#the dowager lady grantham

[fanficrocks]

It's important! And more than 10 is absolutely alright.

All the usual suspects from my fave mystery shows, plus ACGAS and L.M. Montgomery.

See the tags.

Name ten female characters you like, you get zapped if it's jsut a male character you call a babygirl or other feminine nicknames because I can't see people calling Lestat coquette again

[ladymarycrawleyofdownton]

1.04 Sybil’s new frock: the shock, the horror

[moonofthechilcotin]

I have a really hard time believing Cora -"I carried a corpse for my daughter" and "I stood up to Violet and Rosamund and orchestrated a recovery mission for Edith / I'm bringing my granddaughter Marigold home" - Crawley actually missed Sybil's wedding.

[livinonlaketime]

In light of Dame Maggie Smith’s death, I have something to show the Harry Potter fans. Before I even watched the movies and saw her as Professor McGonagall I saw her as Lady Violet Crawley, Dowager Countess of Grantham in a show called Downton Abbey. Years ago, during filming, one of the cast members wrote, directed, and filmed entirely on his iphone between scenes, a youtube miniseries called Downton Wars. He introduced it as having two things, 1, people from Downton Abbey, and 2, lightsabers. It features Maggie Smith with a lightsaber so I thought you all might enjoy it

And if anyone is looking for Maggie Smith content, I cannot recommend Downton Abbey enough. It’s six seasons and two movies worth of snarky Maggie Smith. Seriously, even if you don’t watch the show, look up compilations of the Dowager Countess’s best lines, you won’t regret it

[justforbooks]

Dame Maggie Smith

A distinguished, double Oscar-winning actor whose roles ranged from Shakespeare to Harry Potter

Not many actors have made their names in revue, given definitive performances in Shakespeare and Ibsen, won two Oscars and countless theatre awards, and remained a certified box-office star for more than 60 years. But then few have been as exceptionally talented as Maggie Smith, who has died aged 89.

She was a performer whose range encompassed the high style of Restoration comedy and the sadder, suburban creations of Alan Bennett. Whatever she played, she did so with an amusing, often corrosive, edge of humour. Her comedy was fuelled by anxiety, and her instinct for the correct gesture was infallible.

The first of her Oscars came for an iconic performance in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969). Miss Brodie’s pupils are the “crème de la crème”, and her dictatorial aphorisms – “Give me a girl at an impressionable age, and she is mine for life” – disguise her intent of inculcating enthusiasm in her charges for the men she most admires, Mussolini and Franco.

But Smith’s pre-eminence became truly global with two projects towards the end of her career. She was Professor Minerva McGonagall in the eight films of the Harry Potter franchise (she referred to the role as Miss Brodie in a wizard’s hat) between 2001 and 2011. Between 2010 and 2015, in the six series of Downton Abbey on ITV television (sold to 250 territories around the world), she played the formidable and acid-tongued Dowager Countess of Grantham, Lady Violet, a woman whose heart of seeming stone was mitigated by a moral humanity and an old-fashioned, if sometimes overzealous, sense of social propriety.

Early on, one critic described Smith as having witty elbows. Another, the US director and writer Harold Clurman, said that she “thinks funny”. When Robin Phillips directed her as Rosalind in As You Like It in 1977 in Stratford, Ontario, he said that “she can respond to something that perhaps only squirrels would sense in the air. And I think that comedy, travelling around in the atmosphere, finds her.” Like Edith Evans, her great predecessor as a stylist, Smith came late to Rosalind. Bernard Levin was convinced that it was a definitive performance, and was deeply affected by the last speech: “She spoke the epilogue like a chime of golden bells. But what she looked like as she did so, I cannot tell you; for I saw it through eyes curtained with tears of joy.”

She was more taut and tuned than any other actor of her day, and this reliance on her instinct to create a performance made her reluctant to talk about acting, although she had a forensic attitude to preparation. With no time for the celebrity game, she rarely went on television chat shows – her appearance on Graham Norton’s BBC TV show in 2015 was her first such in 42 years – or gave newspaper interviews.

Her life she summed up thus: “One went to school, one wanted to act, one started to act and one’s still acting.” That was it. She first went “public”, according to her father, when, attired in pumps and tutu after a ballet lesson, she regaled a small crowd on an Oxford pavement with one of Arthur Askey’s ditties: “I’m a little fairy flower, growing wilder by the hour.”

