I've finally watched the Christmas one - Julian F. really does get away with murder, it's basically setting up the next series. I don't want to spoil anything for Gran or anyone else who hasn't seen it yet so I'll say no more but at least Inveraray Castle looked rather good. I wonder how they managed to find the days to film it in sunshine during such a rubbish summer?

Was it any good ferval? I thought it might be rubbish so haven't bothered watching it yet.

Basically twaddle ID, it passes the time if there's nothing better to do but if you want to get the only parts of the plot that matter, watch the last half hour. If you must sit through the hospital scene, have a sick bucket to hand. If you see that, I'll bet you see the denouement coming a mile off.

I suppose I should watch it, although I've already heard on the radio what happens. Much as we had already guessed at the end of the series, Fellows is ever predictable.

I have heard who dies on the radio but I wont give it away either, yes I guess that would set it up for another series. I enjoy it as a bit of escapism, and for the lovely costumes. We will probably have to wait until next Xmas, thats the way it works around here.

Blandings is the new - and far better - Downton.





Tinkety tonk!

PS Your Enormity - what a wonderful way to address one's social superior.

Well, at any rate, I'd rather have Empress (the pig) than that fat labrador.

I do hope someone else gets to watch Blandings. It's nowhere near as good as the Fry and Laurie "Jeeves & Wooster", but for anyone who's a fan of P.G. Wodehouse it's well worth viewing. I think it's spiffing fun - some of the lines even Maggie Smith would balk at, and are too risque to repeat here (in fact, in an earlier post, I quoted one from last week's episode - the butler telling Lord Emsworth how he'd been lubricating* the magistrate's clerk in his (the butler's) pantry, but I decided to delete it).

Tomorrow's episode (BBC1 6.30) has David Walliams as the guest star. He plays Baxter, the personal assistant hired to sort out the chaos at Blandings Castle. His first task is to re-classify Lord Emsworth's marbles collection.

I like the Radio Times's comment: "Just think of it as the Idiot's Downton Abbey, where absurd toffs get into muddles, usually with pigs and women. Biffing!"

*With Harvey's Luncheon Dry.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/2013/jan/12/blandings-is-just-the-ticket

I watched the first episode of Blandings Temp, but I'm not sure whether I like it or not. A bit too silly I thought, although admitedly amusing in places. Anyway I'll give it another go this week before deciding whether to give it a miss.

Islanddawn wrote:

A bit too silly I thought, although admitedly amusing in places.

I know what you mean, ID. I think in this sort of "ridiculous toffs" programme you've got to have actors/actresses who really understand the subtleties of the British "proper posh" brigade. That's why Laurie and Fry were so good - they *are* both proper posh! That said, Jack Farthing is pretty good as Freddie and Tim Spalding tries really hard as Lord Emsworth, but Jennifer Saunders (good, solid, middle-class girl, but not pp) rather lets the side down as Lord E's sister: Joanna Lumley(again proper posh lady who, like Stephen Fry, hobnobs with Prince Charles) would have been better in that role, I feel.

I love the English class system; it absolutely fascinates me. And it's still alive and well and living here *and* all over the globe. I was once dismissed comtemptuously as being "not quite top drawer" - the comment (which was entirely accurate - I'm roughly second drawer up from the botttom) devastated me at the time (I was very young), but now I relate the tale with glee.

PS Would love to have Priscilla's views on this!

PPS I think Oscar Wilde had it right when he said: "Never speak disrespectfully of society. Only people who can't get into it do that", but Wilde also observed: "To get into the best society nowadays one has either to feed people, amuse people, or shock people - that is all."

PPPS Noted an alternative to huffing and miffing from the programme - to be in a bit of a bate (a rather nice expression that has its origins in falconry I believe).

I haven't heard 'in a bate' for years and had quite forgotten it. But yes, it is an excellent description and one that would slot into the range of dudgeons very well. I'm sure P could whip up an appropriate bate for someone to use when the time comes.

I've never lived in a country with much of a class system Temp, and only know it from years of British telly shows. Not in my wildest dreams could I imagine someone seriously categorising anyone as 'not quite top drawer', nor could I imagine that deluded person being treated with anything other than derision by all.

Yippee we have the Xmas episode of Downton this evening, I am looking forward to it. Only a month late, must be some kind of record. I remember the class system, there are the genuine class descended from who knows when, the monied class, they dont quite make it, then all the would be's they dress right up to class, but the funny part is that the genuine class dress down most of the time, wearing the likes of wellington boots and tweed, they have nothing to prove.

