Just discovered a full performance of Tosca from La Scala on You Tube which I will have as a sound background while I write more. Downton Abbey picked up as the series progressed with still much predictability and nothing shocking as the Christmas time death of Mathew the legitimate heir to Downton an husband of lady Mary the eldest daughter, or the death of her sister in childbirth the previous season and so on. So what is going to happen next?
Nothing has happened much to his lord and ladyship although his lordship in part our of protectiveness for his daughter saw the opportunity to regain control of the estate, something which Mary eventually found the courage to challenge and continue what the husband had started in the reform of the estate to match changing times. He has to go to the USA to help a relative at the requests of his wife’s mother and this poses a problem for his Valet and the valet’s wife. She had been raped by the butler of a suitor to Lady Mary. When Mary rejected the offer of marriage the man had gone off and continued with the engagement he had previously entered into thus removing the rapist from the household, seemingly for ever.
The wrong woman had wanted to keep the incident secret knowing that to have revealed what happened would have created a situation in which he husband was likely to take the law into his own hands and having only recently been released from prison following the suicide of his wife faked as murder, he was likely to end on the gallows this time without much ado.
Eventually she confides in the housekeeper and the husband find out but the story appears to be accepted that the rape was carried out by a stranger .So when his Lordship is summoned across every effort is made to persuade his lordship to leave the Valet behind and take the obnoxious chief footman and deputy personal valet instead. This involves the housekeeper revealing to lady Mary the situation and she persuading the husband to take the deputy much to his bewilderment. This proves just as well as the manservant returns with his master one more time. The wrong woman copes and lady Mary decides to have a secret meeting with the Lord to persuade him to dismiss his manservant, someone who he had not taken to anyway. However this only fuels the potential fire as the Lord returns to report to lady Mary and strangely his valet meets with an accident falling from the placement in front of a bus in central London. This adds to her concern as the husband of the raped woman has asked for a day off to York as his master was away and he was under employed
Lady Mary consulted another of her potential suitors. A childhood family friend is given hospitality with his boss as they visit estates to advise the government( coalition) on the future of the great home and lands of the aristocracy. The boss is rather contemptuous of the nobles and their inability to manage the estates appropriately to the changing circumstances and finds lady Mary cold and aloof. One of the ventures she has been persuaded with the help of the estate manager to taken on pigs and she accompanies the inspector on an after dinner visit to see how they are getting on, only to find the new pig man has not checked and the creatures are in a sorry state having knocked over the water trough and dehydrated with one almost dying. The to then spend several hours almost through the night drip feeding the pigs with water carried from the nearest barn. She makes then scrambled eggs on return before going to bed as the first staff arrived to commence morning preparations. This established a friendship between the two. I mention this development because when the coincidence of the accidental death of the rapist is advised together with the husband of the wrong woman having the day off and returning home late she asks the inspector for advice without being specific on the morality of saying or doing nothing in such a circumstance. His advice is to be remain silent but we the audience know that this is unlikely to be the end of the matter.
There were three other above stairs stories one which is best described as half and half. Mary’s young cousin has taken up with the black band leader singer encountered at the club in London who she goes to see on a visit to London boating on the Serpentine and then meets in a tea room at York when he has an engagement in the vicinity. She announces she is to marry and Mary appreciates that this is intended more to shock the girl’s mother than from any appreciation of what she is getting involved in. Mary goes to London to see the singer who announces he is not going ahead because he does not want to subject the girl to what is expected given the era. Mary is impressed with him.
The younger sister has not heard from the editor lover supposed in Germany gaining citizenship so he can divorce his mentally ill wife and marry, but has disappeared after leaving his hotel soon after arrival. She is pregnant after their one night of passion and confides in her aunt who reluctantly accompanies her to a back street doctor abortionist but she backs out. The decision is for the two to go on a long trip to Switzerland to have the baby and place for adoption, ostensibly to learn French, however the grandmother, played by Maggie Smith susses them out and offers to pay for the trip. She continues to finds insufferable the bereaved mother of Mary’s dead husband because of all her do gooding but softens a little after getting bronchitis and is nurses to health. As a sort of reward she is invited to lunch with her God son also widower whose company she does not always enjoy. He takes a shine to the guest accompanying her home and later sends a huge bouquet of flowers to the amazement of Maggie Smith.
The half above stairs is that before illness struck Matthew’s mother had invited the widowed husband of the third daughter who died in childbirth to attend a political meeting in York with the local Coalition liberal candidate. He goes alone and encounters a young woman school teacher ( South Riding territory). Later he encounters her at the village fete which the family runs for charitable good causes and than aids when the car breaks down, he was the family chauffer and one suspects he will now abandon his idea of going to the USA for a fresh start. He is also being encouraged to stand for the local council.
The there are two below stairs stories.. Kitchen maid Daisy who was loved by a footman and agreed to marry him when he returned from the first World war dying, had a pash for one of the footmen with ambitions to become a chef and who has got a place at a famous hotel in London The Ritz I think and who in turn developed a pash for another of the kitchen staff who flirted with him as much to annoy Daisy as from wanting him. He comes back to visit his seriously father and wants to stop at the Abbey but is put of by the Butler who puts him up at the local Inn explaining that they have flu at the House. He still calls in before leaving to say hullo to the girl of his dreams. After hi father dies and is returning North for the funeral he writes wanting the girl to move to London and to marry him something she does not wish to do. To avoid a scene Daisy is given the day off to visit the father of her former husband with whim she has become close and has confided, As it is unlikely the young man will ever have cause to come north again, Daisy is counselled to say good by rather than leave things at a jagged edge. They return to find that the young man has been rejected and is appreciated that he is able to part with Daisy who he recognises had his welfare always at heart as friends. The cooks says how proud she is of the girl and one left into thinking this may not be the end of the story. A good place to stop although there are still sub plot stories to unfold.
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