‘Downton Abbey’ reveals new season photo with a pesky water bottle

On Thursday, PBS released the first photos from the fifth season of “Downton Abbey,” the period drama that’s set to return to American airwaves in early 2015. Unfortunately, along with the cheers from fans, there’s a fair amount of snickering. All because of a misplaced water bottle.

In a shot featuring Lord Grantham (Hugh Bonneville) and his daughter Lady Edith (Laura Carmichael) posed in front of the fireplace at their ancestral home supposedly sometime in 1924, there’s a sneaky anachronism that somehow managed to slip everyone’s notice: a very 21st century water bottle.

If “Downton Abbey” were run by another writer, say Steven Moffat or Damon Lindelof, fans would be rushing to the Internet to pick the other items on the mantle apart, looking for further clues as to what other signs of time travel may be slipped into the new season. But this is a Julian Fellowes production, and time travel is as foreign to these characters as hot wings.

Shortly after the photo went viral on Thursday it was removed from the show’s Facebook page. But fans were already having a good laugh.

The new season promises more surprises, but American fans should be wary. The series will air in the UK in the fall before a Jan. 4 premiere in the United States.

Should we keep an eye out for a certain blue police box in future episodes?

Twitter: @patrickkevinday