Gran wrote:

Yippee we have the Xmas episode of Downton this evening...

Don't get too excited, Gran!!

PS Got to be the right sort of wellies, of course.

We've just finished watching it and apart from one comment here (something about guessing who died, after which I stopped reading the post quickly) I didn't know there were rumours about deaths. Very disappointed to lose Matthew but I see it was the actor's choice. These Christmas episodes do rather shove a lot into two hours and don't necessarily follow up everything. I thought the birth scene was done quite well (though does anyone reporting the birth of a baby not say what sex it is on the telephone or whatever communication is used?) - fathers do get pretty excited about sons. Maybe daughters too - I don't know so much about them.

Islanddawn wrote:

I watched the first episode of Blandings Temp, but I'm not sure whether I like it or not. A bit too silly I thought, although admitedly amusing in places. Anyway I'll give it another go this week before deciding whether to give it a miss.

Give it a miss, ID. Just watched David Walliams episode - really disappointing.

Oh well.

Blandings has not been praised by the reading board I belong to - however they do revere Wodehouse's writing which makes it hard for people to adapt it to anyone's satisfaction. (Though the Fry/Laurie version of Jeeves and Wooster was certainly more to their taste, with Laurie described as the definitive Wooster.) They talked of Blandings as lacking in charm, frantic-paced, using slapstick, with cross-cutting and a jaunty pace quite out of keeping. I don't know if these will come to our television or not. I haven't read a lot of Wodehouse; when I tried one of the J and W books I could just hear Laurie and Fry all the time so it hardly seemed necessary to read them. Did enjoy Leave it to Psmith.

This 'could' be ok. But the 'loosely based' description and that it is History Channel is a bit of a worry.

http://www.indiewire.com/article/television/watch-opening-sequence-for-historys-first-scripted-series-vikings

I watched the last episode of 'Blandings'. Now it's a long time since I read any Wodehouse but I'm sure I would have remembered if toilet humour featured so prominently, if at all. Oh dear, what a mess in every sense.

The National Museum in Edinburgh has an exhibition running on Vikings and I suspect that playing this might be more educational and more fun than that series.http://www.nms.ac.uk/kids/games_and_adventures/vikings_training_school.aspx

Look out for "Simpton Abbey" later this year:

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2013/06/07/watch-the-simpsons-downton-simpton-abbey_n_3401483.html

Dark and cheerless Sunday nights loom - no more White Queen and no sign yet of the return of Homeland. But what is this? Downton Abbey, Series 4, is back! Mid-September. Hurrah!

Yet another adorable little Baby George for us all to coo over, and a new-fangled electric whisk in Mrs. Patmore's kitchen! What more could the nation ask?

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/reviews/preview-downton-abbey-series-4--sparks-fly-as-julian-fellowes-global-phenomenon-enters-roaring-twenties-8760023.html

One new arrival does cause sparks to fly. An electric mixer, a discovery introduced into the kitchen by assistance cook Daisy, has Mrs Patmore in a tizzy as she forsees how mechanised tools will removing her dominion over mealtimes.

Quote :

... in a tizzy as she foresees how mechanised tools will removing her dominion over mealtimes ...

... and her grasp of syntax.

Adam Sherwin didn't preview his article, I suppose. I put an "e" in "foresees" for him (I've just removed it), but I missed the faulty syntax.

It's nice to know even people writing for the Independent make mistakes.

Perhaps the Americans spell "foresee" as "forsee", but it looks funny. But then "foresee" is starting to look funny now...

EDIT: Gosh, just noticed "assistance cook", too. Three mistakes in one paragraph - the Independent is getting as slapdash as the Mail. Don't they have proof-readers any more? Or are we all becoming careless, hasty readers? I know I am. I blame Philippa Gregory.

I know you've all been fretting dreadfully about this...

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2415711/Downtowns-etiquette-errors-Countess-vapours-Stately-home-hostess-reveals-blunders-period-drama-dining-scenes.html

I didn't know you were supposed to eat cheese with a knife and fork. Does that include Dairylea Cheese Triangles, I wonder?

Oh definitely fretting on the importance of table settings Temp, and am ever so grateful that Her Countessness set us all straight via the Daily Heil.  

So we're off again with the 4th series this month sometime then? Let's hope that it will be better than the last.

