The Honourable Thread of Downton Abbey - The Third

[Moln]

Who filled up the last thread? Hmm?

All I wanted to say was Jonathan Rhys Meyers?

No!! I don't like him and he's a pants actor.

And we got to see some Jazz music!

Barrow is such a toad who always comes up smelling of roses.

Mary will hear about the soap and two and two will be put together and the nasty secret will be out.

I agree Jimmy is in fact gay, and now Lord G has given the nod that he supports gay love, his relationship with Thomas can blossom

THe bar of soap can now fester in the background until suitable plot crisis looms again. Or someone has to leave.
Complete roller coaster. Thomas is leaving but with reference, leaving with no reference, leaving with reference, staying and being promoted and finally hero of the cricket match.

Loving Edith's style too. Although Mary is the epitome of elegance. She reminds me somewhat of Wallis Simpson.
Did we all say Jane Eyre in unison when the editor explained himself? Anyway FGS they have met 3 times!

Mary must have had some kind of toob clearance ... ... can't think what else it might be ... must have been pretty painful can't believe she wouldn't mention it to her husband....

Lady Leveson though ... was that some sort of in joke?

And how can lord G and Carson be so understanding of homosexuality and so dismissive of prostitution at the time (Tom / Ethel) ... oh wait ..... Ethel was a woman!!!

Ha! I shouted 'Jane Eyre' very loudly and got odd looks

We shouted "Jane Eyre" here too ...

Sorry, late to catch on, what's with 'er ladyships soap?

I don't think O'Brien ever told anyone, let alone Thomas - about the soap incident.

In series two when she was all "i won't have nothing bad said against my lady" he was confused as to why she was so loyal....

Bates is creeping me out.

Can't really believe Lord G would be soooo tolerant to having a gay chap as his personal servant / dresser...no matter how often he came across it a public school

Esp in light of his storming of Isobels house re the prostitute working there...

Unless, as i mused earlier - one rule for women and one for men

Enjoyed the more butched up Matthew though tonight ... dancing with rose

Downton was obviously a liberal utopia. Like much of Yorkshire in the 1920s............

The soap incident was in series one. Her ladyship was pregnant and O'Brian was under the false impression she was about to be dismissed. She put a bar of soap on the floor so her ladyship would fall and have an accident. She went to change her mind but it was too late and Cora slipped and lost the baby which was revealed to have been a boy so would have been an heir.

Carson had a history of being in the theatre too ... a was revealed by a 'would be' blackmailer in the first series...

...so i find it hard to believe he may not have come across a friend of Dorothy before...

If Thomas stays on then he MUST be given some luvin.

Just finished watching on +1. So, like Montel, here are my final thoughts:

Cricket is such a civilising influence, isn't it? Just once village game has the power to un-dissidentify Irish Firebrands and lure them back to the Big House. Cricket can also unite a divided house after a (gay) scandal.

I don't get the liberal tendencies shown by Lord 6 tonight. He's not come across as remotely liberal or modern at any other time, why now? Ref all his comments on Catholics this series, and on Turks/Eastern 'gentlemen' in S1.

Where did Pickle's Oirish Drunken brother go, that walking stereotype? Did he sod off once he found out that the village garage idea wasn't a goer? Why do they introduce characters for a millisecond only for them to go again so quickly?

Hating Lady Rose - well, the acting, specifically. She is dreadful, and about as posh as a hedgehog. Despite my previous point, I wish that she disappears, never to be seen or mentioned again.

And lastly - I thought that Anna did a very good job on that cottage, and I would like to live there please.

Was it Thomas who told about the soap? Why didn't he threaten her himself? Lord 6 came over unconvincingly liberal in the end. And I'd have thought Carson would have been more relaxed about the gays. He was in vaudeville for a while wasn't he? Loved the JF Ladybird Book Of Historical References - Oscar Wilde and Ponzi. Poor Edith can't get a lucky break can she? Plus all this travelling to London is a bit tiresome. Giant Baby Sybil seemed to have shrunk a bit. Would Mary have called herself mr. What was the 3 o'clock train business about the other week. Why are she and Matthew going to the same doctor? Don't like new footman or that freakishly tall one either.

Would mary have called herself Mrs levinson - I mean. However mrs L's cleaner was one of my fave characters from League of Gentlemen.

Levinson was Cora's maiden name. Shirley Maclaine was Martha Levinson, IIRC.

Ooh I didn't shout Jane Eyre. I shouted Charles Cartwright! He's from an Agatha Christie story where the plot hinges on someone being married to a mad woman he can't divorce, even though he wants to marry someone else. And after Vera's poison halo, I think JF must be an Agatha Christie fan. (wonders if Christmas special might involve a body in the library and those two policemen might be back accompanied by a Belgian friend...)

Ah yes. Levinson is Cora's name.

Agree with visualarts. Surely whatever it was it would have been quite a big procedure involving a stay and satin bedjackets and maidly attention. Perhaps even permission from your husband about fiddling with your bits too (don't know about that that, though).

My mum - born at that time in a working class family - maintains that infertility is a modern invention possibly brought about by the pill (???) though she has no concrete theories when tested and looks horrified when asked to talk about rude details.

She bases it all on the fact that families of at least seven children were common and pregnancies every year whether surviving or not were usual. When I say there must have been couples who didn't have children she just goes all Cissy and Ada on me and makes kind of 'down there' gestures .

She's one of four whose mother died shortly after giving birth to her and her twin. She knows that if her mother had lived there would have been more children. Her father never remarried and gave up a relatively lucrative job at sea to keep them together. We don't talk about it though - she's very secretive - the death of her mother is cloaked in mystery too. For years I thought she'd died in childbirth but now I think it was from some kind of infection some unspecified time after the birth. Why is my mum so secretive? I think it's a feeling of shame that it was somehow her mother's failing or father's fault. It's real and not worth pressing her on it.

It was undoubtedly hard and she idolises him. But I also think that the fact that there weren't that many of them definitely meant they were better off than neighbours.

Like the idea that Bates is a murderer. It would make him more interesting.

When Bates strode across the room to Anna and threw whatever it was out the way I must admit to a horror scream. Yuk! He looks like her sweaty Dad.

Was hoping Matthew and Edith would end up shagging in London but all we got was Rose.....