# Downton Abbey



## madzone (Sep 26, 2010)

Anyone watching? I'm loving it so far. Good Sunday night drama


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## stethoscope (Sep 26, 2010)

Poor Bates


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## stethoscope (Sep 26, 2010)

stephj said:


> Poor Bates


 
Oooh, that was a surprise right at the end.

Can't wait for the next part now


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## belboid (Sep 26, 2010)

knew there was no way Bates would go so quickly.

Whole thing was a bit _meh_, quite enjoyable but pretty much 'poshoes by numbers,' no stereotype left untouched.


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## lolo (Sep 27, 2010)

I didn’t mind it, Gosford Park was so good that I’m sure this will warm up as it goes on, how many parts is it?


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## London_Calling (Oct 13, 2010)

*Bump*

Fuck my old socks - Julian Fellowes might be as U75 as Disco Dave but he can plot like a Chilean miner can wave a flag: A+

This series is 7 1/2 hours of screen time in 7 episodes - presumably about 6 hours running time. Series 2 was announced yesterday - peak viewing is currently fantasy numbers for ITV drama (11.6 million). Pleased ITV have a major - quality based - success after all the the (often wasted) effort.

Real class.


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## London_Calling (Oct 13, 2010)

p.s. we call it 'Downham Abbey' around here, but you probably need to know SE London a bit for that to have you rolling in the aisles


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## Shirl (Oct 13, 2010)

I think it works well as typical 'no too taxing' and visually pleasing Sunday evening viewing and I'm enjoying it.

On Monday afternoon I watched Single Father on iplayer ( 2/10) and was very glad that I had stuck to Downton Abbey on Sunday evening.


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## gosub (Oct 13, 2010)

Moving to Scotland this weekend so won't be able to watch the end of it, pity quite enjoyed it. Must have really pissed BBC off though as they have a remake of Upstairs Downstairs at the edit stage


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## gaijingirl (Oct 13, 2010)

I love this - I love the costumes especially - I felt like I wish I had been born then (although only in TV fantasy land - not in real real real life!!)


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## vauxhallmum (Oct 13, 2010)

I reallllly hate Downton Abbey with it's pisspoor dialogue and half arsed plotlines, but it seems I'm alone


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## Ms T (Jan 4, 2011)

gaijingirl said:


> I love this - I love the costumes especially - I felt like I wish I had been born then (although only in TV fantasy land - not in real real real life!!)


 
The question is though, would you have been upstairs or downstairs?  I like to think I might have been Lady Sybil, but in reality more Daisy the kitchen maid.  

Anyway, caught up with this over the New Year weekend when ITV showed the whole lot in three days.  Have one episode to go and have thoroughly enjoyed it.


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## London_Calling (Jan 4, 2011)

£1 million an hour is big bollocks tv so credit to ITV for taking the risk, even if it was in a year the BBC turned against costume drama. At that price, I'm not even sure the BBC would have taken the risk had it been right for them.

Fellowes can shape a drama better than anyone else in this country and in Downham Abbey he does it in the last medium for him - the 'several hour' serial. Best dramatic screen/teleplay of the year. Back same time next year, I believe.


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## kyser_soze (Jan 4, 2011)

I have to say even tho this really isn't my cup of tea generally (even tho I have a mawkish soft spot for Merchant Ivory films), I thoroughly enjoyed this.


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## madzone (Jan 4, 2011)

London_Calling said:


> £1 million an hour is big bollocks tv so credit to ITV for taking the risk, even if it was in a year the BBC turned against costume drama. At that price, I'm not even sure the BBC would have taken the risk had it been right for them.
> 
> Fellowes can shape a drama better than anyone else in this country and in Downham Abbey he does it in the last medium for him - the 'several hour' serial. Best dramatic screen/teleplay of the year. Back same time next year, I believe.


 
The only thing that would have improved it for me would be to have Victoria Wood as the cook.


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## Pip (Jan 4, 2011)

I loved - actually LOVED - this so, so, so much. My God! IT WAS SO GOOD! Maggie Smith is the baddest bitch ever!


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## Yuwipi Woman (Jan 4, 2011)

I haven't seen it, but it will be broadcast on our PBS.  

I'm seriously offended that they thought they had to remove some parts of it so that an American audience wouldn't be confused by the plot.  How can removing part of the original in any way improve anyone's understanding of it?  I'm very well sick of being talked down to by media in general and television in particular.


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## pennimania (Jan 4, 2011)

So you're even getting it in the US 

in Scotland we aren't allowed to see it - I managed to see the last three episodes on Sky - I didn't realise it was being repeated.


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## Pip (Jan 4, 2011)

Yuwipi Woman said:


> I haven't seen it, but it will be broadcast on our PBS.
> 
> I'm seriously offended that they thought they had to remove some parts of it so that an American audience wouldn't be confused by the plot.  How can removing part of the original in any way improve anyone's understanding of it?  I'm very well sick of being talked down to by media in general and television in particular.


 
Pretty sure that's just a myth.


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## MrSki (Jan 4, 2011)

Yuwipi Woman said:


> I haven't seen it, but it will be broadcast on our PBS.
> 
> I'm seriously offended that they thought they had to remove some parts of it so that an American audience wouldn't be confused by the plot.  How can removing part of the original in any way improve anyone's understanding of it?  I'm very well sick of being talked down to by media in general and television in particular.



Remove bits? I thought they would introduce someone who could talk to themselves to explain the plot for the other side of the pond.


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## Yuwipi Woman (Jan 4, 2011)

MrSki said:


> Remove bits? I thought they would introduce someone who could talk to themselves to explain the plot for the other side of the pond.


 
Even more patronizing.


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## Mrs Magpie (Jan 4, 2011)

Pip said:


> Pretty sure that's just a myth.


Not according to Radio 4


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## MrSki (Jan 4, 2011)

Yuwipi Woman said:


> Even more patronizing.


 
Sorry but I don't understand how removing bits can make it easier to understand the plot. 

I did not mean to be patronising but it occurs in a lot of USA films.


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## Pip (Jan 4, 2011)

Your hallowed R4 done got duped http://tabloid-watch.blogspot.com/2011/01/mail-gets-it-wrong-on-us-broadcast-of.html


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## MrSki (Jan 4, 2011)

I always thought that it was made with the US market in mind having a septic as the mother.


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## Yuwipi Woman (Jan 4, 2011)

MrSki said:


> Sorry but I don't understand how removing bits can make it easier to understand the plot.
> 
> I did not mean to be patronising but it occurs in a lot of USA films.


 
I'm sorry, I'm not accusing you of being patronizing.  I'm accusing PBS.  

I don't see how removing part would make it easier to understand either.  I think what they're missng over at PBS is that the people who are likely to watch Masterpiece Theatre are anglophiles and are probably well able to "get" the plot.


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## Mrs Magpie (Jan 4, 2011)

Right, that's it. I am eschewing all broadcast media forthwith. Up with this I will not put.


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## Yuwipi Woman (Jan 4, 2011)

Mrs Magpie said:


> Right, that's it. I am eschewing all broadcast media forthwith. Up with this I will not put.


 
Can't believe anything you read, can you?


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## Pip (Jan 4, 2011)

Yuwipi Woman, my dear, my love, you do have to admit it's kind of funny that you're complaining about being patronised over a ridiculous tabloid article written for idiots and then failing to get jokes


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## Yuwipi Woman (Jan 4, 2011)

Pip said:


> Yuwipi Woman, my dear, my love, you do have to admit it's kind of funny that you're complaining about being patronised over a ridiculous tabloid article written for idiots and then failing to get jokes


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## Pip (Jan 4, 2011)

Ohhhh learn to laugh at yourself babes.


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## Yuwipi Woman (Jan 4, 2011)

Pip, honey, sweetie, babe, cupcake, pookie, snookie pie.... 

you're behaving like a bitch. 


BTW, it was reported by more than just the Mail.


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## Pip (Jan 4, 2011)

Bit of a sore point is it? Sowweeee 

It *is* funny, and *everyone* has to laugh at themselves sometimes. Wasn't trying to be a bitch - could do better than that for a start - but I dunno, maybe something got lost in translation.

(turns to camera)

I was sooo pissed when Yuwipi Woman didn't realise I was coming from a _good place_. I meeeaaan, talk about touchy.


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## London_Calling (Jan 5, 2011)

I'm forever baffled by the UK/USA thing; on the one hand the Mail-type myth has been popular in the UK for decades - those poor, dumb Americans - and on the other the UK media desperately craves validation from the USA with its 'hot Oscar prospects'. 

Fwiw, the more I reflect on it the more clevererer Julian Fellowes gets. For example, the dual symmetry of each family member with their respective maid/servant -  in terms of similarity of age and opposing societal/life prospects at that partic age, but also as indiv characters (for example, the manipulative elder daughter contrasted with her earnest maid wot fancies him with the limp). Anyway . . . as you were


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## belboid (Jan 5, 2011)

London_Calling said:


> Fellowes can shape a drama better than anyone else in this country


 
you are taking the piss arent you?  Utter bilge. He follows every 'literary' cliche going. It's very studied, sometimes enjoyable (tho half DA was fucking boring), but never ever original or thought provoking.  That isn't well shaped drama in my book.



MrSki said:


> Sorry but I don't understand how removing bits can make it easier to understand the plot.


 
Seems quite straightforward to me, less plot equals easier to follow plot (if done 'properly' anyway)


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## kyser_soze (Jan 6, 2011)

I bet you were there, sneaking a peak at the ladies' ankles Belb


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## Ms T (Jan 6, 2011)

Pip said:


> I loved - actually LOVED - this so, so, so much. My God! IT WAS SO GOOD! Maggie Smith is the baddest bitch ever!



What is a weekend?

Best. Line. Evah.


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## Pip (Jan 6, 2011)

She had so many good lines. I was thinking yesterday that actually one thing that annoyed me was they were quite patronising in giving us kind of over the top and obvious history lessons at times - pointing out things that a) I hope most people know, and b) wouldn't surely have come up in normal conversation.


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## kyser_soze (Jan 6, 2011)

> a) I hope most people know,



That's almost always a hope dashed upon the rock of reality IME.


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## London_Calling (Jan 7, 2011)

Yep, the matriarch def had the best lines. Lovely stuff.

I thought what made it rise above very good to excellent was the choice of the ‘midpoint’ device – the point at which things crystallise or take a new turn. Fellowes used the dead Turk, which was effectively a trouser-dropping Edwardian farce in itself but played completely dead-pan.

At least three delicious scenes; his arrival in her bedroom, the carrying of the body at day break through the house and the siblings “slut” statement and flounce - after that storylines take a twist and relationships are defined.

"He sighed, and that was it" LOL.


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## Random (Feb 20, 2011)

I'm enjoying this, even if the lord is rather drippily perfect and at the same time reminds me of Ralph from the fast show. He's devoted his whole life to improving the drainage in the lower field.


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## danny la rouge (Oct 9, 2011)

I love the history.    It's great that everyone is so well-versed in what'll happen next.

I'm expecting someone to say the hospital should stay, "because, mark my words, there'll be a 'flu epidemic before long!"


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## Espresso (Oct 9, 2011)

I like this. Miss O'Brien and him out of Coronation St are so nasty it's incredible. I wonder if they'll get their comeuppance. In ordinary drama they eventually would, but in this, they might not. Dunno why I think this _isn't_ ordinary drama, but I just don't.