I have never heard of a cheese fork, either - must be for avery runny brie - or the savoury which used to finish a meal for some odd reason. I've never been served that either though I was taught how to set a formal table quite young and was very nervous about it...... until I realised that by the time the family and our sort of guests got to the table after early drinks, no one cared a jot if I had got the glass setting wrong; water tumblers would have been a waste of space - but a side tray with port glasses  would hve been missed. I have friends abroad whose bearer always wears  white cotton gloves  -not to save glasses from fingerprints but to save him from getting hot food and gravy  as guests slop stuff when getting it onto their plates. They also had finger bowls - in which I saw very posh guests also wash fruit. All fascinating stuff about which one was never to draw attention..... I am surprised I was ever asked back.

I have to say that I am slightly shocked, Temp and Priscilla, especially with you two of all people .... surely you eat cheese with a knife and fork? And if not, then how dare I ask, do you eat a very ripe Brie, a gorgeously glutinous Camembert, or a divinely, delicious Dolcelatte?    I'm no snob,  but I was pleased to see that Lady Carnarvon concurs with me in the way that a table should be laid ..... indeed why should anyone think to do things otherwise? And yes I do indeed wear cotton gloves to lay the table if it's a really posh do ... it just saves time since you don't have to check everything for finger marks. Even when I'm just doing the standard B&B breakfasts everyday, I generally handle the glasses and cutlery with a clean, dry dishcloth, just to avoid leaving finger marks ......

Doesn't everyone do that?!? .... obviously not.

It's not too hard to eat a ripe Brie without a knife and fork; those Normandy cheeses that our kids couldn't stand in the fridge but which my husband and I think are divine are quite easily slurped away at with a baguette sitting on a park bench.  And fingers are quite good at mopping up extra bits on the plate. 

I don't ever have to set the table for a really posh do, so gloves are unnecessary for that. 

We set out tomorrow for three days in Hong Kong and two months in Britain, so might get to see Downton Abbey live, as it were.  (After weeks of find still weather, galeforce winds are predicted tomorrow so perhaps that will mean a bit of turbulence.  Cheese will  be preferable in that situation to most other foods which DO need knives and forks and are inclined to slip off the plate given the opportunity.)

Meles meles wrote:

I have to say that I am slightly shocked, Temp and Priscilla, especially with you two of all people .... surely you eat cheese with a knife and fork? And if not, then how dare I ask, do you eat a very ripe Brie, a gorgeously glutinous Camembert, or a divinely, delicious Dolcelatte?  

I usually smear a bit on a MacVities Digestive biscuit, MM. I know I should really eat cheese on a Bath Oliver, but they are unbelievably dry and boring.

I do occasionally buy a tin of Marks and Spencer Biscuits for Cheese which is a horribly upper-lower-middle-class thing to do, and very Jen Teale-ish (Jen Teale is an utterly pathetic character in the Jilly Cooper book, Class). I also like cheese on a morsel of Morrison's Stone-Baked Artisan Baguette. I don't quite know why artisans bake their bread on stones, but it's lovely stuff - it's got a nice chewy texture.



Dead posh biscuits for cheese.

Anyway, just came here to say that it's back tonight - Pick of the Day - 9.00pm ITV.

"Here's your little prince!" said Nanny as she handed young George over to Lady Mary.

Oh please - when does Homeland come back?

Now be honest, Temp, isn't DA like a big box of Cadbury's Milk Tray? You know it's rubbish but can't resist gorging even though you know you'll despise yourself for it afterwards? It's not like my occasional box of Hotel Chocolate fortified selection from which I savour one per evening and appreciate the quality and the subtle flavours, it's just a wallow in the televisual equivalent of cheap music (and chocolate) and just as potently addictive. I watched it last night after Simon Schama - I always enjoy the sticky pudding after a heavy main course.


The next Homeland can't be far off, they're repeating the last series now, and I can't wait either.

Deleted - this isn't the Daily Rant thread.

Why delete Temp? Too true, have you seen the abominations that Cabury's sell these days, truly a metaphor for our times?  

I do, however, have an awful suspicion that I feel that DA is fine for the likes of us who can watch it for its entertainment value and chortle knowingly at just how bad and in fact pernicious it all is, but not for the lumpen masses who think that them were the days when all was well with the world and the butler really did hug her ladyship and advise her on her role in life.

It sounded as though I was ranting at you, ferval, and I wasn't.

I used to love Cadbury's Creme Eggs, but not any more.

They are now being marketed for Hallowe'en (by either Kraft or Hersheys, not sure which American company bought out Cadbury's in the end) as Cadbury's Scream Eggs. They have green goo in the middle.

I didn't watch it, but my mum and my wife love it....

Not quite my cup of tea, but if they like it, I'm not going to complain.

