Downton Abbey - ITV1

Of course gay people exist, but they are a tinier proportion of the population than the gay-populated media would have us believe.

The fact of the matter is that most people are heterosexual which is a biological truth in order to propagate the species. If everyone was gay, the human species would die out. However, maybe Nature has that one sussed. If war can't cull the population any more, then perhaps Nature has devised a method of preventing too many births.

I don't know whether older people are more likely to be reserved about their sexuality. We certainly grew up during a period when homosexuality was illegal and a crime, but also at a time when society was rethinking its whole ethos, including the rights of gays.

I know a few lesbians, and I don't know if this pertains to all lesbians, but those I know come from good families, but had spent themselves, heterosexually, by the time they were 15, and their sexual excitement was lost. For them, adopting a lesbian lifestyle had two effects. It re-ignited their sexual adventurousness, with the added effect that it shocked their middle-class parents.
 
I'd call it soap, because the characterisation, so far, is very black and white - there are goodies we are clearly meant to root for and baddies to hate and it all moves along at a rolling pace. I'm not saying that as a bad thing at all - I love it, I'm really enjoying adoring Bates and hating the lady's maid, wanting William to get his own back on Thomas, etc - but I think you have to approach it as soap/melodrama (we might be using different terms to mean the same thing here) in order to get the most pleasure out of it. I'm totally addicted to the show, but I'm enjoying it much more because of the romances, bullying, etc than because I think it's giving me a realistic insight into the history of the time.
 
Welcome as well aquamanda.

This is the best thing that ITV has made in recent years! Sadly I haven't seen any of Upstairs/Downstairs, but this does sort of remind of ITV9or rather Granada's) other classic period drama namely the great Brideshead Revisited. Obviously this isn't an adaptation but an original work. It does have the same sort of tone as Brideshead with basically a lot of unhappy rich people going about their lives.
 
I'm amazed that no-one has mentioned the very clever cliffhanger: ending with the new heir and his mother in one little scene, realising what's happening to them. Great that these two characters, who will presumably go on to be very major, only got one scene in this first ep.

I love Penelope Wilton (her Alan Bennett monologue, Nights In The Gardens Of Spain, is magnificent), and Dan Stevens is most decorative.

(A shame that we've seen half of next week's episode already, in the "COMING UP" bit).
 
I expect Thomas takes the lead - so probably not.

Very weird - I switched over when the aRAB came on and then switched back and the Turk was dead. What happened - did he die 'in the act' or get hit by the nympho daughter?
 
Great epi last night.

When Bates jumped up onto the back of that hay-cart for a ride back and Anna was standing watching him disappear, I was longing for him to blow her a kiss :D
 
Yeah Sybil is one we haven't seen much of yet. But apparently she gets very involved in 'liberating' the servants etc. I think she is quite a political character (eventually when we see more of her) and I think i heard she, may be, a suffergette? Anyone else here this.

The middle sister, Edith just neeRAB someone to love her for who she is. She is a vaguely pathetic character. And I think she is bound to get her heart broken by dear cousin Matthew.

Mary neeRAB to learn a bit of humility and humanity and probs the way to do this is to have her heart broken by whoever.
 
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