20/9/2011 Downton Abbey, series 2Yesterday evening, we finally sat down to watch the first episode of the second series of Downton Abbey. I usually don't do series, apart from (maximum) 3 or 4 parts dramas.
But I loved the first series and whatever the trendies think about it, I'm absolutely not ashamed of it! I am particularly interested in this second series as it deals with the First World War and its effect on the people back home, whatever their social background. Much like the first series, the music, the sets, the props and the costumes are absolutely splendid. The actors are very good as well, and even though some social aspects appear to have been ironed out - I am still convinced upstairs and downstairs can't possibly have been that close and tolerant to each other - I have enjoyed each and every episode. I am not a big romantic but couldn't help feeling a big knot in my throat when Lady Mary watched the train leave the station, taking away the love of her life and bringing him to the slaughter of the trenches. It is difficult to imagine with our 21st century minds what it must have been like, and I just imagined the chattering pain it would cause me if I had been standing on that platform with the love of my life on that train. Once the programme had finished, we fell into a big conversation about the way people coped at the time, courage, bravery, dissent, fear, the psychological and physical scars of the war, etc. I do hope I will manage to recapture this when needed in "The Book of Thoth", even though I would only scratch the surface. I am in the middle of writing my second novel (TBoT) and it is set a few years after the end of WW1 - in 1925 to be precise - and even though this will not be the central theme of the novel, the shadow of the Great War is everywhere and permeates the very fabric of the house and the tight knit group of people who live on the (fictional) Whitemoor estate and the village nearby. It will therefore be interesting for me to see how Julian Fellowes has treated the intricacies of personal relationships on such a heavy national and international background. I have my very own WW1 expert here at home. I will make sure he provides me with the details I need and he will guide me in my work in order to make sure it is as accurate as possible. Because there are some mythical and supernatural elements in my novel, I believe it would be good to make the rest as believable as possible! Comments are closed.
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