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## London_Calling (Oct 26, 2011)

Are you still watching ..... it seems we're not alone; series 2 is running at 11 million - 2 mill up on S1. Huge numbers for series drama nowadays.

Anyway, a proper laugh out loud moment this week when the wheelchaired heir felt a twinge in his nether regions - Julian Fellowes in full Kenneth Williams mode again.

It seems almost everyone is at it, desperate for or, 'isn't one for the ladies' or is a fallen woman because of it....Fellowes has more audience demographis covered than Strictly.

My guess for the end game: The wheelchaired Earl-to-be with a twinge will discover his fiancées renewed interest in him is 'incentivised' by the Rupert Murdoch character, who worries his wife-to-be (Lady Mary - do keep up) is paying too much attention to our hero - basically Murdoch is paying the fiancée or has dirt on her. But our hero only discovers this on the eve of the wedding between Mary and Murdoch: Will Fellowes have the front to have him stagger up out of the wheelchair and declare his love for Mary...... this obv. means the wedding is off and Carson the Butler stays at Downton.

Meanwhile the youngest daughter and the chauffeur have a Titanic/Di Caprio/Winslett type encounter on the back seat (can Fellowes resist?).

There has to be a wedding: Boring Bates and the Simpering Spinster?


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## London_Calling (Oct 26, 2011)

Oh and because the final decree wasn't effective, perhaps Bates gets all his money back from his dead wife's estate (as her next-of-kin - she obv. won't have a will overriding the legal presumption).

Plus, I'm still slightly worried the ugly duckling middle sis will get a letter from Canada, asking her to elope....

And hand-wringing Mrs Crawley - an Edwardian Urbanite if ever there was one - will be crushed to death in a stampede of ungrateful refugees somewhere in what remains of the Austro-Hungarian empire. Well, we can all hope...


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## Mrs Magpie (Oct 26, 2011)

London_Calling said:


> Boring Bates


Well, I wouldn't kick him out of bed.


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## gaijingirl (Oct 26, 2011)

Bates is going to get accused of murder of course.  "my ex-wife - if only it were former-wife"!!

There is something brooding and a slight edge of danger about Bates.... he's not unattractive.


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## London_Calling (Oct 26, 2011)

nah, Bates has got an alibi, and no money to pay someone to do it anyway. The Rupert Murdoch chappie however ....


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## gaijingirl (Oct 26, 2011)

London_Calling said:


> nah, Bates has got an alibi, and no money to pay someone to do it anyway. The Rupert Murdoch chappie however ....



I didn't say he did it - I said he's going to get accused of it. Of _course_ he'll get off - otherwise there'd be no happy ending with the maid!

all the signs were there last episode.. the unfortunate comment to the Lord.. the unexplained facial bruise...  setting the whole thing up.


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## Mrs Magpie (Oct 26, 2011)

London_Calling said:


> Bates has got an alibi


Has he?


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## London_Calling (Oct 26, 2011)

Oh, I assumed he was at Downton at the relevant time... perhaps not.. oh yes, the unexplained facial bruises....

I stil think Murdoch arranged it, or maybe it was some drunken thing with a man from the pub...

I'll shut up now.


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## danny la rouge (Oct 26, 2011)

gaijingirl said:


> otherwise there'd be no happy ending with the maid!


That can't be resolved yet!  The on-going dramatic tension themes need to continue going round in circles for as long as can be managed!  (Eldest daughter and new heir, Larkrise man and Zoe from Corrie, Irish chauffeur and Dancing Shoes girl etc).


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## gaijingirl (Oct 26, 2011)

And he was going on about having bought arsenic.... he had gone down to London to see her and when he got back - she was DEAD.

Could be that the Murdoch guy did it and he gets caught - paving the way for Mary and drippy heir to get married?  Although that's quite far fetched.  Either way - the Christmas special will almost certainly have a Mary/drippy Lord and Bate/maid wedding - or pave the way for that to happen in a 3rd series?


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## gaijingirl (Oct 26, 2011)

danny la rouge said:


> That can't be resolved yet! The on-going dramatic tension themes need to continue going round in circles for as long as can be managed! (Eldest daughter and new heir, Larkrise man and Zoe from Corrie, Irish chauffeur and Dancing Shoes girl etc).



no - I didn't say that would be resolved next episode - as I said above, they'll be saving it for the Christmas special or a new series.  There'll be plenty of episodes where it looks like Bates is going down for it and then someone will twig something in a dramatic twist - probably Mary.

Not sure where the Irish chauffeur and pretty younger sister is going though?


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## gaijingirl (Oct 26, 2011)

not that I watch many of these sorts of things or anything...


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## susie12 (Oct 26, 2011)

> Although that's quite far fetched.


 None of it is exactly rooted in reality


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## London_Calling (Oct 26, 2011)

I doubt Murdoch would have done it himself, he'd surely have .... _henchmen_...


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## gosub (Oct 26, 2011)

Flu pandemic must be next week


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## London_Calling (Oct 26, 2011)

Well, would you _beliiiive_ it:


> On 16 September 2011, two days before the UK premiere of the second series, it was reported by Amazon.com that the first series of _Downton Abbey_ had become the highest selling DVD Boxset on the online retailer's website of all time, surpassing popular American programmes such as _The Sopranos_, _Friends_ and _The Wire_.[63]


also:


> It was confirmed at the preview of the second series, at Highclere Castle on 29 July 2011,[19] that Fellowes was working on a third series, set after the Armistice and during the 1920s.[19]



I look forward series 9 where the men go off to fight for The Falklands.


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## gaijingirl (Oct 26, 2011)

gosub said:


> Flu pandemic must be next week



yes.. someone will DIE!!!!


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## danny la rouge (Oct 26, 2011)

gaijingirl said:


> no - I didn't say that would be resolved next episode - as I said above, they'll be saving it for the Christmas special or a new series. There'll be plenty of episodes where it looks like Bates is going down for it and then someone will twig something in a dramatic twist - probably Mary.
> 
> Not sure where the Irish chauffeur and pretty younger sister is going though?


Pretty younger daughter is about 22-23, would you say?

Still wrong.


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## London_Calling (Oct 26, 2011)

I was just reading about the upset in Scotland because STV originally chose to screen  Taggert instead...


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## susie12 (Oct 26, 2011)

It has a somewhat rushed feeling I think, for example the burned beyond recognition putative heir story could have been dragged out much longer but in half an hour he had appeared, been discounted and gone.  And Matthew's twinge is a bit of a copout I think, just like he got every weekend off from the Somme, I would have liked to see how they would have dealt with the reality of no sex or further heirs.  But of course if he is going to marry Mary rather than drippy Lavinia he has got to be able to shag - but these neat and lazy copouts could have been treated differently to give a more real dramatic tension.


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## gaijingirl (Oct 26, 2011)

danny la rouge said:


> Pretty younger daughter is about 22-23, would you say?
> 
> Still wrong.



She might die in the flu epidemic - it's usually the young pretty ones (think Little Women) and I think that flu killed young'uns (although I might be wrong about that).


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## danny la rouge (Oct 26, 2011)

London_Calling said:


> I was just reading about the upset in Scotland because STV originally chose to screen Taggert instead...


Well, not just that, but STV were in dispute with the rest of ITV, and weren't buying anything - Kingdom (the now-cancelled Stephen Fry vehicle), Doc Martin, Downton.  All the easy-viewing blockbusters.  Instead, they were giving us embarrassingly low-quality, low-cost home-made crap, like something called the Postcode Challenge (a panel-game tie-in with the Postcode Lottery).  It isn't as if they aren't capable of making good stuff; they just didn't seem to want to spend any money.  It was dire.

Eventually, after 2 or 3 years, they resolved the dispute, and showed us all the backlog on Sunday afternoons.


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## gaijingirl (Oct 26, 2011)

susie12 said:


> It has a somewhat rushed feeling I think, for example the burned beyond recognition putative heir story could have been dragged out much longer but in half an hour he had appeared, been discounted and gone.



Yes.. that was v. odd.  I wonder if he'll make a comeback?  If not, it seemed a little bit pointless to bother with it at all.  I wonder if Edith might disappear off to Canada at some point?


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## London_Calling (Oct 26, 2011)

It didn't even feel like the same writer. Hints of The Return of Martin Guerre/Sommerby and no dramatic resolution - you have to think there's more to come from that strand. At least hope, anway.


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## Mrs Magpie (Oct 26, 2011)

gaijingirl said:


> I think that flu killed young'uns (although I might be wrong about that).


No, you'd be right


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## gaijingirl (Oct 26, 2011)

Mrs Magpie said:


> No, you'd be right



 gosh!


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## spanglechick (Oct 26, 2011)

gaijingirl said:


> yes.. someone will DIE!!!!


oh, oh - the baby of the ginger housemaid!


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## gosub (Oct 26, 2011)

gaijingirl said:


> yes.. someone will DIE!!!!


at least one! Would bet on decreasing circles cousin buzybody, mixing with great unwashed more chance than getting it in Newbury Yorkshire.


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## Mrs Magpie (Oct 26, 2011)

spanglechick said:


> oh, oh - the baby of the ginger housemaid!


Unlikely



			
				wikipedia on the 1918 flu pandemic said:
			
		

> Another unusual feature of this pandemic was that it mostly killed young adults, with 99% of pandemic influenza deaths occurring in people under 65, and more than half in young adults 20 to 40 years old.[44] This is unusual, since influenza is normally most deadly to the very young (under age two) and the very old (over age 70), and may have been due to partial protection caused by exposure to the previous Russian flu pandemic of 1889.[45] Modern analysis has shown the virus to be particularly deadly because it triggers a cytokine storm, which ravages the stronger immune system of young adults.



If that baby succumbs of anything, more likely diphtheria. Loads of that about, it lives in drains  and suchlike and still does and there were frequent epidemics until widespread immunisation programmes (which is why it's back in Russia).


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## danny la rouge (Oct 26, 2011)

gaijingirl said:


> She might die in the flu epidemic - it's usually the young pretty ones (think Little Women) and I think that flu killed young'uns (although I might be wrong about that).


No!


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## gosub (Oct 26, 2011)

London_Calling said:


> I look forward series 9 where the men go off to fight for The Falklands.



is that the series where under sever financial pressure have almost lost everything playing roulette at the Claremont, the Earl of Grantham opens the place up as a spar hotel, and the whole show morphs into something inbetween Monarch of the Glen (which stars Julian Fellows) and Crossroads


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## London_Calling (Oct 26, 2011)

spanglechick said:


> oh, oh - the baby of the ginger housemaid!


I suspect it might be the floozy herself who dies (perhaps in a heart-wrenching suicide), leaving an uncertain future for the baby..... unless it's ADOPTED BY SOMEONE!!1!


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## gaijingirl (Oct 26, 2011)

London_Calling said:


> I suspect it might be the floozy herself who dies (perhaps in a heart-wrenching suicide), leaving an uncertain future for the baby..... unless it's ADOPTED BY SOMEONE!!1!



ooh... that would be handy if you were looking about for an heir!

although wimpy current heir was getting "twinges" in his nethers this week...


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## spanglechick (Oct 26, 2011)

don't know that an adopted heir can inherit, can they? otherwise wouldn't The Earl and his missus have adopted a boy-child at some point when it became obvious that she was bringing forth women-children only?


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## gaijingirl (Oct 26, 2011)

I don't know...... I'm working on the assumption that it may not all be based 100% on reality.


