Downton Abbey

Queenies tv highlights

WARNING: CONTAINS STRONG LANGUAGE
Downton Abbey, Sunday - ITV1

The second episode of the second series was 75 minutes long but if you take away all those annoying commercial breaks it was more like 60-something minutes long. Now I'm quite aware that ITV is a commercial channel and that all the adverts pay for dramas such as Downton Abbey. Well the adverts also pay for all those drab crime dramas too which is why I object to sitting through them - especially as they are so frequent.

No sooner have you got into a scene than its cutting away to those annoying life insurance sponsorship breaks and then adverts for motor insurance, house insurance, Tesco, Injury Lawyers 4 You ect ect. By the time Downton Abbey has returned I've forgotten what was going on because I've been bombarded with bloody adverts. That's why I also record Downton Abbey so I can watch it again the next day and fast-forward through all those annoying and numerous ad breaks.

Well the second episode of Downton Abbey certainly didn't disappoint or drop the ball; everything was on fine form. Dame Maggie Smith was once again superb as the Dowager Countess doling out her opinion even if it wasn't wanted - well especially if it was wanted. Poor Carson (Jim Carter) nearly had a heart-attack and had to accept that the maids - prepare yourself readers - yes the maids would have to wait at table. Oh dear, the dreadful war is forcing Carson's standards to go right down.

Elsewhere it was discovered that Mrs O'Brien (Siobhan Finneran) is human after all and does have a soft side - it's not all plotting, snarling and disapproving looks. Mrs O'Brien showed her newly discovered sensitive side to new valet Mr Lang (Cal Macaninch) who she correctly guessed had shell shock. Thomas (Rob James-Collier) had managed to get a job at the local hospital (where it just so happens that Lady Sybil and Isobel Crawley also work) where he became close to a solider who had lost his vision in a gas attack. The two stories are, of course, designed to remind the viewer of the true horrors of the war.

I can't find a single fault with Downton Abbey though I'm sure they'll be some hawk-eyed viewer who spotted some little mistake - a car driving down the road right at the far edge of a shot where it's barely visible or a bird flying over that actually wasn't introduced to the country until 1920. But for me I don't spend the 75 minutes, or however long it is, trying to find fault with Downton - I spend 75 minutes enjoying some decent British drama.