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.

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

Indeed. I think he needed to save the day in that episode to put an end to Sweaty Betty Bates and get back to being thought of as Bates the Love God.

Bates does look slimmer and more human though. He looks fanciable again

Yes, I agree about the mourning. They are all remarkably chipper, considering the Giant Baby Sybil has shrunk and looks younger now than when she was born.

I thought that too about the baby.

AND they were jaunting about a Jazz club, yes yes i realise that they were whisking cousin Rose away from certain shame, but, well really, they were wearing bright clothes and everything.

secretly-wishes Matthew would whisk 'me' onto a Jazz club floor in that manner

AM I the only one who thought it was pretty believable last night? I mean all the Thomas stuff. And also relative to JF's general track record of story lines that beggar belief.

I mean that it's not inconceivable theyw ould have just preferred to brush it all under the carpet. I can see that avoiding scandal would have been the main thing, even if the tolerance was overplayed. Totally believable they would have sent those police officers packing. I thought that was quite well observed, the attitude that the law doesn't apply to US sort of thing. Even though of course those laws were horrible. Set against the backdrop of a charming cricket match on a sunny day in the countryside. Culminating in the shot with matthew tom and Lord Fatty...

maybe in the next series we'll discover it was all someone's dream...or it will be Mary or Edith in their 90s telling the story to a narrator...

I do actually think Julian Fellows would be on surer ground doing a prequel, like he's proposed. I don't think the 30s will suit him.

Fairly electric, Matthew on his own with Edith, and dancing with Rose in the nightclub. Imagine if JF had been time to go with that, an infidelity or two. It was back to old series 1 territory for a brief moment there...

The spying was priceless: Edith ringing up doing enquiries on the editor (JF couldn't resist the mad as a hatter Mr Rochester angle - WHY does he always seem to 'spice up' the wrong bits and miss huge opportunities elsewehre...?) and Violet getting to the bottom of Rose's goings on. "I thought you told her!" "I thought you told her! I just filled in the blanks." That woman is unparallelled.

(Apropos of nada, Did PIPPA MIDDLETON have a: How to do a 'Downton Day' section in her latest book?! She should have!)

It's probably not the same baby, you know that?

they are in and out of mourning as it suits them. One day a pale outfit, next day it is mauve again

One of the (many) things that annoys me is the way they keep popping to London for a quick visit.

Downton is set in Yorkshire. It must have taken the best part of a day to get there in the 1930s or whenever this was supposed to be. They would not just have gone there on a whim, it would have taken major planning.

And another thing - what was the point of introducing that new girl cousin Rose who we never heard of before in the last episode of the series?

Also, am I the only one to intensely dislike Thomas? Gutted that he is surviving for another series.

Finally the virtual plagiarisation of Jane Eyre beggars belief. Can't JF think of his own plot lines?

Yet still, I remain addicted ....

Do love the speculation on here about the precise nature of mary's 'surgical procedure'! Only on Mumsnet ... don't suppose JF had a clue.

Maybe she had a vajazzle? That would be a nice surprise for Matthew.

Arithmet they often use twins don't they? due to the performing laws or something,.

I reckon one of the best lines The Dowager Lady Violet has had in the whole series was about DCs; when Isobel says to her about loving\knowing yr DC's and that she thought that in her day they would've been washed and starched and shown to her for an hour a day after tea. And Violet replies "yes but EVERY day"

nuclear IKWYM - when i watched it last night, when Mary and Matthew were having lunch and she talked about her op 'down there' i thought of MN straight away! I am truly disappointed that we havent got to the bottom of it yet!

Michael Palin!!! - knew i'd get there in the end ... been racking my brains as to who the editor guy reminds me of.

The scene where Matthew was coming down the stairs in the clinic went on for a long time - would love to have the technical know how to do some editing so he was walking round and down them for aaaages....

YES, RatsInTheBelfry !!! I too was racking my brains. I've seen him on stage in stuff before, but never had the 'who do you look like?' moment, until last night.

But get this- have just googled him, and look what his wiki says?

In 2011 he played Michael Palin in Holy Flying Circus, a dramatisation of the controversy surrounding Monty Python's Life of Brian.[8] The film was nominated for a 2012 BAFTA for Best Single Drama.

- Fantastic McWitch

I've not seen Holy Flying Circus ... might have to now. Esp to see Steve Punt playing Eric Idle - as my DH looks a bit like both of them...

I think that on the whole it was a pretty shit series tbh.

The whole Robert/Matthew thing could have been more interesting I thought.

Tom at the house now-really??!!

And even Carson´s OK with it

Mr Barrow still not got rid of

I can´t believe that Lord Twatty would be so pissed off about what Matthew was trying to do & yet so accepting of what Thomas had done.

It MUST have been a Turk-related STD, because why else would she have used a fake name at the doctors?? Why not just be Lady Mary?

It's not a Turk related STD, that was two series ago, that incident has long left JF head. It was a 'down there' problem that was a plot device to move the series to a happy conclusion.

The fake name was because problems of that sort were seen to be shameful. Anything lower than a sore throat was shameful.

The Giant Baby Sybils probably are played by twins like my friend's.

Evil Twin was apparently squashing Feeble Twin's umbilical cord so Evil Twin was over 8lb and Feeble Twin was 6lb-something.

Still pretty substantial babies. My friend had a caesarean for that birth and her 11lb-whopper next baby that dwarfed every other baby and a couple of midwives in the ward .

I've got it!

Mary had a sex change (this will explain why Matthew expressed suprise to Lord Fatty Bum bum after the honeymoon) and because neither of them had been in an active relationship (due to lack of personality)

what you think?

Either that or my first suggestion of fibroids...

SoMoin she WAS a Boy and now she's a Girl okay...... So they chopped off her willy and gave her a womb oh and not forgetting the hormone treatment in one night yeah really?????

I thought it was a much better series than the last one. For me at least it was more enjoyable as I could get interested in story lines other than M&M. Apart from the dreary Bates bits, which were sooooo boring.

On the whole I enjoyed this series too. Agree about Bates though.