Belgravia by Julian Fellowes

If you haven't yet heard about Julian Fellowes's new book/app Belgravia you are in good company, as  I just heard about it today. Julian was on the CBC radio show q this morning (heard all over Canada) promoting this project, which comes out in hardcover book form on July 6, 2016. I will admit to being a fan of Baron Fellowes of West Stafford, as I watch my DVD of Gosford Park at least once a year and bought both of his other novels, Snobs and Past Imperfect (and enjoyed the books very much although they will never be mistaken for high English Lit).

If you want to see if it is for you, download the app and listen to or read the first installment for free. It was released one chapter per week in the style of Charles Dickens or Elizabeth Gaskell starting in April, but I believe the entire novel is now available online if you like to binge. My sister will be happy to hear that Juliet Stevenson is doing the narration and she has done a bang up job, if you prefer to listen instead of read. There are lots of extras too on the app with maps and photos and even plans of the large country homes in the story which correspond to the narration. I find this very cool as I am one of the geeks who watches all of the extras on my fave DVDs. Numerous times!

Anyway, just thought I would post this to give you all a heads up as I was thrilled to hear about this project. Very Dickensian and just in time for beach season. Yay!

Cheers!

P.S. Will be seeing Love & Friendship this week (finally!) so should be able to give you my review on that soon. 

Downton Abbey Season 4 Episode 3

SPOILER ALERT! This post is intended for those who have already seen Season 4 Episode 3

While we are all still shaking a bit from last week's episode, it was nice to get back into regular Downton territory this week. Thomas is evil again, Mary is "back in the saddle" again, Rose is being...well...Rose, aaaaaannnnd there is bed hopping again! Edith was caught doing the walk of shame by her Aunt Rosa-Moneypenny's maid.

And Edna Braithwaite was given the full Mrs. Hughes treatment. Snap! Apparently Edna had been studying up on how to trap a former chauffeur into marriage, including how much whiskey it would take to stupefy him and I guess she was using the illicit copy of Marie Stopes's Married Love for birth control advice? (I think that was what Lord Fellowes was getting at here). She should have shared with Lady Edith, from the looks of the foreshadowing by Aunt Rosamund.

Mary is duly juggling suitors and horrid dialogue ("Yesterday you said I filled your brain. Well Matthew fills mine"). Ugh! Please bring back the Mary/Edith fights! They were awesome. Or at least let Carson and Evil Thomas have it out (either verbally or please, please, physically) below stairs. We can dream can't we?

And surely Bates has figured out what happened to Anna by now. Did he learn nothing but forgery while in prison? Even Carson seems to have put two and two together. And I hope someone does something soon, because Joanne Froggatt's superior acting skill is ripping my heart out.

On a lighter note, can they finally quit using the melodramatic music for whenever we see Anna? Should we call it Anna's Theme? Sorry if it is stuck in your head now. Naaa, na naaa, na naaaaaaaaaaa...

Well, back to sort of normal at Downton. Will Anna ever be the same? Are Edith and Edna both pregnant? Why did the negro singer run down to "rescue" Rose? And why did Lord Fellowes chicken out and use the term black, which, although politically correct now, would have sounded very odd in the 1920s? And will Rose be the latest Downton resident to require a book on contraception?

Stay tuned for the answers to these pressing questions. As The Abbey Turns!

Best lines:

Dowager Countess Violet: "Why are you in your rompers?...So another brick is pulled from the wall." (in reference to Lord G not being dressed properly for dinner)

Mary: "Edith? She's as mysterious as a bucket!"

Carson: "I always think there's something rather foreign about high spirits at breakfast."

Carson: "The business of life is the acquisition of memories."

Edna: "Do you ever wonder why people dislike you so much? It's because you are sly and oily and smug and I'm really pleased I got the chance to tell you before I go."
Thomas: "Well, if we're playing the truth game, then you're a manipulative little witch and if your schemes have come to nothing, I'm delighted."

TTFN! See you next week!

Downton Abbey Season 3 Episode 5

SPOILER ALERT! This post is intended for those who have already seen Season 3 Episode 5!

