The fifth season of Mad Men will debut in the UK just two days after its US premiere.

The AMC drama – which stars Jon Hamm and Christina Hendricks – will air on Sky Atlantic from March 27.

The new run will begin with two-hour premiere ‘A Little Kiss’, penned by series creator Matthew Weiner.

“There’s a time jump,” said Weiner. “There are some new people. Changes have happened off screen, and the audience will have to catch up with that. Even though Don (Hamm) ended up making this overture to Megan (Jessica Paré), and the audience felt sort of peculiar about it, so did the people in the office. That’s something that we play on.”

Weiner previously hinted that future episodes will include “a feeling of being in the midst of change”.

“There’s this sensation, which I think people have right now… there is just so much change going on,” the showrunner explained. “I don’t know if anybody else identifies with that, but that’s a big part of the season. Just trying to hold on.”

Following the addition of Sky Atlantic to Sky Go this week, customers will also be able to watch the new Mad Men episodes on an iPad and selected smartphones.

Jon Hamm will direct the third episode of the new season, while his co-star John Slatterywill also direct several instalments.

Mad Men returns to the UK on Tuesday, March 27 at 9pm on Sky Atlantic.

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The 36-year-old reveals that she’s not at all like feisty character Joan from the hit show about a Sixties ad agency in New York.

“All the mannerisms, the way that I become Joan – my voice changes a little bit, the walk changes a little bit and the way I use my handshake changes a little bit so it just happens when I go to work,” she says.

“I’m not like that at home. I get asked so much about the walk but it’s not me.”

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“You know, I always go back to Season 1, and I think it must be because it was all so new and fresh. There are so many wonderful episodes, but one of my favorite Joan episodes would be ‘Babylon‘ in Season 1, which has a lot of the relationship with Roger and he gives her the birdcage. And I really like the image of the girls putting on the lipstick and the guys on the opposite side … I remember getting that script and saying, ‘Oh, I can’t wait to do this!’ and I still feel that energy when I see that episode.”

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[003] Public Appearances > 2012 > January 14: TCA Winter Press Tour – Cocktail Reception

Dapper Don Draper seemed unfazed by the flash bulbs popping mere inches away from his face while, a heartbeat away, Peggy Olson, resplendent in an ankle-length silver cocktail dress, smiled a smile so bright it lit up everyone around her.

All around, ice clinked in glasses in the stiff chill of a January evening in Southern California. Betty Draper appeared briefly, a thin smile flashing across her face, and then she left just as quickly. Nearby, Roger Sterling and Joan Harris held court, surrounded by eager listeners. The sound of civilized conversation swirled against a backdrop of mojitos and rum, and for a moment there, it was possible to imagine one had stepped back in time, to Hollywood’s classic age when Andy Williams serenaded listeners on AM radio with Can’t Get Used to Losing You, Bobby Darin sang You’re the Reason I’m Living and Eydie Gorme chose to Blame It on the Bossa Nova.

Except of course that this was 2012, not 1963, and that was not Don Draper but rather Jon Hamm, the man who plays Draper on TV in Mad Men. A small banner unfurled across the Viennese Terrace of Pasadena’s Langham Huntington Hotel proclaimed “Envy is back March 25,” with the “envy” and “March” in orange and “back” and “25” in black. Just feet away from Hamm, Elisabeth Moss could not stop smiling: The 29-year-old Emmy nominee was like a teenager again, her voice bubbling over in a frenzy of words while, nearby, John Slattery (who plays Roger) and Christina Hendricks (who plays Joan) held court with a kind of old-world sophistication.

Matthew “Matt” Weiner, Mad Men’s creator, executive producer and head writer, has a reputation for being a controlling and stern taskmaster but on this night he was visibly relaxed — humble even — as he worked the crowd, sparing time for a visiting reporter from Canada.

“I never thought we’d go past the pilot,” Weiner said, in a moment of quiet reflection. “The idea that we’re finishing season five in 48 hours is just . . . it blows my mind. It blows my mind that people know what it is. So, for me, I just want to keep it entertaining, keep it fresh. We’re all pushing ourselves. These incredible actors. I’ve watched this little girl grow up. I’ve watched a lot of my cast grow up. I was bald when I met them, and I’m still bald now, so nothing happened to me — but that’s really where it is. I feel blessed.”

Mad Men has had a strange run at the Emmys — a record-tying haul for outstanding drama series, countless Emmys for writing and directing, and not a single Emmy for a cast of actors the Screen Actors Guild Awards named the best drama series ensemble in television two years in a row. In all, Mad Men has won 15 Emmys — but not a single trophy yet for its actors. Weiner himself has won nine Emmys, dating back to his years as a supervising writer, producer and director on The Sopranos.

“It’s a mystery to me,” Weiner told Postmedia News. “It always seems to be a case of special circumstances. Every year. It is an honour to be nominated. Perhaps they’ll be given awards 25 years from now, when Jon Hamm guest stars on Law & Order: Special Spaceship Unit or whatever. Everyone knows they’re great actors, or they wouldn’t be included in the nominations. But I hear it every time: It’s the special circumstances.”

