I have watched the first three episodes of the series of Downton Abbey on ITV plus one hour on the past three Sunday evenings.
The main focus of the series so far is the threatened loss of Downton to the family because of a poor major investment on the part of his Lordship which means the estate will have to be sold and they move into a small established and a changed way of life. In those days the husband had complete control of his wife’s money until the Married Woman’s Property Acts from the mid 1920’s.
In the most recent episode there is an attempt to gain the support of the American mother of the Countess, played by Shirley McLain. She is outspoken and has no truck with the family’s way of life. Their main attempt to persuade involves holding a prestigious dinner party but the cooker breaks down and there is no hot food. She organises a buffet style picnic of cold meats cheeses breads and fruit. However she also discloses that she is unable to help because of the way her estate and income is tied up. Not surprisingly there has been a great scene of mutual contempt between MacLaine and Maggie Smith who plays Crawley’s mother, the Dowager Countess of Grantham
The only other alternative is to use the money from an estate which has come to the new husband of Lady Mary, Matthew, a third cousin once removed and therefore bears the same surname He would have inherited the estate upon the death of the Earl as the Earl has no son and the scheduled heir dies on the Titanic although someone posing as him appears in the second series disfigured from the First World War when part of the House is turned into a convalescent unit.
Matthew feels unable to take the substantial funds concerned because the money comes via his relationship with the young women with whom he was engaged and who nursed him when it looked he would spend the rest of his life in a wheel chair. She had then died from Spanish flu and out of guilt he felt he could not marry Lady Mary because his fiancée had found out he no longer loved her shortly before she be came ill and he felt that she had given up on life because of this. He recovers from disability and therefore there is no obstacle to the marriage and to having children.
Their marriage nearly does not take place because of his refusal to use the money to save Downton. While Lord and Lady Crawley appear resigned to the situation Lady Mary is now realising that her husband will not inherit the estate upon the death of her father. Before the wedding the youngest daughter of the Earl Sybil is invited to come with her husband, the former chauffer to the family and outspoken Irish Independence supporter. The dinner party is uncomfortable but it the husband who talks to Matthew and helps to ensure that the marriage goes ahead although there is no change between them the issue of accepting the inheritance.
The other subject above stairs concerns the second daughter who is attracted to Sir Anthony Strallen about twice the age if not more. Before the war he had planned to ask Edith to marry him but Mary had intervened because tradition was a second sister or son only married after the first. She persuades him not to ask to save him from rejection which is of course not true as her sister would have gladly accepted. On return from the War Sir Anthony has lost an arm and together with age this prevents him approaching Edith again although she sets her cap on him. He is invited to the special dinner for the mother of the Countess and is then persuaded to withdraw by the Earl but later he relents after pressure from his daughter and they agree to marry and announce their engagement and have a quick wedding.
A feature of this kind of programme is that life below stairs and so far there have only been three stories of any substance. In the last series the personal manservant to the Earl was convicted of the murder of his former wife and his wife now visits him in prison and attempts to find the evidence which will show that that her death was suicide faked as murder to incriminate her former husband. His place is taken on by the ambitious lying, cheating, stealing, and blackmailing Thomas who gets more than anyone’s fair share of chances and in this series he plays a dirty trick on the young valet to Matthew giving him the wrong substance to clean the dress jacket so that it has to be sent away to be repaired. That he does not possess another is absurd and there is great fuss because he wears a D, J instead. Other staff arrange for his lordships dress shirts to disappear so he too has to wear a DJ and then for the shirts to reappear. The valet also has to serve at table and is uncomfortable in the role have been hotel trained and is mocked. The main story is that of the housekeeper who finds a lump and goes for medical examination with the cook and where the first test comes back inconclusive. She is understandably worried and makes mistakes but ignores being told to rest and refuses to allow the cook to tell the Butler of her condition. Rumour has it her that she or someone well known as a cast member will die. It is difficult to see where the story will go unless the family are to face a great reality test and lose the Downton so what would he series be then called? Will continue to watch but not a priority.
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