Well, Lord Fellowes, you have made me a happy woman again with this episode. We needed time to grieve Lady Sybil's death along with the family and you gave us a full episode to do just that. I think one of the magical abilities British filmmakers have is to veer from tragedy to comedy and back again effortlessly and this week Downton Abbey did just that. They can now throw another Emmy/Bafta at Dame Maggie as she gave us both the laughs and the tears this week.

Violet: I do not speak much of the heart as it is seldom helpful to do so, but I know well enough the pain when it is broken.

Violet: I suppose she has an appropriate costume for every activity.

See what I mean? One minute I am blinking back tears, and the next she has me snorting Earl Grey tea through my nose!

Poor Mrs. Patmore. The hormones in that kitchen are getting out of control. It's like a Shakespearean comedy down there! I did love the rollicking piano playing by Jimmy and the foxtrot dancing by all of the young-uns at some point in this episode. Slow...slow...quick, quick!

Mrs. Patmore: You know the trouble with you lot? You're all in love with the wrong people!

And Mrs. Patmore's best line ever: Do I look like a frolicker?

I also loved the tender scenes between Daisy and her father-in-law at the farm. Anyone else picturing Daisy selling organic jams and whole grain bread to the grandparents of yuppies in Yorkshire?

And poor Jimmy, our new footman. Could Thomas get any creepier with that flesh coloured glove under the table and those leering smiles. Shudder!!

Jimmy: A man can choose to be different without it making him a traitor.

What kind of different do you mean Jimmy? Are  you really gay but just don't fancy Thomas? And what is up with O'Brien (of the ever changing hairstyles) stirring things up again? She needs something more wholesome to occupy her time if you ask me. Can she not take up knitting? Or the foxtrot?

Lady Cora: Is it ever over when one loses a child? Is it ever really over?

Well, these past two seeks were finally Lady Cora's time to shine. After her heartbreaking scenes last week and her thinly veiled anger at Lord Grantham this week, I am now a Cora fan. Personally I would have ripped a strip off of him after he lost all my money on a stock gamble. Nice to see her dealing with her grief in a realistic way this week. But also how lovely of Violet to step in.

Violet: Lie is so unmusical a word!

Good for Dr. Clarkson to find out that he need not lie. The truth was hard to hear but very healing for us all. Now we can just hate Lord Grantham for being a snobby bigot!

Oh, yes, Bates is free. Yay. Apparently the pie crust did it.

So let me just end with some other wonderful quotes from this week. Love them quotes!

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Violet: Grief makes one so terribly tired.

Tom Branson: My wife is dead. I'm past help.

Lord Grantham: There hasn't been a Catholic Crawley since the Reformation.

Violet: Do I count as one of the girls?

Violet: It seems a pity to miss such a good pudding.

Robert: I keep forgetting she's gone. I see things in the paper that would make her laugh. I come inside to tell her that her favourite rose is in bloom. And then suddenly...
Lady Mary: Say that to Mama, please...

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Oh, and here is a link for a Salmon Mousse recipe. I feel like I should try it since I have use of my limbs! Oooh, I found a recipe for Charlotte Russe as well. Mmmmmmmm. Yummy!

Downton Abbey Season 3 Episode 4

SPOILER ALERT! This post is intended for those who have already seen Season 3 Episode 4!

Oh, God. They really did kill Sybil! This was all over Twitter last fall and I was hoping it wasn't true, but damn you Julian Fellowes, you really killed her.

I mean all the talk at first about swollen ankles, headaches, albumin in urine..."toxemia with a danger of eclampsia". And Dr. Clarkson fighting with Sir Phillip Thingy about modern things like Cesarean sections...

You had us all worried with Sybil's muddled talking about being on nursing duty, and then you calmed us all down...never mind all that.  It's a girl! Everything is fine! Whew.

Oh, wait! Mama! She is convulsing! Dr. Clarkson! Dr. Thingy! DO SOMETHING!!!!!!!

Dowager Countess Violet: Oh, Carson...we've seen some troubles, you and I. Nothing  worse than this.

Carson: Nothing could be worse than this.

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It hardly seems worth saying that I couldn't care whether Bates ever gets out of prison now. I couldn't understand a word said in that Yorkshire prison anyway. Pie crust poison? Whatever!

Creepy one-gloved Thomas and plotting O'Brien? Who cares? Mary and Matthew squabbling? I. Could. Not. Care. Less.

Sybil is dead.

