Now to Downton Abbey where I have watched the latest three episodes of the second series with a couple more to go.
His Lordship and his lady are demonstrating that they are able to adjust, however regretfully, to the changed circumstances of the first World Wartime. The Abbey has been given over to convalescing officers but they have been allocated a separate dining room rather than eat with his Lordship and Lady, and their daughters. It is evident the Earl of Grantham struggles without the use of the trusted man’s servant who left again, parting in bad humour for the second time because Bates acted in the best interests of the household as his wife threatened to expose the relationship between Lady Mary and the foreign gentleman. The Earl can be an awful clot oblivious to everything of importance occurring in his family but his heart is genuine albeit a product of his privileged and protected background from the reality of 99.9% of the humanity.
Bates having found out his wife had committed adultery commenced proceedings for divorce and naively for the umpteenth time assumes he has the upper hand. It is clever script writing to make him out to have a similar personality as his master albeit of slightly higher intelligence and worldliness.
He had returned to the area running a village pub which appeared to have no other staff or customers when first visited by his true love, the head housemaid Anna who had persuaded Lady Mary to use her London connections with the press Baron to find out if she had seen him about the nearest village. He admits he had come to get a glimpse of her but was unsure of his welcome after such a disappointing forced departure after they had made plans to marry and set up a small business together. When the Earl heard the news he had also visited Bates to make his peace and bring him back in one of several dubious contrived pieces of writing which makes the series even less convincing than the first despite its popularity.
They are quickly undone by the repeated alliance, the second plot contrivance, between former footman, blackmailer, conman and thief Thomas and the maidservant to her ladyship the evil Miss O’Brien. She writes the wife of Bates to let her know he is back and then immediately regrets doing so when the wife visits and announces proposes to explore the relationship between Lady Mary and Turk thus bringing shame and ridicule on the family although how this gets back at Bates is not made clear.
It is O’Brien who plants the idea of using Thomas, a common soldier, who trained as a medical orderly to get out of the front line and then got his hand shot through in order to get out of working at the front and a place at the local hospital given over to wounded officers, to have a role in the care of the convalescing men although is never made clear what his role is other than as a common solder orderly made up to acting Sergeant for some reason again not explained. The Countess fights with the mother of the heir, Isobel Crawley over the time of meals and staffing shift patterns and the army medical doctors are still in charge as are the generals. The Countess and Dowager Countess are still trying to find a way to retain control of the Abbey when the Early dies and the outsider Mathews take control of the estate and its wealth with the girls out on the street so speak unless Mathew and his wife to be take pity along with the Countess who would also become Dowager as her mother in law is now.
Her ladyship has been kept oblivious that Thomas is a cheating conman, blackmailer and thief by her husband who agrees to the return in the new capacity because he has been wounded in the war and we should forgive those who have served their country! Thomas swaggers around as if he owns the place until he is cut down to size by a senior officer but one cannot feel his role as a baddies is not over yet.
Bates advises Lady Mary of his wife’s proposed calumny that goes to see her press baron to pre-empt the story disclosure and throw herself on his mercy. She is showing her the unscrupulous side of her otherwise generous nature by pursing the marriage for wealth and position when her heart remains locked towards Matthew. He accepts the situation on the basis that her previous wanton behaviour makes them more equal. He uses the classic device of paying Mrs Bates for her story and getting her to sign a confidentiality agreement and then binning the tale. She is incensed when she finds out and warns she will find another way of getting revenge on the former husband.
This is only the first demonstration that Lady Mary can be underhanded without scruples and aided and abetted by the Dowager she attempts to expose Matthews’s fiancée because she stole a document for the Newspaper owner to expose a national scandal which they believe she did because the two had been lovers. When without appreciating the hypocrisy of her position she confronts Lavinia the young woman explains that she was blackmailed into the action because her father had been involved in the scandal and providing the document meant that her father kept his good name in public. As earlier in the second series Lady Mary realises that the young woman is someone of integrity and is in love with Matthew and she will not intervene further in the relationship.
How these issues unfold are at the core of the episodes although his Lordship remains oblivious to all this. The heir returns for a flying visit as part of his tour with the head of the regiment on recruiting and morale raising in the northern counties. A member of the house staff, a footman is called up and her Ladyship pulls strings to get him attached to the heir as his batman. When both go missing there is understandable anxiety on everyone’s part so when it was only a lack of communication there is great relief.
However their joy is short lived because back at the front Mathew and the former footman at the Abbey are severely wounded. Mathew is so severely injured that the doctors determine that he will not walk again or to be able to have normal marital relations. This means there is no prospect of an heir and therefore the long term future of the estate is in question once more.
