Downton Abbey - ITV1

Back then there was no trades description act so anybody could claim anything irrelevant of if it was true or not. They used to advertise cigarettes as being good for your health! :eek:
 
..and as far as the crown is concerned the "top job as I like to call it" can go to a female if she doesn't have any brothers or if she has outlived them - hence Mary succeeded Edward VI and Elizabeth succeeded Mary. The best example, of course, is that of our own dear Queen who succeeded her father. If strict promogeniture had applied at that time then Henry, Duke of Gloucester, George V's third son, would have succeeded his older brother, George VI and his second son, Richard, would now be king.
 
Im kind of wondering if Thomas was the illegitimate child of someone upstairs..
Also of interest note how Thomas's sexuality is implicity accepted -or understood- upstairs too.
 
BIB: Us too! Absolutely brilliant. Especially when she was told that Thomas Jefferson invented them and she a caustic remark, something like: 'MUST be fight the Americans every day? :D Brilliant!



Couldn't agree more. Excellent post.



Aren't they just? Beautiful clothes. Glad I don't have to wear the corsets though :eek::D
 
It was extremely unlikely to do better than that, there's very little 'proper' drama on TV that gets higher ratings than that. It's also something a lot of people will have recorded or will want to watch online.

X Factor's rating is given by Guardian Media as 12.5m - which is indeed huge. But 7.6m is also huge for a new drama, especially as it was up against ratings bankers on BBC1 and strong films on 4 and 5. ITV will be delighted - considering that Carnival Films (owned by Universal/NBC in the USA) funded part of the drama itself and PBS put in their usual 10% per episode.
 
He did that eighties thing on the Beeb, The Line of Beauty. Good stuff I thought, Poliakoffesque in places with a very precise evocation of the period.
 
Really enjoyed the start of Downton Abbey.

One thing I didn't really understand though, about the inheritance thing ( haven't read all of this thread, it might have been answered already )

Why do they have to settle who inherits now ? Why can't they wait to see if Lady Mary marries and has a son. If she does then surely the son would inherit. I don't understand why the duke spurning her has ruined all their options to keep it in the family. Did I miss something ?
 
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