Unlike her great friend and contemporary Judi Dench, Smith was a transatlantic star early in her career, making her Broadway debut in 1956 and joining Laurence Olivier’s National Theatre as one of the 12 original contract artists in 1963.

In 1969, after repeatedly stealing other people’s movies, with Miss Brodie she became a star in her own right. She was claiming her just place in the elite, for she had already worked with Olivier, Orson Welles and Noël Coward in the theatre, not to mention her great friend and fellow miserabilist Kenneth Williams, in West End revue. She had also created an international stir in two movies, Anthony Asquith’s The VIPs (1963) – she didn’t just steal her big scene with him, Richard Burton complained, “she committed grand larceny” – and Jack Clayton’s The Pumpkin Eater (1964), scripted by Harold Pinter from the novel by Penelope Mortimer.

Before Harry Potter, audiences associated Smith most readily with her lovelorn, heartbreaking parishioner Susan in Bed Among the Lentils, one of six television monologues in Bennett’s Talking Heads (1988). Susan was a character seething with sexual anger; the first line nearly said it all – “Geoffrey’s bad enough, but I’m glad I wasn’t married to Jesus.”

And the funniest moment in Robert Altman’s upstairs/downstairs movie Gosford Park (2001) – in some ways a template for Downton Abbey, and also written by Julian Fellowes — was a mere aside from a doleful Smith as Constance Trentham turning to a neighbour on the sofa, as Jeremy Northam as Ivor Novello took a bow for the song he had just sung. “Don’t encourage him,” she warned, archly, “he’s got a very large repertoire.” Such a moment took us right back to the National in 1964 when, as the vamp Myra Arundel in Coward’s Hay Fever, she created an unprecedented (and un-equalled) gale of laughter on the single ejaculation at the breakfast table: “This haddock is disgusting.”

Born in Ilford, Essex, she was the daughter of Margaret (nee Hutton) and Nathaniel Smith, and educated at Oxford high school for girls (the family moved to Oxford at the start of the second world war because of her father’s work as a laboratory technician). Maggie decided to be an actor, joined the Oxford Playhouse school under the tutelage of Frank Shelley in 1951 and took roles in professional and student productions.

She acted as Margaret Smith until 1956, when Equity, the actors’ union, informed her that the name was double-booked. She played Viola with the Oxford University dramatic society in 1952 – John Wood was her undergraduate Malvolio – and appeared in revues directed by Ned Sherrin. “At that time in Oxford,” said Sherrin, “if you wanted a show to be a success, you had to try and get Margaret Smith in it.”

The Sunday Times critic of the day, Harold Hobson, spotted her in a play by Michael Meyer and she was soon working with the directors Peter Hall and Peter Wood. “I didn’t think she would develop the range that she subsequently has,” said Hall, “but I did think she had star quality.”

One of her many admirers at Oxford, the writer Beverley Cross, initiated a long-term campaign to marry Smith that was only fulfilled after the end of her tempestuous 10-year relationship with the actor Robert Stephens, with whom she fell in love at the National and whom she married in 1967. This was a golden decade, as Smith played a beautiful Desdemona to Olivier’s Othello; a clever and impetuous Hilde Wangel to first Michael Redgrave, then Olivier, in Ibsen’s The Master Builder; and an irrepressibly witty and playful Beatrice opposite Stephens as Benedick in Franco Zeffirelli’s Sicilian Much Ado About Nothing, spangled in coloured lights.

Her National “service” was book-ended by two particularly wonderful performances in Restoration comedies by George Farquhar, The Recruiting Officer (1963) and The Beaux’ Stratagem (1970), both directed by William Gaskill, whom she called “simply the best teacher”. In the first, in the travesty role of Sylvia, her bubbling, playful sexuality shone through a disguise of black cork moustache and thigh-high boots on a clear stage that acquired, said Bamber Gascoigne, an air of sharpened reality, “like life on a winter’s day with frost and sun”.

In the second, her Mrs Sullen, driven frantic by boredom and shrewish by a sodden, elderly husband, was a tight-laced beanpole, graceful, swaying and tender, drawing from Ronald Bryden a splendidly phrased comparison with some Henri Rousseau-style giraffe, peering nervously down her nose with huge, liquid eyes at the smaller creatures around, nibbling off her lines fastidiously in a surprisingly tiny nasal drawl.

