Downton Abbey - update required

[StagnantRabbit]

Any big Downton fans out there who can tell me what happened in the very last episode of series 2 and also the Xmas special? Tryin to get ready for the new series on Sunday but is there anything else I missed? (apart from Lady Mary and Matthew getting together that is)

[SloeFarSloeGood]

Swoon.

[Northernlurkerisbackatwork]

I do think Branston treads a bloody fine line between pasionately fighing for his woman etc etc and bullying her in to being with him

[squoosh]

No one ever cracks a joke. I could never live in a costume drama, I like a laugh too much. They're all so bloody earnest.

Bates is getting very fat on prison rations. He needs to low carb.

[Bossybritches22]

Of course they're all a bit more wrinkly & worn, they've been through a war doncha know !

[tribpot]

I love the idea of low carbing in a prison in 1920.

[squoosh]

All he needs to do is eschew the porridge and scoff the maggots.

[Angelico]

Branson can sweep me into the back of his motor car any time :o

squoosh I agree. Anna needs to bring some of Mrs Patmore's rations for Bates, he is looking bloody awful.

[Angelico]

Surely it's gruel not porridge?

[squoosh]

I did like the look of Mrs Patmore's wedding spread. I'd be the fattest kitchen maid in the land!

[Northernlurkerisbackatwork]

If Daisy does all the work and Mrs P does all the talk then what the heck do the several other kitchen maids seen in the back of shot do? I'd sack them for a start. I can never understand how Mr Carson has spasms about having footmen but Anna appears to be the only housemaid atm AND she has to ladys maid the young ladies too. I suppose the financial woes mean they can't take on another naughty housemaid - but you would expect Mrs H to moan a bit too.

[SoupDragon]

I assume the "kitchen maids" at the back are the missing house maids.

[Northernlurkerisbackatwork]

They were wearing kitchen maid scruff rather than housemaid charming print though.

Did anyone else think some of the hemlines yesterday were too short for 1920?

[SoupDragon]

Oh, I'm clueless as to the niceties of the uniform :o

I assumed they were the make-the-fires change-the-beds kind of maids though. There must be some of those.

[SoupDragon]

Weren't the hemlines all well below the knee? I didn't really notice TBH.

[MadamGazelleIsMyMum]

So exciting it is back. Love Pickle and his air of resignation after his speech to the Dowager Countess and Cousin Isabelle about his discomfort about wearing an outfit which he considers a mark of oppression... and then they make him try it on.

Also would Anna really have used the expression about men not being like buses in 1920? Charabanc, possibly.

[mateysmum]

Sybil is not allowed to be as pretty as before, because she has gone from being hot,young, feisty, single Lady Sybil to plain old downtrodden, pregnant, poor Mrs Pickle married to someone who only has one ill fitting suit.

I think Pickle will end up going back to Ireland without Sybil and there he will be shot fighting for the the IRA.

[Angelico]

Okay... I was determined not to ask but... ... why Pickle? :o

[SoupDragon]

Branson... Branston... Branston Pickle.

[Angelico]

Ah, the mystery is solved!

[hattymattie]

Well - I loved it but it was ruined by far too many ad breaks I hate it when ITV does this. I'm going to stop watching and buy the DVD's which will surely be out in time for Christmas!

[diddl]

"I think Pickle will end up going back to Ireland without Sybil and there he will be shot fighting for the the IRA."

Yes, I was thinking that.

He has to go back to work.

She´s not fit enough to travel yet.

Then the heir will come back & she´ll marry him

[scrapaddict]

Was a late comer to Downton but have now got involved and loved last night's episode. For me Brendan Coyle and Maggie Smith make this unmissable so I hope Bates does get out of jail free

[LadyHarrietdeSpook]

As a Yank I think Shirley MacLaine's character's schtick about how the English are stuck in their ways and the Yanks so forward thinking (isn't it great that the Irish chauffeur became a journalist) yada yada yada is ridiculous and waring although undoubtedly when DA crosses the Atlantic in January the Yanks will want to BELIEVE an upper class person of her generation and ilk would have held those views. Honestly.

Just about the only thing I could see would really have happened was when she confronted Matthew about why he was entitled to have all her husband's money (and not her own granddaughters.) Yes, to that. And an interesting turn I hadn't considered. They could have made more of that.

[diddl]

But didn´t some Americans want titled husbands?

The unfortunate thing was that Robert´s father tied up the money.

Was that a condition of the marriage with Cora?

If so-why do it?

[Bossybritches22]

I think the hemlines were steadily rising in 1920 as the practicalities of a working woman during the war made floor length dresses redundant.

After all the flapper dresses were about to be all the rage!

Apart from those like the Dowager who are firmly in the long dress era.