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.

Ahh right! He was creepy!

Edith is dating Andrew in real life and they have a baby

Oh that is a lovely fact!

I think the butler at Brancaster looks more like Mr Bean. Agree, Charles Blake was the best suitor for her

I watched Downton in the first few weeks of lockdown in 2020 and it was so good for escapism. Love the theme tune. But I definitely preferred the first three series.

I can’t remember who Andrew is - is that the chap who plays Daisy’s husband?

He reminds me a bit of Kevin from Motherland

Highclere Is over priced and nothing special. It's much smaller than it looks!

@Twizbe I think it's completely inaccurate. The servants kept to their places just as much as the family did. They'd have never been friends in the way that is portrayed in the series. Of course thee would have been some familiarity with the ladies maids and valets. And some staff would have known the children from birth. But apart from that the hierarchy was strictly maintained.

I'm glad to see I wasn't the only one who got Mary's suitors all mixed up with each other!

I can't get over Tony being Lord Gillingham. Pronounced with a G not J. I used to live in Gillingham with a G not a J and it makes me chuckle as it's nothing special. Dorset has a few hereditary landowners but none of them have ever been titled Gillingham (although there is an Earl of Shaftesbury, which is smaller than Gillingham but much more important in a feudal church sense)

Ditto, when they have the big house party they make reference to a Countess of Yeovil at some point. I think the closet Yobvile has ever gotten to nobility is nicking it's wheels!

I wonder if they based there characters titles on historical accuracy or just randomly assigned them town/village names.

Oh I think they totally make them up.

Is anyone else confused by the lack of maids? I watched an episode from Series 5 last week when someone was arriving at the house and they had a whole row of maids in black and white standing outside the house. Even if Anna and Baxter ever wore maid livery (is it livery for the ladies or just the men?) that would still only be the two of them. Upstairs Downstairs was positively over run with them by comparison.

Would it be something to do with curtailing expenses after the war? Or else maids leaving to work in factories and the family being unable to replace them.

But apart from the young girl with a typewriter they didn't have maids before the war. I know they didn't replace the footmen but just wondered who does all the dusting!

I thought they did. In the first episode where Anna is opening the curtains, lots of maids are going about doing the dusting and such. They seemed to disappear as the series continued.

I adore this show and think it's one of TV's great works.

Now streaming is the 'thing' I'm unsure we'll ever have another huge Sunday night saga like this.

This used to air on ITV if memory serves but dramas on there and on BBC seem to just be dramas that spread over a few weeks eg a 4 partner, and that's it.

Nothing I can think of since this and Poldark on BBC1 has been 'big'.

List of maids attached.

Obviously some of them had speaking parts and storylines, like Gwen, Ethel, Jane, Edna etc. The rest were extras, or mentioned by name once or twice.

Also, in the beginning, Anna was head house maid as well as being the daughters communal ladies maid.

One of my favourite bits is Dickie Merton's marriage proposal to Isobel. Made me go a bit giddy over Douglas Reith for a time. My best friend who watched it with me, said, "What's up with her? If he'd said all that to me, I would have screamed 'yes' and had him up the stairs so fast, I'd have made his head spin."

There are random maids as extras in some scenes as well. More in earlier series I just think not many had developed stories,

I also loved how Isobel &Violet's relationship progresses.

Never liked Mary & could have cheered when Edith called her a bitch.

There was a scene where Robert & Cora are discussing Edith & say something like "poor Edith will never marry but at least that means she'll be there for us when we're old".

No wonder she felt as she did & got Mary back when she could.

Mary was always so lauded but I never knew why-all she had that Edith didn't was being born first & the arrogance that went with that.

One of my favourite scenes is when Edith says that Bertie is the heir-Mary's face.

Loved when Isobel & Violet "rescue" Lord Merton.

He says something like "how perfectly marvellous" & Penelope Wilton does fabulous smile & scrunch of her nose.

Is Carson ever going to retire??

He keeps getting dragged out again for the films.

I hated how proud he looked of Edith when she married.

Two faced git!

Love the scenery and costumes, cannot abide the story lines. Poor scripts a feature of other work by the same author.

Though I know many enjoy it and there are several fine actresses and actors in it.

I am re-watching, (about half way through season 1) and while I always felt sorry for poor, put upon Edith, i had forgotten that she was an awful spiteful bitch.

She and Mary were both completely foul for most of the first series.

At least Mary knew she was a bitch, she owned it, but simpering Edith pretends to be nice. Sybil is the only truly nice one.

Just a reminder to anyone binging on Netflix - it's only there until the 14th August.

I watched the last episode yesterday. I really liked the way they prepared for the end, tying up the loose ends, and signalling all the way through the series that it was going to be the last.

I wasn't keen on Mary or Edith although I think Mary was marginally nicer. Although everything is exaggerated I thought their relationship was very well done and reflected in other groups of siblings that I've seen.

I have thoroughly enjoyed it and want to watch the movies again now I know who's who!

I'm watching again, annoyingly were going on holiday next week so I might not have time to get to the end.
They all annoy me. Mary and Edith are vile. Bates is creepy. All the servants are horrid. Thomas and the woman, I've forgotten her name, trying to catch Bates out, Bates and Anna trying to catch the others out, they're just awful.
I'm not sure why I'm actually watching it when everyone annoys me 😀