Anyone fancy a general Downton Abbey chat?

[BernadetteRostankowskiWolowitz]

I'm rewatching at the moment and have so many thoughts about it but no one I know really watches it.

I love the house, it's on my list of places to go if I'm ever in the area. I do wonder how much of it there is we don't see in the show.

I always wonder about the relationship between upstairs and dow stairs generally, and how much artistic license is used to make the Crawleys seem nicer.
Would they really pay for their cooks cataracts operation? And fund their valets legal fees? I'd like to think so.

I'm reminded in the early episodes how cruel Edith and Mary are to one another yet they do a great job of developing Edith into such a likeable person. Furious they killed off Sybil but I love the version of Tom we get after her death.

Highclete house is lovely and very worth a visit. When you round the corner on the drive and see the house

Doh, posted too soon. When you see the house it's great, everyone just went Oooh!

I still can't believe Mary outed Edith to her future husband regarding her little girl (can't remember her name). That was so spiteful.

I discovered Downton last winter and fell in love! I watched it every chance I got and it really was a lovely watch over Christmas.

I think I am the only person ever who doesn't like Tom. I find him very twee and cringy and pompous. I loved his politics but not the character.

I love poor Molesley and Carson.I love the Dowager and her relationship that develops with Isobel

Sadly it's about 6 hours drive for me so will have to be done when I'm specifically near it for something else

It was - but in fairness, Edith wrote to the Turkish Embassy to say their Agent died while in the bed of her sister and that she carried his dead body back to his own bed.

So swings and roundabouts

I think the upstairs downstairs relationship was quite accurate. Especially when thinking about long term servants like cooks, butlers, valets etc.

There was definitely a sense in the past that the landed gentry should be 'good' employers 'good' landlords 'good' masters and 'good' Christians.

@BernadetteRostankowskiWolowitz Oh yes I completely forgot about that! Good point! That was one of the best storylines, Mr Pamauk, (sp?). I love that scene when Mary wakes Anna and they all have to carry him back to bed.

I always wondered how much Daisy actually saw.

Daisy gets dumped with everyone's burdens doesn't she.

Glad to hear that there was a drive to be a good employer irl.

The dowager is my favourite too.

God, I love Maggie Smith's dowager. I want to be like her when I grow up.

I always thought Mary was so spiteful and arrogant, I never wanted things to work out well for her because of that. I wish Matthew had married Edith instead and Edith inherited the house/estate/title.

I do love that Edith outranks them all.

It's interesting because what what considered a "good" employer, probably isn't now.
Paying for cataract operation = good
Only having an afternoon off a week = bad
😁

I love DA, the only thing that I can't get over is if that guy was Patrick Crawley, back from the dead.
Was it him or was he a scammer?
The Canadian accent and burnt face lends to him being a scammer. But what if Edith is right and miracle or miracles happened and he really was him!

there is a couple of great books on kindle that are the original scripts and Julian Fellows the writer explains a lot of the dynamics / stories and how they are based on real stories! even Mr punuak (sp)

check out official podcast with Anita rani. its fab!!

I LOVE Downton Abbey. The saying "don't be spiky, Granny" is now commonplace in my house whenever someone is in a bad mood for no particular reason.

I didn't much care for the repeated Mr and Mrs Bates in legal trouble storylines and now I'm on my 5th or 6th watch through I tend to skip those parts.

Has anyone here watched it with a dc? I’ve sometimes thought of trying it with DD (12) as she liked Hetty Feather and similar period stuff when she was younger. She also likes Maggie Smith a lot.

I only watched the first 2 series, iirc, of Downton when they first came out and I think I remember a rape storyline but not too graphic, is that right?

Oooh this is great. I am very late to the party. I said I would go with my friend to see the latest film and so I watched the first one and loved it. Now I am watching the whole thing on Netflix.

I want to know if it was really Patrick - if it was why did he disappear?

It is so different from the Upstairs Downstairs series of my youth - everyone is so much nicer - apart from Thomas and O'Brien and even O'Brien improved before she disappeared.

I love Downton Abbey. I do wonder about the relationship between upstairs and downstairs though. I think people like Anna and Mr Bates would be quite close to the upstairs lot (didn't Bates and his Lordship know each other previously?)

A more likely scenario is when Edith says to one of the maids, 'you worked for us for two years and we didn't even know your name?'

And I love Rose - the scene where the Prince of Wales 'gatecrashes' the ball and dances with her is fabulous.

I do feel sorry for Rose her mother is awful.

I always loved edith from series 1 so Im glad she got her happy ever after and shes higher ranked than everyone. Mary very annoying.

In a massive Downton fan 😃 it's so good. Mary is horrible at times but Edith could also be. Granny is my favourite.
I really disliked the teacher who was into politics / Tom. I don't know why. She was just anti Downton and it spoilt the episodes 🙈
Also too many prison scenes for bates /Anna.

But it's just amazing the whole thing. Beautiful programme. Isobel is such a true lady.

@Hoolahulahoop yeah I really disliked her too. So much negativity towards Downton, she just didn't get it.

Agree re the Anna/Bates prison saga. Lots of time spent on that. Too much really.

SPOILERS! I love Downton too and have watched it so many times over. I always thought that Michael Gregson would turn up at the last moment and declare he’s not dead, and Edith would end up with him.

I enjoyed the Edith story lines the most, and also the series before Sybil and Matthew died.