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.

I’ve visited the house. It’s a bit disappointing, I mean it’s very beautiful and some of the most recognisable bits are lovely to see (the staircase) but some of the rooms you look round are a bit odd. One of the bathrooms looked like someone had just got out the bath. There was a champneys shower gel on the side of it. Although obviously it is a residential home and people do live there but it did take a bit of the downton shine off.

The kitchens are filmed elsewhere. It’s a nice morning out though.

following for fun. you've got me in the mood to re watch

I'm up to the point where Sybil has just died, and Lord G is massively struggling with change. Love the mirroring downstairs where Carson also can't cope.

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.

definite rape then- there is no away she knew enough about the world to willingly consent to that based upon what he said!

interesting that Julian fellows said there were lines missing on the cutting room floor from that scene- definite example of poor editing.

I was under the impression that she was raped but that the very fact that he had entered her bedroom was enough for her to lose respectability. I thought she didn't see any point in explaining that she had been coerced.

SPOILER ALERT FOR SEASON FOUR!!
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See, I think Mary wouldn't have seen it as rape as he wasn't violent and the thinking of the day was that men will be men and it's up to women to decline and fight if the man persists (see Carson's denouncement of Ethel). They definitely view Anna's rape as rape, but that was a classic violent man rapes struggling girl. Mary's was persuasion and coercion which we view as rape these days, but back then I don't think it was viewed as such.

Please note, I am in no way excusing the behaviour, just trying to put it into historical context for why no one seemed too bothered for what had happened to her, only her reputation.

I think given that s4 was aired 9 years ago, please don't feel obliged to put spoiler alerts on posts.

I think you’re right that she/her mother didn’t see it as rape.

Whether it was classed as rape or not, the point was that Mary was 'soiled goods' and therefore unsuitable as a partner in that era. Hence the desperate secrecy. I wonder too exactly what Daisy saw. She appears to have seen the body being carried out of the room, but what she thought about it, we don't find out.

Am I the only one who can't stand Daisy? Selfish and moaney, and quite nasty to anyone she didn't like.

I agree she's all these things, but perversely I like her.

She had a rotten job, which we saw in the first episode when she had to lay all the fires, and she had to get up before 6 o'clock so that she could rouse the other maids.

She didn't get on with Ivy and was quite nasty to her but that was out of jealousy.

She was always the butt of Mrs Patmore's temper and frustration, and was on her feet until late at night.

What I do like is that in the end, she becomes almost a surrogate daughter to Mrs. Patmore.

I enjoyed it until Matthew was killed off - that was a Christmas episode, I don’t know what they were thinking when they decided to kill him off like that. What a downer that was at the end of a fun Christmas day - it definitely killed the mood in our house 😂 I understand he needed to die somehow - but literally just a bad luck car accident a few minutes after he was buzzing meeting his child for the first time. Just no. It was completely unnecessary. The writers were idiots. Took me a while to watch it again after that.

I'm a rarity it seems as my favourite character was Mary. 😮 Not that I can't see that she was a bitch but I loved her assurance and elegance, and her friendship with Anna. I found Edith too whiny. The proposal scene outside in the snow with Matthew is one of my favourite comfort watches. I dont think her acceptance of Henry Talbot was very realistic. I think she would have been better off with the other guy whose name I have forgotten - Charles? The guy she was with when they saved the pigs.

I think her character was supposed to be about 12/13 in season one so I forgive her childishness given she was a working child.

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.

I’m intrigued - how was it inaccurate @latetothefisting, and is the entail storyline in Pride and Prejudice also inaccurate?

She had an absolutely miserable existence, in spite of having brains, which she could do nothing at all about, due to the circumstances of her birth (and the fact that she also seemed to be an orphan).

Until mid lockdown I had never watched Downton and had absolutely zero interest in watching it for some reason. Then one day I decided to see what the fuss was all about... been absolutely addicted since! I've watched the entire series about 4 times, the films several times each, and am going to visit Highclere next month. Absolutely love it.

I'm on the episode they first go to Brancaster, and it strikes me how frustrated I'd be dining with them. One massive table and one single waiter going round with each item.

By the time everyone has a plated meal it would be stone cold.

The one waiter inevitably has a panic attack/heart attack/dastardly plan to disrupt dinner also. Annoying

Yeah they should have had him heroically rescuing someone by say jumping in front of a car to save them.

Or just been true to how marriages end in modern day life and had Mary find letters (because whatsapp didn't exist in those days) from a lover and decide to LTB

I love DA. Seems to be an unpopular opinion but. I didn’t like Mary’s other husband Henry Charles Blake was the best suitor for her (the one that helped her with the pigs).

My favourite couple are Molsley and Baxter and I also loved Denker and Spratt scheming against each other. Thomas the evil butler was brilliant and had the best storylines. No one beats The Dowager though. Her one liners make the show!

Also love that the actresses that play Edith and Mary are very close in real life and used to live next to each other. Maybe they still do. Edith is dating Andrew in real life and they have a baby.

I could never get past Charle Blake’s resemblance to Mr Bean once DD pointed it out.

That’s Anthony Foyle. Charles Blake was the other won that liked Mary. He was the best out of them all. Anthony Foyle was a creepy stalker.

One not won lol