Can it really be true that over in the US it is thought you might not be able to grasp the nuances of Downton Abbey so the series has been cut by two hours and simplified to help you out?
Apparently we are told that you have no concept of the laws of entail and would get confused about the fact there are three daughters who can't inherit, whilst you might also misunderstand quite how the wealth that US heiress Cora brought into the family with her marriage ceases to belong to her. In my experience you all know far more about our history, our Royals and our aristocratic eccentricities than we do, so how insulting for you. I'm a little embarrassed to say the least and almost feel I should be apologising, but nevertheless please don't miss Downton Abbey because you have huge treats in store.
Bookhound and I were late starters and so had missed the first three episodes when Downton Abbey screened back in the autumn, so we have taken full advantage of this New Year weekend's three consecutive afternoons of repeats and have settled down to watch the whole lot again and are enjoying it tremendously.
We also watched the new Upstairs Downstairs over Christmas and are thoroughly enjoying this ongoing surfeit of butlers and valets. Though pre-World War I Downton Abbey wins for its location (Highclere Castle) and the inimitable Maggie Smith as the Dowager, Upstairs Downstairs with its 1930's setting also had its merits. Eileen Atkins takes the Dowager role in superb style and to a backdrop that subtly introduces that element of social change amongst the servants who are much less willing to serve, far less subserviant and not afraid to speak their minds. Upstairs Downstairs captured that sense of those echelons of society about to enter their death throes with the Mrs Simpson - Duke of Windsor affair / abdication thread wonderfully woven in. It's hard to imagine how upset and shocked the nation was back then at such infidelity to the institution of the monarchy, but the emotion and distress was palpable.
Meanwhile the nation has been on the edge of its seats and glued to the radio this Sunday evening with the much, if not a little over-hyped 60th anniversary edition of The Archers. So hyped in fact that I was at least expecting a nuclear attack on Brookfield, but having been promised two 'big' stories in the double episode the game was up for me the moment the pregnant Helen's swollen ankles were revealed, and I was in there like a flash with my pre-eclampsia /emergency caesarian diagnosis. Whilst Bookhound was understandably onto the 'banner to be removed from the frosty roof of Lower Loxley' plotline in a nano-second. Now we are all in a state of suspended animation until Monday evening as we wait to know whether it was a double roll-over and did David Archer remember to let go of the other end of the banner, or did he slither off the roof in hot pursuit of the plummeting Nigel...
And my apologies to those of you around the world to whom all of this makes little sense, or is of no interest whatsoever. It feels as if it's been a very long, hard, cold winter here already and we still have months to go, we are clutching at all entertainment straws that come our way
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