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.

The man Edith marries is just a lovely sweet man. Her style and independence made me like her more and more. Auntie was very sweet to her.

Also I am going to admit I do fancy Mr Bates ... Shhhh 🤫
Plus Thomas is a nasty one but then adorable too when you see what he had to endure.

I bought the book in a charity shop recently. Lots of behind the scenes facts.

Love Downton too - I watched it (late to the party) with XP first of all and we both loved it, unexpectedly. Then I rewatched with DD when she was about 14 and she loved it too. She’s really into history - especially that period - and we had a lovely day at Highclere last summer. The house is smaller in real life that it seems on TV, but well worth a look around. There are lots of nods to Downton around the place and gifts etc in the shop. You could almost hear the theme tune as you come round the drive!

Agree with all the points here about Edith and Mary, Tom’s teacher lady and even fancying Mr Bates!

I said to DD during one episode “find someone who looks at you the way Bates looks at Anna!”

I think my favourite thing was the relationship between Isobel Crawley and Lady Violet. It gets off to such a prickly start.
And Penelope Wilton is so beautiful.

I used to watch it with my DD when she still lived at home. I’m also in the Dowager fan club.

Her staff were hilarious.

Having been to the house, I think they use most of the main formal rooms in the show and a few of the bedrooms, but there are loads more rooms (another 2 floors) above that. But a lot of those are in really poor condition, although the show has helped to pay for some of them. And of course the 'downstairs' at highclere is completely different (it's an Egyptology museum), so all the kitchen scenes were filmed in a studio.

I think there was a bit of both in relation to master-servant relationships - those who (if you read various autobiographies) where the families were horrendous to the staff and made them face the wall if they happened to walk into a room/pass them on the stairs, and those who were really nice to them. But even the nice ones would be in a condescending way, i.e. nice because as a PP said they felt they had an obligation to treat their 'lessers' well, rather than honestly believing everyone was all equally worthy and it was just a chance of fate what role you were born in. But then if you think about it some people are like that with celebrities now!

I also don't like Tom, he was such a hypocrite, no idea how he managed to square his "politics" into working for the very people he apparently despised for a decade and then marrying into them, twice! He literally burns down the house of the crawley-equivalents in Ireland and they work out they know the family and nobody thinks that's odd!

The Pamuk scene is interesting because at the time it was supposed to take place nobody would have ever seen it as rape and Mary would have been seen to be completely at fault. Then when it actually came out there was a bit of dispute but in the behind the scenes book JF doesn't consider it to be rape. However watching it now post me-too it seems obvious that it's coercion at the very least.

I agree the Pamuk scene is difficult watching now. Seems like rape to me. She didn’t invite him in and was shocked by his appearance. She threatened to call for someone and he threatened her with scandal if she did. He also lied to her- you will still be a virgin for your husband. Well, no she won’t…

she had everything to lose and no easy way to say no.

Yes! The relationships between them is my favourite too.
I love the little digs they make to each other, they are so full of love.
"It's a nutcracker. You know, to crack your nuts with " 😁 brilliant

I assumed he meant they would enjoy a different path, one that Barrow apparently took with that Duke chap ... so she would still be a virgin for her husband technically.

That's what I thought too @LadyFlumpalot

This might be TMI, but I thought he meant "technical" virgin - as in the hymen would still be there.
So, they just did oral sex etc.......

I'm rewatching Downton at the moment too - so much I'd forgotten about. Like Edith having that brief fling with that farmer during the war, and the maid who had the baby.

I must agree that Isobel and Violet's is the best relationship development in the whole thing. I don't fancy Bates though and find him a bit sinister, I always find myself believing that he murdered everyone.

I'm up to the bit with Rose's coming-out party (love Rose, she was a great addition to the cast to - almost - make up for the loss of Sibyl). I don't understand why they made Mary's three suitors all so similar too each other - I can't tell any of them apart. Loved Mary in the mud with the pigs though. I started off disliking Mary but I really like her by the time the war is over. I love her manner and her dryness - she is very much Violet's granddaughter.

I agree. Coercion.

I nearly fell off my chair when Carson said about Ethel/the soldier "well, men will always be men, but she......"

Then I remembered that's exactly the way it would have been seen back then.

she is very much Violet's granddaughter

Have you watched the newest movie?

Its great. Love the house the scenery. The acting is great. Carson and Mrs H my favourites.

I really miss settling down on a Sunday night to watch DA. The Downton and Poldark days were a golden era of Sunday night TV. I didn't really enjoy the depressing series after Matthew died though.

There's an epic thread about the best and worst Downton storylines you may enjoy OP!

www.mumsnet.com/talk/telly_addicts/4133738-worst-downton-abbey-storylines

No! Haven't seen the latest movie, wanted to be up to date with my rewatching first. Sounds like there's some shocking revelations...

I think it’s really interesting how upstairs has a hierarchy and downstairs has one too. Carson is like lord of the manor of downstairs (and proves to me more stuffy and stuck on tradition more so than the upstairs lot)

I always wonder - when did the dressing for dinner and the formality stop? I can’t imagine there’s a household in the land where that happens even amongst the gentry. There must have come a day when they decided not to bother.

That glowering look as he contemplated murdering anyone who crossed her you mean?

I absolutely love downton abbey and am visiting the house soon
I can't get enough of it I've also visited other houses like wentworth house that had some of downton filmed there

Not long ago hotel management would change into tails for 6pm. As in, late nineties.

I really miss settling down on a Sunday night to watch DA. The Downton and Poldark days were a golden era of Sunday night TV

Oh yes! I loved Sunday evenings when it was on. I'd have a glass of wine and watch the Strictly results show followed by Downton. Perfect.

There's going to be a "behind the scenes" at Highclere programme soonish. Should be interesting for fans.

I'd love to visit but it's very expensive.

Ooh a behind the scenes would be good.

What's the name of the book mentioned upthread? I think I'll order one.

@BernadetteRostankowskiWolowitz I have evidence that the upstairs and downstairs people did have a close relationship. My 3x great grandfather worked as a carter on a large estate according to the 1911 census - so same era as Downton! When his wife, my 3x great grandmother, passed away in 1922 the newspaper obituary said the Viscount of the estate sent flowers especially for a "dear old friend". I thought that was lovely, and I'm wondering what their friendship was like!

@LyndaSnellsSniff - the general tickets are only about £20? Sorry I don't want to be dismissive (I don't know your circumstances), and obviously depending on where you live travel costs etc would ramp the cost up, but just thought I'd mention as there was a poster on a previous DA thread who had only seen the exclusive event days they do (which are extortionate!) and had missed the general tickets section.

My pet peeve is always the stupid entail that drives the whole plot being completely wrong, but I did part of my masters in historical deeds and conveyancing so accept that is a very niche position.

@LadyFlumpalot the behind the scenes script book is hilarious, Julian fellowes spends half a page detailing how he was shocked! and aghast! that anyone could have possibly thought he meant bumsex by Pamuk's phrasing - apparently there were further lines that were cut that made it clear he meant they would have full PIV sex but she would just fake being a virgin when she married.