Julian Fellowes' Belgravia - starts tonight, ITV1

[QueenOfTheAndals]

Anyone planning on watching? I loved Downton so I'm looking forward to this. It might be just the sort of escapist drama featuring posh people in nice frocks that we all need right now!

"Is she so frightened because they are 'new' money?"

I would imagine partly that but also because their daughter couldn't be acknowledged as Pope's mother (when it was thought that there was no marriage), so they would lose all contact with him.

But Lady Brocklebank holds all the cards due to her son having fathered Charles Pope-even if illegitimate he wouldn't be completely villified for having a child out of wedlock.

And I imagine being old money it would just be seen as one of those things.

Yes diddl thanks. I noticed a possible mistake by the writer? Surely the visitors to Lady B's would have announced themselves with 'visiting cards". I thought that it was ALWAYS done. The mother of Alice was very rude.

"Surely the visitors to Lady B's would have announced themselves with 'visiting cards"."

Yes I would have thought so-& then the person given the card decides whether or not they are there?

Unless she was expected? (can't remember!)

I'm really enjoying it.

Doesn't Tara Fitzgerald have a deep voice. She sounds like she smokes 100 fags a day.

Ref. "Visiting' There's fascinating book which discusses it in detail , and it is\was very complex! Called the Victorian House by Judith Flanders.

Apparently once introduced to someone it was very bad manners to 'cut ' them. So you had to be careful to whom you were introduced.

I dont know for a fact but I think for people lower down the pecking order or only casual aquaintances would leave a visiting card or ask for it to be sent into the host / hostess.

Someone on more equal terms or considered family would be let in. Probably one of those things that the servants would have information about.

Haven’t seen the series yet although think I might try it out, but I’ve just finished the book. Really poor on the history of things, and the plot twist was apparent from very early on. I noticed with interest something I’ve never seen before in a book - an acknowledgement to another fairly well known author as ‘editorial consultant’. Suspect a large element of ghost writing. Also a historical consultant for the TV series who is not exactly top rank for historians from the look of things! The book is stuffed with anachronisms of the sort that even I can spot (not a historian). I’m glad the corset scene bothered you guys - it was as ludicrous in the book!

Oh dear Extra I'll tell dd1 (she 's quite senior in Carnival) not responsible for Belgravia ,I hasten to add.

What will you tell her, ppeat?!

To make sure the next film they make is written well and has it's background verified.

It’s only fiction! Irritating but pretty much endemic in most historical drama. Well written would be a definite advantage though.

True on both counts Extra .

Looking forward to the happy ending

We got the happy ending! That river scene was all a bit too Dickensian though.

The water was far too clean!

Dickens was writing around 1840s - 50s so spot on I'd say!

I found the pacing of this series to be way off. The first 5 episodes were very often quite boring, with a lot of scenes that dragged too much. Then in this final episode a lot of the scenes that the story was building up to, were just skipped over. We didn't get to see Mrs Trenchard tell Caroline that their children were legally married. As we just heard her final line as a voice over while we watched her walk to the house, followed by exposition from the two women when we cut to them together, instead of reaction. We didn't see Caroline tell her husband or his reaction to learning that she had been building a relationship with their grandson for weeks/months without telling him. Then after the whole drowning scene and Charles sent off to bed wondering wtf just happened, we next see everyone having a lovely dinner celebrating the news. But we didn't see a single person actually learn of the news. We didn't see their reactions. What should have been the main emotional climax of the whole story was cut out and we just jumped to the nice conclusion. It was quite unsatisfying on the whole.

It sounds like bad editing to me. Either that or they didn't have enough time because of the writing which 'dragged' in the beginning eps. I haven't watched the recording yet.

That type of denouement always annoys me too `alittle Some writers are sometimes guilty of it. Even Jane Austen

I think John got off too lightly. He should have ended up in the poor house.

ppeatfruit I know it was Dickens' era, but it was all a bit Poundshop Dickens to me!

I enjoyed the finale even though I agree that the tying up of loose ends was all rather swift. I also quite liked seeing John outwitted by Susan, who wasted no time being 'the woman scorned' and moved straight onto the 'hell hath no fury' part...

I've just caught up on the final episode and agree with everything @alittleprivacy said, all very unsatisfactory and rushed.

I'm glad people agree. I can't help but compare it to my first ever favourite period drama, the 1980s A Little Princess.

Spoilers of 34 year old tv series and 133 year old story to follow!

That last episode is just so perfect, from where Sara wakes after the ruined midnight feast, to find herself warm and with a lovely breakfast waiting from her. Through every single hint that her fortune may be reversed and right through to every single main character discovering the truth. Perfection!!! That's how you do a final episode. Imagine if we just saw Sara return the monkey and then a voice over telling us her identity is discovered by Carrisford as they return from leaving money for waifs at the bakery and Becky greets them as the school girls and Miss Minchins pout from nextdoor. That's how satisfying the end of Belgravia was.

I loved that the two older women became friends of sorts in the end. I wish mr pope had cheated the customs man. He was a thoroughly boring character.

Nice, neat, fluffy Sunday night tv just what’s needed in cv times.

Thought Susan was great as a woman scorned. Harriet Walter was excellent.