Downton Abbey Discussion continued...

[ErikNorseman]

Here!

I was a big fan of the M&M link too in series gone by but now I have to say it feels like more of an incestuous (sp?) relationship!

I think part of it MAY be that they've never moved out of Downton Abbey so it feels like Lord G adopted him or something. Yet he's sleeping with Mary.

Would have been better for their story to mvoe them out on their own for a bit.

Just watched it on ITV player. I did get teary when Sybil died. I did however suspect that she might be killed off after seeing her in a recent magazine interview that said she'd got a part in Hollywood. It was in last month's Glamour I believe, she looked a bit like Michelle Ryan on the cover. Will be interesting to see what happens to the Tom and baby.

springyhope i am sure this wasnt intended but dont you think you were a little bit patronising to 1944girl there? i think she realises that this is fictional but it must be horrendously close to home for her.

1944girl i am so for what you went through

nerdamigo, jennalemon has not suggested that only overweight people or those with diabetes get pre-eclampsia.

As I said earlier, it is clear that the risk goes up for first time mothers, older mothers, overweight mothers, women with a history of high blood pressure, diabetes, kidney disease etc, etc. Women are having babies later and are, on average, heavier than they were, say, 20-30 years ago. As a result, the rates of gestational diabetes ARE going up. This means that the rates of pre-eclampsia are likely to increase.

This DOES NOT guarantee that normal weight women will not get pre-eclampsia, but they are (broadly speaking) at lower risk.

(Aargh, the MN approach to stats drives me mad.)

Anyway, Lady Edith is my favourite character now. I like Anna but don't really care for Mr Bates, and M & M are just boring me.

schmaltzing we could have an entire AIBU topic Downton style!

Mrs Bird - AIBU to hand my notice in a right strop as i cannot work with women of ill repute

Lady Mary - AIBU to withold marital relations from DH as i caught him discussing family business on the day my sister passed away (blimey!)

Edith - AIBU to cast off the shackles of my stuffy upbringing to dash off to London to be a Bright Young Thing and cause a tremendous scandal by Tipping the Velvet with Keeley Hawes(?)

Did anyone catch the trailer - do you reckon that the Prison Warden has arranged to murder Mrs Bartlett - he said to the nasty cell mate of Bates' 'they will get a nasty shock when they try to interview Mrs Bartlett' or something of some sort. One would imagine they would want her out of the way so as to keep Bates inside

Goodnes me, I was being kind. I am also traumatised by various things and, as a way to limit added feelings of trauma by watching something too close to the bone, it helps me to remind myself it isn't real, albeit portraying something that is real, sadly. apologies for any offence caused.

As for Mary, she is playing a part ; laboured by the director and JF, no doubt. same goes for cousin Matthew - they're playing a part! a very strait-laced part, too. Characters get their moment of glory and other characters, it seems, are given blocks of wood lines/parts until it's their turn to shine. It's all a bit crap really and I'm annoyed to have been completely roped in by the 1st series. I'm not even enjoying the clothes any more. Interesting how 21stC thinness looks dire in the clothes they're wearing now, shows them up for how they really look - ropey and starved (which they are).

Have just got round to watching it and even though I knew what was coming thanks to the other thread, and tbh have never been a huge fan of Sybil (far too goody two shoes and worthy imho), I did shed a tear or three. It was actually Thomas sobbing after the servants had been given the news that really set me off, which is weird because I can't stand him!

Dame Maggie was just amazing - as ever. I have loved her ever since I saw The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie when I was about 9 (I've no idea what my parents were thinking either ). I think they should actually create an new honour higher than 'Dame' specifically for her.

Well my imagination worked overtime while watching that episode.
I had Sybil down for dying but I thought the cruel twist would be that she had the baby, everyone breathes a sigh of relief, they all go off to bed and she dies of a huge haemorrhage in the night.
I was convinced they would just get up in the morning and walk in to find her dead.
Was good though and interesting viewing.
Some good acting but also some amazing make up done by the make up dept.
The blue- lipped pallor was fairly realistic.

Carson's a doctor? I didn't realise that. Or were you just being sarcastic? Eugene falls for windups very easily.

Thanks BartletforTeamGB anyway - I was going to make the same observation about Jenna's observations. You can bet your life that any broad statement of fact will be hit upon with indignation by a whole load of people telling stories of people who don't fit the mould having suffered.

Ooops. Clarkson, not Carson.

I don't think Lord G is to blame (although he will blame himself and be blamed by others). He took the advice of a highly experienced doctor and was choosing between two potentially fatal risks - c-secion wasn't so straightforward then.

Watching it again last night I think they were all on the verge on sending her to the hospital when they heard her scream, so obviously it was all coming too quickly for a c section. They shouldn't have hesitated but c section would have been v dangerous too. Terrible terrible thing to happen.

Well I know it was all "stiff upper lip", but that Mary didn´t even shed a tear on the death of her sister I just don´t really get.

And yes Matthew talking with the lawyer was thoughtless-but her ridiculous high handed attitude.

All so that Daddy doesn´t lose face.

I´m sure she won´t be able to bear it if Matthew is proved more competent wrt the management of the estate.

I watched it again last night, and thought it was fantastic. I still think Lord 6 should have listened to Clarkson much earlier. I thought Elizabeth McGovern really upped her game, and her acting was brilliant. As the eldest of three sisters it really hit home to me

I wonder (coz i wonder too much about these things) how they made Sybil's neck enlarge so much - do you think they had a prosthetic model of Sybil for that part, as she wasnt speaking by that point? Yes i probably think too much about these things.

Agree that the make up dept deserve an oscar. The image of Sybil's blue lips and eyes will stay with me

I am actually now reading Call the Midwife thanks to this and the spoiler thread. Just loaded it to my Kindle this morning on the tram

I really don't know how viable an option a CS would have been -- obviously no antibiotics but I assume no transfusions either? I dimly remember reading they didn't become usual till the 60s. And Downton isn't near a big hospital. (Would Mrs. Crawley have had to make Dr. Clarkson do it like with the heart procedure in the first season?)

I thought it was a great episode overall but I really think the writing leading up to the crisis could have been improved. As soon as Sybil said "headache and swollen ankles," I thought "Eclampsia!" like everyone else on this thread. Eclampsia has been known since ancient times although for most of history there has been no remedy so I find it really hard to believe the fancy doctor didn't recognize the signs. They were arguing about something that all of us would have known. If it's because there was something new at the time for example, if the urine test was a new technology that Clarkson had just learned about, and he wasn't able to convince the other guy they should have written it in to make the argument more believable. Or make Sybil missing a typical sympton which could happen with any disease to give them something to argue about with the diagnosis. As it is, the fancy guy just kept saying "I'm the fancy guy, and she's having a baby."

A poster a couple of pages back suggested the name Saoirse for the baby - well Lord Carnarvon who owns Highclere/Downton has got a daughter called Satires.

Sorry, predictive text. Lord Carnarvon has got a daughter called Saoirse.

Satires??????

Posh people can get away with any old nonsense.

Ah, Saoirse. Much better.

Still, you know it's changed times when a British aristo calls their daughter Saoirse! What would the ancestors make of it I wonder.

RIP Sybil. She was definitely my favourite of the sisters. Edith is going to have to up her feminism ways in memory of Sybil. That's all there is to it. No arguing JF.