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## spanglechick (Oct 26, 2011)




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## gaijingirl (Oct 26, 2011)




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## Espresso (Oct 26, 2011)

spanglechick said:


> don't know that an adopted heir can inherit, can they? otherwise wouldn't The Earl and his missus have adopted a boy-child at some point when it became obvious that she was bringing forth women-children only?



That rings a teeny tiny bell with me, about adopted children not having the same rights to inheritance back then.

But enough sense for now. How about this. That new maid who's being rather familiar with Earl Grantham has a little lad. What about said kid being the product of an ealier liaison between those two? Then all we have to do is get Mr (Norman) Bates to kill Lady Cora, let them two get wed and for Lord Grantham to publically recognise her kid as his then lo and behold, a proper heir and Mr Twingy Nethers Matthew can marry drippy Lavinia with the lovely hair and go and be a solicitor wherever it was he was going soliciting in the last series. Manchester, was it?
And Mary should marry nasty Carlisle then get Mr Bates to come visiting with his strychinine.


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## spanglechick (Oct 26, 2011)

there's definitely something afoot with the earl and the new maid - and surely Hugh Bonneville wouldn't be up for an adultery storyline after all that stuff in the summer. spose it depends when they filmed it...


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## London_Calling (Oct 26, 2011)

I can't think the posho's would formerly adopt the child of a kitchen maid. Fwiw, I was thinking more of the soon-to-be Mr and Mrs Bates, probably with a bit of assistance from a clucking Phyllis Logan. Or maybe they might be some kind of legal ward arrangement...

As for the new maid, the script has been at pains to point out she was taken at her word (about the soldier father) so, agreed, sommits oop. She never mentions her war pension either, when that's all we hear about in relation to dopey Daisy.

In terms of the heir, I suspect Mr Fellowes will be keen to play with the twinge for a bit. And then what he does with it.

I always end up fancying one of Mrs Patmore's pies, as well


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## Dovydaitis (Oct 26, 2011)

mmm, Mrs Patmore's pies......


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## oryx (Oct 26, 2011)

Some corking verbal anachronisms.

E.g. Earl to widowed servant, when told of her son's place at Ripon Grammar School: 'Well done, him!'

Someone describing someone else (can't remember who) as 'sweet and sour'.

Next thing the Earl will be asking Mrs Patmore if he can 'get' a tall skinny latte.


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## London_Calling (Oct 26, 2011)

Fwiw, Shakespeare uses 'sweet and sour' in Othello. I don't think I understand the difficulty with "Well done, him"?


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## oryx (Oct 26, 2011)

London_Calling said:


> Fwiw, Shakespeare uses 'sweet and sour' in Othello. I don't think I understand the difficulty with "Well done, him"?



Do you think that's the kind of thing they said in 1918?


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## London_Calling (Oct 26, 2011)

well...I do. Sorry


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## Mrs Magpie (Oct 26, 2011)

My grandfather used to say that (born 1904)


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## danny la rouge (Oct 26, 2011)

oryx said:


> Do you think that's the kind of thing they said in 1918?


Yes, frankly.  It sounds posh and Edwardian.


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## Mrs Magpie (Oct 26, 2011)

My grandfather also used to say Well done that man!


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## oryx (Oct 26, 2011)

Never mind......


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## London_Calling (Oct 26, 2011)

Lets get back to Mrs Patmore's pies....


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## Espresso (Oct 26, 2011)

That labrador in the opening credits is conspicuous by its absence of late. Maybe she's been dishing up Rover pies to the recuperating officers


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## danny la rouge (Oct 26, 2011)

oryx said:


> Never mind......


There's lots of other anachronisms.

Mrs Patmore's remarkable eye surgery.  Yes, they'd have been able to remove her cataracts, but she'd be wearing huge thick glasses for the rest of her life.  Remarkably, she now had fully correct vision, an outcome only much more recently possible.


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## London_Calling (Oct 26, 2011)

There's a fairly obv. reason you don't see a lot of bottle thick specs on tv and it's not because of an anachronism - it's too inherently comedic and distracting to drama.


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## danny la rouge (Oct 26, 2011)

Is it that Mr Magoo is heavily copyrighted?


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## London_Calling (Oct 26, 2011)

Sorry Mrs Patmore, you were saying.......


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## Mrs Magpie (Oct 27, 2011)

It's drama...nothing wrong with a bit of anachronism as long as it's not too glaring..I mean I'd be a bit nonplussed if Edith whipped out a mobile and sent a quick text....sometimes something clearly a bit shonky on the authentic period detail can still be brilliant viewing......


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## gaijingirl (Oct 27, 2011)

please don't point out all the mistakes... it makes me sad.  

I just wanted Lady Mary to get off with Matthew but actually recently he's getting on my nerves a bit anyway.... I can see why the young one is interested in the chauffeur though.. that has real naughty roll-in-hay and get greasy with oil potential.


----------



## London_Calling (Oct 27, 2011)

I don't think anything unintentional has been pointed out yet....

The only thing that does concern me in that sense is that odd Canadian strand we've talked about. The more I think about it the more that has to play a significant part in the finale. Fwiw, I'm working on the basis he'll be back - in letter or person - and may well wisk orf Lady Edith, or lay claim to the earldom....dom dom dom...

I quite like Edith now, she always seems to look startled.


----------



## Mrs Magpie (Oct 27, 2011)

I like Lavinia but only because she looks just like someone I worked with and liked enormously.


----------



## Mrs Magpie (Oct 27, 2011)

I also have to thank Pip for my Downton Abbey addiction...I didn't know ITV did costume drama on this scale and, more to the point I thought only the BBC had the facilities for watching via a computer until she led me gently by the hand towards the site  Adverts are really irritating though, aren't they?


----------



## London_Calling (Oct 27, 2011)

They are.

It's quite cunning that this is designed to run for just under 60 minutes without adverts - which is what you want for the boxset market, yet with adverts it neatly overlaps the start of Match of the Day by 15 minutes. Dead clever.


----------



## gaijingirl (Oct 27, 2011)

we have live record.. so we pause it when it starts long enough to be able to forward through the adverts... they're so annoying!


----------



## Mrs Magpie (Oct 27, 2011)

Andy Hamilton (iirc) made a good joke on the radio, saying a sure-fire box-office hit would be Downton Abbey On Ice. It made for a wonderful mental image that I can't quite stop from popping up at random moments....I found myself wondering how they'd choreograph the flu pandemic....


----------



## oryx (Oct 27, 2011)

gaijingirl said:


> please don't point out all the mistakes... it makes me sad.



Sorry, they crack me up though. More frighteningly, it makes me worry that I am turning into the late Pa Oryx, for whom pointing out anachronisms in TV dramas was practically a hobby. 

We usually record it so can fast-forward the annoying ads, though my partner is not a happy bunny that we didn't record the first 15 minutes of _Nowhere Boy_ (watched last night) 'cos it clashed with DA.


----------



## London_Calling (Oct 27, 2011)

You haven't pointed any anachronisms out yet, althought you seem keen to think they're everywhere.

I only mention it because writers generally put an awful lot of effort into what they produce. And after that a whole series of editors and producers do the same with many, many versions of that script as it evolves.


----------



## oryx (Oct 27, 2011)

There are quite a few articles online about the subject (which I looked up days before I looked at this thread!)

If you google Downton Abbey anachronisms you get some quite funny articles.


----------



## Mrs Magpie (Oct 30, 2011)

Espresso said:


> That labrador in the opening credits is conspicuous by its absence of late. Maybe she's been dishing up Rover pies to the recuperating officers


It's back! To be honest I don't think it's the same lab as the one in the titles seems quite plodding and old and the lab tonight seemed young and bouncy.


----------



## susie12 (Oct 31, 2011)

Oh dear - I'm afraid I lol-ed when Matthew sprang up from his wheelchair and guess what, his spine is just bruised! Wonderful!  And Sybil only needed a sharp look from Lady Mary to forget her Irish freedom fantasy and run back to Downton!  But what on earth is his lordship doing with the sexy maid?  It is veering from drama to melodrama I fear, but I'm still enjoying it


----------



## danny la rouge (Oct 31, 2011)

susie12 said:


> But what on earth is his lordship doing with the sexy maid?


They're going to be doing sexy.


----------



## bi0boy (Oct 31, 2011)

I am waiting for the Lord Grantham vs Sir Richard shouting match.


----------



## London_Calling (Oct 31, 2011)

I liked it when the sisters burst into the pub bedroom and, after noting baby sis in the bed and paddy in the chair, exclaimed 'thank God we're not too late!'. Made me recall the ardent Turkish chapie from S1 - that was proper Edwardian farce.

And daddy in the pantry with the war widow/singe mum - I fear his wife no longer 'understands him'. Being tempted by the apple though..... come on, Mr Fellowes.

Has it got a tad too silly, do you think?


----------



## danny la rouge (Oct 31, 2011)

_Got_ too silly?  It's very silly and always has been.


----------



## bi0boy (Oct 31, 2011)

I bet they'll mention that Hitler bloke seemingly doing good things for the German economy before the end of this series.


----------



## London_Calling (Oct 31, 2011)

You don't watch it do you, cos otherwise you'd know you're 15-20 years too early.


----------



## bi0boy (Oct 31, 2011)

London_Calling said:


> You don't watch it do you, cos otherwise you'd know you're 15-20 years too early.



Well it was 1912 and now it's 1919 and Sybil is 21. Things are speeding up. Hitler was around in the twenties so it won't be long.


----------



## London_Calling (Oct 31, 2011)

"things are speeding up"....


----------



## gosub (Oct 31, 2011)

bi0boy said:


> Well it was 1912 and now it's 1919 and Sybil is 21. Things are speeding up. Hitler was around in the twenties so it won't be long.


there's around, and there's in power, which he started being in the 30's, next series or even the one after depending on how far into 20's they go this time.

Not enough death for my liking


----------



## susie12 (Oct 31, 2011)

Not nearly enough death! Though Carson isn't looking too clever in the next week's trailer.  Others I'd be glad to see the back of: Thomas the cowardly gay footman, dull but worthy Lavinia, Edith with her total personality change since series one, and the Irish one who presumably will be getting his cards anyway. And Sir Richard. Perhaps him and Lavinia could die in a freak newsprint poisoning accident.  We can hope -


----------



## bi0boy (Oct 31, 2011)

I am wondering if Lord Grantham will recruit a whole new compliment of footmen, of if he will come to realise that the heyday of the English aristocracy has departed and make do with whatever servants he can hang on to.


----------



## London_Calling (Oct 31, 2011)

I'd certainly like her with the face like a slapped arse to disappear under a huge pile of crumbling brickwork and lead roof tiles while having a crafty fag in the yard. I do, though, suspect she will come to the financial rescue of the GAY (!!1!) ex-footman.

I'm still defending the thick and now worthy Startled Sister - a look I assume derived from what she saw during all those soldiery bed baths. She had a brief scene in this recent Tinker, Tailor, donchaknow.

The only guaranteed death for me is the single mum, though the moody and misunderstood Bates may end up in click. I wouldn't turn down an unexpected demise for Mrs (Creepy) Crawley - the Edwardian Urbanite woman. Possibly a horrid, lingering death under the wheels and hoofs of that sodding great bus thing that seems to endlessly loop around 'the village'.

I don't think I've ever known a drama where so many are desperate for a bit of cock action. It's like Friday night at The Albert.


----------



## ChrisFilter (Oct 31, 2011)

bi0boy said:


> Well it was 1912 and now it's 1919 and Sybil is 21. Things are speeding up. Hitler was around in the twenties so it won't be long.



