"Sometimes I feel the past is a more comfortable place than the future." - Harold Levinson [Lady Cora's brother].
I do so agree...
How life should be.
At a cinema near you. Don't miss it!
Showing posts with label Downton Abbey. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Downton Abbey. Show all posts
Tuesday, 23 September 2025
Tuesday, 28 December 2021
The Dowager
It's our Patron Saint Dame Maggie Smith's birthday today! All hail...
A perfect excuse (if any were needed) to revisit some classic moments of the great Dame's most famous and formidable character:
Many happy returns, Dame Margaret Natalie "Maggie" Smith CH DBE (born 28th December 1934)
[NB she shares her day with a whole raft of the "great and the good", such as Nichelle Nicholls, Stan Lee, Hildegard Knef, Richard Clayderman, Earl Hines, Nigel Kennedy, Billy Williams, Brian Redhead, Sienna Miller, Woodrow Wilson, Roy Hattersley, Sir Max Hastings, Olympic medal-winning swimmer Adam Peaty, Denzel Washington and Martha Wash...]
Saturday, 14 September 2019
Thanos in a tiara
[Click to embiggen]
From the review in Time Out:
In a cinema landscape crowded with superhero smack-downs and CG apocalypses, it’s sometimes nice just to watch a film that wants you to worry about the whereabouts of some vegetables. That film is Downton Abbey, a big old comfort blanket of a movie stitched together from vignettes involving missing paper knives, a problematic ball gown and an unfortunate outbreak of rain. It’s as nourishing as one of Mrs Patmore’s crumpets, and about as edgy...Oh, yes! It certainly does...
Everyone gets their moment to shine, and Maggie Smith’s acid-tongued Dowager Countess (basically Thanos in a tiara) gets about seventeen of them. Her catty rivalry with Imelda Staunton’s similarly formidable aristocrat and her snarky asides are a highlight. Smith steals every scene she’s in, trowelling each line with ironic disdain...
This is a movie that knows what its core audience wants and provides it in spades.
Madam Arcati and I went to the opening night of the big screen adaptation of the series that took the world by storm (for five years until its ostensible final episode back in 2015) last night, and it was just like slipping into a comfortable pair of slippers.
Needless to say, as most reviewers have concurred, you wouldn't go to see this for its heavy, engrossing plot; nor indeed for anything unexpected, other than to wallow in the sumptuousness of it all. Which we did. The consternation and kerfuffle over the Royal visit, the machinations of the Dowager to get exactly what she wants against all comers, the wiliness of the downstairs staff, the stiff-upper-lips upstairs, a frisson of flirtings and semi-scandalous goings-on, a glittering array of frocks and tightly-buttoned toff totty, and everything coming together in the end with a sumptuous ball - what more do you want?!
Possibly the most "shocking" thing in the whole film was seeing Lady Edith (Laura Carmichael) in her cami-knickers.
Imelda Staunton added a welcome bitter-and-twisted grist to the Dowager Countess's mill, the cartoon-villainy of the evil Royal Butler played by David Haig (and his supporting "henchmen") provided some hilarity, and two of our favourite "posh totty" characters played central roles, for a change...
It was all one could have wanted from a couple of hours in the cinema: a delightful escape from everything that constitutes life in the modern world. Perfection.
Facts about the movie:
- Geraldine James, who plays Queen Mary in the film, wears a dress made using fabric that was actually worn by the real-life royal.
- Maggie Smith's tiara is a 19th-century platinum-and-diamond number from Bentley & Skinner of Piccadilly that contains 16.5 carats of brilliant-cut diamonds.
- Both Lady Mary (Michelle Dockery) and Lady Cora (Elizabeth McGovern) wear original Art Deco pieces, carefully adapted and embellished for the film.
More trivia:
- In 2010, composer Andrew Lloyd Webber made an offer to purchase Highclere Castle, where Downton Abbey is filmed, apparently as a home for his art collection.
- It’s estimated that more than 120 million people around the world have watched Downton Abbey at one point; the show was broadcast in 250 territories worldwide, and became a major hit in Russia, South Korea, and the Middle East.
- HM The Queen is a fan, and apparently noticed on one episode that there was a young British officer wearing medals which had not yet been awarded in the period the episode was set.
Enough of all that, and on with the show...
Thursday, 28 December 2017
Saturday, 11 June 2016
Arise...
...Dame Penelope Wilton!
Congratulations on their recognition in the Queen's Official Birthday Honours also go to Companion of Honour Dame Vera Lynn, Sir Rod Stewart, Sir
My name was sadly missed off the list again.
The Birthday Honours
Penelope Alice Wilton DBE (born 3rd June 1946) [a very nice belated 70th birthday present, indeed...]
Friday, 25 December 2015
The Fall of the House of Grantham
It's the last EVER episode of Downton Abbey tonight.
We are distraught!
Wednesday, 2 September 2015
Set it to record...
...the sixth and FINAL series of Downton Abbey starts (here in the UK) on 20th September.
I can't wait!
Tuesday, 7 January 2014
Sunday, 10 November 2013
Uptown Downstairs
For once, a "fabulous at 50" birthday has come around that actually makes me feel OK about being this age.