At least they're learning something about this period in time, even if there are a few inaccuracies here and there.

shivfan wrote:

At least they're learning something about this period in time, even if there are a few inaccuracies here and there.

A few inaccuracies! Oh, shivfan, the whole thing is a ridiculous, shameful lie. Beautiful costumes, impressive sets and good acting, I give you, but the script is utter, utter crap and Julian Fellowes knows it.

As ferval has commented, butlers generally didn't hug Earls' daughters, having told them a few home truths about how they are behaving.

But the forelock-tugging (not just touching) we saw on Sunday evening was pretty accurate, I suppose.

And nothing has really changed. Despite all the "we are just like you and do let's all be friends" crap, the real English upper classes still regard the rest of us as a bunch of peasants - although we do amuse them at times.

I'll have to find a bit from a newspaper about the new series; then I can go on Priscilla's thread and have a good rant about it all.

Of course DA is now just an expensive soap; the short action bites -soap style - each with a sharp snipe and bite structure.  A young woman recently told me tha she liked history now - history like Da, not the other stuff. This thread should now meld with the myth thread.

The cast now have tight contracts so as to keep away from mourning mode and tortuous plot diversions... though nanny had a short one; to bring me-lady from widder black to purple, I suppose. The derelict - hustled upstairs for bed and bath as in MY Fair Lady - is set to chafe the butler's composure at a guess.  This is TV's answer to painting The Hay Wain by numbers. Like Cadbury's, nostalgia ain't wot it used to be. Posh tat is still tat.

Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear, the reviewer from the Independent - yes, the Independent - thinks it's all wonderful and educational and historically significant:

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/reviews/review-downton-abbey-season-4-premiere--a-fascinating-insight-into-the-quiet-violence-of-the-class-system-8833120.html

However, just as I thought  I must be going mad, I read, with enormous relief, this from Sam Wollaston of the Guardian - obviously a man of my kidney:

http://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2013/sep/23/downton-abbey-tv-review

As soon as I read the bit about the dog's arse (Wollaston's word), I knew it was all going to be all right.

Where's the dog? I used to enjoy following Lord Grantham's faithful wagging friend, under the cedar, towards the big house, in the opening credits of Downton Abbey (ITV). Plus it gave me a sense of my own place in the social hierarchy – behind and a little below labrador-arse level. Don't tell me he's gone and upped sticks too, to pursue a career in Hollywood.

PS What an odd expression "a man of my kidney" is.

Not sure if I'm a 'man of your kidney', Temp, but, living in la Belle Frace, and not having access to British TV ...... and with 'une horreur' of French TV,  'avec toutes les shows realitées', and after your  gushing, (tho rather self-abasing) praises ... I was starting to feel tempted to actually buy a Dowton Abbey DVD Set for my personal Christmas box.....

But I think I will now resist and "Just say no!" Though I'll admit that I used to rather enjoy the old 1970s BBC series "Upstairs, Downstairs". Equally rubbish historically but very entertaining nonetheless. Oh dear.

However, Temp, I did buy the boxed set of "The Hollow Crown" that you had recommended to me about a year ago. It's still in my Christmas box to be opened only at Christmas, ... but I think it will indeed be very good. And many thanks for drawing my attention to it.

Two opposing points of view - comments posted in response to Wollaston's review:


A review disguising a "look how clever I am" boast. It's a TV soap and a very good one. No-one is looking for great art and it is not pretending to be. I enjoy and enjoyed it.



I think you are confusing "very good" with "very expensive". It has lavish production, a large cast, and a couple of decent (expensive) actors. Take all that away and you are left with stilted, wooden performances, a ridiculous plot riddled with cliches, and no real audience empathy or interest in any of the main characters.

It's TV anesthesia. Pretty pictures, sweeping music, a bit of romance, a bit of... zzz zzz zzz

Crossed posts.

I'm confused - have I been gushing again? About what? Praising whom?

Oh dear, am I going mad?  

Kidneys are similar, I think, MM - hope that isn't an insult.

I used to love Upstairs Downstairs too - the old version from the 70s, that is, not the recent series.

You'll enjoy Hollow Crown, but you can't have Tom Hiddleston (Henry V) - he's mine!

Yeah, maybe.... but would you rather have 'Downland' as entertainment, or Mariella Froistrup on C4 interviewing reality 'celebs' just after they've had 'real sex on TV'... as entertainment?!? (the which story I now see has been pulled from the front page of BBC News Entertainment ... otherwise I would have inflicted a link on you all)



EDIT : Crossed posts indeed.


