Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Cast: Michelle Dockery, Hugh Bonneville, Elizabeth McGovern, Maggie Smith, Penelope Wilton, Allen Leach, Tuppence Middleton, Samantha Bond, Imelda Staunton, Laura Carmichael, Harry Hadden-Paton, Dougles Reith, Phyllis Logan, Jim Carter, Kevin Doyle, Robert James-Collier, Joanne Froggatt, Brendan Coyle, Lesley Nicol, Sophie McShera, Michael Fox, Raquel Cassidy, Charlie Watson, Bibi Burr, Olive Burr, Eva Samms, Karina Samms, Fifi Hart. Oliver Barker, Zac Barker, Archer Robins, Sue Johnston, Jonathan Coy, Huh Dancy, Paul Copley, Laura Haddock, Dominic West, Jonathan Zaccai, Nathalie Baye, Alex Skarbek, Oliver Ciaverie, David Oliver Fischer, Alex Macqueen.
What better to describe the world that exists within Julian Fellow’s world of Downton Abbey than it is all about appearances.
The deception of class when in the end it comes down to luck, how you appear to the wider world, act as if you belong and you can do anything, be anything you wish, for who can dispute confidence in the well dressed and articulate, and in a period of British history when almost everything was to do with the outer shell of existence, to see the dogmatically entertaining Downton Abbey approach a story line where the start of being seen for your inner ambitions and ability is to be congratulated; and whilst the measure of holding back a section of society was still holding true, the shackles for some were off.
In the character of Mr. Molesley, played with genuine charm and diligence by long time cast member Kevin Doyle, the fortune of his life is dramatically altered by the ability to rewrite a screenplay at the last minute for the film that is being produced within Downton’s walls, the allusion that is with the advent of the talking pictures that entered the conscious in the late 1920s that the former footman finds his own voice. It is touching, a reminder that whilst the First World War was not the great leveller it was thought to be, it nevertheless acted as a spur for the ordinary man and woman to believe they could achieve a greater prominence in their own story.
At the other end of the scale, the prospect of life carrying on in the wake of a era’s passing is also one of allusion, the time of Empires, of governance by an accident of birth, of misplaced hereditary is to be found, and it is handled with sensibility and style.
Downton Abbey could never be accused or thought of being in line with the more natural kitchen sink drama, it is by no means a soap, but it is one that has its place, one of a world that still persists in the minds of many, not quite gone, not quite forgotten, and rightly, not quite forgiven…but it is a reminder that history is not to be dismissed, but learned from.
A gentle tale, one of its usual intrigues and stiff upper lip, a tale steeped in its mystery and relief.
Ian D Hall