Oh, god. Was she 14 in the first series?


----------



## ChrisFilter (Oct 31, 2011)

London_Calling said:


> I don't think I've ever known a drama where so many are desperate for a bit of cock action. It's like Friday night at The Albert.


----------



## ChrisFilter (Oct 31, 2011)

Has it finished yet? My Mrs works for ITV so I saw series 2 a while back. It's awful compared to series 1 but still very watchable, despite Fellowes painfully obvious Tory agenda.


----------



## London_Calling (Oct 31, 2011)

One more to go, I think.


----------



## susie12 (Oct 31, 2011)

[QUOTEI don't think I've ever known a drama where so many are desperate for a bit of cock action. It's like Friday night at The Albert.][/QUOTE]

It's certainly the nicest portrayal of life in service I've ever seen - the Guardian described Lord Grantham as a one man CAB and it's pretty spot on ' 'Problem with your eyes? Let me help' -'Kid needs a school place and you fancy a shag? - here I am' - 'Murdered your wife? Always a job for you here' etc etc


----------



## London_Calling (Oct 31, 2011)

Can't disagree, it's paternalism gorn mad.


----------



## gaijingirl (Oct 31, 2011)

I wasn't sure but I thought that the Lady Grantham looked like she was going to die next week from the teasers at the end yesterday - although I still reckon it could be Sybil.

It is getting a bit more pantomime but I still love it.


----------



## Mrs Magpie (Oct 31, 2011)

bi0boy said:


> a whole new compliment of footmen


Good morning! Good morning! Milord is looking young today!

Only the super-annuated will get this reference......


----------



## bi0boy (Oct 31, 2011)

*e


----------



## gaijingirl (Nov 2, 2011)

Gaijinboy just told me that he saw Sir Richard in Dulwich this morning!


----------



## danny la rouge (Nov 3, 2011)

gaijingirl said:


> Gaijinboy just told me that he saw Sir Richard in Dulwich this morning!


Hmmm.  Up to no good, I imagine.  Probably something to do with the Commitment's suicide...


----------



## danny la rouge (Nov 3, 2011)

One thing I keep wondering about is why it's an Abbey.  Has that ever been explained (I missed most of the first episode of series 1)?


----------



## London_Calling (Nov 3, 2011)

I assumed for marketing purposes.


----------



## danny la rouge (Nov 3, 2011)

It isn't an abbey.  It's a stately home.  It doesn't even look like an abbey, or have cloisters, or any of the attributes associated with abbeys.

I wondered if the land had been confiscated at the time of the dissolution of the monasteries.


----------



## bi0boy (Nov 3, 2011)

danny la rouge said:


> I wondered if the land had been confiscated at the time of the dissolution of the monasteries.



You might find the answer in here


----------



## danny la rouge (Nov 3, 2011)

bi0boy said:


> You might find the answer in here


Lincoln!  Downton is in Yorkshire, you fool!

Find out about it here.


----------



## London_Calling (Nov 3, 2011)

I'd be more inclined to look here:
http://managementhelp.org/marketing/branding.htm


----------



## bi0boy (Nov 3, 2011)

Oh i thought it was near Grantham, especially as they mentioned going to London and back in day by stagecoach.


----------



## danny la rouge (Nov 3, 2011)

bi0boy said:


> Oh i thought it was near Grantham, especially as they mentioned going to London and back in day by stagecoach.


No, he's the Earl of Grantham, which gives him the right to free beer in the Queen Vic.


----------



## Espresso (Nov 3, 2011)

bi0boy said:


> Oh i thought it was near Grantham, especially as they mentioned going to London and back in day by stagecoach.



They go on the train, don't they?


----------



## London_Calling (Nov 4, 2011)

That'll be one of those 'anachronisms', I feel sure.


----------



## London_Calling (Nov 6, 2011)

Here we are then 'last in the series'... and with more fireworks than Brockwell Park: wedding or weddings, elopings to Gretna Green and/or Canada, will Rupert Murdoch get stood up at Church, does the heir whip out a raging stonker, DEATH, prison, posh hows-your-father in cupboards..... all at a furious pace (!!1!).

I need a lie down and there's still almost an hour to go.....


----------



## gaijingirl (Nov 6, 2011)

oooh.. I didn't know it was the last one - what will I do with Sunday nights now?  I think there's a Christmas special... does anyone know how long.. probably 2 nights in a row or something?


----------



## danny la rouge (Nov 6, 2011)

gaijingirl said:


> oooh.. I didn't know it was the last one - what will I do with Sunday nights now? I think there's a Christmas special... does anyone know how long.. probably 2 nights in a row or something?


The Killing is back this week.  Transfer your allegiances.


----------



## gaijingirl (Nov 6, 2011)

oh wow... HURRAH!!!  What back tonight?  Where? when?  The American version?  What time?

We just saw the American 1st series, but really enjoyed it.  Been thinking of getting the original box set for Christmas.

so many questions!!!


----------



## danny la rouge (Nov 6, 2011)

gaijingirl said:


> oh wow... HURRAH!!! What back tonight? Where? when? The American version? What time?


No, the Danish one.  I saw that first, so it's the one I follow.  Not sure what day.


----------



## gaijingirl (Nov 6, 2011)

hmmmm... still an option!


----------



## danny la rouge (Nov 6, 2011)

I was amused to learn the sweater was part of the franchise that the Americans bought.  

She has a new sweater in this series.


----------



## gaijingirl (Nov 6, 2011)

I liked her sweater....


----------



## belboid (Nov 6, 2011)

The old one comes back in episode 5, I believe


----------



## gaijingirl (Nov 6, 2011)

well well well.... looking forward to Christmas.

Matthew is beginning to annoy me actually... he's just so permanently "troubled"....


----------



## danny la rouge (Nov 6, 2011)

Funny that they all came down with the flu over the same mealtime.  It must have spread like the plague in Survivors!


----------



## Mrs Magpie (Nov 6, 2011)

danny la rouge said:


> Funny that they all came down with the flu over the same mealtime. It must have spread like the plague in Survivors!






			
				http://virus.stanford.edu said:
			
		

> People were struck with illness on the street and died rapid deaths. One anectode shared of 1918 was of four women playing bridge together late into the night. Overnight, three of the women died from influenza (Hoagg). Others told stories of people on their way to work suddenly developing the flu and dying within hours (Henig). One physician writes that patients with seemingly ordinary influenza would rapidly "develop the most viscous type of pneumonia that has ever been seen" and later when cyanosis appeared in the patients, "it is simply a struggle for air until they suffocate," (Grist, 1979).


----------



## Espresso (Nov 7, 2011)

gaijingirl said:


> Matthew is beginning to annoy me actually... he's just so permanently "troubled"....


Matthew is a complete and utter twerp. Mary didn't want him when he was a solictor an interloper. She wanted him when it was obvious he was the heir and then didn't want him all over again when he was wounded and all the while he was pining for her. The soppy great drip. And also,if Mary thinks she's going to be able to get rid of nasty Richard so as she can marry Matthew, she's sadly and badly mistaken. I hope. And anyway, she and Richard are emininently suited because they are both such utter rotters.

Also, I thought it was rather unlikely that Ethel didn't give her baby to his gran and grandad. Why did she want to meet them in the first - and second - place if it wasn't in the hope that they would offer her just exactly what they did offer her? Odd.Veh odd.

Roll on the Christmas special, complete with baby Bates, nasty Richard being unspeakable, conniving Thomas getting his comeuppance, Daisy marrying her father in law, Lady Edith getting a feller and more killer lines for the very most outrageously very excellent Dame Maggie Smith.

My name is Espresso and I am a Downtonaholic.


----------



## danny la rouge (Nov 7, 2011)

Mrs Magpie said:


> People were struck with illness on the street and died rapid deaths. One anectode shared of 1918 was of four women playing bridge together late into the night. Overnight, three of the women died from influenza (Hoagg). Others told stories of people on their way to work suddenly developing the flu and dying within hours (Henig). One physician writes that patients with seemingly ordinary influenza would rapidly "develop the most viscous type of pneumonia that has ever been seen" and later when cyanosis appeared in the patients, "it is simply a struggle for air until they suffocate," (Grist, 1979).



That's interesting.  Thanks Mrs M.  Seems it could be pretty rapid, then.  I would have expected more of a staggered onset.


----------



## London_Calling (Nov 7, 2011)

danny la rouge said:


> Funny that they all came down with the flu over the same mealtime. It must have spread like the plague in Survivors!


'anachronism' alert.

Fwiw, I do wonder if Fellowes will be a little disappointed with the last three parts/four screen hours of the series, but that probably has much to do with ITV wanting the second series as quickly as possible; as Sunday evening tv drama goes, it was fine. IMO. Even if some of his choices seemed curious and the pace went a little haywire, it's still pretty much a master class in series-format storytelling. And highly enjoyable!

Apropos of probably not very much in relation to S3, Fellowes seems to have gone to a Catholic public school... the Irish Free State came into being in 1922. Dublin. Politics. Hmm.


----------



## bi0boy (Nov 7, 2011)

What I don't understand is how none of the servants knew Lavinia had died until the following morning.


----------



## trashpony (Nov 7, 2011)

Well that was all a bit predictable. Bates being arrested was a bit of a damp squib, you could see it coming a mile off. The only surprise was that Cora didn't die and the whole affair to be with Jane fizzled out so quickly.

All a bit of a disappointment after series one which was fabulous


----------



## London_Calling (Nov 7, 2011)

bi0boy said:


> What I don't understand is how none of the servants knew Lavinia had died until the following morning.


And odd given Phylis Logan was in the room during the scene.

To carry on the Murdoch association, I was slightly alarmed how Lavinia looked like a younger Rebekah Brooks in her death scene - all that curling red hair (wherever that came from) and pale complexion. Wishful thinking, perhaps.


----------



## danny la rouge (Nov 7, 2011)

London_Calling said:


> 'anachronism' alert.


I didn't say it was an anachronism, smart arse.  I was suggesting that for dramatic effect they had telescoped the onset of the flu in the household.  I was basing that on my own experience of getting swineflu, which while not nearly as deadly as the Spanish Flu pandemic, was nevertheless virulent in infectivity terms.  Mrs M, however, provided anecdotal evidence which suggested that it striking a number of people over the course (pun intended) of a mealtime might not have been as far-fetched as I had initially imagined.


----------



## London_Calling (Nov 7, 2011)

Ohh, here's one for Mrs M:







He looks a bit like an acid bath murderer if yu ask me....


----------



## maldwyn (Nov 7, 2011)

You are my stick

I want you with every fibre of my dressing gown


----------



## gaijingirl (Nov 7, 2011)

I was going off Bates before but then the bedroom scene tipped me over the edge.  i do still love Downton but I am alarmed at the rate with which I am caring less about some of the characters.  I'm interested though to see what happens to Edith.


----------



## danny la rouge (Nov 7, 2011)

gaijingirl said:


> I was going off Bates before but then the bedroom scene tipped me over the edge. i do still love Downton but I am alarmed at the rate with which I am caring less about some of the characters. I'm interested though to see what happens to Edith.


I've never cared about Mary.  I couldn't care less what becomes of her.  I like Zoe from Corrie, though.  Even if Robert Timmins is a doom-merchant stumbling from one disaster to the next.


----------



## gaijingirl (Nov 7, 2011)

is Zoe from Corrie the maid with the illegitimate baby or Anna - haven't seen Corrie in about 20 years.. every time I do catch a moment all the babies seem to have turned into married adults?  Robert Timmins is Bates right?


