Downton Abbey 3rd Movie: The Grand Finale

[HeavensWhatASnappyCharriot]

Thoughts please…
I’m a huge Downton fan and I’ve just watched the final film. I’m not entirely sure how I feel as I really built it up in my head and the film was so… different. It did feel a bit warm and fuzzy in places but also quite disappointing. What did you think?

The brother went to meet someone for dinner so maybe that’s why he had to to come to London first. I don’t think it was clearly explained but obvs a plot device so Mary and the conman were left alone in the London house.

@PoohneedsaPimms I thought Tony Gillingham was the best of all Mary’s suitors!

@Eastie77Returns Me too! I thought Tony was the best suitor and very supportive of Mary’s role in co-running the estate.

I liked it.
I’m the least sentimental person ever but the final scene, especially Sybil 🥲 was quite perfect.

Just awful. I watched it ironically though and had a good laugh!

I’ve just watched a repeat of the episode where they all go to Scotland to stay with Rose’s parents, Shrimpy and Susan. The two of them are not getting along and Robert asks if they will divorce as he says it’s become more acceptable these days and mentions someone he knows who divorced. This is a decade before the latest film, yet a major theme of the film is how scandalous Mary’s divorce is. Doesn’t seem to tie up.

Why? Something can be slightly more socially acceptable than it was 10 years ago but still be judged by a large number of people. Look at gay relationships, for example - in 1970 it would certainly have been a lot more acceptable to have a gay son than it would have even 10 years earlier as it was no longer illegal, doesn't mean most families would have been bragging about it. Even now some people are reluctant to talk about their children's same sex partners.

With divorce, even in the 1990s with the royal family it was seen as an absolute last resort and very disappointing, so hardly surprising it was still a big deal 60 years earlier.

Also Robert was saying that to Shrimpy IIRC. To the best of my knowledge of social history it wasn’t the Men who were shunned by society after divorce, it was the Women. I’ve been watching the 3rd season of The Gilded Age and the consequences of being a divorced Woman is a strong theme in the series.

Yeah I think the consequences for divorced women were very different than those for men.

I liked Shrimpy. Susan was evil to poor Rose!

I watched an old Tales of the Unexpected last week and Susan was in that about 24 years old!

She was also Lady Cordelia Flyte in the original (and best) Brideshead Revisited.

I thought as Susan in DA she emoted 'discontented' so very well. Reminded me strongly of someone I once knew so was quite unsettling.

Finally watched last night on Sky. It was like being wrapped in a warm blanket, with odd bits sticking out that weren’t quite right, but still comforting.