Isobel Merton

Isobel arrives at Downton as the outsider by class and temperament: a doctor's widow, plainly spoken, freshly transplanted from Manchester with her son Matthew, the new heir. She has no patience for aristocratic ceremony, believes firmly in usefulness and modern ideas, and says so, whatever the dowager countess thinks of it.

Penelope Wilton gives Isobel a dry, unshowy conviction that makes her the show's moral counterweight rather than its scold. Her sparring with Violet is the series' best double act — two intelligent women who disagree about everything and, however slowly, come to respect each other for it.