Who'd have thought that the stuffy, old Lord Grantham - aka Hugh Bonneville - was only 50? Anyway, happy birthday Hugh!
As clips of Downton Abbey are likely to contain spoilers (we haven't actually watched any of the latest series; we tend to record it and save it for a marathon sitting or two, as we did with the last one), it provides me with an opportunity to showcase the marvellous Victoria Wood and Jennifer Saunders spoof for Comic Relief Red Nose Day 2011 (also featuring Joanna Lumley, Harry Enfield, Dale Winton, Olivia Colman, Kim Cattrall and Simon Callow)!
Love it!
Tuesday, 31 January 2012
Another glittering Dowager
Exciting news!
From the BBC:
Oscar-winning US actress Shirley MacLaine is to join the cast of Downton Abbey for its third series as the mother of Lady Grantham.Here is a very short clip of Miss MacLaine playing another fearsome early 20th century character Coco Chanel - a taster for what is to come?
MacLaine - whose character is named Martha Levinson - will begin filming with the rest of the cast next month.
"It is so exciting to have an actress of Shirley MacLaine's stature joining our brilliant Downton Abbey cast," said Laura Mackie, ITV's director of drama.
"It is a tribute to the show's success on both sides of the Atlantic."
"Julian [Fellowes] has written another brilliant character in Martha Levinson, who will be a wonderful combatant for Maggie Smith's Dowager Countess," said Gareth Neame of Downton producer Carnival Films.
Downton Abbey website
Wednesday, 23 November 2011
Downton mania
Still thinking about last night's "evening With Julian Fellowes", at which the special surprise guest was none other than the smouldering sexpot Dan Stevens (Matthew Crawley)!
The discussion - at the very lovely Georgian pile that is St James' Church off Picadilly - was fun, exploring the history and rationale behind the whirlwind success story of Downton Abbey, the reason why it went to ITV rather than the BBC (editorial freedom, apparently), the actors and the historical context.
Rather than go too far into the detail, suffice to say it was obvious the principal raison d'etre was to flog the World of Downton Abbey book, written by Mr Fellowes' niece Julia. Suffice to say also, Hils got us a copy (signed by the whole panel, which included the two Fellowes and executive producer Gareth Neame as well as the lovely Mr Stevens) for Xmas - it is also available now from Amazon.
Any excuse, in my opinion, for some gratuitous shots of the beauteous Dan, here trying to act casual...
...and in the adaptation of Alan Hollinghurst's gay novel The Line Of Beauty:
Plus, as a special bonus (because I love it!), the "Downton Disco"!!
I can't wait for the Christmas Day episode, which Mr Fellowes hinted will tie up an awful lot of the "loose ends" at the end of the second series...
Downton Abbey
Thursday, 22 September 2011
"We are allies, my dear"
As we wish a happy 66th birthday today to ITV - Britain's first commercial broadcaster, launched this day in 1955 - so it is worth celebrating a programme that is definitely that channel's "finest hour" since Brideshead Revisited in 1981.
Downton Abbey is a phenomenon. Universally lauded by critics and audiences alike, it is practically guaranteed to take every TV award going, being as it is a fantastically-acted cross between costume drama and soap (the perfect combination!).
And with the pithy writing of that master of the art Julian Fellowes behind her, its unavowed star is the redoubtable Lady Grantham (Maggie Smith). When she made her entrance in Sunday's first episode of series two, we practically applauded. Here are just some of her better lines:
- Mrs Crawley: “What should we call each other?”
Lady Grantham: “Well, we could always start with Mrs Crawley and Lady Grantham.” - Lady Mary: “Sybil is entitled to her opinions.”
Lady Grantham: “No. She isn’t until she is married, then her husband will tell her what her opinions are.” - Lady Grantham: “You are quite wonderful the way you see room for improvement wherever you look. I never knew such reforming zeal.”
Mrs Crawley: “I take that as a compliment.”
Lady Grantham: “I must have said it wrong.” - Lord Grantham: “We had better go in soon or it isn’t fair to Mrs Patmore.”
Lady Grantham: “Oh, is her cooking so precisely timed? You couldn’t tell.” - Cora: “Are we to be friends then?”
Lady Grantham: “We are allies, my dear, which can be a good deal more effective.” - “What is a weekend?”
- Lady Grantham: “So, that’s Mary’s replacement. Well, I suppose looks aren’t everything.”
Cora: “I think she seems rather sweet. I’m afraid meeting us all together must be very intimidating.”
Lady Grantham: “I do hope so.” - “I hate Greek drama...when everything happens offstage.”
http://www.itv.com/downtonabbey/
Tuesday, 9 November 2010
Fabulous dame!
We are still waiting to catch up with the final episode of the magnificent Downton Abbey, which received a massive 10 million viewers on Sunday. The suspense is killing me! [No spoilers, please...] It's recorded on our V+ Box (amazing, given the amount of trouble we have had with the bloody signal lately!).
However, work patterns, a planned evening at the BFI tomorrow and another at the theatre on Wednesday means we won't get to see it till Thursday at the earliest. Oo-er!
We'll have to make do with this clip of a much younger Maggie Smith hamming it up in the blackly satirical Oh! What A Lovely War instead...
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