Downton

If you haven't caught an episode of Downton Abbey in the past few months, then you'll have to wait until next season, because the final installment of series one aired last night. Or more to the point, where have you been?! Downton Abbey is a pretty fab show; evidenced in the fact the show garnered 11 Emmy nominations from its first series, and will likely pocket a bunch of gongs come awards night. 


Highclere Castle, which plays the title role in Downton Abbey

So what's it all about then?  Well, go look on wikipedia you lazy sod.  In a nutshell; the British television period drama series is set in the fictional Downton Abbey, stately home of the Earl and Countess of Grantham. It follows the lives of the aristocratic, and often racy and saucy, Crawley family and their servants early in the reign of King George V. The series began with a reference to the sinking of the Titanic, an event that sets the story in motion. The rather spectacular Highclere Castle in Berkshire is used to represent Downton Abbey, with some of the other scenes shot in London and my beloved Oxfordshire.

Apparently series one cost a whopping £1 million per episode to shoot, which included gilded polystyrene cups and a state-of-the-art pie van.  The owners of the castle live there all year around and are probably grateful for the producers for propping up their oversized piggy bank.  I have heard a story that Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber got wind that they were a bit strapped for a cashflow to carry out essential repairs so he made an unsolicited offer to buy the pile for his art collection.  Hearing this story makes me think that we are forking out far too much to go see Mary Poppins and the like. 

Downton has been a huge ratings winner in Australia and Great Britain, and also in the United States, which is understandable, given the televisual crap coming out of that country at the moment.  I find it fascinating that period dramas are so popular, given that we have strived for decades to rid ourselves of all the bothersome things about the early twentieth century, including a lack of heating, electricity, fluorescent lighting, telephones, aeroplanes and Gloria Jeans Coffee, among other things I suppose.  But I think I covered the important stuff.

In fact, there was really nothing to do back then than idle around inventing scandal about everyone you know while taking tea, darn, write boring letters in longhand, read the classics, talk to your family, argue with your family, yell at your family, entertain annoying but good-looking Argentinian businessmen who rudely and abruptly decide to cark it in one of your 83 spare rooms, etc.  Come to think of it, it is nice to watch a television program that doesn’t involve some idiot texting another idiot when they really should be ACTING.

Apparently the Duke and Duchy of Cambridge, aka our Wills and Kate, are big fans of Downton Abbey.  I guess they want to get an idea of what it feels like to live in a huge mansion with a plethora of staff at your beck and call.  Oh wait... I don't know if this is true, but it probably isn't, given that my source is Britain's Daily Express newspaper. 

And you can only believe so much in a newspaper that considers a constructive health story to be an analysis of famous people with Psoriatic Arthritis, and feels the need to update British people with daily front page misadventures of British girl band member Cheryl Cole and her douche bag footballing husband, whose most latest conquest is an air hostess. Why is there always an air hostess involved? So clichéd. Don't air hostesses have some sort of Code of Conduct that they should abide by.  I imagine this is why you can never find one when you spill your drink or need an extra blanket.