Downton Abbey returns, plus Jane and Alice ...

No sun-dappled gardens or gentle rustling of taffeta greets viewers as they return to DOWNTON ABBEY for Series 2. We are blasted straight into the trenches, where a mud-covered Matthew Crawley (Dan Stevens) is heroically fighting the Great War. The first series began with the sinking of the Titanic in 1912 when the Downton estate loses its male heir, and ended with the outbreak of World War I in 1914. It is now 1916 as we revisit Julian Fellowes’s “posh soap opera” featuring the Lords and Ladies of the Estate and their downstairs staff, who get equal screen time.

Previous classic costume dramas like UPSTAIRS AND DOWNSTAIRS were a bit staid, but the fascinating thing about DOWNTON is that is done in the modern zappy American style. Each character – and there’s about 20 of them - have their own story arcs and there are some marvellous bits of humour here and there, as in the first episode here, the uppity new maid wanted the cook Mrs Patmore to save her some of the crepes suzettes from “upstairs” but she annoys the cook who takes pleasure is tossing the pancakes to the dog – it’s a little moment but a satisfying one.

While Armageddon rages abroad, life at Downton remains stultifyingly the same for the Earl (Hugh Bonneville) and Lady Mary (Michelle Dockerty). By moving the action from the relative frippery of country-house living to war, Fellowes has wisely raised the stakes and given the actors more to chew on. Lady Edith is still a bitch but apparently will change, ditto Lady Sybil. Then there is Mr Bates the valet and his evil wife, ladies maid O’Brien is still as poisonous as ever, as the house is presided over by the butler and wise housekeeper (Phyllis Logan). The Dowager Countess (Maggie Smith in a late great role) still has some biting retorts as she and Mrs Crawley (Penelope Wilton) try to gain the upper hand. But it is our star-crossed lovers – Matthew Crawley (Dan Stevens) the new heir and Lady Mary who fascinate.

Lots to look forward to here then as the Estate becomes a convalescent home, and will Matthew and that devious footman Thomas survive in the trenches? Overall, the sumptuous drama remains as inviting as before. Classic costume drama at it’s best then. Best though to record it and watch afterwards, zapping out the commercial breaks as there are too many of them, and how soon will the DVD be out?

During my recent hospital engagement I decided to read some old books which have become favourite films, so it was a pleasure to actually read the original BLACK NARCISSUS by Rumer Godden, first published in 1939 and never out of print, ditto her THE GREENGAGE SUMMER which became that intriguing 1961 film with Kenneth More, Danielle Darrieux and Susannah York, and also the 1950s novel by A.J. Cronin THE SPANISH GARDENER which became that popular Dirk Bogarde movie in 1956, but how they changed it! I was astonished to see that Jose is 19 and the father too is taken with his attractive physique, Jose though gets killed while trying to escape due to the father’s intervention. Bogarde was in his mid-30s then so Jose is a lot older (and provided with a girlfriend to keep his relationship with the boy innocent). The Rank Organisation were of course not going to kill off their 'Idol of the Odeons', so Jose not only survives in the film but sends the reconciled father and son happily on their way to their next posting - a total reversal of the ending in the book which is much bleaker with father and son now posted to Sweden and Nicholas resolved to get away from the unloved father and return to his mother as soon as he can! (Reviews of these at Bogarde, York, Deborah Kerr, Black Narcissus labels).

I now see that Jane Asher (who played the younger sister in THE GREENGAGE SUMMER (LOSS OF INNOCENCE) is playing Lady Bracknell in a new production of THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST and I imagine she will be terrific in the role. Asher is actually the same age (64) as Dame Edith Evans when she played the role. Several actresses have portrayed a younger sexier Lady Bracknell - Jane should be perfect! What a contrast to her dolly bird in Skolimowski's 1970 DEEP END, reviewed here (Jane Asher label), and just out on dvd.



Below: performers now have the internet in their dressing rooms!

Alice Krige has also turned into a fascinating presence - now in the BBC series SPOOKS as Peter Firth's lost love, and as Ralph Fiennes' ex-wife in PAGE EIGHT the recent film by David Hare (reviewed recently here). I did not see her Borg Queen in a STAR TREK film, but she has been quietly impressive so many different genres - that icy patrician Roman in the 2001 ATTILA (as played by Gerard Butler), SOLOMON KANE, and others since her debut in CHARIOTS OF FIRE.

Page 8 / Everything old is new again ....

A new JANE EYRE? and getting good reviews too, but do we need it? I didn't even want to see the last JANE, the Zeffirelli one from a decade or so ago, even though I knew it would look good, let alone a 2006 tv version (with Toby Stephens). Also, a new WUTHERING HEIGHTS, as well as that Tom Hardy television version. There was also that 1970 JANE with Susannah York, far too pretty. The only for me is the perfect Fox version in 1944, even though is streamlines and simplifies the story, but it has that required Victorian Gothic black and white quality with perfect casting: Fontaine, Welles (it is almost an Orson Welles Film), Agnes Moorhead, Henry Daniell and the child Elizabeth Taylor. Likewise did we need - or even see? - that recent OLIVER TWIST even if by Roman Polanski (whose films I catch usually) which seemed another redundant remake - any Dickens pales in comparison to Lean's '40s definitive versions. Charlotte Bronte's other great novel VILLETTE has only had one outing, by the BBC in 1970, a fondly remembered production with the esteemed Judy Parfitt. Instead of more JANEs why not a film of VILLETTE ?

I also liked that recent good-looking televsion version of SENSE AND SENSABILITY with Dan Stevens, Donimic Cooper, Neil Morrissey ideal as the men, and Janet McTeer ideal as the mother, and of course that last version of PERSUASION - subject of a feature here last year, costume drama label.

Now to come is a new version of the classic BBC series TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY, that big hit with Alec Guinness leading the cast. At least this new version has another solid line-up including Colin Firth, Tom Hardy, Mark Strong, John Hurt etc. Bring it on ... and then there was that new prestige BBC drama, PAGE EIGHT.


PAGE EIGHT, 2011. A new political drama from the BBC, written and directed by David Hare, so it has attracted a top calibre cast. The convoluted plot features a secret service intelligence analyst Bill Nighy who finds himself privy to information that could bring down the government. His superior, Michael Gambon (who has married Nighy’s ex wife Alice Krige, and feels rightly that he is dying) gives him a top secret file which he wants made public. This incriminates the Prime Minister (Ralph Fiennes) - on page 8 - as knowing about secret American torture sites and not telling anyone else, thus compromising the safety of others. Nighy soon finds himself being leaned on by Downing Street in the shape of ballbreaker Judy Davis. He is also unsure of the motives of Rachel Weisz, his neighbour across the hall whose brother has been murdered, and the mysterious young man watching them and who knows his now-pregnant daughter. So, lots to clear up in 100 minutes then as Nighy has to go on the run, selling a valuable painting to finance his search for the truth. The dealer he sells the painting to turns out to be Marthe Keller in a rather pointless rare appearance from her ‘70s heyday. It keeps the interest but is all rather thriller-by-numbers as Nighy outwits his pursuers. Fiennes puts in a cracking appearance in his showdown with Nighy.

And now of course we are agog for the new series of DOWNTON ABBEY, costume drama at it's best, and original stuff too, from Lord Fellowes, so not another Jane Austen or Bronte retread then, with Maggie Smith, Hugh Bonneville, Dan Stevens and all the others...