DOWNTON ABBEY

Merlot I hadn't realised until you pointed it out that Bates and Laura's father were the same actor. Agree he's much rounder now. And you may all have Tom Branson. He looks like Badger from Wind in the Willows in those tweeds with his new portly shape.

Poor Tom... But 'portly' is exactly right!

Are we sure it wasn't just the tweeds? they looked about six inches thick.
Bates has aged badly in the last few years.So has Anna, and she is looking sickly and thin.Only Thomas looks sleek and well.

But Thomas looks a bit vampirish now and then, have you noticed? Deathly pale, with red lips...

No, it's not just the tweeds with Tom Branson, his face is fatter too!

Haha, yes, at times ( with that little secret smile) he does look a bit vampire like......

Thanks for a great chat. I've laughed my way through it.
I think we should all write the final episode and then see who is right.

I hope the Dowager Duchess finally sacks her ladies maid.

I hope someone has syphylis after returning from the Great War. (a lot of men did) Perhaps Lady Mary could develop an itch! Now that would be funny to watch.

I think it was very bad manners that Robert vomited blood all over the table!!

www.facebook.com/triciamcrae.lester/videos/891350307544925/

I hope this works!!
Happy Downton Christmas!

Lady Mary definitely posher, nasty smell under her nose! Would love Mrs Patmore and Mr Mason to get together. Is Thomas becoming nicer too or is it just a ploy!?

Had to smile at all this. You talk about these people as if they're all real!

I don't watch 'Downton Abbey'. I did watch it a bit originally - pre WWI. I gather it's that 'upstairs vs downstairs' interaction which is the interesting bit.

I watched a more interesting series recently with Sir Tony Robinson and a woman historian. Various 'celebrities' were 'jumped' into different historical periods and had to play the parts allotted to them. One episode was pre-WWI. Servants were meant to be invisible while carrying out their work and being available at all times. Manservants were chosen for their height and good looks but had to stand immobile and expressionless, like statuary. Maidservants had to stand and face the wall when members of the family appeared. They were addressed as 'Jane' whenever spoken to, regardless of real name.

I could not forget that in my 1940s schooldays it was generally accepted, at my village school at least, that girls would go into service and boys into farm work. I am the first generation of all my ancestors to have escaped that fate, thanks to the 1944 Education Act.

My great-grandparents lived to celebrate their 60th wedding anniversary, a rarity in the early 1930s. My great-grandfather had had many skills but he talked of his lifetime in farm work as 'being in service'.

Historians have recently pointed out that servants were regarded much as we'd regard household appliances e.g. washing machine or vacuum and that the cosy interaction in drama series is nowhere near the truth. They were just not 'people'.

Of course we know the characters aren't 'real', margrete, just as most of us know that servants wouldn't have been treated anything like as well as those at Dowton Abbey.

It's just a bit of Sunday evening escapism!

I watched the Tony Robinson series as well. It was fascinating.

Where are the question marks, Anniebach. Oops! Should I be on the pedants' page?

Thank you Alea. That was so funny. I'm hoping I can forward link to my DiL who is a massive fan.

I agree, Lady Mary is getting a 'posher' accent with each episode, Tom and Bates are both much rounder. But I do hope he and Anna have a happy ending.

Thanks to all for the comments. I have so enjoyed reading them. What are we going to do when it finishes?

I think Sunday evenings are a bit of a washout as far as TV is concerned. We were out all day Sunday and didn't get back till late, so I wouldn't have seen the episode anyway. I've enjoyed some of the recent BBC dramas.

Couldn't agree more, Gilly and Indinana. Lady Mary's upper class accent has become a caricature. She'll be able to offer the queen elocution lessons when Downton ends.

"I do hope Mary and Tom continue to develop a proper friendship and don't get romantically involved. It just wouldn't be right on so many levels. Firstly, the family tree/incestuous type relationship issue, he was married to Mary's younger sister so it's be wrong wrong wrong."

Iam64, in Jewish law if a husband dies his brother should marry the widow, if he is unmarried. There is a lovely film called I Love You Rosa, set a century or more ago, where a husband dies and the wife has to marry his brother, who is about 10 years old. Obviously not a full marriage. She works and keeps him and brings him up and funds him to go off to study and then he comes back and falls in love with her

In this case Tom was sort of her husband's brother-in-law. I am not sure if that counts. He is not married as Sibyl died too. I agree he's put on weight .

I love these posts about Downton. They are just the things we were saying too.

Is Thomas becoming nicer too or is it just a ploy!? Yes, I am suspicious too, karenc

You talk about these people as if they're all real!
whadya mean margret as if they're all real
Of course we know the characters aren't 'real', margrete
Ana you've ruined it all for me now, and all those posters lusting after Branson
I thought it was a real-life story of everyday aristocratic folk, like a posh version of the Kardashians.
I know, because I have been there, in their house stately home, looked into Lady M's bedroom, walked round the library, stood under that tree, admired the penstemmon borders.
The family were out that day, but I am sure I would have been invited to dinner.

I think anniebach has already written the last episode, she gave us some hints in a previous post!

Just got back from Tesco and see that Aunt Bessie frozen yorkshires have been renamed "Mrs Patmore's"! They are running a Downton competition .

It's the only 'soap' type thing that I watch and I will miss it when it finishes - having never been able to understand why people get hooked on TV series! We were on holiday in the US a couple of weeks ago and a lovely young man serving us coffee picked up on our accents. He told us that his wife had just started watching Series 1 having bought/rented all the box sets and he couldn't get her to watch anything else. I did tell him to take it all with a large pinch of salt and that life here isn't really like that. Or not for the vast majority anyway!

Really, Funnygran you mean... You DON'T have a butler?

Can't get the staff any more rosesarered!

Thanks roseq I can be a stalker follower now!

Alea Thanks for the link, I'd forgotten that!

I haven't seen that before, Alea. Thanks for the link.

When I saw Mrs Hughes waiting on Carson I couldn't help but wonder what she had given up her single status for! I do hope the "full" marriage is worth it.