When Lavinia comes to see Matthew after he has been wounded he insists that their engagement ends because his injury has been assessed as permanent together with the inability to consummate the marriage. Lavinia is distraught because she wants to be with him despite the changed circumstances and enlists the help of Lady Mary.
Alas the former footman who father lives in the village is in a worse condition. Before being called up he had showed great interest in one of the housemaids and assumes his feelings are reciprocated and she is bullied by other staff including the Housekeeper and the chief cook to consent to an engagement while he is in the war. When he returns and is dying he wants a quick wedding so the girl will be entitled to a state pension as a war widow. She is reluctant because she does not love him nor is the local vicar willing to conduct the ceremony but he is threatened with losing his livelihood if he refuses and the couple marry just before the young man dies.
The rebellious daughter is still being pursued by the chauffer who discloses he participated in the Easter rising in Ireland when a relation of his was killed because he was in the wrong place at the wrong time although he was not an activist. He regales the staff with news of the revolution taking place in Russia and the imprisonment of Czar but is then horrified when the Royal family is executed. Before this he attempts to take revenge on a visiting General by offering to stand in as a footman to serve at dinner with the intention of pouring an unpleasant mixture over the visitor when serving the soup. He expects to be prosecuted which will give him the publicity to make his protest and to lose his job. His intentions become known because of a message left for the daughter intercepted by a staff member and his plan is thwarted and the matter covered up.
Not so the plight of one of the housemaids who responds to the advances of one of the convalescing officers under the misguided notion that this will be her way out of a life of service. She is dismissed when the relationship is discovered and he is told to leave. She returns for help when she finds herself pregnant. The father declines to accept any responsibility for mother and child. Meanwhile short of a maid a young widow with a child is taken on in service.
The kitchen staffs commences a soup kitchen for local men who return from the front wounded and cannot work or find work after discharge. Miss O’Brien again interferes and warns her ladyship that the staffs are stealing food to sell. When her ladyship visits she helps out with the venture and orders O’Brien to join in. The Butler continues his recovery from exhaustion and stress.
The marriage of Lady Mary and the Newspaper Baron is announced in his paper without Lady Mary or her father having advance warning. It is interesting as the second series progresses that the only members of the upper classes, apart from one of the daughters that appears to have genuine honour and integrity without being stupid and waste of space are Matthew, his mother and his fiancée. I am no sure this is what the programme makers and writer intend.
His Lordship and his lady are demonstrating that they are able to adjust, however regretfully, to the changed circumstances of the first World Wartime. The Abbey has been given over to convalescing officers but they have been allocated a separate dining room rather than eat with his Lordship and Lady, and their daughters. It is evident the Earl of Grantham struggles without the use of the trusted man’s servant who left again, parting in bad humour for the second time because Bates acted in the best interests of the household as his wife threatened to expose the relationship between Lady Mary and the foreign gentleman. The Earl can be an awful clot oblivious to everything of importance occurring in his family but his heart is genuine albeit a product of his privileged and protected background from the reality of 99.9% of the humanity.
Bates having found out his wife had committed adultery commenced proceedings for divorce and naively for the umpteenth time assumes he has the upper hand. It is clever script writing to make him out to have a similar personality as his master albeit of slightly higher intelligence and worldliness.
He had returned to the area running a village pub which appeared to have no other staff or customers when first visited by his true love, the head housemaid Anna who had persuaded Lady Mary to use her London connections with the press Baron to find out if she had seen him about the nearest village. He admits he had come to get a glimpse of her but was unsure of his welcome after such a disappointing forced departure after they had made plans to marry and set up a small business together. When the Earl heard the news he had also visited Bates to make his peace and bring him back in one of several dubious contrived pieces of writing which makes the series even less convincing than the first despite its popularity.
They are quickly undone by the repeated alliance, the second plot contrivance, between former footman, blackmailer, conman and thief Thomas and the maidservant to her ladyship the evil Miss O’Brien. She writes the wife of Bates to let her know he is back and then immediately regrets doing so when the wife visits and announces proposes to explore the relationship between Lady Mary and Turk thus bringing shame and ridicule on the family although how this gets back at Bates is not made clear.
It is O’Brien who plants the idea of using Thomas, a common soldier, who trained as a medical orderly to get out of the front line and then got his hand shot through in order to get out of working at the front and a place at the local hospital given over to wounded officers, to have a role in the care of the convalescing men although is never made clear what his role is other than as a common solder orderly made up to acting Sergeant for some reason again not explained. The Countess fights with the mother of the heir, Isobel Crawley over the time of meals and staffing shift patterns and the army medical doctors are still in charge as are the generals. The Countess and Dowager Countess are still trying to find a way to retain control of the Abbey when the Early dies and the outsider Mathews take control of the estate and its wealth with the girls out on the street so speak unless Mathew and his wife to be take pity along with the Countess who would also become Dowager as her mother in law is now.