With Stephens, she had two sons, Chris and Toby, who both became actors. When the marriage hit the rocks in 1975, after the couple had torn strips off each other to mixed reviews in John Gielgud’s 1973 revival of Coward’s Private Lives, Smith absconded to Canada with Cross – whom she quickly married – and relaunched her career there, far from the London hurly-burly, but with access to Hollywood.

She played not just Rosalind in Stratford, Ontario, but also Lady Macbeth and Cleopatra to critical acclaim, as well as Judith Bliss in Coward’s Hay Fever and Millamant in William Congreve’s The Way of the World (this latter role she repeated triumphantly in Chichester and London in 1984, again directed by Gaskill). But her films at this time especially reinforced her status as a comedian of flair and authority, none more than Neil Simon’s California Suite (1978), in which Smith was happily partnered by Michael Caine, and won her second Oscar in the role of Diana Barrie, an actor on her way to the Oscars (where she loses).

Smith’s comic genius was increasingly refracted through tales of sadness, retreat and isolation, notably in what is very possibly her greatest screen performance, in Clayton’s The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne (1987), based on Brian Moore’s first novel, which charts the disintegration of an alcoholic Catholic spinster at guilty odds with her own sensuality.

This tragic dimension to her comedy, was seen on stage, too, in Edna O’Brien’s Virginia (1980), a haunting portrait of Virginia Woolf; and in Bennett’s The Lady in the Van (1999), in which she was the eccentric tramp Miss Shepherd. Miss Shepherd was a former nun who had driven ambulances during blackouts in the second world war and ended up as a tolerated squatter in the playwright’s front garden. Smith brought something both demonic and celestial to this critical, ungrateful, dun-caked crone and it was impossible to imagine any other actor in the role, which she reprised, developed and explored further in Nicholas Hytner’s delightful 2015 movie based on the play.

She scored two big successes in Edward Albee’s work on the London stage in the 1990s, first in Three Tall Women (1994, the playwright’s return to form), and then in one of his best plays, A Delicate Balance (1997), in which she played alongside Eileen Atkins who, like Dench, could give Smith as good as she got.

The Dench partnership lay fallow after their early years at the Old Vic together, but these two great stars made up for lost time. They appeared together not only on stage, in David Hare’s The Breath of Life (2002), playing the wife and mistress of the same dead man, but also on film, in the Merchant-Ivory A Room With a View (1985), Zeffirelli’s Tea With Mussolini (1999) and as a pair of grey-haired sisters in Charles Dance’s debut film as a director, Ladies in Lavender (2004). Smith referred to this latter film as “The Lavender Bags”. She had a name for everyone. Vanessa Redgrave she dubbed “the Red Snapper”, while Michael Palin, with whom she made two films, was simply “the Saint”.

With Palin, she appeared in Bennett’s A Private Function (1984), directed by Malcolm Mowbray – “Moaner Mowbray” he became – in which an unlicensed pig is slaughtered in a Yorkshire village for the royal wedding celebrations of 1947. Smith was Joyce Chilvers, married to Palin, who carries on snobbishly like a Lady Macbeth of Ilkley, deciding to throw caution to the winds and have a sweet sherry, or informing her husband matter-of-factly that sexual intercourse is in order.

She had also acted with Palin in The Missionary (1982), directed by Richard Loncraine, who was responsible for the film of Ian McKellen’s Richard III (1995, in which she played a memorably rebarbative Duchess of York) and My House in Umbria (2003), a much-underrated film, adapted by Hugh Whitemore from a William Trevor novella. This last brought out the very best in her special line in glamorous whimsy and iron-clad star status under pressure. She played Emily Delahunty, a romantic novelist opening her glorious house in Umbria to her three fellow survivors in a bomb blast on a train to Milan. One of these was played by Ronnie Barker, who had been at architectural college with Smith’s two brothers and had left them to join her at the Oxford Playhouse. Delahunty finds her new metier as an adoptive parent to a little orphaned American girl.

She was Mother Superior in the very popular Sister Act (1992) and its sequel, and her recent films included a “funny turn” as a disruptive housekeeper in Keeping Mum (2005), a vintage portrait of old age revisited by the past in Stephen Poliakoff’s Capturing Mary (on television in 2007) and as a solicitous grandmother of a boy uncovering a ghost story in Fellowes’s From Time to Time (2009).