----------



## London_Calling (Nov 7, 2011)

I'd like to hear what the actress playing Mary sounds like because she should be a proper Essex girl.


----------



## Mrs Magpie (Nov 7, 2011)

London_Calling said:


> 'anachronism' alert.


The anachronism is that you went blue before you died.


----------



## danny la rouge (Nov 7, 2011)

gaijingirl said:


> is Zoe from Corrie the maid with the illegitimate baby or Anna - haven't seen Corrie in about 20 years.. every time I do catch a moment all the babies seem to have turned into married adults? Robert Timmins is Bates right?


Zoes is the maid that married Robert Timmins and had a night of passion and candles in one of the Upstaris bedrooms.  I'm not sure what they're called in Downton.  Just like Evil Gay One Handed guy is Liam.


----------



## gaijingirl (Nov 7, 2011)

danny la rouge said:


> Zoes is the maid that married Robert Timmins and had a night of passion and candles in one of the Upstaris bedrooms. I'm not sure what they're called in Downton. Just like Evil Gay One Handed guy is Liam.



Anna & Bates (yucky night of passion) Thomas (Evil Gay One Handed guy).

Isn't the lady with the illegitimate baby also from Corrie?

So is _everyone_ from Corrie?


----------



## London_Calling (Nov 7, 2011)

Mrs Magpie said:


> The anachronism is that you went blue before you died.


Get out of it, that's just artistic choice, or license. I did wonder why they went for the overhead and very neatly laid out image of that death because, when the contrast/comparison came (the identical shot of the Bates' marital bed).. well, I didn't quite get it.


----------



## danny la rouge (Nov 7, 2011)

gaijingirl said:


> Anna & Bates (yucky night of passion) Thomas (Evil Gay One Handed guy).
> 
> Isn't the lady with the illegitimate baby also from Corrie?
> 
> So is _everyone_ from Corrie?


Cheers - Anna and Bates. Thomas. (Repeat x 100).

The baby lass is from Emmerdale, which I don't watch. But the mother-in-law does.

It was clearly the idea that as it was in Yorkshire, they needed to get regional colour, and therefore to rake in as many actors from bucolic series or provincial soaps as possible.


----------



## gaijingirl (Nov 7, 2011)

ah!  thanks.


----------



## trashpony (Nov 7, 2011)

Ironic really when the real Downton Abbey is in Berkshire. Perhaps they need the travelling time as a plot device? I suppose it'd take you about two weeks to run away to Gretna Green from the home counties ...


----------



## g force (Nov 8, 2011)

I think you've mis-understood irony.

They needed a big house to film in, Lord Carnaeven offered his (as he does for weddings) - the whole thing is filmed in one small section of Highclere (the entrance, stairway, dining room and a couple of bedrooms upstairs usually used for wedding prep). Went to a wedding there and it was dead odd being in that room with the fireplace and then the 'study' eating dinner. Kept expecting Hugh Bonneville to walk in looking confused.


----------



## London_Calling (Nov 8, 2011)

... and if someone wants to research when tarmacadam reached northen Scotland...


----------



## danny la rouge (Nov 8, 2011)

London_Calling said:


> ... and if someone wants to research when tarmacadam reached northen Scotland...


1820.


----------



## trashpony (Nov 8, 2011)

g force said:


> I think you've mis-understood irony.
> 
> They needed a big house to film in, Lord Carnaeven offered his (as he does for weddings) - the whole thing is filmed in one small section of Highclere (the entrance, stairway, dining room and a couple of bedrooms upstairs usually used for wedding prep). Went to a wedding there and it was dead odd being in that room with the fireplace and then the 'study' eating dinner. Kept expecting Hugh Bonneville to walk in looking confused.


No, I really don't think I have.

But thanks so much for that useful information about attending a wedding at Highclere


----------



## London_Calling (Nov 8, 2011)

Did anyone else think the (now erect) heir's ref to a KFC Bucketrun was borderline anachronistic?


----------



## Shirl (Nov 8, 2011)

.


----------



## Shirl (Nov 8, 2011)




----------



## oryx (Nov 8, 2011)

Brilliant!  I especially liked the hedgehog as Daisy the kitchenmaid. Now going to have to watch all 15.


----------



## Stigmata (Nov 9, 2011)

trashpony said:


> Ironic really when the real Downton Abbey is in Berkshire. Perhaps they need the travelling time as a plot device? I suppose it'd take you about two weeks to run away to Gretna Green from the home counties ...



Highclere's not far from Newbury, but it's in Hampshire. One or two people I was at college with got work as extras in the first series.

The latest episode is the first i've seen. I quite liked it actually even if I didn't know what half the characters were going on about. I absolutely called it with who would (and wouldn't) pop their clogs from the flu though.


----------



## London_Calling (Dec 14, 2011)

*bump* early doors but just to say... don't forget the Christmas Day special - even with Nigel Fucking Havers.


----------



## madamv (Sep 16, 2012)

It's back and in fine fettle. Anyone else watch?


----------



## trashpony (Sep 17, 2012)

madamv said:


> It's back and in fine fettle. Anyone else watch?


It's worth watching for Maggie Smith alone


----------



## gaijingirl (Sep 17, 2012)

I watched it - overjoyed that it's back - but even I will admit some of it was a bit hammy....

but loved it nonetheless!


----------



## madamv (Sep 17, 2012)

Lots of the plot infuriated me in the last season, but I still can't resist


----------



## danny la rouge (Sep 17, 2012)

madamv said:


> Lots of the plot infuriated me in the last season, but I still can't resist


The writing is still as clunkingly dreadful as ever.  "I'm third in line for a fortune which may or may not save Downton.  The first has died.  The second is missing.  Wait for it...wait for it...he's dead!  But his beneficiaries might inherit if they died in a certain order.  And will I keep the money, even if I do eventually inherit?  Or will it be a whole series worth of conflict?"

And as for Lady Mary's "acting"!  She makes Jimmi Harkishin look positively Olivierian. 

Still, it's better than Dragons' Den...


----------



## bi0boy (Sep 17, 2012)

For some reason the acting in this episode reminded me of The Archers


----------



## madamv (Sep 17, 2012)

And here's betting the dead second one will resurrect mid season...    .       I rather like the positioning of tom the chauffeur though. And grandmamas sending them the money to come over.


----------



## Iguana (Sep 17, 2012)

madamv said:


> And here's betting the dead second one will resurrect mid season... .


Like possible Patrick the original heir did last season.

I'm dreading the Irish stuff. According to Alan Leech (Tom) when he first saw the Dublin set it was filled with piles of potatoes everywhere which he wasn't very impressed by.


----------



## spliff (Sep 17, 2012)

I felt I was watching a repeat.


----------



## danny la rouge (Sep 24, 2012)

It's really not very good at all, is it?  The writing is so formulaic and pedestrian.  It looks good.  The costumes are great.  Some of the acting is good (no, not you, Lady Mary), given what they have to work with.  But it is written at the level of a bad daytime soap.  I'm not surprised it only won one Emmy (for Maggie Smith, who does extremely well with what she's given); the surprise is that it was nominated for so many.


----------



## madamv (Sep 24, 2012)

After Parades End you can just see how little effort seems to go into the plot.  Pity, as like you say, the costumes and Abbey are so lovely to spend time in.


----------



## youngian (Sep 24, 2012)

I see Julian Fellowes has been busy patronising Americans by claiming they can't make costume dramas. Obviously he hasn't seen Boardwalk Empire made in the same period as his patricianist Tory fantasy soap opera.


----------



## maldwyn (Sep 24, 2012)

It's absolutely dreadful, an abomination. And how lucky is Matthew inherits the title, has a miracle recovery from war wounds and inherits yet another substancial fortune. although he is stuck with Mary.


----------



## Espresso (Sep 24, 2012)

The Bates stuff is painful.
Surely, if you were tried and convicted of murdering your wife in 1918, you were hanged, pdq. No messing about. No particular stay of execution worth talking about and none of this "We'll change it to life imprisonment while your new wife, one of those maids who works six days and nights of the week for tuppence ha'penny a month blithely talks about going from Yorkshire to London and back *in a day* to track down cloooooooz to your innocence. "
As blinkin' if.


----------



## maldwyn (Sep 24, 2012)

It would be a cool twist if Bates really did kill his wife, especially after the menacing scene with his cell mate - but the character is such a sanctimonious git it seems an unlikely route for them to take.


----------



## danny la rouge (Sep 24, 2012)

youngian said:


> I see Julian Fellowes has been busy patronising Americans by claiming they can't make costume dramas. Obviously he hasn't seen Boardwalk Empire made in the same period as his patricianist Tory fantasy soap opera.


Or, indeed, Deadwood, Mad Men, Roots, Carnivale etc.

Not to mention the many, many _many_ films.

He is clearly as good on TV and film history as all his other history.


----------



## danny la rouge (Sep 24, 2012)

maldwyn said:


> especially after the menacing scene with his cell mate


That's just so the appeal can seem in the balance when the cell mate testifies that he "confessed" to the murder.

"I forgot you were a murderer".
"Don't forget again".


----------



## Iguana (Sep 24, 2012)

madamv said:


> After Parades End you can just see how little effort seems to go into the plot.


 
The difference in the intelligence of the plot of each is really obvious when you see Matthew whining on about how his love for Mary killed Lavinia, as opposed to the deadly flu she'd acquired that was responsible for many millions of deaths. Contrast it to Teitjen's response when Sylivia starts to lament that her behaviour killed his mother, “my mother died of a medical condition, not a literary convention.”


----------



## susie12 (Sep 24, 2012)

I am tired of them.  Why don't they just sell it?  They can't afford it and the heating bills must be astronomical.  They are too snooty for their own good, amd I don't trust Bates any more.  He is shifty.


----------



## madamv (Sep 24, 2012)

Iguana said:


> The difference in the intelligence of the plot of each is really obvious when you see Matthew whining on about how his love for Mary killed Lavinia, as opposed to the deadly flu she'd acquired that was responsible for many millions of deaths. Contrast it to Teitjen's response when Sylivia starts to lament that her behaviour killed his mother, “my mother died of a medical condition, not a literary convention.”


I loved that bit.   Excellent choice for comparison!


----------



## Schmetterling (Sep 25, 2012)

"Oh sorry; I thought you were a waiter!"


----------



## maldwyn (Sep 25, 2012)

Four days left to watch the whole series of Parades End on BBC iplayer - is the best I can say about Downton.


----------



## danny la rouge (Sep 25, 2012)

Schmetterling said:


> "Oh sorry; I thought you were a waiter!"


A well-delivered line, but unless we're asked to believe that Cousin Violet is in the process of losing her marbles (of which we see no other sign), then why would she have expected a waiter? Did she think she was in a restaurant? Country houses didn't have waiters, they had butlers and footmen, and neither of those would have worn dinner jackets. And she wasn't just being catty: she had ordered a drink before seeing her mistake.


----------



## danny la rouge (Sep 25, 2012)

Incidentally, the convoluted circumstances of both Matthew and Lord Injunction having long-winded and involved mishaps with their formal attire meaning they both had to wear black tie (which Edwardian toffs would have thought unacceptably informal) to the same dinner was a good example of the daytime soap-style plotting.  Post War, and certainly by the 20s (when I think this is set by now), Fashionable Young Things were following the example of the Trend-setting Younger Royals in wearing dinner jackets.  It's the Roaring 20s.  The French Farce-like plot which meant they both had no suitable trousers was unnecessary.