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Mrs. Hughs: Don't mind me. The sweetest spirit under this roof is gone. And I'm weeping myself.

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The World of Downton Abbey: Companion Book to the Series

World of Downton Abbey

Just a quick post today as I am off to cottage country for the Victoria Day weekend. In Canada, we celebrate Queen Victoria's Birthday (which is May 24th) but the holiday is always placed on the Monday before May 25th and is known as the weekend for opening cottages and planting annuals in our coldish climate. We used to call it firecracker day when I was a kid, but this has largely been supplanted by the fireworks on July 1st (Canada Day), which is much warmer for evening celebrations!

Lavinia from World of Downton Abbey

My wonderful men got me the book The World of Downton Abbey for Mother's Day. I have been so busy that I have only been able to flip through and read a few pages. And drool over a few photographs. As you can see from the photographs, this is a gorgeous hardcover book with lots of detail in the photos and tons of information on the period and on the production itself. Written by Jessica Fellowes with an introduction by her uncle Julian Fellowes, it is unusually well done for something put together quickly to cash in on Downton fever.

Sybil in The World of Downton Abbey

A must have for all of us suffering from "Downton Withdrawal", a medically recognized condition which worsens on Sunday nights, this will ease the pain of the wait until next January for season two. My bloggy buddy Kate from Leeds (who now has her own blog) has been raving about this book since she received it as a birthday present I believe. I now know what she has been talking about! So off I go to be bitten by blackflies and to snuggle up with my new book. I love staring at those dresses, never mind the settings inside and outside of those wonderful country homes like Highclere Castle. Byeeeeeeee!

Titanic 2012 miniseries by Julian Fellowes

Titanic 2012 by Julian Fellowes

As a Canadian, we are used to getting period drama well after the UK and usually at the same time as the USA. Oddly enough, we are watching this on Global TV this month at the same time that ITV is airing it in the UK (actually we get each episode a few days earlier!). The four episodes air later this month on ABC over two nights- April 14 and 15, to coincide with the actual anniversary of the sinking.

So I am in the rare position of being able to give you my opinion of this before most of you will be able to see it. Overall so far, I kind of like it!

Noah Reid and Perdita Weeks as Harry Widener and Georgiana Grex

These two (Perdita Weeks and Noah Reid) are my favourite characters. Think of them as the Rose and Jack of this Titanic, although Noah plays rich American upstart Harry Widener and Perdita Weeks plays English aristocrat and rebellious suffragette Georgiana Grex. Well, they are just adorable! We have seen Perdita Weeks as Lydia Bennet in Lost in Austen and Mary Boleyn in The Tudors. She also resembles her sister Honeysuckle Weeks, whom I adored as Sam in Foyle's War. We will also see Perdita Weeks as Clara in the conclusion of Great Expectations this coming Sunday.

If I could name one fault of this miniseries, it is the vast number of characters and stories to keep up with. It hardly gives one time to get to know the characters and hence care about their stories. But I love these two. Now I have to keep watching to see if they make it!

Maria Doyle Kennedy and Toby Jones as John and Muriel Batley

It is interesting that we are made aware of 2nd class in this series (in the guise of John and Muriel Batley). Previously we have been shown 1st and 3rd class (steerage) but there were a lot of 2nd class passengers also. If you are interested, there is a Titanic website which lists all of the survivors of the voyage as well as whether they were 1st, 2nd or 3rd class or whether they were crew members. If you click on the person's name it will give you any extra available info on their story. I found it very interesting. Am I being overly nosy at this point or do we all have a bit of morbid curiosity?

Earl and Countess of Manton, with their rebellious daughter Georgiana

And what would a Julian Fellowes miniseries be without an Earl and a Countess? This time the Countess is not American but Anglo-Irish and she is not nearly as likeable as Cora in Downton Abbey. As an aside, the British press have dubbed the series "Drownton Abbey" or "Upstairs, Drownstairs". Groan!!!

Titanic panic

I have not yet decided whether or not I like the way the story is told, with the focus on a different group of characters each week culminating in the panic as the ship is sinking at the end of each episode. It is not exactly relaxing viewing! I have two more episodes to go, and so I shall see how I feel at the end. There is no doubt that it is gorgeously filmed however.

