Downton Abbey

Hi everyone. 
It's been a while and I do apologise for that. I can now announce that due to changes in personal circumstances, I should now be able to write at least one blog on a movie per week. As much as possible, I will try to make these movies recent movies, but I will of course add in a few really old movies for fun.

Without further ado, I bring you...

DOWNTON ABBEY

So I have to admit that I am relatively new to Downton, having only discovered it two years ago. For those of you wondering how I could have only discovered it a few years ago the answer is simple; I knew about it due to the adverts and Maggie Smith but I was unable to watch it when it was released so I had to wait until I picked the box sets up in a charity shop for £2 each. Then I worked my way through them on almost a binge and really enjoyed them all. Naturally, I was excited for the movie as I felt that the series hadn't really ended. Julian Fellowes left so many possibilities with his final episode.

We all wondered what would happen to the house once all the 'Crawley girls' were married and this movie shows us. With Carson living happily retired alongside Mrs Hughes (who is not retired) and Thomas taking on the role of Butler we wondered how much time would pass before Thomas was deemed incapable of living up to the pressure. The answer is that he manages well until the Royal Family announce their visit and then after about two or three days Lady Mary (Michelle Dockery) asks Carson to come back temporarily and take over from Thomas as she doesn't want the household to appear unprepared for the Royal visit. 

I am going to try and answer some questions that may have been going through your head when you saw the advert for this film:
1) Do they survive the visit- Yes.
2) Do the household staff actually serve the Royal family- Yes, due to some creativity from Mr and Mrs Bates.
3) Is Lady Edith actually in her underwear for one scene- sort of. There are problems with her dress and so she is wearing her undergarments. This may be scandalous but she isn't revealing anything so it is perfectly sensible and realistic to assume that Ladies and Gentlemen were not always well presented.
4) Does Tom Branson give one of his Ireland speeches again? No. Tom actually saves the King's life by preventing an Irish republican from shooting the King. Tom is very well behaved in this movie.
5) Are there any new characters? Yes but not as additions to Downton. Imelda Staunton takes on the role of Lady Bagshaw, who is a travelling companion for Her Royal Highness the Queen and Tuppence Middleton appears as Lady Bagshaw's maid, Lucy Smith.

Now that those questions have been answered I can write a bit about the movie.

As we all know, Tom's character got a lot better after Sybil died and he became not only bearable but actually likeable. In this film he has a few powerful lines and appears as the most helpful character in the entire movie. You can't help but feel that from the moment he met Lucy Smith that he was always going to marry her. The relevance of this being that Lady Bagshaw is a cousin of Violet Crawley (Maggie Smith) and has been refusing to make Robert (Hugh Bonneville) her heir because she has actually made Lucy Smith, who turns out to be her child (but not from her deceased husband), her heir. Tom marrying Lucy would bring the money back to the Crawley household (in a manner of speaking).
Violet reveals that she is ill and places the onus on Mary to become the strong leader of the family who will fight for everything just because tradition states. This seemed like a good way to write her out of the script, should they chose to continue with this story and produce a one off Christmas episode (famous for killing off characters). Word on the street is that Maggie Smith wasn't going to do the movie until she discovered that the rest of the cast were all going to reprise their roles. The movie would not have been the same without her and the household would not be the same without her constant bickering with Isobel (Penelope Wilton).
Let's try to remember that Daisy and Andy were going to get married. This movie hasn't really moved on from that and at the end of the movie Daisy agrees to start thinking about her wedding. Daisy has really grown from an irritating character who was unable to see Thomas' true nature, to a relatively strong minded woman who can actually fight for the right things. Andy was always a step up from just about any other footman employed at Downton. Andy isn't stupid or a flirt, which makes him better than the two before him and he actually shows other sides to him as well in this movie.
Thomas gets to learn a thing or two about life and also gets a little bit of development. His character never really expanded in the series. Whilst he did settle down and grow up a bit, he didn't actually have much real development in the same that Mrs Patmore, Mrs Hughes and Carson all suffered from an illness which showed a vulnerable side to themselves.
Everyone has their moment in this movie and it is everything that you would expect from a Downton movie. The only negative is Anna's hair. It looks like a terrible wig and I hope that it is a wig because it doesn't look great on her. Everyone seemed to change their hair in the 20's but this just doesn't work for her. 

If you are a fan of period drama or Downton then make sure to watch this movie. It's in UK cinema's and is worth it. If you've never seen the series but are a fan of Imelda Staunton, Maggie Smith (how could you not be) or even if you are a Terry Pratchett fan and want to watch 'Susan' from 'The Hogfather' in something else then watch this movie.


Now that I have passed on my words of advice, without revealing too much of the plot I can leave you with the explanation as to why this post is in purple. Drum roll please... I struggle with Black on White because the contrast makes everything blurry so I now write almost everything in purple. From now on blog posts will appear in purple- apologies for this weirdness.