Downton Abbey: A New Generation. PG, 125 minutes. Three stars
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It might be a crass comparison, but Downton Abbey without the imperious, tart-tongued Violet (Dame Maggie Smith) would be a bit like Happy Days was without Richie Cunningham. The show could still go on, but there would be something essential missing.
At the end of the previous Downton Abbey film, spun off from the TV series, it looked as though Violet Crawley, Dowager Countess of Grantham - to give the lady her full title - was not long for this world.
Perhaps writer Julian Followes was just teasing us, or perhaps Smith was playing hard to get, but whatever the case, Violet is back, and an episode from her past provides one of the two major storylines in this sequel.
The other is essentially paying somewhat unlikely homage to the classic Hollywood musical Singin' in the Rain.
It's period porn for fans of the series and the previous movie with all the expected ingredients: lush scenery, beautiful costumes, multiple upstairs/downstairs storylines and amusing lines and situations.
For me, a non-fan who had quite liked the previous movie and heard about the show, it was a fun watch at Dendy.
For the initiated, the film will no doubt be more than just a pleasant diversion: it will be another opportunity, possibly the last, to enjoy characters they've come to know and love.
The films is set in or just after 1928 and things are still chugging along at the Abbey. Violet receives word that she has been left a villa in the south of France by a man she knew long ago, briefly. Who would have thought the old girl might have had such a racy past? Ooh la la!
The man's widow (Nathalie Bay) is contesting the will so Violet sends a party to investigate, including son Robert (Hugh Bonneville), his wife Cora (Elizabeth McGovern), granddaughter Edith (Laura Carmichael) and back-in-action butler Carson (Jim Carter).
It's an awkward situation, especially for Robert, who is confronted by a rather unsettling possibility.
Meanwhile, back home the rest of the household are dealing with the intrusion of a film crew shooting a silent feature film at the Abbey.
Despite the horror of having to put with people from the world of "kinema" (as one family member disdainfully pronounces it), their home's leaky roof needs repairing, so Mary (Michelle Dockery) grits her teeth and takes the money.
This might be seen as an incursion of the real world into the rarefied world of the Abbey - where everything and everyone is in its, his, or her place - and a sign that all is not as secure as it seems, but it's also a source of fine, if somewhat predictable, fun.
Many of the staff are keen for the arrival of movie stars Myrna Dalgleish (Laura Haddock) and Guy Dexter (Dominic West) but while he's charming, she is a shock: a crass egomaniac with a vulgar accent that might prove to be a challenge for Henry Higgins.
The film begins with a wedding and ends with a funeral and we can only wonder if this "cycle of life" touch finally means the end of the saga.
A lot of loose ends are tied up and although one significant character is missing, his absence is accounted for tidily.
Given that the film takes place not long before the Great Depression, when even things at Downton Abbey might have to change, it seems like a fitting farewell - even, in places, a rather touching one.