----------



## madamv (Sep 25, 2012)

I think she was just showing her distaste at the vulgarity of him not being properly attired.


----------



## danny la rouge (Oct 8, 2012)

It just gets worse, doesn't it?  The Branson story was crap.  So was the ending, with Zoe from Corrie and Robert Timmins reading letters for ages to romantic music.


----------



## gaijingirl (Oct 8, 2012)

ok.. even I have to admit it's getting a bit rubbish.  Used to enjoy watching it with the husband but it's getting too farcical!


----------



## susie12 (Oct 8, 2012)

So they've gone through x number of fortunes to keep the old pile going, but do any of them actually make any money?  And the kitchen always seems to be making gargantuan meals but the actual family is only eight people.


----------



## Espresso (Oct 8, 2012)

As for how they make money, I suppose all their revenue comes from the rent from the tenants in the village and on the land.

Though now as Matthew has spotted that the estate is being mismanaged, we're probably going to find out they've had squillions of acres under forest and a timber mill, a glass factory and a match factory and a coal mine in the top field, all along. It is in Yorkshire, after all, so that last idea of a coal mine might not be too far out of the question, now as I say it.  

Robert has no job, as befits an Earl in that time. Matthew is a qualified solicitor, though he seems to have given that up now.


----------



## pennimania (Oct 8, 2012)

danny la rouge said:


> It's really not very good at all, is it?  The writing is so formulaic and pedestrian.  It looks good.  The costumes are great.  Some of the acting is good (no, not you, Lady Mary), given what they have to work with.  But it is written at the level of a bad daytime soap.  I'm not surprised it only won one Emmy (for Maggie Smith, who does extremely well with what she's given); the surprise is that it was nominated for so many.




Of course I watch (and enjoy) it, but the writing is really wonky. 

So wonky in fact, that they stole a storyline from Mrs Miniver in the first series, and bits from Fanny Cradock's truly dreadful Castle Rising novels.

Of course I've read those too


----------



## Iguana (Oct 8, 2012)

pennimania said:


> So wonky in fact, that they stole a storyline from Mrs Miniver in the first series, and bits from Fanny Cradock's truly dreadful Castle Rising novels.


 
There have been quite a few plots that seem 'inspired' by the original Upstairs Downstairs too, just executed with less intelligence.


----------



## trashpony (Oct 8, 2012)

I can't remember who those people are who are taking Ethel's son. I thought she shagged lord Grantham?


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## pennimania (Oct 8, 2012)

I was going to say the costumes are fabulous, but thought the wedding dresses (and especially the way the veils hung) were not quite right.

Surprised they made a mistake like that


----------



## madamv (Oct 8, 2012)

Ethel shagged one of the soldiers recuperating at the house.  He died...


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## harpo (Oct 8, 2012)

pennimania said:


> I was going to say the costumes are fabulous, but thought the wedding dresses (and especially the way the veils hung) were not quite right.
> 
> Surprised they made a mistake like that


Edith has worn the same green velvet dress for every dinner in the series so far.


----------



## trashpony (Oct 8, 2012)

madamv said:


> Ethel shagged one of the soldiers recuperating at the house. He died...


Oh thank you - I'd forgotten about the soldiers


----------



## danny la rouge (Oct 8, 2012)

trashpony said:


> I can't remember who those people are who are taking Ethel's son. I thought she shagged lord Grantham?


No.  He wanted to shag quite another servant (Martin Platt's girlfriend, Robyn) but though she also had the hots for him, and they kissed once and she held her lips fairly close to his on a couple of occasions, she behaved with dignity and made herself unemployed rather than bring disgrace to His Grace.  Penury is the better part of valour.  For servants, obv.


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## Espresso (Oct 14, 2012)

Tonight's was a lot better than last week's I thought. Didn't see it coming at all, which is surprising these days what with spoilers about most big programmes being all over the place.

Robert is a right old terrible git. Not hard to see where Scary Mary gets it from.


----------



## trashpony (Oct 14, 2012)

I liked Sybil with her gravelly voice and bee-stung lips but the storyline after this was going to be tricky. I liked that Sir Philip turned out to be such an incompetent cock


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## danny la rouge (Oct 15, 2012)

They killed the wrong daughter; they should have killed the other two.  Sybil at least had some personality.  The other two are wet, whiny, nothings.  And Lady Mary couldn't act her way out of Crossroads.


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## Dan U (Oct 15, 2012)

danny la rouge said:


> They killed the wrong daughter; they should have killed the other two. Sybil at least had some personality. The other two are wet, whiny, nothings. And Lady Mary couldn't act her way out of Crossroads.


 
Having not seen the actress who plays Lady  Mary in anything before, i don't know whether she is supposed to be an emotionless, flat type or if that is just the actor. it feels like the latter though.

they def killed the wrong one.


----------



## Schmetterling (Oct 15, 2012)

Ah; pre-eclampsia?  Caught a short bit and it sounded like it.  I was watching Fiddler on the Roof instead.  Followed by the Klezmer programme.  Bloody awesome!


----------



## susie12 (Oct 15, 2012)

As soon as she said she had a headache I was thinking pre-eclampsia! Poor Sybil!  Killed by incompetent men


----------



## Iguana (Oct 15, 2012)

She had full blown eclampsia.


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## trabuquera (Oct 15, 2012)

Astonishing for someone who appears to aspire to full-on Tory fogeyism, and has often admitted in press to being a raging snob himself, Fellowes simply has *no idea whatsoever" of how posh people spoke, thought or behaved during this period. Why, why, oh why does everybody keep _touching _each other? why do they keep going on about their _innermost feelings _and talking about "offering support" and other such post-Big-Society 21st-century guff?  It makes me want to splutter like Maggie Smith giving her Dowager Duchess act full vent. It just wasn't LIKE that, not ever ... I know you've probably got to sex it up a lot to make Sunday primetime on ITV, but all the same. The sheer vulgarity of it all ...

Any Downton fans who are up for a more intelligent look at all of this, in between all the soft-focus nostalgia, do watch all 3 hours (bliss!!) of recent BBC2 series called _Servants _on the same theme. Miles more intelligent and miles more interesting.


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## Mrs Magpie (Oct 15, 2012)

I agree about the glaring wrongness about loads of Downton, but it's entertainment and not pretending to be history. It's a soap with frocks and lovely furniture.

I agree about the Servants series. Really very good indeed and it was lovely to see Margaret Powell pop up again from beyond the grave


----------



## trabuquera (Oct 15, 2012)

She was a force of nature, wasn't she? Incredible. _That's _what the phrase "strength of character" is going to mean to me, from now on.

I really do enjoy Downton, when I'm not spluttering at it. (And of course the frocks, the sets and the photography are always brilliant.) It just makes me laugh that Fellowes masquerades as one of those instinctive, stick in the mud, tradition-is-all Tories when he's really nothing of the kind. That Christopher Tietjens would no doubt consider him a frightfully common little man racing to flog yet more of Britain's heritage to the highest bidder - and for _show business _to boot!


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## bi0boy (Oct 25, 2012)

We all know that Downton gives us a rose-tinted view of the relationship between aristos and servants, but how is its portrayal of when things were falling apart in the twenties? I'd like to think the ladies happily dining on food served by a former prostitute and telling Robert to gtfo was kind of realistic.


----------



## Mrs Magpie (Oct 25, 2012)

...although having been involved in modern-day miscarriages of justice the whole thing of Bates's conviction being speedily declared unsafe was utterly unbelievable and did have me rolling my eyes.


----------



## Mrs Magpie (Oct 25, 2012)

...glad he's out though, I've always fancied the pants off Brendan Coyle although he's a little young for me.


----------



## madamv (Nov 4, 2012)

Aw.  Nice end to the season. I know its all a bit unrealistic but I have my mother in laws funeral tomorrow and needed something nicey nicey tonight.

Looking forward to the Xmas one..


----------



## spanglechick (Nov 5, 2012)

ok so - any idea what could've been up with mary's baby-making apparatus that could've been diagnosed without ultrasound, and cured with a small operation requiring no significant bedrest?


----------



## danny la rouge (Nov 5, 2012)

spanglechick said:


> ok so - any idea what could've been up with mary's baby-making apparatus that could've been diagnosed without ultrasound, and cured with a small operation requiring no significant bedrest?


In 1922.  Yes, I was wondering the same.  I know she was a bit vague, although she was probably more loquacious on the matter than many in her position in that era, so it probably served two purposes - character and science.

I found it a dull and unsatisfactory episode; although I don't have high expectations of the programme, even those weren't met.


----------



## Plumdaff (Nov 5, 2012)

She had a slight obstruction caused by pointless plot, what was required was the elongation of several of her scenes.


----------



## bi0boy (Nov 7, 2012)

danny la rouge said:


> I found it a dull and unsatisfactory episode


 
Surely you were excited when the Lord of Grantham relented and agreed to inspect the outbuildings?


----------



## danny la rouge (Nov 7, 2012)




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## Reno (Nov 20, 2012)

danny la rouge said:


> They killed the wrong daughter; they should have killed the other two. Sybil at least had some personality. The other two are wet, whiny, nothings. And Lady Mary couldn't act her way out of Crossroads.


 
They killed off the right one. I found her far too idealised. She was the character pandering most to modern sensibilities, which I thought was a cop out. I also think the other two are played by more better actresses. For me Michelle Dockery is the most interesting actress in the cast. Many people think someone is a bad actor if they don't see them 'acting' all the time, but her understatement and her slight remoteness is exactly what I like (and I find her foghorn voice really sexy.)

I've just watched the whole thing recently. It's not as good as it was, but still reasonably entertaining. I was under the impression Shirley MacLaine was going to be in the whole series from the publicity. Did she even get a send off or did I nod off there ? I always expected her to turn up again.


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## susie12 (Nov 20, 2012)

She just seemed to bugger off before Edith's non wedding to the posh wet one.


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## danny la rouge (Nov 20, 2012)

Reno said:


> For me Michelle Dockery is the most interesting actress in the cast. Many people think someone is a bad actor if they don't see them 'acting' all the time, but her understatement and her slight remoteness is exactly what I like (and I find her foghorn voice really sexy.)


That exactly why I think she's terrible: the constant obvious acting.  She's unnatural and always over-eggs.  The faces she pulls cause me to have to decide whether to laugh or vomit.

The classic example this series was the dinner table scene where she fell out with Matthew.  Zero to suddenly Acting with a Capital A in 5 seconds.


----------



## skyscraper101 (Dec 17, 2012)

Decided to watch all of Season 1-3 last week so I can join this thread.

My question is.. the bloke with the claim to the title (Patrick?) Who appeared all battle scared with a Canadian accent during WW1. He wasn't able to prove who he said he was and then disappeared. That can't be the end of it surely? That whole potentially massive heir-changing story just fizzled out in the most unsatisfactory way I thought.


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## madamv (Dec 17, 2012)

Yup


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## bi0boy (Dec 27, 2012)

Oh dear who is going to die next?

Edith in a suffragette outrage?

Mary and the child in an inconsolable leap from a bridge?


----------



## madamv (Dec 27, 2012)

Wasn't it dire?   Lazy writing....


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## susie12 (Dec 27, 2012)

Yes, I thought really lazy.  About 20 minutes was Scottish dancing.


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## madamv (Dec 27, 2012)

Killing someone off is really arrogant unless there's a really interesting reason to do so.


----------



## bi0boy (Dec 27, 2012)

Well, if he's running off to Holywood to star in movies it was either kill him off or an even more implausible plot contrivance to have him get divorced and emigrate to the colonies.


