Downton Abbey

Spratt? He could leave Lady Violet to the ministrations of the awful Denker and run the magazine as well as writing his Agony column.

Perfect solution!

You're right Ana, we couldn't work out who she was! Thankyou

Very suitable for a chauffeur turned nearly aristocrat!
But who will be left to run the magazine when they have all moved 'oop North'?

x posts rose, I was talking about the scene filmed at Beamish Museum only lasting for a very short time.

Don't read the thread djen - spoilers!!

I thought it was Lady Edith's assistant - the one Tom's got his eye on!

Ana not sure which scene?

Indinana , no, the bouquet catcher wasn't the stroppy schoolmistress, was it Gwen who was a housemaid and went off to do shorthand and typing and got a job as secretary somewhere, not sure why she was there in the forefront.

Blink and you'll miss the scene - it must have been on for all of two minutes!

After WW1 there was a large number of women who had no chance of marriage and family due to the sad number of the fallen. It was a time when many women just had to make their own way in life. I read an excellent but rather sad book about these 'surplus' women. Of my great aunts, 2 married but the other 2 worked successfully all their lives.

The house is still there (at least it was when I went not long ago )

Do you mean Daisy, trisher? I think Violet is too old to do her matric.
Actually, I think Daisy will be happier marrying Andy and they can take over the farm eventually, a career and spinsterhood was not necessarily something to aspire to in those days, more something that happened to those unlucky enough to have lost fiancés in WW1.
Intrigued by the hairstyles, too, I remember DM telling me how she cycled into the nearest town and got her hair cut short (like Lady Mary's I imagine), her mistress was most annoyed - Nanny should not have had her hair cut without permission! The next week her ladyship went and got hers cut in the same style.

Not over for me. I still haven't seen it. Going to watch it at my son's house as he recorded it and his screen is bigger than mine, so I will be able to see more of the detail at Beamish.

Then Jane, if you trawl through again I think I did say I didn't mean the house should have burned down, but not 100% sure, if I did you will find it

Perhaps it's best left sooner than get into a fuss about it, after all Downton is over now so not much point speculating about what might have been.

After WW1 when the men came back they were given their old jobs back, and it was only well off women who could have a job and independence, Trisher, I think. Downton Abbey always seemed to give the impression that it was following the trends, rather than starting them.
It was only after WW2 that women got more independence, and could carry on working.

I was just 'sad' enough to be intrigued by the post asking what sort of mini disaster you had in mind.

Think you Jane, I do admire your ability to recall a post 24 hours after it was posted and Ceesan , you can even recall the time, I assume you recalled and didn't trawl through all the posts, no one has that sad a life

Anyway apologies for forgetting I had spoken of mini disasters Ceasan

I would have liked a much more positive, independent ending for some of the women. Edith for example moving to London and having a successful career. Violet deciding to use her matriculation and becoming a school teacher or civil servant. just someone not getting married and living happily ever after!? This was a time when women were likely not to marry and had worked through WW1 so did manage on their own.

Yesterday at 10.50?

Er Anniebach in your second post you said 'Couldnt there have been a mini disaster'?

I never spoke of a mini disaster

Just wondering, Anniebach, what sort of "mini disaster" would you have liked? A fire perhaps? Maybe an outbreak of swine fever or foot and mouth on the farms? Possibly Violet having a mild stroke would have helped you enjoy it? Let's hear your suggestions!

And the Palour maids, game keepers, assistant chauffeur , boot boy,

Married women did leave their positions when they married I think. Housekeepers like Mrs Hughes had the courtesy title of Mrs but were single.
Perhaps they are hanging on to their staff because it is now the 1920s and drudges staff are not quite so easy to come by.

There must have been more staff, they spoke as if it was down to them - but there must have been scullery maids, cleaners, gardeners, washer women etc.
We only met the 'posher' servants .

B

This is an interesting article about the Downton clothes:
www.telegraph.co.uk/fashion/people/the-fashion-secrets-of-downton-abbeys-success/

I loved the whole schmaltzy series and even had a tear in my eye at the end - not sure why, it was probably a Christmas thing

DA was just escapism, no resemblance to reality required. My Aunt Edith obviously bought into the fantasy when she decided to go into service in a minor stately home, against the dire warnings of her family. She was back the next day because they dared tell her to change a wet bed