Downton Abbey - ITV1

Dodgy continuity i see, pardon me but electricity was around the time its set but they use candles and may i add the ties are not properly worn, they should be tight up to the neck.
 
It's pretty sure that that delightful Lady Mary and dear Matthew are going to fall for eachother. However much either, esp her, would rather not. You can pretty much see, through the current sparing, that they are a match for eachother. However it is also pretty obvious that Edith is going to make a play for him. Whatever happens in the end, as in which lady, if either, get their man, I don't know. We'll have to wait and see.
 
Yes, they definitely were. The hierarchy in the below stairs household was every bit as rigid as above stairs, if not moreso.



I didn't really understand though, once his LorRABhip knew that Carson had been a Cheeky Charlie and that he'd been feeding his ex stage partner from the house, there wasn't anything to blackmail him with any more, was there?
Didn't he just get paid to go away and stay away?
 
Maggie Smith in Gosford Park - "Difficult colour, green"

Maggie Smith in Downton Abbey " No one wants to kiss a girl in black"


Seen it, done it, been there!
 
I can understand your frustration, but I don't think the mistakes are as such that they seriously detract from the show, though, and I say this as a history nerd. All historical shows have inaccuracies, even ones set in the very recent past, like Mad Men, but the entail a suspension of belief anyway, they're not trying to be 100% historically accurate, they're not trying to be a dramatised history lesson - they're foremost dramas. So, while inaccuracies may be annoying, I'd still rather have them than a dramatically weak show.

And I'd seriously disagree that Downton is all look and no depth, it has character and emotional depth, and that's the most important thing to me. I'm always watching drama for the characters, above anything else.

I really enjoyed that episode - I mean, I enjoy every episode, and goodness knows what I'll do when it's finished, for an entire year, probably cry - but I love it. Poor, poor William, what a lovely guy! I think things will come good for him in the end, though, or at least, even if Daisy never notices him, he's so lovely that I can't imagine he'll be alone forever. I hope/suspect he'll soon stand up for himself.

I like that Mr Bates has appointed himself the duty of Thomas Watch, although I think he might be making things worse rather than better, aggravating Thomas further is probably going to make him worse, just like it was Bates' going "What's it to you?" that prompted Thomas to be spiteful to William and ask Daisy out, more than anything.
 
This programme looks good but I'm getting rather wary of the mass hype for it, which seems to have sprang from nowhere this last week. I really hope it won't disappoint!
 
I seem to remember the guy that brought the Turkish emissary with him to Downton putting two and two together when he spoke to Mary the following morning and she started crying and ran back upstairs. I wasn't sure at the time whether he was just thinking that she was crying because she had really liked the Turkish guy, or whether he'd guessed that she might have fallen for his 'charms' in a slightly more tangible way. So, perhaps he said something when he went back to London.
 
Seeing endless trailers for that crime thing with Stephen Tomkinson really did the head in. ITV drama is so samey, which is why Downton Abbey was such a nice treat. The heyday of ITV drama, mentioned elsewhere in this thread, gave longrunning stuff like Soldier Soldier: series that really gripped the audience. Now, it's a four-episode one off, or a same-old same-old crime thing. I am very happy to live without, and it seems a lot of other people on this forum feel the same.

Poor old ITV drama. I would also add "poor old ITV comedy". In fact, just make that "poor old ITV".

Could Downtown Abbey be a first flowering of a return to form? :confused:






I have to disagree, Sid. I have a huge problem with the idea of an "all star cast". Once upon a time, a whole cast of fairly unknown actors would appear. Or jobbing character actors familiar from small roles in other things would appear. Seeing the bloody same people in bloody everything (Stephen Tominson again. David "National Treasure" Jason. etc etc) breeRAB contempt.

People who have done well on the basis of a soap or sitcom are no different in principle.

As for the two examples you gave: I've only ever seen Rob James Collier in Corrie. (Oh, I've also seen him in my naughty dreams: does that count?:o)

Siobhan Finneran from Benidorm has done masses of other stuff, back to Rita Sue & Bob Too in the 80s.

It's a shame that the same faces trot round again and again and again, but DA doesn't have that other than Maggie Smith "doing her Maggie Smith thing". I've not seen Phyllis Logan since a Poirot a few years back. Jim Carter is always good value. Michelle Dockery could go on to big stuff. Hugh Bonneville is a standard-issue toff. I don't think I knew anyone else.




ITV has long since been Thickyvision. Just watching five mins of X Factor (which Mrs Chuff was watching), before DA came on, had me in a rage about fixed, faked and staged "reality" shows. I watcht he odd bit of Corrie, and I watch Benidorm, Harry Hill and Poirot (but not Miss Marple ... sorry "Agatha Christie's Marple"). And that's yer lot.

I tried watching ITV News after DA finished, and gave up on that afetr a couple of minutes.

Has anyone watched Bouquet of Barbed Wire? If that had been on at 9pm, I might have pondered giving it a go.

It's unusual that DA is being promoted without a "name" attached to it (arguable Maggie Smith is the "name", but that's disputable). ITV actually seem to have confidence in it. butm, then, if someone else has part financed it, that would make sense. That have less to lose.
 
Back
Top