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Socialism has come to Downton Abbey.

The year is 1924 and Ramsey McDonald has just been elected as Prime Minister. With the Labor Partys antipathy toward the cosseted likes of the Crawley family, Sir Robert (Hugh Bonneville) is having the upper-crust equivalent of a meltdown in Sunday nights fifth-season premiere of the Julian Fellowes drama.

Wearing a zip-up sweatshirt and corduroys, a very jolly Bonneville sits down at the Lambs Club in midtown to discuss the momentous changes that await the Crawleys, as the world clock brings them closer to the Great Depression of 1929.

There was a real concern that a socialist government would tax the gentry to extinction, says Bonneville. Or be as radical as what had happened in Russia four years previously, in terms of the expulsion of that strata of society. Robert is absolutely obsessed that the estate is about to be ravaged.

The 51-year-old actor is visiting New York with select members of the Downton cast, attending screenings for select fans and politely answering their questions. The phenomenon of the show the most popular in PBS history has transformed his life.

He is now offered parts in movies starring George Clooney (The Monuments Men) and marketed by the Weinstein Company (the forthcoming family film Paddington).

And he is not even remotely tempted to tempt fate, even if means asking to see advance scripts.

I had a word with [executive producer] Gareth [Neame] yesterday that Julian had delivered the first two episodes for the new season and theyre in really good health, he says. I dont even want to quiz. I probably should be analyzing the character arc and fighting for more or less. But I just love diving in and seeing whats going to happen.

Whats going to happen is that Sir Robert is going to clash with the nearest socialist in town, a firebrand schoolteacher named Sarah Bunting (Daisy Lewis), a friend of his son-in-law, Tom (Allen Leech). An invitation is arranged for her attend a rather important family event.

And they dont waste much time getting into an argument about politics.

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