Downton Abbey - ITV1

I loved it, love this period and this type of drama.

Adverts dont worry me, I find it hard to sit for so long so like being able to get up and do something else for a minute at intervals!
 
Bit of a clanger yourself, I'm afraid. He was playing Peg O' My Heart which was published in 1913 and was used in Ziegfield Follies of that year. I'm not quite sure whether DA has reached 1913 yet (Have we been through a winter since the sinking of the Titanic?) but I'm not going to quibble about a few months here or there.
 
Mrs Patmore's poor sight has been heading our way for a couple of weeks now.

Her treatment of Daisy is redolent of Mrs. Bridge's treatment of poor Ruby in Upstairs Downstairs and the salt/sugar confusion reminded me of Ruby's mistake when she thought Mrs. Bridges wanted her to use bitter rather than butter in a recipe.

There's nothing new under the sun, is there?
 
I enjoyed that, but do think there's a little room for improvement - some of it was a bit obvious.

The actress playing Lady Grantham reminRAB me of Andie McDowell, and not in a good way.

On the plus side, Bates and Lord Grantham were excellent, along with most of the rest of the cast.

I also spent the first half trying to figure out where I recognised Thomas from!
 
With the proviso that episode 2 or 3 ratings are more indicative of a show's success, that's an encouraging figure.

We need show's like this to succeed to demonstrate to ITV that quality = success and that commercial drama doesn't need to be defined as something with an eviscerated prostitute or a Coldplay soundtrack.

A healthy ITV drama department that can challenge the bbc is good for the viewer. I just hope it can maintain the ratings that make it attractive to advertisers and so commercially viable, though with the fragmentation of the audience due to alternate viewing methoRAB I don't know if that is even possible these days. Does the ITV Player have adverts?
 
Looking forward to both of these have been watching Upstairs downstairs on ITV3..again! lol

I'm intirgued to know whether these series were made to compete with each other. Different families/houses, different time but the same basic them upstairs/below stairs scenario?
 
Elizabeth McGovern (IMO) is a far better actress than Andie MacDowell though. She's got a fantastic body of work behind her including Leone's Once Upon A Time in America and Milos Forman's Ragtime. She's also been in some of the better US made-for-TV-dramas (some of which are better than big screen releases).

I've spotted mistakes in it too (as you do with everything) but when the program is as entertaining as Downton Abbey is ... I can't see the point in mentioning them.

I loved Maggie Smith almost toppling in the swivel chair and wonder ... was it meant or did it look so real (and Smith is such a brilliant actress) that they just trouped on and left it in.
 
I agree that the sudden death of the good looking Turkish was left as a mystery, it looks like he had a condition. I do not think the lines in the script were open to interpretation as you say, though.
 
I suppose I would then ask what the point is in setting it in 1912? If you don't get the period "right" then set it in a period for which you do have a firm grasp.

What I can't understand is how Julian Fellowes got it so right in Gosford Park but fails to have done so for Downton Abbey - there are only 20 years between the settings of the two for goodness sake.

40 years ago Upstairs Downstairs got it pitch perfect at a fraction of the production costs. Downton Abbey is all fur coat, no knickers.
 
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