So I hope you enjoy this one as much as I have so far. The reviews were really mixed, so I didn't expect much and was really pleasantly surprised. I look forward to hearing what all my readers think when they see  this one.

P.S. I do like Celia Imrie's social climbing character of Grace Rushton. I hope she and her little doggie make it!

N.B. I just finished watching the entire series, and I can absolutely recommend watching it. It gives a real sense of what really went on that night from many different perspectives and I really got attached to some of the characters. I was on the edge of my seat waiting to see if they made it off. There is so much packed into these 4 hours that I will likely watch it again at least once. Yes, it is heartbreaking at the end of the last hour, but as we all know how it ends this isn't surprising. So go ahead and watch it. You know you want to!

Downton Abbey Season 2: Christmas Season Finale

Downton Christmas Episode 2011- Electric mini lights on the tree???

I adore Downton Abbey. Yes, at times this season the storyline was corny, cheesy and covered in cloying syrup, but I have loved every minute. With the Christmas episode however, Julian Fellowes has exceeded every one of my expectations. What a wonderful Christmas gift, even if it was lost in the post for a few months for those of us on this side of the pond!

Matthew and Mary were a large part of the holiday action thankfully, with Matthew's adorable face popping up whenever things between Mary and Sir Richard got heated. The fight scene between the two men was brilliant, reminiscent of Mark Darcy and Daniel Cleaver duking it out over Bridget Jones! (It was made even funnier at our house by The Squire shouting out "Be careful Matthew...your injured back!")

Matthew: “Sorry about the vase”
Countess Violet: “Oh don’t be, don't be. It was a wedding present from a frightful aunt. I have hated it for half a century”.

The Christmas Day shoot-where is Isis?

Julian Fellowes got in his requisite hunt scene this season. Neither Matthew nor Sir Richard looked as comfortable as Mary at the pheasant shoot. But there was sure a lot of drama and humour as well as action on Christmas day.

Anthony Strallan: “Does (Branson) shoot?”
Edith: “I’m sure he does”
Countess Violet: “But I don’t think pheasants.”

Bates on trial for the murder of his wife Vera

Things don't look good for poor Bates. How is Lord Grantham going to get him out of jail? It is a life sentence after all! Perhaps Anna will come up with something. She's pretty good at sniffing things out as Lady Rosamund and Lord Hepworth will testify.

Lady Mary: “We are all under the shadow of Bate’s trial”

Countess Violet: “Lawyers are always confident before the verdict. It’s only afterwards they share their doubts.”

Anna with her "bucking up brigade" from Downton

Anna Bates (Joanne Froggatt) gets best actress award for this episode. My eyes welled up every time she broke down. And she broke down a lot!

Mr. Bates: “No man can regret loving as I have loved you.”

Carson and Cora open the Servant's Ball

The Servant's Ball gave us some of the best scenes (and facial expressions of the episode).

Lord Grantham: Perhaps it would be nice if you would partner with O'Brien.
Matthew: Crikey!

Isis the bouncy Labrador puppy is now a star

Thomas was plotting/puffing cigarettes/being evil for much of the episode culminating in the Isis crisis! Glad Thomas is back at Downton as he is one of the better actors and his evil plotting is just soooo fun!

O’Brien: “Make him grateful. Do him a good turn. Hide something he loves and find it and give it back”

Lady Mary looking at her future...

Lord Grantham: “I look at Mary and all I can see is a tired woman with a tiresome husband. Not a bride on the brink of heaven. I wish I could understand why she goes on with it. Do you think there might be some element I’ve overlooked?”

Lord Grantham:“I don’t want my daughter to be married to a man who threatens her with ruin. I want a good man for you. A brave man. Find a cowboy in the middle west and bring him back to shake us up a bit.”

Mary walking out with Matthew at the shoot

Lady Mary: “I never know which is worse. The sorrow when you hit the bird. Or the shame when you miss it."

Lady Edith giving Anthony Strallen another go!

Ohhhh, Edith! What are we going to do with you? You have thrown yourself at everything in trousers (including a married farmer and Matthew if I remember correctly) and now it's Anthony Strallen again? Well, he does seem nice even if he is old enough to be your father. And his house is truly gorgeous. OK, you go for it girl!
 
