I say is there no Downton thread? How awful!

[Moln]

I can't have been alone in my viewing!

Have to confess I don't register any words or phrases used that really have no place in the era. Unless they mentioned taking selfies or twerking I'm unlikely to clock it!

Because he probably did murder the valet but helping steal back a letter that could embarrass the Prince of Wales was so much more important!

It was mostly ludicrous but I loved it.

Whole Prince of Wales storyline was bizarre. Given the philandering nature of his grandfather, I can't believe the Prince gave a toss about some love letter.

The Bates storyline was just a fumbled mess - surely we're not being set up for another murder trial in the next series? Or are we all going to forget about this one now?

Mary's suitors are so interchangeable I'm not surprised she can't make up her mind between them.

Just bizarre that nothing actually happened in the entire episode.

It was mostly ludicrous but I loved it.

^This.

When Bates was summoned, I thought he was going to be sent off to break into the rotter's flat with a set of skeleton keys. However, good to see his other criminal talents being put to good use. Tally so far: forger, pickpocket, murderer x2 (we are quite certain that he murdered the first Mrs Bates as well as Nigel Harman).

Did anyone else think that a lot of the footage was superimposed on the background? A few of the scenes dh and I thought lighting v odd and the action looked like it had been filmed in a "blue room" then back ground slapped on afterwards.... Or was it just us?

Yes, I thought that when the carriages were driving past Buckingham Palace Brill - am sure there were some tricks employed?

I thought the outside Buckingham Palace shots didn't look right as well. Can you imagine how much it would cost to get those roads closed and cleared for filming though?

I kept waiting for Rose to revert to type and get up to mischief, but she seems to have grown up. For the time being anyway.

The prince is Edward isn't he? The scandal is only going to get worse.

Agree no drama unlike last year but easy to watch.
Scenes being set for next series definitely.
the Edith baby thing will go tits up.
Bates making himself indispensable with his rather ill gotten accomplishments
Tension between Thomas and Branson
Branson's teacher friend will cause trouble
And of course the whole Mary's suitor storyline!

I believe there was a great deal of scandal about the Prince of Wales for a long time before the Abdication. Foreign newspapers printed it, British newspapers didn't. How times have changed!

Yes, this is the future Edward VIII, Mrs Dudley Ward was his mistress.

I've got a vague idea the letter thing is very loosely based on a real story. I'm sure the Prince's affair with Mrs Dudley Ward eventually became a scandal in the foreign press.

I like the fact that Bates's talents acquired in the nick are finally getting used. He's been very dull for quite a few episodes now.

All in all highly entertaining twaddle with lots of lovely loose threads ready to be played with in September!

I thought the actor and actress playing the King and Queen were remarkably good lookalikes, the Queen in particular. I wonder if they cast purely for her appearance rather than her ability and that was why she didn't actually speak though?

At least this year I was able to watch it on Christmas night and didn't risk the fury I felt last year, when I'd saved it up for a nice comfy Boxing day sofa session and found the key twist of the plot was all over the front page of the newspaper websites. I'd planned to be careful to avoid the culture/reviews/lifestyle sections, but who'd have thought Matthew Crawley being killed off would be the headline on the main page? Bastards.

Just got watching it this morning - i loved it :)

very silly but brilliant and have forgiven Julian for the last series :)

[not that he was ever worried about me no liking the last series, but you know what i mean]

actually can't wait for the next series. does anyone know if they have filmed it already?

Rose's parents are playing Viceroy in India.

I couldn't believe how rude the characters were last night. DH and I were looking at each other thinking exactly the same thing. There's funny rude and just plain rude and the dowager scene was the latter.

One thing did bug me massively though. At a Drawing Room, the debutantes got presented in order of rank. As the daughter of a Marquis, Rose would only have been outranked by the daughter of a Duke but she was kept hanging around for ages.

Oblique27 - I reckon a single mother who owns half an estate the size/value of Downton, with a son who'll inherit the other half (which she/any new DH would control until he's 21) would probably get a lot of male interest.

I did like it but it didn't feel like there were many stories on their own right, far too many things being set up for the next series.

We did know of Bates' forgery skills didn't we? Or am I having a false memory?

I thought that, after the shock of last year'stragedy', Julian decided to write a two-hour episode in which nothing dramatic happened.

He succeeed. I was disappointed - found it very dull.

I wish Maggie Smith would have pointed out to Mrs Levinson that in about 90 years those oh so modern Americans will like watching programs like this one and mostly for the toffs. That scene annoyed me.

I'm sure they've upped the American element as DA is such a hit over there

• in yesterday's episode it was getting a mention in every scene!

I loved it! Loved the silly gentleness of it. So much better than last years Christmas special.

Am a bit worried that the Schroeders are going to be very distraught when Edith comes to take away their new baby!

.

Were people really such inveterate navel-gazers back then? There was barely a scene which didn't involve at least one character drearily intoning that 'times are changing and we must change with them', blah blah blah.

I was utterly bored throughout it all

God, that was dire, and not even that entertainingly so- is Julian Fellowes on drugs???

He should have just jumped the shark shamelessly and got Hugh Bonneville, Bates, Rose and co to dress up in stripy burglar costumes and balaclavas with bags marked SWAG. Mind you, the rationale for why the family needed to get involved in the Incident of the Letter anyway was entertainingly tenuous. Dimwit Rose was a bystander. How useful it is to have a murderer/forger/ pickpocket valet, when one is a Peer of the Realm

I used to complain that all the human elements of the the kitchen maid/footman love triangle/quartet/whatever were indistinguishable, but Mary's suitors are heading the same way. And what's happened to Mary's characterisation, now she's gone through having a child, widowhood, wrestling pigs, learning estate management and getting her mojo back, all JF can think to do with her is to have her go back to sniping at Edith? And of course Nazis or proto-Nazis had to be involved in Edith's editor-man's disappearance! He will either reappear as an anti-fascist hero or as Hitler's best friend...

Poor, dreary Edith, walking into an obvious blackmail trap with Pig Saviour Tenant Farmer! Are we really to believe that she cares enough about her baby to retrieve her from Switzerland, but then to stash her locally, and plan to claim her solely in the event that Editor-man returns alive and willing to marry her? In which case, presumably they have to pretend she's their ward anyway...?