As this latter film was released she confirmed that she had been diagnosed with breast cancer and had undergone an intensive course of chemotherapy, but had been given the all-clear – only to be struck down by a painful attack of shingles, a typical Maggie Smith example of good news never coming unadulterated with a bit of bad.

Her stage appearance as the title character in Albee’s The Lady from Dubuque at the Theatre Royal, Haymarket, in 2007 was, ironically, about death from cancer. She returned to the stage for the last time in 2019, as Brunhilde Pomsel in Christopher Hampton’s one-woman play A German Life, at the Bridge theatre, London.

Cross, who was a real rock, and helped protect her from the outside world, died in 1998. But Smith picked herself up, and went on to perform as sensationally and beguilingly as she had done all her life, including memorable appearances in the Best Exotic Marigold Hotel films (2011 and 2015) and two Downton Abbey movie spin-offs (2019 and 2022). Her final film role was in The Miracle Club (2023), co-starring Kathy Bates and Laura Linney.

She had been made CBE in 1970 and a dame in 1990, and in 2014 she was made a Companion of Honour. Her pleasure would have been laced with mild incredulity. A world without Smith recoiling from it in mock horror, and real distaste, will never seem the same again.

She is survived by Chris and Toby, and by five grandchildren.

🔔 Maggie Smith (Margaret Natalie Smith), actor, born 28 December 1934; died 27 September 2024

Daily inspiration. Discover more photos at Just for Books…?

[letters2fiction]

Welcome to Letters2fiction!

The concept here is to send in a question or a letter request, and you’ll get a response from your fictional character of choice, from the list below. Please stick to the list I’ve made, but of course, you can ask if there’s some other characters I write for, I don’t always remember all the shows, movies or books I’ve consumed over the years and I’m sure I’m missing a lot 😅

Status: New Characters added - Thursday March 21st, 2024

TV SERIES

A Discovery of Witches:

Matthew Clairmont

Baldwin Montclair

Gallowglass de Clermont

Marcus Whitmore

Philippe de Clermont

Jack Blackfriars

Sarah Bishop

Emily Mather

Diana Bishop

Ysabeau de Clermont

Miriam Shepard

Phoebe Taylor

Gerbert D’Aurillac

Peter Knox

Father Andrew Hubbard

Benjamin Fuchs

Satu Järvinen

Meridiana

Law and Order:

Rafael Barba

Sonny Carisi

Joe Velasco

Mike Duarte

Terry Bruno

Peter Stone

Hasim Khaldun

Nick Amaro NEW!

Mike Dodds

Grace Muncy

Kat Tamin

Toni Churlish

Amanda Rollins

Olivia Benson

Rita Calhoun

Casey Novak

Melinda Warner

George Huang

Sam Maroun

Nolan Price

Jamie Whelan

Bobby Reyes

Jet Slootmaekers

Ayanna Bell

Jack McCoy

Elliot Stabler

One Chicago:

Jay Halstead (Could also be Will if you want)

Antonio Dawson

Adam Ruzek

Greg "Mouse" Gerwitz

Dante Torres

Vanessa Rojas

Kevin Atwater

Sean Roman

Matt Casey

Kelly Severide

Joe Cruz

Sylvie Brett

Blake Gallo

Christopher Hermann

"Mouch"

Otis

Violet Mikami

Evan Hawkins

Mayans MC:

Angel Reyes

Miguel

Bishop

Coco

Nestor

911 verse:

Athena Grant

Bobby Nash

Henrietta "Hen" Wilson

Evan "Buck" Buckley

Eddie Diaz

Howie "Chimney" Han

Ravi Panikkar

T.K. Strand

Owen Strand

Carlos Reyes

Marjan Marwani

Paul Strickland

Tommy Vega

Judson "Judd" Ryder

Grace Ryder

Nancy Gillian

Mateo Chavez

The Rookie:

Lucy Chen

Tim Bradford

Celina Juarez

Aaron Thorsen

Nyla Harper

Angela Lopez

Wesley Evers

BBC Sherlock:

Greg Lestrade

Mycroft Holmes

Sherlock Holmes

Moriarty

Molly

Bridgerton:

Anthony Bridgerton

Benedict Bridgerton

Simon Basset

Daphne Bridgerton

Eloise Bridgerton

Kate Sharma

Edwina Sharma

Marina Thompson/Crane

Outlander:

Jamie Fraser

Claire Beauchamp Randall Fraser

Frank Randall

Black Jack Randall

Brianna Fraser

Roger MacKenzie

Fergus Fraser

Marsali Fraser

Jenny Fraser Murray

Ian Murray Sr.

