Downton Abbey - ITV1

Just a small question, here. If the Turkish diplomat was in-so to speak-in flagrante delicto at the time of his demise, would he have not been found in a state of-ahem-engorgement?
 
Fine, if you don't mind sharing your bedroom and having a half day off every month.

I don't think the nobs were that benign - they got their pound of flesh
 
I used to get the same thing for THE ROYAL along with the presspack release but I worked / work in the media industry and ran a few sites promoting THE ROYAL so ITV agreed to supply said material.

I am very intrigued to see this however there is a certain tinge to this as I think ITV are hitting back at the BBC for producing the 3 new episodes of Upstairs Downstairs that will air at Christmas.

Upstairs Downstairs was of course an original ITV Drama in the same spirit of Downton Abbey.

The 3 new episodes of Upstairs Downstairs being in 1936, six years after the original series ended.
 
There didn't seem to be a problem with him having a wife, as when she asked him if he was trying to tell her he was married, he said "I was married but that's not all of it".

I actually don't mind the adverts, as it makes the programme seem longer, sad isn't it? :o
 
No, you aren't: I thought it was a bit of a mess and rather garbled.

We had to endure endless exposition about the will and how unfair it is - you can see the notes from the executives at ITV ('Make sure the viewers understand ...'). :rolleyes: The trouble is, it's being larded on so thickly now it's becoming ridiculous.

There were some potentially good elements but the butler's music hall past was something out of a Victoria Wood pastiche. We suddenly had a raft of new characters plus a whole cottage hospital that rather looked like a spin-off series waiting to happen. :eek: The rivalry between Maggie Smith and Penelope Wilton is potentially good, but why on earth would MS have rushed to the hospital and begged the man's wife not to let them operate when it might save his life then, when the wife refused, ask them all to show her husband some pity? :confused: Was this intended to make her appear malicious and scheming, or just stupid?

I think it's rather a shame so much attention is being focussed on the 'upstairs' when the 'downstairs' characters could be much more interesting. The fact that some of them were bigger snobs than Matthew was a great contrast - but why did so few of them realise their jobs could be on the line?

I'll be interested to see what the viewing figures are. I've already seen mention that it will be, as I suspected, up against David Tennant and Suranne Jones in Single Father next week - at which point DA's resilience will be tested.
 
I saw the second series on ITVsummat, as I had the first sereis on DVD and wanted to know what happened next. Second series rubbish. Characters dropped. Head transplants all round. Awful. Amanda Mealing's character was wonderfully strong and embittered, but was second-rate after the head transplant.




He was v good, Leicester Hunk. He won't let you down. ;)
 
The absolute horror shown by Mary when told that there was gossip in London that she was not chaste, made it all the more unlikely that she would have been so reckless with Pamook.

I had hoped that he had died before they "got down to business" but the fact that Mary referred to him as her Lover, means that something must have happened. ..
 
:D

Maths was never my strong point.

But somehow, like 'Wuthering Heights' which we were also denied, I expect this highly recommended new series would be best watch on a decent sized screen.
 
Are you suggesting when Liam was murdered on Corrie he went back in time to the early 20th Century and started up a knicker factory in Berkshire?:eek:;):D

Actually he was good in it and didn't mind his gay kiss - at least it's a change in character for him!

I know some complained about the constant going on about dowry and estate a bit unnecessary but I felt last episode was setting the scene, characters and establishing the rules and behaviour of the time - something US tv does a lot in their pilot episodes. I thought it was quite an interesting history lesson. And yes, I think I can guess some of the future plot from little scenes we have seen between some of the characters but I'm finding it enjoyable. I think I'll timeshift at 9.20 and skip all the commercials so to enjoy it better
 
I'm assuming that you work for the Daily Heil, then ... ;)

Tempting as it is to respond to your points about that particular 'newspaper' (and there is no such thing as a BBC propaganda machine, BTW - a real Daily Heil myth if ever there was one :eek::rolleyes:), I'll stick to DA and ITV - which is, after all, the focus of this thread. ;)

I don't dispute that there are many more commercial breaks in ITV programmes than there used to be. ITV lobbied hard for this because it wanted to increase its revenue. That's capitalism for you. That isn't something that's ever going to be reversed and if you think it's bad, try watching any of the major networks in the US. ITV is making is much money as possible from ad breaks in DA because it won't see any other income from it. It's called business.

You say:



Which 'viewers'? When? Where is the evidence to back up this statement? I don't recall viewers complaining about the commercial breaks in Brideshead Revisited, The Jewel In The Crown, The Darling BuRAB Of May, Foyle's War or even the original Upstairs, Downstairs ... They accepted that those programmes were on ITV and so would have commercial breaks.

If the ratings for DA plummet over the coming weeks because of the number of commercial breaks, sponsorship credits and trailers, then I'm sure ITV might have cause for concern. However, as the only possible threat is in the shape of the BBC scheduling Single Father on a Sunday night at 9pm, I can't see them worrying too much. As far as they are concerned, 7.6m is a result, and if a few people are miffed by the ad breaks, so be it. A report in the Daily Heil isn't going to change anything.

As for FMs being quoted in national newspapers, I would have thought that a reporter's job would be to cultivate contacts in the television industry and look for stories that way - not just trawl the internet and quote random opinions.

PS Was the Daily Mail 'straight talking' when it openly supported Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini and Oswald Mosley? (Sorry - couldn't resist ... :p:D)

PPS ITV is indeed looking at pay-TV options: http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/sep/28/coronation-street-itv-adam-crozier
 
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