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........

OK. I didn't know that. Good to know in a way that everyone fought together.

I thought even Prince Philip saw real active service in the Navy?

Yes, but he was a displaced Greek so he doesn't really count Mr Porky - but I take your point exactly.

Of course, the Queen was still single during the war doh!

I don't think any of the aristocracy shirked their duty though and as said previously, lots dies

I'm no great fan of the aristocracy but what an odd notion that they were all exempted from military service because of their social position. As far as I know, the contrary was true. There was a strong sense of noblesse oblige, just as there had been in WW1. As the men had usually been to public school, they had all had basic military training and that made it a lot easier for them to get into the armed forces at the start of the war. In 1939 it was actually very difficult to join up - there were far more volunteers than it was thought would be needed, so people with some training or knowledge of sailing or flying went to the top of the list. A lot of them would have been in the armed forces anyway or on the reserve list, having only recently left. Lots of them were in the Territorials.

The Queen herself was in the ATS, the women's army corps.

Debo Devonshire also wrote a very sad piece about her friends who died in the war. And there was a sad bit in Goodbye Mr Chips about one of his pupils who died in WW1 and then his son died in WW2. All in all, a very grim time.

I honestly thought those with direct lineage to the throne would be exempt from front line service. An education.

Even worse, the local barber has written a list of all the lads who were killed in WW1 who lived in his street. You can look at the actual front doors and imagine the telegraph boy cycling down the street delivering the bad news. Some families lost 3 sons. Heartbreaking.

Kate it was desperately sad.

I remember being surprised as a youngster upon discovering that unmarried women were conscripts as well as men.

"War effort" heh? I can't see that happening now. I'm sure there'd be a few complaints about their human rights.

Can you imagine the AIBUs?

According to Telegraph listings today, on tomorrow's show the visit of Neville Chambeain 'precipitates a catastrophe that shakes the great house and all within to its foundations.'
Any guesses as to what that is/ who's going to keel over?

Maybe it's meant literally and there's an earthquake in Downton village??

I caught up with last week's Downton and actually cried (!) when Gwen was talking about Lady Sybil.

I must have a hormonal imbalance!

And there was a sad bit in Goodbye Mr Chips about one of his pupils who died in WW1 and then his son died in WW2.

Colley!

One of my go to films when I need a bit of a blub!

I found Gwen's reappearance quite amusing as I now know that the actress playing her is incredibly posh, far posher than anyone else in the show!

Yes, she is Rose Arbuthnot-Leslie, grew up in a Scottish castle and is a great granddaughter of one of the Lord Lovats, which makes her a descendant of Charles II. Although I imagine there are a lot of folk around who are descendants of Charles II.

The novel 'Goodbye Mr Chips' was published in 1934, so the son dying in WW2 must have been an embellishment by the film or TV writer.

Gwen was a wildling on Game of Thrones too. Maybe it's the wild red hair that makes her keep being cast as a member of the lower orders!

polyhymnia I'm guessing that Chamberlain is coming to warn of war. The house will be taken over by the Goverment as a hospital/munitions depot and the occupants called up/deployed in the war effort. The ones unable to partake will live in the attic.

A bit like Brideshead Revisited.

Rose Leslie also has a "Lady Sybil" in her lineage according to the Wikipedia section on her ancestry

Also at the idea of an earthquake in Downton!

Aren't we suppose to be in the mid 20s in this series? I think Hitler and his Brownshirts were just an irritant in Germany at that point.

According to the Radio Times the Minister of Health is coming to Downton, so that will be Chamberlain I should think. Much too early for war clouds to be looming.

Grasping as straws, but didn't the Spanish Civil War start somewhere in the mid-30's? And there was something going off in the Far East too, wasn't there? I'd put DA at around the early 30s, so although the war wasn't exactly imminent, there must have been rumblings, surely?

Hitler would have been active by then, too. And known about.

Last week's DA seemed to be more like a lesson in social history and trying to reflect the democratisation of society, such as old dowager visiting the kitchens "for the first time in 20 years" and the former maid eating with the family.

It's 1925 in Downton isn't it? I thought that's what came up on the screen in the first episode this season. So 13 years have passed since the start of season 1.