Downton Abbey - ITV1

Help.

I've swear i've been watching, but i'm not sure why that guy has to have that stranger as an heir even though isn't childless, why can't he decide who to leave everything to?
 
Yes it's her natural accent. She has a lovely, gentle voice to my ears but obviously it's not for everyone :p


Anyway, loved Violet on the swivel chair. :D :D
 
Considering the disgrace that being an unmarried, unchaste woman would bring then, Lady Mary's seduction has hardly been mentioned. Her mother seemed slightly disgruntled, but no more than that, that she'd been woken up and had to drag a stiff (ahem around the stately pile. But there doesn't seem to have been any real condemnation or explanation by mother or daughter apart from a quick line about the marriage prospects of damaged gooRAB.

It looks though as if there may be a bit of pay-back next week, when the beans are spilt, which'll be good. It would have been interesting to have gone into the consequences a bit more - marriage prospects, social position, being an outcast from "decent" society, the effects on her sisters' prospects etc, as it's such a contrast to today's attitudes.
 
Julian Fellowes - who wrote Gosford Park - has written this so it promises to be good. The cast is stellar. Really looking forward to it.
 
Corrie always used to find a reason to have him walking around in a towel. Downton Abbey doesn't do that. What a missed opportunity. :o
 
Unemployment benefit was instituted in 1911 so Bates would probably have been covered. However it would probably have been a pittance.
 
I don't often find myself interested in period dramas, but the advert for it really caught my attention, so i'm definately going to be sitting down to watch it.
 
No, I don't work for the Daily Mail, but I have worked for newspapers and have read the Daily Mail (and other papers) for 40 years. I've always found the Mail to be straight-talking and just give me the News of the day. The paper we used to laugh at 30 years ago, was the Daily Express. It now seems fashionable to laugh at the Daily Mail, particularly among those who have never read it and particularly because it is, ostensibly, a newspaper aimed at women.

I've lived in Greece for a number of years and never had ITV, but in the past year, we have found a way of accessing it through our satellite dish. Hence, we are pretty gobsmacked at the number and length of ad breaks. This increase might have happened gradually, but we wouldn't know about that.

Ad breaks have always been seen as an opportunity to go to the loo, make a cup of tea, feed the cat, etc. But when it came to serious drama, the people I knew often felt that the BBC did big drama better, simply because there were no ad breaks and that if ITV had fewer ad breaks, it would be better. (Source: The pub! and letters pages of newspapers in the 1970s.) This is quite possibly the reason ITV is not seen as the champion of the costume or period drama. Yes, there were Brideshead Revisited and the others you name, but I didn't watch any of them BECAUSE of the ad breaks.

Pay TV doesn't apply to us or other ex-pats, so I can't comment on that. But I see The Times is advertising its online subscription, which I can only imagine is failing, because people can read other papers online for nothing. I suspect the same might apply to pay TV in the future, in just the same way as those of us who live abroad wait a year till stuff appears on Yesterday or Watch.

HinRABight is wonderful, so we can condemn the Mail for pandering to its owner's fascination and frienRABhip with fascism during the inter-war period. But, at the time, no one (that is, the general public) knew just how evil it would prove to be. Moseley wasn't that popular in GB, except among a similar tiny minority which support the BNP today. Everyone makes mistakes.
 
Not sure what kind of characters they've played before as I haven't watched Corrie for more years than I care to remember, and never watched Benidorm.

But if they were good enough in their roles, am not sure why you still identify them as other characters?

My only quibbles with casting are that Lady Mary is so like her mother the Countess and the age gap doesn't quite seem quite enough...that said it's plausible, it was just a case of me getting used to them as mother and daughter. Lady Edith is quite different looking from her sisters, but that's part of the tension between her and Lady Mary I suppose.

And, the actress Joanne Froggatt who plays the head housemaid, Anna, keeps reminding me of a young Nicola Stephenson (who played Margaret, the nanny in Brookside years ago) So I spent a while puzzling over who she actually is as an actress, rather than concentrating on the programme.
Joanne was also in Coronation Street, years ago as Zoe Tattersall.
 
Well thought through.. may also be we find Thomas has a motive for wanting someone else to marry her as well..

Also his comment 'That ones mine ' may have had more to it that meets the eye.

Theres a lot more to come out I think yet.
 
This was the first time I watched it last night because when it started I thought that they would try and do an 'Upstairs Downstairs' and, in my opinion that couldn't be beaten.
However, I was in nbed with a bl**dy sprained anke which was throbbing like billyo and I switched on the TV. I was hooked. For me it is one of the best dramas this decade.
 
Given we are only 10 months into it that's not something to shout about! Drama has been piss poor this year. Only Sherlock and This Is England 86 stand out from the crowd. Ashes To Ashes was a massive let down. It looks like the best drama has been saved till last...
 
Thanks! After the initial pain, I'm beginnning to enjoy it!:o

Good theory: I don't like Lady Marmite - IMO stuck up, unpleasant and I can't see why all the men fall for her, she's not even that nice looking. Doubtless Matthew will do the decent thing and marry her, saving her and the family's name when no one else will have her because of HER SHAME.
 
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