The Posh and Poise of Being English

Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale | Director: Simon Curtis | Cast: Michelle Dockery, Hugh Bonneville, Elizabeth McGovern

They Have said goodbye to us several times in the last 15 years but this one seems final. It was so familiar, and so glamourous as the Crawleys welcomed us to 1930. Lord Grantham (Hugh Bonneville) sounds as cross as ever. Lady Grantham (Elizabeth McGovern) is not done tut-tutting at her brother’s shenanigans. Lady Mary (Michelle Dockery) continues to be unable to resist bad boys, even as her soon-to-be ex-husband is pilloried in absentia for being a “feckless playboy”. Lady Edith (Laura Carmichael) has changed from a wishy-washy crybaby to a formidable woman of substance, able to scare the daylights out of her family’s enemies with a few words. The downstairs is in a state of flux: the head butler Carson is set to retire as is the cook Mrs Patmore who is replaced by Daisy. Both Carson and Daisy are invited to the annual flower show committee, which is enough to give a few toffs a coronary. And though divorce is still not fashionable in the upper class, a deliciously naughty
Noel Coward (Arty Froushan) certainly is. Downton Abbey lovers will miss Violet Crawley (the sardonic late Dame Maggie Smith) but Julian Fellowes mentions her enough times to keep us going. Fellowes’ affections may have moved to America with The Gilded Age but for us it will always be the English aristocracy forever.

Downton Abbey: The Grand FinaleElizabeth McGovernHugh BonnevilleMichelle DockerySimon Curtis