Top Hat, Old Chap!/Meet the Island: #2 -- Period Dramas

I really can't help myself on this one.  I was going to do something on the Olympics, or possibly the Paralympics, but I wasn't really on my computer for most of those, and when I was, I wasn't in blogging mode.  (I know.  I'm a terrible blogger.)  Instead, why don't we have something on something that's perhaps not quintessentially British, but that, well, is fairly British?  Let's talk about period dramas.

I saw an American actor in the newspaper saying recently that the Brits are the best at putting on period dramas.  Thank you, whoever you are.  We're flattered.  And we try.  There have been some brilliant ones -- Blackadder did a few, though they were also satirical, and then you get other ones like Upstairs, Downstairs which our parents remember from when they were young, and so on.

Okay, now I'm going to stop pretending to talk about the entire range of period dramas, because there's only really one I want to talk about.  Downtown Abbey's first episode for Season Three aired last Sunday night in the UK.  Sorry to all you guys who have to wait.  And it was awesome.  Matthew and Mary are finally getting married!  Of course, there are other problems along the way, and I have a feeling there is possibly something nasty lying in wait for Bates (his new cell mate doesn't get on with him).  And of course, a new disaster has struck Downtown.  I'm not saying what, though.

In short, I absolutely love this series.  So does my entire family.  I've never seen my mum so excited to watch TV.  The actors are fantastic; the plot is brilliant; the setting, costumes, research... everything is just fantastic. Obviously, the show's not for everyone, but there's no denying that it's really good.  The writer, Julian Fellowes, is an OB from my school.  Apparently he found an exchange of letters from around that time period between various relatives of his, and he used them for inspiration.  If you've never watched Downtown Abbey, I highly recommend you do.  It's fantastic.  And I'm just really annoyed that I won't be able to watch episode two on Sunday, because I'm not going to be in the UK.