No Temp I only meant that you, and a few others here, seemed to really enjoy it (DA) and no criticism in that at all.  So I thought I might like to buy the DVDs myself for the sheer, indulgent, suger-sweet, yet slightly bitter-chocolate fantasy that it is (or probably is - remember I haven't seen any of it yet). I rely on you all to indicate what I might want to watch ....  so if you think it's rubbish I probably won't buy it ... though I might still be tempted, just to see what all the fuss is about.

PS : And what is "Blandings" ?

Was that the awful Big Brother? Never watched it. Didn't someone wet the bed as well? I don't know which is worse - real sex on the tele (apart from pandas), or real bedwetting. It's just like the old News of the World, just a different medium.

I'd rather have Homeland than DA or Mariella Who? interviewing "celebrities" any day: the Yanks seem to be doing better TV drama than we are these days, and I never thought I'd say that. Yet they absolutely love DA and have been flocking here this summer to go wandering around Highclere Castle, no doubt hoping for a glimpse of Lord and Lady Carnarvon and their cutlery for cheese.

I'll shut up moaning about DA now.

Ah, that Blandings ....by PG Wodehouse. Though this TV adaption doesn't seem to have been well received by audiences.

Oh and Tom Hiddlestone (aka King Hal V) ... Frankly you can have him, not my type at all, he looks far too "nice"  .

Blandings was very disappointing - everyone was trying too hard to be funny. Not a patch on the Fry and Laurie Jeeves and Wooster. That is worth buying, MM, if you haven't seen it - DVD with all 23 episodes is available.

The pig was good, though.

When PG falls in a bullet riddled, blood stained heap, might JF be next against the wall please? Not just for crimes against history but for being such a a shyster, making a fortune for writing adolescent drivel and passing it off as quality broadcasting. Should his audience also escape retribution? Maybe exterminating quite so many is a bit extreme but something must be done to make him stop.
http://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/tvandradioblog/2013/sep/29/downton-abbey-recap-season-four-episode-two

I've never seen Downton Abbey.  Some people love it, others say it is sickly sweet.  I suppose there would be no harm in watching one episode to see if I like it, though somehow I don't feel that I want to.  I have admired Maggie Smith's acting in the past.  I used to like Joanne Froggatt (sp??) but I've had something of an aversion to her since I saw her in a re-run of a Beeb retelling of the "Robin Hood" legend where she said, "You guys" to the Merry Men. That's a tad unfair of me as the fault was not that of Ms Froggatt but of the writers (an actress has to eat after all).  

As for the "real" world in service; one of my grandmothers was in service before she married, with a family who apparently were quite kind to her (so she was one of the lucky ones), but had to give it up because of sickness.  A lady I knew who lived to be in her nineties had a mother who went out to work in other folks' houses in the 1920s.  She earned six (old) pence a day and had often spent her earnings on necessities before she arrived home (her husband was ill with TB and she had 6 children).  Another friend who is now eighty plus was the daughter of a deserted wife who could only get housework to earn her living, having suffered polio as a child and thus not having completed her education.  It was very hard work in those days.

And to think I compared Cati with P Diddy. I'm not sure which one I should apologise to.

Oooh ah, rape downstairs, hanky panky upstairs and in between stairs as well. Everyone is at it like rabbits, what is Downton coming to?

Can't say I like where the new season of Homeland is going, just a bit too stupid at the moment.

It's all about ratings ID.  Still haven't seen DA but would guess it is probably better than SpStartakercacus - of which I saw two episodes and two was enough (not saying they weren't nice-looking young people but I like some proper story and some accuracy in historical depictions).  Obviously I'm not talking about the Kirk Douglas film from many years ago but the Starz romp. I looked at a couple of excerpts from the discontinued "Camelot" to see if it would be worth getting the DVD and decided definitely not.  That was another Starz effort I believe.

As for DA, any series that go on for too many years seem to become like soap operas eventually.

Here's one for Priscilla:



And now we can all smell like Lady Mary, Lady Edith or even the Dowager - M&S are doing a range of Downton Abbey toiletries for Christmas. If I wasn't too old for ironic statements, I'd buy a big plastic bottle (with tassle) of DA Shower Foam or whatever it is.





Tesco Finest (Lord knows what the Tesco Grossest range is like) is offering us plebs a Downton Abbey Christmas Pudding:

Why We Love It

Lady Mary wouldn't dream of hosting a holiday dinner without our Downton Abbey Luxury Christmas Pudding. Nor should you! Our authentic recipe includes the finest fruits and spices, and would make Mrs. Patmore most proud. Pour on a little rum or brandy and set it aflame for an extravagant presentation.