The downstairs cast of "Downton Abbey" flew to the U.S. this weekend for a panel and tea for the TV Academy, which took place at Paramount Studios in Hollywood, Calif. In attendance were Joanne Froggatt (Anna Bates), Rob James-Collier (Thomas Barrow), Phyllis Logan (Mrs. Hughes), and Sophie McShera (Daisy Mason), as well as the series' creator/executive producer Julian Fellowes and executive producer Gareth Neame.

The cast and creator of "Downton Abbey" talked about what they love about their characters, when they discover what they are getting up to, Anna's devastating rape, Mrs. Hughes and Carson holding hands in the final scene of Season 4. The event ended with a sneak peek at Season 5 when wireless radio comes to Downton Abbey and the king makes a speech.

What is the favorite thing about your character, and the thing that bothers you?

Sophie McShera:  I like her innocence and her optimism no matter what she's faced with, whether it's a footman who is gay and he is never going to fancy her back, or… She gets on with it, which is admirable. What gets on my nerves about her? She can be a bit of a dip some times, especially when it comes to fancying boys.

Rob James-Collier: I love the fact that he always says what he thinks and he challenges the system. He's quite independent in his thought. He is one who questions the class system and the fact that he serves these people. I think, deep down,  he wants to be free of the system, which we saw when he tried to sell goods on the black market.

So he's a bit of risk taker and a trailblazer in that respect. As for the other thing, á la Daisy, he is really bad when it comes to picking men.  He's got to the point now where he will kiss men when they are asleep just to get a bit of action, so I feel sorry for him in that way because he always misreads the signals, just like myself in life (he jokes).

Joanne Froggatt: My favorite thing about Anna is probably just that she is such a good soul. She is the type of person you would want as your best friend. She would always be in your corner. She is a really good person. My least favorite thing about Anna is her wardrobe, and the nice brown hat I have to wear from time-to-time. That is my least favorite thing.

Phyllis Logan: I like Mrs. Hughes' humanity. She's kind but with a hard edge to it, which I don't quite like because she can be a bit too harsh, but I think she is mellowing a little as she gets older, which we all do, maybe. I think she is a good egg, all around, and reliable and decent and has proper moral values.

How much of what is happening with the characters is the cast told ahead of time, or do you have to wait for the script?

Rob: Until we are given the script. I think because there are so many characters, if they sat down with us all, they wouldn't have time to film it.

Julian Fellowes : We have a very basic rule that we tell actors what they would know. For example, if someone has a terrible past, we tell the actor what that past is. It wouldn't be realistic for them not to know their own past. If Brendan Coyle (Mr. Bates) wants to know whether or not Bates did it, we tell him that, because he would know it. But we don't tell them what is happening next, because none of us know what is happening next.

So what was your reaction, Joanne, when you read that Anna was going to be sexually assaulted while there was a big party going on upstairs?

Joanne: In this instance, I had an inkling that there was something big. Because it is, obviously, such a sensitive story, I think Gareth felt bad if they didn't tell me and me just reading it. They didn't tell me what it was, he just said, "There's a big thing happening." I was totally surprised. I wasn't expecting that at all. Straightaway, I just thought about how I was going to do it and research it, so it is a mix of the enormity of doing a story like that and wanting to get it right. You straight away go into that headspace of how you are going to play it. You very quickly move on from the shock of it.

Julian: The thing about Anna's rape is that at that time, there wasn't such a thing as an innocent party. If you were involved in anything, it besmirched you. That was the massive injustice. In my own family, my grandfather's cousin was Oscar Wilde's wife -- Constance Lloyd as she was born. They had been very, very close. She and my gran had grown up together, and the moment the scandal happened, they dropped her and there was an iron door. It didn't matter. None of it was her fault. For the rest of her life, which was short, she just trailed around spas in Europe, dining with strangers. It was a very ruthless world. In addition, Anna has the extra thing of knowing she is married to Bates, who is this unexploded bomb. We don't even know what he is capable of, but she is quite sincere when she says, "If he knew, he would kill the man who did it, and then, he'd be hang." So she has that extra reason for keeping silent. The thing to remember about the rape story is that it was important to make clear that she had done nothing at all to bring it about.

One of the loveliest things about this season was the last scene with Carson (Jim Carter) and Mrs. Hughes at the beach. Phyllis, did you have an idea in the episodes leading up to that something would happen?

Phyllis:  No. I just read it and thought, "That's nice. That's sweet." But everybody is reading things into it. I didn't think there was any pointers during the season. They are like an old-married couple anyway. It is the usual thing where they have their disagreements, but then they sit and have the nice cup of tea, or a small sherry, and sit and discuss the day's matters of the house. It is not a straight-forward relationship.

Rob, it looked as if Thomas was going to have a new partner in crime with Baxter (Raquel Cassidy), but things changed as that went along. What was that like?

Rob:  Mrs. O'Brien (Siobhan Finneran) had gone, so he needed eyes and ears on the upper corridor of Downton, so he pulled in someone from his past who he had a hold over. She was supposed to be the new O'Brien and report back to him all the gossip and scandal, so he could use it for his own ends. Along the way, with her own guilt, she starts to resist. We see that play out in [Season 5] what that hold is he has over her. We see her resist Barrow and pull Molesley (Kevin Doyle) along for the ride. He is her knight in shining armor. He comes along and strengths her, and the two go against Barrow. We see that manifest itself [next season] and play out, and it is pretty good.

There are a few scenes where Molesley says something and Barrow does a double take because this guy had skulked around the shadows of Downton. All of a sudden, he has grown a pair of the proverbials.  It is amazing what love can do to a man. It is lovely to see that relationship developing between the two of them, but for Thomas, he is outraged. We will see if we can counteract them.