Lady Edith: “If you think I’m going to give up on someone who calls me lovely…”

My new favourite character- The Ouija Board

The Ouija board is now my new favourite character at Downton. It does seem to have a life of it's own doesn't it? First the hilarious scene where Mrs. Patmore sits down at the board and gives it a little "help".

"Go...to...farm...make...Dad...happy."  Good one Mrs. Patmore!

Then Lavinia's spirit talks through the board. "May they be happy. With my love."- frightening poor Anna and Daisy, who were using the Ouija board at the time. 

Daisy crying her eyes out at work!

I think the best part of the Christmas episode (other than the ending with M&M) was the part with Daisy. From taking bad advice from Rosamund's maid, to discussing things with the Dowager Countess to finally connecting with William's father (is he great or what?). Two lost souls, bound together by the memory of the sweetest footman in Yorkshire. Awwwwww......

Countess Violet: “But you can’t have been false to him. You were his wife for only half an hour.”

Daisy: “I’ve never been special to anyone. I were only ever special to William.”

Wuv...Twoo Wuv

Matthew and Mary gave us the best ending ever! I won't give it away if you haven't yet seen it (see it! see it!).

Lady Mary: “You know yourself we carry more luggage than the porters at Kings Cross.”

Lady Mary: “I’m Tess of the D’Urbervilles to your Angel Clare. I have fallen. I am impure.”


Matthew: “I never could despise you.”

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And Mary showed she was a classy lady by how she said goodbye to Sir Richard.

Sir Richard: “I loved you you know, more than you knew. And much much more than you loved me.”
Mary: “Then I hope the next woman deserves you more than I did”

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Best quotes from Dowager Countess Violet:

Countess Violet: “Sir Richard, life is a game in which the player must appear ridiculous”
Sir Richard: “Not my life”
Countess Violet: “How soon your maxim will be tested

Countess Violet: “Hepworth is lonely? I find that hard to believe. Hepworth men don’t go in for loneliness much. I knew his father in the late 60s. Mais ou sont les neiges d’antan?” (Where are the snows of yesteryear?)

Countess Violet: “Perhaps he’s had enough banging for one life”

Countess Violet: “1920. Is it to be believed? I feel as old as Methuselah. When I think what the last ten years has brought. God knows what we’re in for now.”

Countess Violet: “No fortune?! He’s lucky not to be playing the violin in Leicester Square.”

Sir Richard: “I’m leaving in the morning Lady Grantham. I doubt we’ll meet again.”
Countess Violet: “Do you promise?”
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Are you ready for Season Three with Shirley MacLaine as Cora's American mother? I sure am! And one more time for my sister...

Julian Fellowes- Downton Abbey vs Gosford Park

Julian Fellowes with his Oscar for Gosford Park

Having just blogged about Robert Altman's Gosford Park  in June of this year it seems a bit soon to be revisiting it, and yet a sick day at home had me pulling it out of my DVD collection again. It is a testament to the brilliance of the film that you can watch it that often!

Gosford Park cast 2002

I can't think of a better film to watch this winter as we North Americans are savouring the second season of Downton Abbey. Both Gosford Park and Downton Abbey were written by Julian Fellowes, an actor/writer who, by being a bit of a toff himself, is quite well placed to write about the English Country Houses he has been visiting for decades.

Maggie Smith is the most obvious similarity between these two productions. She gets all the best lines in each show and apparently the characters were based on a great aunt of Julian Fellowes. (by the way, anyone else notice the similarity between the names? Countess of Trentham/Grantham?)

Constance, Countess of Trentham

Constance, Countess of Trentham: Difficult colour... green.

Violet, Dowager Countess of Grantham

Violet, Dowager Countess of Grantham: Oh, dear, such a glare. I feel as if I were on stage at the Gaiety.


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There are other similarities as well.  The imperious housekeeper who knows all and anticipates everything.

Mrs. Wilson of Gosford Park

Mrs. Wilson: What gift do you think a good servant has that separates them from the others? Its the gift of anticipation. And I'm a good servant; I'm better than good, I'm the best; I'm the perfect servant. I know when they'll be hungry, and the food is ready. I know when they'll be tired, and the bed is turned down. I know it before they know it themselves.

Mrs. Hughs of Downton Abbey

Thomas: There *is* such a thing as free speech.
Mrs. Hughes: Not when *I'm* in charge! Don't push your luck, Thomas. Now, tea's over. Back to work! 

