Downton Abbey anyone

[CMP69]

Or am I just an old gimmer with a period drama fetish

Thomas was fed up of her bossing him around, I think the nanny is higher in the pecking order and he was just hacked off, so when she asked him to fetch something so she didn't have to leave the children, and he refused, he turned it on her as an excuse to drop her in it

Thomas feels close to baby Sibby due to her mother being nice to him during their time working together in hospital during the Great War.
I think.

Yes he does Georgina. He said baby sybie's mother had been his friend and nanny got sniffy about it. That was it. Daggers drawn.

Sybil was lovely.

A nanny, like a tutor or governess is higher up in the food chain. They're an employed professional not a servant

Yes I saw the maid pushing the other pram in the grounds (IMO the producers decided to have her as a non -speaker to save money). The whole storyline could have been better dealt with. Sunny you're probably right it was a plot device. Oh dear.

It does need someone to think all the plot lines through carefully, and then someone else to write and check through the script accordingly. These areas of production really don't seem as strong as some of the other aspects to me - but what's new there ?!

Just for example they could have made the nursery maid a speaking part and could have built up a little substantial background about life in the nursery (and add interest in another area of the house and not just the kitchens) before we overheard the nanny dropping her departing clanger.
A bit more depth would be great!

My thoughts exactly Juggling but IIRC there was quite a complicated nursery plot in Upstairs Downstairs maybe they didn't want to go down that route who knows?

Am now watching Downton series 1. Never seen it before! Mmm.

I felt there was a lot of cutting from one short scene to another, perhaps they are setting up story lines to be explored in depth later in the series. To go back to 'Sir Garnet' - I've just looked it up in Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable - "All Sir Garnet" was an army phrase of the late 19th century meaning 'everything is as it should be', referring to the successful military expeditions of Sir Garnet Wolseley. There's always something new to learn!

Didn't know Lord Grantham had refused to try to break the entail - what a prat!

See, I could see the point of that plot device if the nanny stayed around to be a new Worst Enemy for Thomas now that O'Brien is gone, but it doesn't add anything at all to the plot now that he stirred and the nanny got fired within the space of a single episode...? The viewer isn't that bothered about her because we haven't got to know her at all, and she deserved all she got, and it doesn't add anything to our knowledge of Thomas, because we already know he's a trouble maker. It just seems clunky to me!

As is the reason nanny was even down on the upstairs landing asking Thomas to pass on her order about the egg anyway, saying she had to get back as the children were alone. It's clear when Cora comes up to the nursery that there's a bell there that rings down in the servants' hall, so there's no need for her to go down herself!

TBF in 1912 it would have been v v hard expensive and convoluted legal process. After the war things were different.

Maybe she'll make some kind of comeback.

I want Edna to be Thomas's new enemy, I think it would be interesting to see him at war with a girl. I hope she doesn't just become a new hussier version of O'Brien.

I can't believe Cora didn't point out to Lord G that he hadn't done such a great job of managing HER money, might be better for him not to get his incompetent paws on George's......

True Teapigging I remember the nanny's bell ringing and ringing in the servants hall in Upstairs Dstrs and the servants HATING the nanny .

Oh, and my other gripe is that one of the kitchen staff says she doesn't envy the nanny because she wasn't quite 'family' and not quite 'servant', so ended up rather isolated.

That was certainly also (probably rather more so), the case for the ladies' maids, especially the personal maid to the senior woman of the household, with whom she often had a very close relationship from sheer proximity, and because they get to talk together in privacy. She would have spent the majority of her time in a sewing room doing repairs and alterations, laundering delicate items, or in the lady's bedroom doing her hair and helping her change her clothes (up to four times a day), so very limited time in the servants' hall. Yet Anna or O'Brien were never portrayed as being at any kind of distance from her fellow servants....

I don't think bells are for staff to summon each other.

Mrs Hughes came up saying who's ringing that bell when Cora rang it after catching nanny red handed. So it must have been unusual for it to ring.

Can anyone remind me what the storyline was with Edna. I can't remember.

it seemed a bit bitty to me last night.

She got pregnant to a soldier who died. She was sacked and struggled with the baby. Eventually Mrs Hughes and Isobel got the parents of the soldier to take an interest, they did and took the boy to live with them.

I wonder whether Julian Fellowes is thinking he doesn't need to bother to try very hard with Downton now, because no matter what drivel he spews out in the scripts the undiscriminating American market will just lap it all up anyway ...

I have never been to Yorkshire, so was surprised at how similar it looks to the Cotswolds (near where I do live) - and now I know, it is because it is filmed there. Which seems wrong to me somehow. Aren't there any unspoiled rural northern towns they could have used?

That was Ethel who had the officer's baby. Edna is the minx who made a play for Branson (who I find oddly resistible).

It was just in the Christmas special wasn't it? After Sybil had died, she was flirting with him, and they kissed I think. Mrs Hughes found out and she was packed off, but with a good reference so she didn't cause trouble.

I think they must put something in the water there though...

Mary and Pamuk
Sybil and Branson
Edith and that farmer
Ethel and that soldier
Edna and Branson
Lord Grantham and Jane

That's a lot of upstairs/downstairs nookie for one house!

I've just watched and I'm sure other people have pointed it out, but how funny was Lady Mary's spectre at the feast act?

When Anna handed her a pink shawl because it was a bit nippy and she demanded the black one.

And scowling at poor old Edith because she got a Valentine's card?

I also liked Lord 6 not wanting to bother her about her inheritance and handling the money himself. It would be like making Ray Charles captain in a sharp-shooting contest.