----------



## murdok (Dec 31, 2012)

I'm similar to Skyscraper in that I caught a little bit of the Christmas special having never seen it before and decided to go back from the start this week.  I'm now up to speed but haven't been able to find out when the 4th season is going to be on next year, does anyone know how long I've got to wait now


----------



## bi0boy (Dec 31, 2012)

It's usually in the autumn iirc


----------



## bi0boy (Dec 31, 2012)

Actually I don't know


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## skyscraper101 (Dec 31, 2012)

Filming in Feb, so most likely in the Autumn.


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## danny la rouge (Dec 31, 2012)

Reno said:


> For me Michelle Dockery is the most interesting actress in the cast.


I caught a little of Restless, and she did the same Crossroads-alike over-acting routine there. Unnatural and wooden, with unconvincing sudden ratchets. "I am. not. reading. this.  NOW I AM EMOTING". 

I gave the Christmas Downton a miss.


----------



## Reno (Dec 31, 2012)

Oh shut up about it already ! 

I've recorded Restless, but more because I'm the worlds greatest Charlotte Rampling fan. Will watch it sometime this week.


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## danny la rouge (Dec 31, 2012)

Reno said:


> more because I'm the worlds greatest Charlotte Rampling fan.


And why not?


----------



## Rebelda (Sep 23, 2013)

Ooooooh what a horrible nanny.


----------



## susie12 (Sep 23, 2013)

I just don't think Michelle Dockery is a very good actress.  She was distant and one note when Matthew was alive and she's the same now he's dead.


----------



## RedDragon (Sep 23, 2013)

Reno said:


> ... but more because I'm the worlds greatest Charlotte Rampling fan...


She's been brilliant in this final series of Dexter.


----------



## Dan U (Sep 23, 2013)

even more so than usual it just seemed to be a load of people being nasty to each other


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## Miss Caphat (Sep 23, 2013)

susie12 said:


> I just don't think Michelle Dockery is a very good actress.  She was distant and one note when Matthew was alive and she's the same now he's dead.



very disappointed in her acting. she seemed utterly bored, not sad and distraught.


----------



## youngian (Sep 23, 2013)

Apparently this piece of crap was up against Breaking Bad at the Emmys. Its not even one of the best ITV dramas let alone deserving of an international award. 
There is odd section of wealthy Americans have a blind spot for European class pretensions.

As Harry Shand observed in the Long Good Friday; "The Yanks love the aristorcracy talking to them like shit, they think they've arrived."


----------



## Rebelda (Sep 23, 2013)

Dan U said:


> even more so than usual it just seemed to be a load of people being nasty to each other


I quite liked the Thomas Barrow twist: it seeming like he decided he didn't like the nanny so was going to sabotage her job (i.e. his usual shit-trick) but it turning out he had sussed her. Iirc he was really upset when Sybil died, maybe they're making moves to redeem him.


----------



## Dan U (Sep 23, 2013)

Rebelda said:


> I quite liked the Thomas Barrow twist: it seeming like he decided he didn't like the nanny so was going to sabotage her job (i.e. his usual shit-trick) but it turning out he had sussed her. Iirc he was really upset when Sybil died, maybe they're making moves to redeem him.



yeah i couldn't work out if it was pure fluke or if that kind of thing was happening.


----------



## Rebelda (Sep 23, 2013)

Dan U said:


> yeah i couldn't work out if it was pure fluke or if that kind of thing was happening.


No, me neither  oh downton <shakes head>


----------



## Miss Caphat (Sep 23, 2013)

youngian said:


> Apparently this piece of crap was up against Breaking Bad at the Emmys. Its not even one of the best ITV dramas let alone deserving of an international award.
> There is odd section of wealthy Americans have a blind spot for European class pretensions.
> 
> As Harry Shand observed in the Long Good Friday; "The Yanks love the aristorcracy talking to them like shit, they think they've arrived."





as if the show's not beloved in the UK... and also as if Brits don't love well-made US dramas. 
but nice job finding a way to be insulting about something that's totally benign.


----------



## spanglechick (Sep 23, 2013)

Miss Caphat said:


> as if the show's not beloved in the UK... and also as if Brits don't love well-made US dramas.
> but nice job finding a way to be insulting about something that's totally benign.


I think the point was that it isn't particularly well-made.  The acting is patchy and the storylines are terrible soap-opera fodder.  It's a great guilty pleasure, but frustrating that anyone would put it up against something of actual quality, like Breaking Bad.   The hypothesis, then, is that people are blinded by the costumes and heightened RP into thinking it is better quality than it patently is.   

Yes ppl love it, but ppl love Eastenders too.


----------



## Dan U (Sep 23, 2013)

i think 'guilty pleasure' pretty much sums it up spanglechick 

surely even the people who make it don't think it is a serious piece of groundbreaking drama.


----------



## madamv (Sep 23, 2013)

Rebelda said:


> I quite liked the Thomas Barrow twist: it seeming like he decided he didn't like the nanny so was going to sabotage her job (i.e. his usual shit-trick) but it turning out he had sussed her. Iirc he was really upset when Sybil died, maybe they're making moves to redeem him.


I can't remember properly but aren't we supposed to understand him since his outing/beating?   Still a vicious old queen but getting a sympathy vote


----------



## Miss Caphat (Sep 23, 2013)

Dan U said:


> i think 'guilty pleasure' pretty much sums it up spanglechick
> 
> surely even the people who make it don't think it is a serious piece of groundbreaking drama.



since when did something have to be a "serious piece of groundbreaking drama" in order to win an Emmy?  
ffs, they give soap operas emmy's.


----------



## Dan U (Sep 23, 2013)

Miss Caphat said:


> since when did something have to be a "serious piece of groundbreaking drama" in order to win an Emmy?
> ffs, they give soap operas emmy's.



yeah fair point. but in the best drama category it would be a pretty thin year for Downtown to even be on the shortlist, let alone win.


----------



## Miss Caphat (Sep 23, 2013)

spanglechick said:


> I think the point was that it isn't particularly well-made.  The acting is patchy and the storylines are terrible soap-opera fodder.  It's a great guilty pleasure, but frustrating that anyone would put it up against something of actual quality, like Breaking Bad.   The hypothesis, then, is that people are blinded by the costumes and heightened RP into thinking it is better quality than it patently is.
> 
> Yes ppl love it, but ppl love Eastenders too.



I understand the point, I just don't see the need to take cheap shots at Americans in general while making it. (not that you were doing that!)


----------



## Miss Caphat (Sep 23, 2013)

Dan U said:


> yeah fair point. but in the best drama category it would be a pretty thin year for Downtown to even be on the shortlist, let alone win.



ok, I get it. I get it. you don't think the show is very good. 
it does seem like a lot of people have a different opinion though. 
I'm not really into the show enough to try to argue for it.


----------



## trashpony (Sep 24, 2013)

What did Edna do? I can't remember. Is she the one that was shagging Hugh Bonneville?


----------



## bi0boy (Sep 24, 2013)

trashpony said:


> What did Edna do? I can't remember. Is she the one that was shagging Hugh Bonneville?



I don't know either, I thought she might have been the prostitute but it appears not.


----------



## Looby (Sep 24, 2013)

She's the one that was trying to get in with Tom Branson after Sybil died. I think Mrs Hughes got rid of her.


----------



## Leafster (Sep 24, 2013)

trashpony said:


> What did Edna do? I can't remember. Is she the one that was shagging Hugh Bonneville?



No, she's the one who was tried to shag Tom Branson.

ETA: sparklefish beat me to it.


----------



## madamv (Sep 24, 2013)

She pursued Tom after Sybil died and wouldn't 'know her place'

I didn't remember either, I had to Google


----------



## madamv (Sep 24, 2013)

Ha.  Get you sparklefish and your downton knowledge!


----------



## Looby (Sep 24, 2013)

madamv said:


> Ha.  Get you sparklefish and your downton knowledge!



Well I've watched it all quite recently haven't I? 3 series in a few weeks. : o 

I did google to check I was right though.


----------



## madamv (Sep 29, 2013)

Ooh Barrow up to his usual tricks worragit.

Nice episode tonight.  Lots happened which was an improvement


----------



## bi0boy (Oct 2, 2013)

Will the Lady Mary insist that a new drain is dug in the lower meadow, and that their tenant farmers don't put out more than a dozen head of cattle per acre? If she does I reckon Lord Grantham will be unhappy about it, but his wife and mother will bring him round.

Also, Lady Edith's love interest is so totally going to come back from Germany and mention hearing a rousing speech by a young fellow called Adolf.


----------



## Bears (Oct 2, 2013)

Or are he and Edith going to tell everyone how worrying the rise of fascism is and nobody is going to listen because nobody listens to Edith ever?

And then she'll get to continue to do that woe is me face she does so well.


----------



## bi0boy (Oct 2, 2013)

Also, will Branson bone Mary?


----------



## Dan U (Oct 2, 2013)

bi0boy said:


> Also, will Branson bone Mary?



In the face.

and then he can be like all 'ha ha i shagged TWO of your daughters, in your face posh bloke'


----------



## Bears (Oct 2, 2013)

Or that new ladies maid? Or Maggie Smith? (Too much...?)


----------



## Bears (Oct 6, 2013)

Didn't see that coming with Anna


----------



## Espresso (Oct 6, 2013)

If there were spoilers anywhere for tonight's episode, I didn't see them. So I was absolutely gobsmacked by what happened to Anna. She's right though, Mr Bates would kill that git, Dennis Rickman.


----------



## Bears (Oct 6, 2013)

Espresso said:


> If there were spoilers anywhere for tonight's episode, I didn't see them. So I was absolutely gobsmacked by what happened to Anna. She's right though, Mr Bates would kill that git, Dennis Rickman.



He totally would. Mrs Housekeeper Woman (forgotten her name!) knew it too, or she would have got the doctor anyway.


----------



## Espresso (Oct 6, 2013)

Anna's going to be pregnant, isn't she?


----------



## Rebelda (Oct 6, 2013)

Espresso said:


> Anna's going to be pregnant, isn't she?


Reckon so. Fucksake, I really needed tonight's Downton to be fluffy


----------



## wiskey (Oct 6, 2013)

Who was that bloke? never seen him before and obv missed his intro...


----------



## Espresso (Oct 6, 2013)

wiskey said:


> Who was that bloke? never seen him before and obv missed his intro...


He was the valet of that visiting Lord who fancies Mary.


----------



## wiskey (Oct 6, 2013)

Espresso said:


> He was the valet of that visiting Lord who fancies Mary.


Thanks


----------



## susie12 (Oct 7, 2013)

Well at least something happened.  The first episode pretty much hinged on whether Cora could dress herself.


----------



## Bears (Oct 7, 2013)

susie12 said:


> Well at least something happened.  The first episode pretty much hinged on whether Cora could dress herself.



Yep. This episode pretty much put Downton back in the game for me. Last episode was just a recycling of a storyline with Sybil. And I find I don't really care about Matthew's valet either. 

Not very fluffy though.


----------



## wiskey (Oct 7, 2013)

beeb said:
			
		

> ITV has received 60 complaints over the latest episode of costume drama Downton Abbey, broadcast on Sunday.
> 
> Viewers took to Twitter to express their "shock" and "distress" after Anna ... was attacked and raped by a guest's valet.



http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-24436893


----------



## Bears (Oct 8, 2013)

wiskey said:


> http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-24436893[/quote
> 
> The reason I liked it was exactly the reason for the complaints. I thought it was getting a bit too cosy and dull. As much as you can like rape. But I don't think that they should pretend that service was a cosy existence.
> 
> Is 60 complaints really very much? Or are the BBC trying to discredit Downtown as a successful costume drama made somewhere that isn't the BBC?


