Downton Thread 3 - 11 October

[katemiddletonsothermum]

Am starting another thread because the last one had 12 pages.

Wowzers, 17 minutes to go. What will happen? Will Mr and Mrs Carson be able to look each other in the eye? Will Daisy finally stop being annoying? Will Edith finally become the Pope?

ohhhhhhhhhhhh........

Whatbi can't understand is the Thomas character. Wasn't he utterly evil in earlier series and involved in all sorts of criminal activity? How come everyone's sorry for him now?

And I would have thought he's be handd his arse by Lord Thing for even speaking in the dining room like that- regardless of what he actually said!

But the Crawleys are now so democratic I'm surprised Thomas wasn't invited to pull up a chair and share stories with Gwen whilst the nobs got on with dinner.

Thomas didn't go for the last job because the old bloke was basically the male equivalent of Miss Havisham, living in a run down mansion pretending he was still lord of all he surveyed.

Can't believe the Sybil card hasn't been played in the hospital argument yet (even if not entirely accurately).

Agree Mary seems to have forgotten how Matthew died!

Thomas will be left the mansion and dwindling estate of Lord Olddodderybloke as his two sons died in the War and there is no one else. Otherwise why bother with that scene?

Still no one's explained why Thomas is in the bad books - was it a shocking romantic fling with another man?

I'm so sad its the last one, i would love to see them go through the decades, how they would cope with the kind of loss of the gentry system and liberation of women etc

Thomas is in bad books - as he is an arsehole through and through

Mary did say she thought the cars were dangerous though, didn't she?

It would be interesting to see them go through the dwindling of the Great Estates and the Depression. I bet there will be a film or a Special at some time in the future which could cover any time period. The interest would be too great not to do one.

I was listening to a ridiculous etiquette 'expert' on the equally ridiculous Steve Wright in the Afternoon and thought about Downton. He sounded like Carson. A silly old man trying to pretend that people care about what the under butler does and doesn't do anymore!

I think he was discovered last series having faked the disappearance of the dog Isis (not phased out due to similarity with modern jihadi nutballs) so that he could rescue her.

If they're going to kill off Rawbert in this series, it's a shame they didn't keep Isis alive so they could die together.

So it's all due to Isis? that seems ages ago.

I think Rawbert has gallstones and will be rushed to York as he needs an Xray to show this and will be saved in the nick of time in the modern operating room there (before his gallbladder ruptures or similar). So the Dowager will be proven wrong in keeping the small local hosp open.

I think it will be Mr Bates who dies ...... just as Anna goes into labour - NO, just kidding!

God surely that miserable pair can't be heaped with even more misery! Bet Anna will still be preggers at the end due to the impossibility of finding a baby with a miserable enough face to be their child!!!

Didn't he get away with the Isis thing?

I've just read the Guardian review of episode 3 and I'm now convinced that the reviewer is an Mnetter.

regeneration I've been thinking further ahead and wondering how they would be all affected by the second world war.

Thomas did get away with dastardly Isis plot. He was going to be fired for one of his other dastardly plots. Can't remember which one. Bates framing? Again.

Why was Gwen at DA with her silent husband?

One thing I love about Downton is I don't have to think and it's so wonderfully preposterous and bursting with tosh. Plus the threads here are v funny and someone always knows stuff I've forgotten.

Am cross this is the last series.

I thought Thomas has been lying low for the last few years. He was almost fired when O'Brien convinced him Jimmy fancied him but since then he's been reasonably amiable. I'm not sure why Andy has suddenly taken against him, given that Thomas helped him escape from Denker's clutches and put in a good word for him to get the job at Downton.

Gwen was at Downton because she and her husband are trustees of some women's college Rosamund wants Edith to also become a trustee of.

As yes. Clunkily handy to have them invited to Downton for luncheon to set up the Thomas moment rather than have Edith meet them in Ye Olde Yorke Tea Shoppe.

All I can say is that DA is now set in the time of Brideshead Revisited and I can't see Lady Marchmain behaving like Lord G. She'd have sacked the entire set of servants and imported some more from the village who would be ever so grateful for the work.

I thought the Gwen thing was an excuse to get a mention in for Sybil and maybe talk about how the working classes were rising above their station and moving out of domestic service. Tayto We could have an elderly George and his much younger 3rd wife living in the drawing room at Downton complaining about the leaky roof!

That's assuming George outlives Robert! He's just the right age to fight in WWII.

Ouch yes george is of course right age for ww2 - but would he have been exempt as being due to inherit a title? Or put in a safe post?

I think George joins the RAF.

Would they close the house (no staff to run it) or use it to house evacuees?

Yes I thought the upper crust were all put on logistics or out of danger. Housing evacuees would be good, but would they do that? Not much of a programme if the don't have at least a few of the old faves back a few years later.

Wasn't one of the Queen's uncles killed while serving in WWII?

Yes, the Duke of Kent. Also the heir to the Duke of Devonshire, Lord Hartington, was killed in action.

Not true at all about the aristocracy being exempt. Roald Dahl wrote a very sad passage about it in his autobiography. This is another reason why lots of big houses were closed/pulled down / converted into schools / given to the national trust in the 1950s: there weren't any heirs left.