Well, off goes Jimmy into the big world beyond Downton Abbey. I can't help but think it might be a good thing for him. He seems more of a London boy to me. But will Lady Anstruther (Anna Chancellor) return down the road? I certainly hope so. In the meantime, the unlikely friendship between Thomas and Jimmy (Barrow and James) will have to continue through the post.
And the "Significant Looks Award" goes to Anna and Mrs. Hughes for the discovery of the baby photo under Lady Edith's pillow. It reminded me of the Red Nose Day Spoof of Uptown Downstairs Abbey from years ago. And of course there is more of the Lady Edith/Marigold story line. One wonders why Mr. Farmer/Fireman doesn't just tell his wife that Edith is Marigold's mum. Better than having her thinking that there is something between her husband and Edith, surely????
I do like the addition of the Simon Bricker character (played to slimy perfection by Richard E. Grant) who flirts outrageously in front of the ever dense Lord Grantham. Cora deserves a bit of fun now and then and there is much humour in Lord Grantham's jealousy of Mr. Bricker's attention to Isis!
As an aside, apparently Dame Maggie Smith has had an ongoing 20 year long feud with Richard E. Can't as she calls him, which started when they were in a 6 month long stage production of The Importance of Being Earnest. Apparently she lit into him for nodding off during one of the dinner scenes saying "If I can stay awake, you should be able to too". There is more than a bit of the Dowager in Maggie Smith apparently.
Lord Fellowes is definitely setting up a story line for Daisy taking over the farm with her newly found mathematical ability now that the horrid Miss Bunting is teaching her. Go Daisy!!! And said Miss Bunting is so abrasive that she still seems to be driving Branson back upstairs even as she tries to remind him of his revolutionary roots. She is certainly no Lady Sybil. At least she didn't help herself to dinner and then bitch about privilege again. Run Branson, run!!!
The whole war memorial plot is dragging on. Just build the darn memorial on the square already. Sigh. But the sparks are noticeable between Carson and Mrs. Hughes. All of this elder romance is lovely!
Lord Grantham's ongoing cluelessness is highly entertaining. Now it is the wireless that he refuses to embrace. Hugh Bonneville is now getting more comic lines that Dame Maggie! Perhaps Lord G is now finally morphing into his mother?
Lady Mary in Liverpool doing the try before you buy thing with Tony Gillingham seems fairly promising. But I somehow doubt there will be enough fireworks for Mary to commit. If not, she still has Charles Blake from Foyle's War dangling around. I have to say Anna at the chemist was a real hoot. The poor dear couldn't get more embarrassed. But if they don't stop flogging the Mr. Bates investigation I may...well...go on twitter during the program?
Lord Merton's wooing of Isobel (with romantic talk of quarantine and a visit to his lovely home) continues happily, to the Dowager's consternation. Poor Dr. Death looks ever more uncomfortable with the rich dude trying to steal his beloved medical partner.
Lady Rose is going to help the Russian refugee aristos in York. That sounds promising!
And Molesley is still falling for Baxter, despite her known criminal past. Hurrah!
Best Lines of the Week
Anna (to Lady Mary): Honestly my lady, you'd better hope I never write my memoirs!
Mr. Molesley: Do I take it that I am now first footman?
Carson: You are the only footman. You are first, second, third and last. Make what you will of it.
Lord Grantham: I find the whole idea a kind of thief of life, that people should waste hours huddled around a wooden box listening to someone talking at them. It's a fad...it won't last.
Countess Violet: Mrs. Crawley is never happier than when she has a chance to use her guiding hand.
Lord Grantham: I'm not very good at abroad.
Charles Blake: I love Rose's definition of ordinary life. Dancing and shopping and seeing one's friends.
Charles Blake: Plantagenets are as susceptible as housemaids when it comes to sex.
Lord Grantham: I'm not having Sybil's only child snatched from everyone she loves to be brought up by some harpie in an American sewer.
Lord Grantham: Tell your friend Bricker to stop flirting with Isis. There is nothing more ill bred than trying to steal the affections of someone else's dog. (Really Lord G? Nothing?)
Daisy: Why is it called a wireless when it has so many wires?
Cheers until next week! And again for anyone who hasn't yet seen it, the Text Santa Downton spoof with George Clooney aka Lord George Ocean Gravity, the Marquis of Hollywood. Guffaw!
Part 1
Part 2
Congrats to Joanna Froggatt for her Golden Globe win! Very classy speech!