Her ladyship has been kept oblivious that Thomas is a cheating conman, blackmailer and thief by her husband who agrees to the return in the new capacity because he has been wounded in the war and we should forgive those who have served their country! Thomas swaggers around as if he owns the place until he is cut down to size by a senior officer but one cannot feel his role as a baddies is not over yet.
Bates advises Lady Mary of his wife’s proposed calumny that goes to see her press baron to pre-empt the story disclosure and throw herself on his mercy. She is showing her the unscrupulous side of her otherwise generous nature by pursing the marriage for wealth and position when her heart remains locked towards Matthew. He accepts the situation on the basis that her previous wanton behaviour makes them more equal. He uses the classic device of paying Mrs Bates for her story and getting her to sign a confidentiality agreement and then binning the tale. She is incensed when she finds out and warns she will find another way of getting revenge on the former husband.
This is only the first demonstration that Lady Mary can be underhanded without scruples and aided and abetted by the Dowager she attempts to expose Matthews’s fiancée because she stole a document for the Newspaper owner to expose a national scandal which they believe she did because the two had been lovers. When without appreciating the hypocrisy of her position she confronts Lavinia the young woman explains that she was blackmailed into the action because her father had been involved in the scandal and providing the document meant that her father kept his good name in public. As earlier in the second series Lady Mary realises that the young woman is someone of integrity and is in love with Matthew and she will not intervene further in the relationship.
How these issues unfold are at the core of the episodes although his Lordship remains oblivious to all this. The heir returns for a flying visit as part of his tour with the head of the regiment on recruiting and morale raising in the northern counties. A member of the house staff, a footman is called up and her Ladyship pulls strings to get him attached to the heir as his batman. When both go missing there is understandable anxiety on everyone’s part so when it was only a lack of communication there is great relief.
However their joy is short lived because back at the front Mathew and the former footman at the Abbey are severely wounded. Mathew is so severely injured that the doctors determine that he will not walk again or to be able to have normal marital relations. This means there is no prospect of an heir and therefore the long term future of the estate is in question once more.
When Lavinia comes to see Matthew after he has been wounded he insists that their engagement ends because his injury has been assessed as permanent together with the inability to consummate the marriage. Lavinia is distraught because she wants to be with him despite the changed circumstances and enlists the help of Lady Mary.
Alas the former footman who father lives in the village is in a worse condition. Before being called up he had showed great interest in one of the housemaids and assumes his feelings are reciprocated and she is bullied by other staff including the Housekeeper and the chief cook to consent to an engagement while he is in the war. When he returns and is dying he wants a quick wedding so the girl will be entitled to a state pension as a war widow. She is reluctant because she does not love him nor is the local vicar willing to conduct the ceremony but he is threatened with losing his livelihood if he refuses and the couple marry just before the young man dies.
The rebellious daughter is still being pursued by the chauffer who discloses he participated in the Easter rising in Ireland when a relation of his was killed because he was in the wrong place at the wrong time although he was not an activist. He regales the staff with news of the revolution taking place in Russia and the imprisonment of Czar but is then horrified when the Royal family is executed. Before this he attempts to take revenge on a visiting General by offering to stand in as a footman to serve at dinner with the intention of pouring an unpleasant mixture over the visitor when serving the soup. He expects to be prosecuted which will give him the publicity to make his protest and to lose his job. His intentions become known because of a message left for the daughter intercepted by a staff member and his plan is thwarted and the matter covered up.
Not so the plight of one of the housemaids who responds to the advances of one of the convalescing officers under the misguided notion that this will be her way out of a life of service. She is dismissed when the relationship is discovered and he is told to leave. She returns for help when she finds herself pregnant. The father declines to accept any responsibility for mother and child. Meanwhile short of a maid a young widow with a child is taken on in service.
The kitchen staffs commences a soup kitchen for local men who return from the front wounded and cannot work or find work after discharge. Miss O’Brien again interferes and warns her ladyship that the staffs are stealing food to sell. When her ladyship visits she helps out with the venture and orders O’Brien to join in. The Butler continues his recovery from exhaustion and stress.
The marriage of Lady Mary and the Newspaper Baron is announced in his paper without Lady Mary or her father having advance warning. It is interesting as the second series progresses that the only members of the upper classes, apart from one of the daughters that appears to have genuine honour and integrity without being stupid and waste of space are Matthew, his mother and his fiancée. I am no sure this is what the programme makers and writer intend.
No comments:
Post a Comment