Worst Downton Abbey storylines

[DressingGownofDoom]

I love Downton but there have been some really awful storylines. Like at least one per episode Think my least favourite is when the soldier guy turned up at Downton pretending to be cousin Patrick, who had survived the Titanic, got amnesia, and his memory returned to him suddenly in a blast in the war, and Edith actually believed him

And there were different job opportunities opening up for women too, like Gwen(?) who left to become a typist.

Also, I've read accounts from people who worked in houses like Downton in this era and they said the norm was half a day off a week, and maybe a full day every two weeks. You wouldn't have seen the servants sitting around chatting like this lot do - they'd have been too knackered!

Yes, so that is more than the half an afternoon to go to church.

And the upper servants would have had more. A butler could reasonably expect a proper annual holiday. We have letters from the Sitwells' butler writing to his employers from his annual holiday at the seaside. (all right, so he probably took liberties that most wouldn't). P.G. Wodehouse of course writes about a fantasy world, but he's not wrong about Jeeves getting time off.

That is another change as the series progresses- gradually, all the people we follow become senior servants, and we kind of are encouraged to forget that they couldn't have done their work without the lower servants working much harder below.

This thread has inspired me to rewatch Downton! I'm on season 2 episode 3 where everyone is scandalised because a servant owns a typewriter

@PolkadotsAndMoonbeams

There was an early story about Granny 'fixing' the results of the flower show wasn't there? Not that anybody directly accused her, but that was definitely the implication!

That annoyed me so much. It was filched directly from the film 1942 Mrs Miniver (British WW" propoganda film to enlist American sympathy).

WW = WW2

I didn't like the storyline with Robert and the maid....

Bertie's monstrous mum suddenly accepting the Marigold situation was ludicrous.

I always found it weird that Richard Carlisle was going to ruin Mary by publishing the story of her and Poor Mr Pamuk...and then we never hear from him again

Typical of Fellowes' writing, James. He thinks in scenes, not in storylines. He is very good at setting an actor up to do their very best in one moving scene, but then the whole terrible situation that supposedly brought that scene about is just...dropped.

The Marigold situation is another typical example. In one episode Edith runs off to London and is going to live her own independent life because it is impossible to live at Downton with her secret illegitimate child, in the next episode she is back at Downton and somehow no one clocks that this child a) looks suspiciously like Mr Editor b) is treated like her own child by Edith who is nervous and obsessively loving around her c) appeared in the world 9 months after Edith and Mr Editor was going to parties together in London and was born at the same time as Edith took a mysterious holiday in Switzerland d) Mr Editor has also left Edith his business though he had a wife.

@Tartyflette

Mr Pamuk may have been an early victim of the Spanish Flu, it was starting up around then and killed many apparently healthy young people. Or perhaps he just over-exerted himself.

.

I thought spanish flu was 1918 whereas Mr Pamuk died c. 1912/13? Apparently that story is actually true, as JF got it from an old auntie's diary or something!

Can't believe nobody has yet mentioned the GHOST of Lavinia wishing Mary & Matthew well via Daisy's ouija board....

And most bizarrely, the whole plot for years was focused on the land being entailed which was why LG had to find all these long lost male successsors - however people had been using various common recovery schemes to end entails for centuries, to the point where the process was drastically simplified in the 1833 Fines and Recoveries Act....it would have been a very simple legal procedure for Lord G to will the estate to Cora/Mary/ISIS the dog, and IMHO this would have been a more interesting as well as more accurate storyline....if he could have given his land to his daughters but didn't want to because he didn't think they'd be any good any managing it (the irony....) or because he wanted to keep the land with the title, which they couldn't inherit....

Oh I am enjoying re-watching the box set thanks to this thread!

I do wish that there was a function where I could skip all the Bates and Anna misery. Maybe I could suggest it to Amazon Prime. Especially the scene where they're lying in bed together after their fist shag NOT envy.

I really do like O'Brien and Thomas though as a panto villain double act. The actress is great isn't she I can't believe she's so wicked in DA and also plays the hilarious Janice Garvey in Benidorm.

Despite all the shit storylines and plot holes, I think it's worth it for the Dowager Countesses' one liners. Just watched the episode where Richard Carlisle dramatically flounces after being dumped, telling the Countess "You won't be seeing me again M'Lady" and she replies "Do you promise?"

*FIRST shag, not fist shag I'm sure they had perfectly conventional sex (mind you it's always the quiet ones)

@Wilma55

When the (Egyptian?) died in Lady Mary's bed and the body had to be smuggled out....cant remember the details....

Apparently that is based on a true story which is why they wrote it!

@JamesMiddletonsMarshmallows

*FIRST shag, not fist shag I'm sure they had perfectly conventional sex (mind you it's always the quiet ones)

Outstanding typo. I needed that giggle!!

Laughing at that typo!!

Typo is gold!

This thread makes me think of the months I spend trying to convince my husband to watch Downton with me and the first episode he watches is the one with the almighty hoo har over Mrs Hughes trying on Cora's coat. That did not help my case!

I always found it amusing that the only genuine aristocrat in the cast (Rose Leslie) played one of the servants. The whole storyline about her character having a job interview in the library, facilitated by Sybil, and then the two of them jumping up and down and hugging each other when she got the job...

Mind you, I rewatched the whole thing a while ago and I was struck by the difference in quality between the first couple of series and the rest. The storylines were always bloody daft, but at least the dialogue was well-written and the scenes were more than about 30 seconds long. The biggest problem with the later series is that we were expected to swallow implausible ideas without even the benefit of decent production.

@BentBastard

This thread makes me think of the months I spend trying to convince my husband to watch Downton with me and the first episode he watches is the one with the almighty hoo har over Mrs Hughes trying on Cora's coat. That did not help my case!

🤣🤣

I've thought of another ridiculous storyline.

How after 5 seasons of absolutely no sexual chemistry suddenly Carson and Mrs Hughes suddenly wanted to jump each other's bones and apparently had for some time

Oh, I dunno, I think that one was being foreshadowed at quite an early stage, James. The way Carson reacted when he thought Mrs Hughes might have cancer in one of the earlier series. And Mrs Patmore clearly realising he had a soft spot for her.

I kind of wish Anna and Mr Bates had just not had all the stuff happen to them and had a slow burning romance as their depressing storylines (especially Anna’s rape ) really spoil a lot of the later episodes for me .
Wish we had had a bit more of the 1912 -1914 era when all 3 daughters were around rather then what feels like a never ending series about Mary’s dating from season 4 -6

We’ve started rebinging it from the beginning and Matthews not dead yet and there are some serious holes in the writing but we feel it’s been made up by the overall filming/cast. He’s just arrived back from America to claim that he feels part of the family but hasn’t allowed the family to feel the same way......

I've restarted it too @mm40 and at the bit where Thomas sexually assaults Jimmy while he sleeps and rather gan being sacked he gets promoted to under butler and everyone tells Jimmy to STFU

To be fair, there were no repercussions when Jimmy deliberately got Ivy drunk with the plan of taking advantage of her, nor when he tried to rip her clothes open and told her she owed him what he wanted because he'd taken her to the cinema. The only effect was that the kitchen staff told Ivy she had to be more careful because men only want one thing.

And Jimmy, unlike Thomas, hadn't been told that Ivy was in love with him and waiting for him to make the first move. He just thought he was entitled to any women around.