Downton Abbey - anyone excited?

[turnitup]

Im so ready for a good period drama,

can't wait

THis is a good website for background on cast & characters

I like it still. Looking forward to next installment. Haven't read previous 6 pages - but does anyone have any idea what limping footman's dark secret is and why lord and master is so fond?

No, no idea about his secret.

Finding it bollocks so far tonight tbh.

Oh Mary. You plonker.

Indeed-Mary having sex, the footman William(?) assuming the guy was gay.

Would a servant really be so stupid?

Everyone fancying Mary.

this just gets better and better

No, not liking it anymore.

Don´t really like any of the characters that much so don´t really care about them.

well, DDs predictions are:

Mary is pregnant by the Turkish dead bloke, so needs to get married quickly.

She marries Matthew (wedding ceremony includes a new youngish curate - more later)

She has the baby and either

1. it's a boy; she dies in childbirth (leaving an heir)

in which case Matthew then takes up with the youngest sister (is she called Sophia?) - this may not be till next series, but it will be hinted at in the last episode of this series with lots of hand holding and significant looks.

1. it's a girl, in which case she won't die, but we'll see a hint of frisson with Sophia

Middle sister will get married (next series) to curate, who will take over parish from existing vicar (apparently he was quite old in episode 1, so wil cark it during this series).

She hasn't quite got as far as sorting out all the other ongoing stories, but thinks Bates and Anna will eventually get together , but after a lot of faffing around, so maybe in series 3. No suggestions as to the Thomas-O'Brien plotting though.

What do you reckon?

Our TV broke in the middle of this episode - just as they'd finished moving the body. Aarrggh!

At least, the reception became scrambled and I got those 'lost signal' messages, then dh tried to repair it and actually broke it. Grrrr.

Mary was very silly. Your DDs suggestions are quite comprehensive ShrinkingViolet! Though he said 'you'll still be a virgin for your husband' to Mary so I thought maybe they hadn't actually had sex properly?

Agree on Bates and Anna, it's really quite blatant that something's going to happen.

Typewriters had been around for about 40 years by 1912. I really don't think the sight of one would have had people passing out in shock. As for the Family discussing the career aspirations of their servants at dinner with outside guests - I fell about laughing! And that was before the diplomatically unfortunate death......

I really don't know what Julian Fellowes is playing at - he's got his periods totally round his neck.

Didn't the virgin thing mean he was planning some bum sex? Poor Mary - not sure she would have liked that! Good thing he dropped dead - or maybe she did kill him....

Limping footman served in the war in South Africa with Lord. That is where he was injured and why his boss feels a sense of duty to him.

Loved tonight's episode. I gasped and swooned.

When Mary and Carson were talking towards the end, she observed that he'd always been so kind to her, especially as a young child. He looked at her rather tenderly and said something along the lines of "even servants are allowed their favourites.."

This might be a huge conceptual leap, but anyone else think there might be more to their relationship? Back in the day, could Lady Grantham have got a bit jiggy with Carson and passed his child off as His Lordships ?

Does anyone else watch it trying to work out who will be wiped in the First World War?

Lord Grantham is too old - but will be able to look v tortured. Matthew Crawley is obviously right in the firing line (and therefore will be under pressure to produce an heir before going overseas) Bates is knackered and Carson too old. William the footman will definately get knocked on the head but the evil Thomas will weasel out of it somehow.....Sybil will probably go and be an ambulance driver (did you notice the hint tonight she has suffragist tendancies). Mrs Crawley will be able to run a lovely hospital whils fretting about her son and Lady Grantham will wring her hands and look sad.....

Finally caught up on this yesterday. Still enjoying it so far. Even DH is voluntarily watching it now

Maggie Smith is still getting the best lines - loved last níght's one about how an Englishman would never die in someone else's house

It's getting difficult to follow all the who's-secretly-in-love-with-who twists and turns!

You mean who's-secretly-in-love-with-whom. Whom

"Didn't the virgin thing mean he was planning some bum sex?"

That was my thought too

Had to laugh when Lady Grantham said "but what was he doing in your room"?

Erm, his naked in the bed-give it your best guess!

But the servants are a bit "outspoken" to say the least, aren´t they?

I too assumed the sex wasn't vanilla. He was an exotic furriner who did exotic, non virginity shattering things. Also thought that his exchange with Camp Footman hinted at a certain predilection that way. Shame on you Mary. I half thought at first that he'd just passed out in a post-coital haze and she had no experience of it. But no. Not so petite mort.

I like Sybil.

Whatever happened during the adverts that's what I want to know?!

During the ad break she done 'im in Maybe her corset exploded

My guess is Mray is preggers and is either

a) going to have to get married on the quick to thee distant cousin and try and pass it off as his

or b) conceal the pregnancy and deliver in secret and try and get Anna to smuggle it out of the house

I too wondered if there would be a second series covering the 1st world war and how the family coped with all the men going off to war.

Love this series. Am totally hooked.

I love it too but also hate the contrived way the upstairs and downstairs mix and talk to eachother.

Also neither mary nor Turkish bloke would have slept together in a million years.

Nor would Bates cast aspersions about Thomas to his employer.

I'll bet that Thomas is really glad that Turkish bloke, with his dodgy ticker, didn't take him up on his offer.
Maybe Mary thought it would be OK to dally with TB because he would go back to foreignland and therefore not tell Society what they had been up to?

It is all rather, ahem, American in its free and easy way with historical detail.

And of course the young girl-Daisy? just had to see them take the body back.

And she will of course tell Thomas who will blackmail?

Think the virginity thing is intended to let viewers know that she is still - ahem- intact, but when word gets out (which it inevitably will, thanks to super-mouthy servants who don't know which side their bread's buttered) Mary will be ruined and unmarriageable. Except perhaps to Matthew, who has shown himself to be above all that convention tripe.

My main gripe with the series is the lady's maid. Historically they were a definite cut above the rest of the servants, in the same way as governesses. They would have been noticably more middle class, better educated, much more presentable (for accompanying their employer to other houses etc) Surely JF is aware of all that, so why is the one in this series as rough as a badger's arse??