Weiner glanced toward Moss, enjoying herself in the chilly night and doubled over at a quipster’s offhand remark, and said it was the one thing that weighed on him — this idea that Moss, Hamm, Jones, Hendricks and Slattery have yet to enjoy their solo moment in the Emmy spotlight.

“It is hard for me,” Weiner said, quietly. “Because you are literally talking about people I have had a relationship with, not just creatively but personally, as family. I will go on record as saying I don’t think anybody else’s kids are better looking than my kids. It’s my family; I’m allowed to say that.

“I do think they’ll be recognized eventually. I really do.”

For now, Weiner said, Mad Men has its eyes clearly focused on the future. The new season dawns March 25 on AMC, a new rival to HBO as the home of television’s most influential, trenchant dramas.

Nearby, Hamm leaned back in the shadows, perfectly dapper in a neatly tailored suit and dark tie, and admitted being anxious about the season to come — though he masked his anxiety well. This season’s episodes have already been filmed.

“It’s strange,” Hamm said. “The first four seasons, our show always premiered while we were shooting. We always had instant feedback, this little boost where it comes out and people are excited about it. This is not that. It felt very disjointed, like we were making it, making it, making it . . . but no one was seeing it (and) no one was talking about it. We had to say to ourselves, just make it and live with the fact that it’ll be another month before anybody sees it.”

Now that the premiere is within sight, Hamm is both anxious and relieved. He wants the audience to embrace it, again, but like a bottle of aged scotch, he won’t know until people have had a chance to taste it.

Just steps away, Moss glowed in the California night, radiant, her laughter non-stop.

“Peggy’s growing up, getting older,” Moss said, of her character’s dawning maturity. “She’s becoming more competent at what she does — you’ve seen that — and more proud of the person she’s becoming. I don’t know if I expected that to happen. But I’m really comfortable with that. I’ve had more fun playing her this season than probably any other season.”

Later, much later, as the bar locked away the Disaronno Originale and Sandeman Vinho do Porto, Moss and Hamm joined a group of friends alone on the terrace. Much of the night’s crowd had moved on to the next event. There was a sudden snap in the cold January California night, but they didn’t seem to mind. A strange quiet settled over the palm trees and swimming pool below. A number of hangers-on lit up cigarettes, smoking in the night — very Mad Men-esque. Slattery wandered over with a relaxed, laid-back vibe and Moss beamed, delighted to see him. Quietly, the group hugged, and they all laughed.

In that moment, nothing else mattered.

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[069] Mad Men > Season Two > Screencaps > 2×06 – “Maidenform”
[115] Mad Men > Season Two > Screencaps > 2×07 – “The Gold Violin”
[276] Mad Men > Season Two > Screencaps > 2×08 – “A Night to Remember”
[058] Mad Men > Season Two > Screencaps > 2×09 – “Six Month Leave”

Mad Men‘s famously spoiler-averse creator is breaking his silence about the plot of the show’s long-delayed fifth season.

“A couple of [themes] have emerged as we have gone on, one of them [being] ‘It’s every man for himself,’” Matthew Weiner said at a cocktail reception held Saturday at the Television Critics Association’s winter press tour. “There’s a line in the third episode where somebody says, ‘When is everything going to get back to normal?’

“There’s a feeling of being in the midst of change,” Weiner added. “I love that feeling of, ‘Right when I think I’m on top of something, right when I think that I have some wisdom from life experience, you just sort of feel things slip away.’ And there’s this sensation, which I think people have right now — I know I do — [that] there is just so much change going on. I write from what I’m feeling, and I have this feeling right now of like, ‘Enough already! Let’s just get our feet on the ground and go back to the way it was.’ I don’t know if anybody else identifies with that, but that’s a big part of the season. Just trying to hold on.”

Weiner also revealed that the two-hour opener, airing Sunday, March 25, is not two individual installments sandwiched together but rather one super-sized episode. “As I started writing [the premiere], it started spreading and spreading and spreading…,” he said. “I was like, ‘There is too much story. I could either cut this thing down, or I think I have a Mad Men movie here.’ I had a great team helping me develop this story and we just sort of went for it. And the network was excited. I was like, ‘We’ve been gone for so long, let’s give [fans] a big Mad Men movie to start the season.”

One detail Weiner refused to part with was how how much time had lapsed between seasons. “I can’t tell you when it picks up,” he said. “You’ll have to watch.”

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The PaleyFest’s annual TV series panels kick off March 2 at the Saban Theatre in Beverly Hills with FX’s American Horror Story. Highlights include a Mad Men session on March 13, just more than a week before the AMC series returns for the start of its long-in-the-works Season 5.

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Get your DVRs ready: Jon Hamm has confirmed that Mad Men will return on March 25! The AMC drama has been on hiatus since the Summer of 2010, but now Season 5 is just mere months away.

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