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Although, the Butler with a secret past is perhaps more comparable.

Jennings the Butler of Gosford Park

Morris Weissman: Thank you, Mr. Jennings.
Mr. Jennings: It's just Jennings, sir.
Morris Weissman: Then thank you, just Jennings.

Carson the Butler of Downton Abbey

Bates: Even Mr. Carson wasn’t born standing at attention.
Thomas: I hope not, for his mother’s sake.


Jennings had a criminal record as a conscientious objector from the Great War and is derided by the constable. Carson only had a vaudeville past to haunt him, but seemed to be just as ashamed of it.

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Sir William McCordle has a little fling with Elsie, among others

Robert Earl of Grantham would never diddle with the maids...would he?

Now the Lords of the manor are quite different as Sir William McCordle is new money (factory ownership) and Lord Grantham is from an old English family, short on cash until he married American heiress Cora. And our dear Lord Grantham would never diddle the maids like Sir William...or would he? We don't yet know where Julian Fellowes is taking this apparently devoted husband do we?

Maids caught in flagrante with their "betters", war heroes and shirkers and conscientious objectors, backbiting sisters both from upstairs and downstairs, and nasty footmen tend to be themes in both story lines. And the cook always seems to be grumpy at first but then ends up with a heart of gold.

Do you think Dorothy the maid (Sophie Thompson) would have gotten together with Mr. Jennings if there had been more time to develop their story lines? And do you think Elsie became a film star after she took off in the car with Ivor Novello and Mr. Weissman? The maid wishing to get out of service does seem to be another theme with Julian Fellowes. Ah, the man writes about what he knows and that is why we love to watch his films and miniseries.

Titanic 2012 airing on ITV and ABC on April 12

Speaking of which, publicity for Julian Fellowes latest venture, TV miniseries Titanic has been suspended in the wake of the Italian cruise ship wreck Costa Concordia. This will air on ABC in North America starting April 12, 2012. Who knew the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic would involve a real ship sinking along with the inevitable film versions? Eerie, really.

My blog post about Julian Fellowes and his novels
My Blog post about Gosford Park

Downton Abbey Season 2: Episode Three

Lady Cora- New dress, new hairstyle!

Well, we certainly had some fireworks between Lady Cora and Isobel this week over their shared management of Downton. I sort of felt sorry for poor Isobel, didn't you? She looked like she expected Cora to back down, but instead her bluff was called. Mind you, she'll probably do much more good in France than she would at Downton, where Lady Cora and the girls seem quite capable of keeping it all under control. But surely Downton will be a little too quiet without Isobel. Bring her back Mr. Fellowes...please?

Lady Violet, The Dowager Countess, looking very smart indeed!

And didn't Lady Violet have some of the best lines again this week. I'm having fun trying to keep up with her!

Lady Violet:  I'm a woman, Mary, I can be as contrary as I choose!

Lady Violet:  It's like living in a second-rate hotel where the guests keep arriving and no one seems to leave.  

Lady Violet: God knows who the next heir will be. Probably a chimney sweep from Solihull!


I just about snorted my tea through my nose on that last one. Dame Maggie Smith looks like she is having the time of her life. She went right from Professor McGonagall to this role without skipping a beat. What more can an actress ask for?

O'Brien and Mrs. Hughs vying for sour look of the night. Mrs. Hughs wins!

I did rather enjoy seeing Mrs. Hughs catch Ethel in flagrante with moustachio man!

Mrs. Hughs: I may not be a woman of the world but I don't live in a sack.

Apparently Ethel lives in a sack if she didn't think this one through. This was not the best way to get out of service Ethel! You just have to learn how to type, you little twit!

O'Brien and Thomas aka "Poacher turned Gamekeeper"

And how about the look on O'Brien's face when she and her ladyship discovered Mrs. Bird's little secret? Classic! But other than this wonderful bit of meddling, O'Brien really seems to be going soft. Has the arrival and departure of "The Looney" as Thomas calls poor shell-shocked Mr. Lang made her reevaluate her evil ways? I hope not!

I do have to admit that I was tearing up at the end. "If you were the only girl in the world and I were the only boy …" By god, I love this show.