----------



## wiskey (Oct 8, 2013)

I had the same thought.

I was also surprised that 60 people were actually that upset that it wasn't all fluffyness.


----------



## Bears (Oct 8, 2013)

wiskey said:


> I had the same thought.
> 
> I was also surprised that 60 people were actually that upset that it wasn't all fluffyness.



Were they actually employees and family of people at the BBC?


----------



## bi0boy (Oct 8, 2013)

I was hoping Anna would stab him in the eye socket with a soup ladle or something. That would have been more in keeping with the rest of the drama than a dose of contemporary realism.


----------



## RedDragon (Oct 8, 2013)

Downton's usually has sub-plots resolving themselves within the episode so having Anna stab him would've been in keeping. As it stands, it was tacky and gratuitous.


----------



## bi0boy (Oct 9, 2013)

Of course she will be preggers now. So what's going to happen? Will Mrs Hughes take her to see a certain lady in Lincoln? Will she pretend she did it willfully with some stranger so as to protect Bates from his own hotheadedness?


----------



## Dan U (Oct 9, 2013)

The daily mail worked itself in to a fervour about the shocking scenes of rape in this family show. 

Quite a few in the comments pointed out quite how daft that comment was, not least it being post watershed. 

It was nice to see something other than Lady Mary mithering about how happy she was before in exactly the same joyless monotone voice she used when she was so happy before. God I wish they would kill that character in some kind of slow and monotonous accident devoid of any expressions of emotion. 

They killed the wrong sister basically.

Also where the fuck are these people's children. Even the irish matey who is supposed to be alrite never claps eyes on his child. No wonder the proper aristos are so fucked up if this is how they raise kids


----------



## susie12 (Oct 9, 2013)

They're with nanny of course!


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## Dan U (Oct 9, 2013)

susie12 said:


> They're with nanny of course!


. What nanny the child abuser or did they find a new one


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## madamv (Oct 9, 2013)

Can't Bates sire?


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## Bears (Oct 9, 2013)

I don't know! but Anna would be out of a job.


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## Rebelda (Oct 16, 2013)

Maybe Edith will be the one to get pregnant  I'm glad the scheming lady's maid has gone, that story line was going nowhere. They're making a much bigger deal of fertility and the impact pregnancy can have this time. Don't think it was mentioned at all when Lady Mary had it off with the Turkish Ambassador way back when.


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## Bears (Oct 16, 2013)

And the big deal means somebody is pregnant. Are they both pregnant. Are they about to show the difference between pregnancy in upper and lower classes? Or the difference between pregnancy in or out of wedlock?


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## Rebelda (Oct 16, 2013)

Bears said:


> And the big deal means somebody is pregnant. Are they both pregnant. Are they about to show the difference between pregnancy in upper and lower classes? Or the difference between pregnancy in or out of wedlock?


Maybe the class difference, as there was the maid that got pregnant by an officer when the Abbey was a WWI convalescence home. Poor Anna, although she is getting to reprieve some of her hollyoaks junkie acting


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## Bears (Oct 16, 2013)

I didn't know that! I remember she was a bad lot in Corrie...


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## Rebelda (Oct 16, 2013)

I am completely wrong. It was Corrie.


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## bi0boy (Oct 31, 2013)

So Edith is racist. Nazis anyone?


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## Espresso (Nov 10, 2013)

Is Mr Molesley going to get a ladyfriend?


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## Espresso (Nov 10, 2013)

Cor blimey 'eck! 
Mr Bates must have liked prison.


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## trashpony (Nov 10, 2013)

Espresso said:


> Cor blimey 'eck!
> Mr Bates must have liked prison.


We never really knew if he killed Mrs B number one. So I suppose we're never going to know if he killed Mr Green either


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## bi0boy (Nov 11, 2013)

trashpony said:


> We never really knew if he killed Mrs B number one. So I suppose we're never going to know if he killed Mr Green either



I guess Mary will put two and two together and we'll see if she repays Anna for being discrete about the Turkish incident.


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## madamv (Nov 12, 2013)

But, he went to York?!

I wonder if there will be conflict between them over her suspecting him, and then we shall find out he was in York all along....


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## madamv (Nov 12, 2013)

Oh and I am rather liking everyone more this season.  Lady Mary is warming up, Lady Edith is a proper sad situation, Lady Grantham was so pleased to see Robert that I was also smiling away like a donut on the sofa.  Even irritating Mr Moseley warmed the cockles of me heart.  And Im rather pleased Tom may have a reason to say, he is quite the sexpot imo.   Actually, so is Mr Barrow.  I saw him on Jonathan Ross a couple weeks ago and he is quite the hotty


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## William of Walworth (Nov 12, 2013)

madamv said:


> But, he went to York?!
> 
> I wonder if there will be conflict between them over her suspecting him, and *then we shall find out he was in York all along*....


 

Have my doubts on that one!


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## madamv (Nov 12, 2013)

Don't you think its too obvious? He was a nasty man, he must have pissed plenty off.


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## William of Walworth (Nov 12, 2013)

See what you're getting at but when has 'obvious' stopped Downton so far? 

(Don't get me wrong, we've been watching it all and will definitely be back for the next series  -- and the Xmas special!)


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## Espresso (Nov 13, 2013)

Maybe Lord Gillingham offed him, because Mary said she wanted him sacked for mysterious reasons she couldn't go in to. As some sort of bonkers "I will do anything for you, my one true love" gig.


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## William of Walworth (Nov 13, 2013)

Lord G, the 'devastatedly bereaved' ex-employer,  was the one who brought the news all that way up, after all 

Any excuse 

Suppose it beats some ultra lame (and invented) agricultural conference in Whitby as a pretext


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## susie12 (Nov 13, 2013)

Would Murderer Bates have had time to get to London and back in a day?  Or is that just stupid reality thinking creeping in?


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## RedDragon (Nov 13, 2013)

susie12 said:


> Would Murderer Bates have had time to get to London and back in a day?  Or is that just stupid reality thinking creeping in?


Seemingly not if you follow the chatter on many sites - who needs HS2 if a hundred years ago one could already travel from York to London, find then shove a rapist under a bus and be home in time for tea.


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## Bears (Nov 14, 2013)

Espresso said:


> Maybe Lord Gillingham offed him, because Mary said she wanted him sacked for mysterious reasons she couldn't go in to. As some sort of bonkers "I will do anything for you, my one true love" gig.


I really hope so. I'd like to credit them with some originality, but as you say, the evidence is against it.


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## Johnny Canuck3 (Dec 14, 2013)

Just saw the first two seasons; not going to read the last part of this thread, as it appears to get into the plot of the 3rd and 4th.

I've enjoyed it so far - a well acted, lavish soap opera that draws you into the many dramas of the characters' lives.

I'd never really thought much about the reality of an aristocracy, about day to day life. If the truth was anything like it's portrayed here - large household staff, posh people unused to getting dressed or undressed without assistance, posh people who've never boiled an egg, etc - then the inequalities of the class divide were egregious, blatant, and disgusting.

The haves sitting atop a mass of subservient have-nots.


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## RedDragon (Dec 14, 2013)

Rule 1: Downton* isn't* a documentary

Rule 2: Class divide was much worse

Rule 2a: The divide amongst the divided was just as obscene.


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## William of Walworth (Dec 26, 2013)

Is the Downton Xmas special being discussed elsewhere?


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## madamv (Dec 26, 2013)

I'm halfway through.  Ill be back ....


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## thriller (Dec 26, 2013)

...


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## madamv (Dec 26, 2013)

Nice ep. Poor Edith.  Granny looked so frail at her end scene. Mary needs to meet a new beau.  All hers are too simpering.  Tom should smack Barrow in the chops for being a smug twat.


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## bi0boy (Dec 26, 2013)

It was set like a year after the last one. Blimey. Roll on Hitler.


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## pennimania (Dec 28, 2013)

I watched the 'special' last night.

I've already forgotten what it was about.


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## bubblesmcgrath (Oct 12, 2014)

What do ye think of this year's series so far?
Maggie Smith is one  of the only reasons I'm still watching..


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## Bears (Oct 12, 2014)

bubblesmcgrath said:


> What do ye think of this year's series so far?
> Maggie Smith is one  of the only reasons I'm still watching..


I thought she was looking significantly older this series. Still a top notch performance though.


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## Shirl (Oct 12, 2014)

pennimania said:


> I watched the 'special' last night.
> 
> I've already forgotten what it was about.


I didn't watch the last series or any of this one. I hope I'm right when I think I'm not missing anything.


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## bubblesmcgrath (Oct 12, 2014)

Bears said:


> I thought she was looking significantly older this series. Still a top notch performance though.



She's brilliant! !!
But very frail looking


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## pennimania (Oct 12, 2014)

Shirl said:


> I didn't watch the last series or any of this one. I hope I'm right when I think I'm not missing anything.


Richard E Grant is looking quite hot in evening dress


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## Shirl (Oct 12, 2014)

pennimania said:


> Richard E Grant is looking quite hot in evening dress



Richard E Grant in Downton Abbey?  
I may have to re-evaluate


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## pennimania (Oct 12, 2014)

Shirl said:


> Richard E Grant in Downton Abbey?
> I may have to re-evaluate


Yep, I thought you might


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## pennimania (Oct 12, 2014)

I haven't watched tonight's episode yet, is it any good?


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## bubblesmcgrath (Oct 12, 2014)

pennimania said:


> I haven't watched tonight's episode yet, is it any good?




Sorry.....I gave up on it a few minutes ago and I've gone to bed...


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## MrSki (Oct 12, 2014)

bubblesmcgrath said:


> Sorry.....I gave up on it a few minutes ago and I've gone to bed...


That has spoilt it for me.  I was going to watch it on catch up but won't bother now.


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## Bears (Oct 12, 2014)

I'll watch it on catch up. I don't care if it's shit. I just like being in that oldy-worldy couldn't-possibly-have-been-like-that world.


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## bi0boy (Sep 29, 2015)

So will they have their wedding reception in the house????


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## bi0boy (Sep 29, 2015)

Last series ever


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## bi0boy (Sep 29, 2015)

Will Thomas find a boyfriend?


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## bi0boy (Sep 29, 2015)

And what about the hospital!!!


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## trashpony (Sep 29, 2015)

No
No
Yes


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## gaijingirl (Sep 29, 2015)

For the love of God - will someone kill off Lady Mary!?


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## bi0boy (Sep 29, 2015)

gaijingirl said:


> For the love of God - will someone kill off Lady Mary!?



I don't think there's time for her to get married so maybe yes.


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## trashpony (Sep 29, 2015)

gaijingirl said:


> For the love of God - will someone kill off Lady Mary!?


Perhaps she'll fall in a slurry pit. Or be crushed by a Gloucester Old Spot


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## Rebelda (Sep 29, 2015)

It'll end with a reconciliation between Mary and Edith. That was the relationship they both needed to fix, not husbands, blah blah.


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## susie12 (Sep 29, 2015)

If Mary could find another facial expression or vary her voice a little it would be something.


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## bi0boy (Dec 26, 2015)

So much pairing everyone off and tying up plot lines there wasn't time for any drama in the xmas special .


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