It’s huge in Australia,” Dockery said.

“And Spain,” added Stevens. The 11 Emmy nominations and six trophies, including best miniseries, earned by the period drama’s first season were a thrill: “For a show like this to get that kind of attention over here, it’s great,” he said.

Success has created a burden of secrecy regarding the fate of young lawyer Matthew, unexpected heir to Downton under England’s early 20th-century inheritance laws, and Mary, who could keep her family’s hold on the estate by marrying him.

In season one, the willful Mary had rejected, accepted and rejected again smitten Matthew, and then she was rebuffed. Now both have turned elsewhere for love, while war and other historical events toy with their fates.

Dockery, 30, and Stevens, 29, project such on-screen chemistry that people who know better confuse fiction with fact.

“There was a great picture of me and Dan at the Derby (the famed horse race) and even my boyfriend said, ‘It kind of looks like you’re together,’” Dockery said, smiling.

Fans are desperate to know what happens next.

“Not least my own wife,” said Stevens, interviewed on a California visit before season two aired in the U.K. “She’s forever trying to find the scripts and is desperate to read them.”

Spouse Susie Hariet now knows the story so far, with the season just concluded in Britain (a third season has been announced). But U.S. viewers who avoid spoilers online must wait for the drama to unfold over seven weeks, through Feb. 19.

Downton’s younger generation matures quickly during wartime, with Matthew tested as an army officer slogging through trench warfare in France.

“It was a real delicious challenge to take on, such a far cry from the first season for me. I was caked in mud for half the series,” Stevens said. “For a lot of us, it feels like a graduation in terms of what was asked of us, emotionally, and the intensity of the story lines. The stakes were higher and everything is notched up one or two pegs.”

Dockery said she and Stevens got the chance to switch up their acting game.

“Matthew becomes more harder as a result of what he’s seen and been through, and Mary’s much softer. It’s really interesting playing that,” she said.

AP