Ian Fraser Murray

Murtagh Mackenzie

Call The Midwife:

Shelagh Turner / Sister Bernadette

Dr. Patrick Turner

Nurse Trixie Franklin

Nurse Phyllis Crane

Lucille Anderson

Nurse Barbara Gilbert

Chummy

Sister Hilda

Miss Higgins

PC Peter Noakes

Reverend Tom Hereward NEW!

Narcos:

Horacio Carrillo

Peaky Blinders:

Tommy Shelby

Downton Abbey:

Robert Crawley, Earl of Grantham

Cora Crawley, Countess of Grantham

Lady Mary Crawley

Lady Edith Crawley

Lady Sybil Crawley

Violet Crawley, Dowager Countess of Grantham

Isobel Crawley

Matthew Crawley

Lady Rose MacClare

Lady Rosamund Painswick

Henry Talbot

Tom Branson

Mr. Charles Carson

Mrs. Hughes / Elsie May Carson

John Bates

Anna Bates

Daisy Mason

Thomas Barrow

Joseph Molesley

Land Girl:

Connie Carter

Reverend Henry Jameson (Gwilym Lee's version)

Midsomer Murder:

DCI Tom Barnaby

Joyce Barnaby

Dr. George Bullard

DCI John Barnaby

Sarah Barnaby

DS Ben Jones

DS Jamie Winter

Sgt. Gavin Troy

Fleur Perkins

WPC Gail Stephens

Kate Wilding

DS Charlie Nelson

Sergeant Dan Scott

NEW! Once Upon A Time

Regina / The Evil Queen

Mary Margaret Blanchard / Snow White

David Nolan / Prince Charming

Emma Swan

Killian Jones / Captain Hook

Mr. Gold / Rumplestiltskin

Neal Cassidy / Baelfire

Peter Pan

Sheriff Graham Humbert / The Huntsman

Jefferson / The Mad Hatter

Belle

Robin of Locksley / Robin Hood

Will Scarlet

Zelena / Wicked Witch

Alice (Once in Wonderland)

Cyrus (Once in Wonderland)

Jafar (Once in Wonderland)

Gideon

Tiger Lily

Naveen

Tiana

Granny

Ariel

Prince Eric

Aladdin

Jasmine

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

Hercules

Megara

Tinker Bell

Merida

Red Riding Hood

Mulan

Aurora / Sleeping Beauty

Prince Phillip

Cinderella

Prince Thomas

NEW! The Vampire Diaries / The Originals

Stefan Salvatore

Damon Salvatore

Caroline Forbes

Elena Gilbert

Bonnie Bennett

Enzo St. John

Niklaus Mikaelson

Elijah Mikaelson

Kol Mikaelson

Rebekah Mikaelson

Freya Mikaelson

Finn Mikaelson

Mikael

Esther

Marcel Gerard

Davina Claire

MOVIES

The Pirates of the Caribbean:

Captain Jack Sparrow

Barbossa

Will Turner

Elizabeth Swann

James Norrington

Kingsman:

Merlin

Harry Hart

Eggsy Unwin

James Spencer / Lancelot

Alastair / Percival

Roxy Morton / Lancelot

Maximillian Morton / The Shepherd

Orlando Oxford

Jack Daniels / Whiskey

Gin

BOOKS

Dreamland Billionaire series - Lauren Asher:

Declan

Callahan

Rowan

Iris

Alana

Zahra

Dirty Air series - Lauren Asher:

Noah

Liam

Jax

Santiago

Maya

Sophie

Elena

Chloe

Ladies in Stem - Ali Hazelwood books:

Olive

Adam

Bee

Levi

Elsie

Jack

Mara

Liam

Sadie

Erik

Hannah

Ian

Fourth Wing - Rebecca Yarros:

Xaden Riorson

Dain Aetos

Jack Barlowe

Rhiannan Matthias

Violet Sorrengail

Mira Sorrengail

Lillith Sorrengail

Bodhi Durran

Liam Mairi

[maximumwobblerbanditdonut]

Maggie Smith, Oscar-winning star of stage and screen, dies aged 89 💔

Dame Maggie Smith, the masterful, scene-stealing actor who won an Oscar for the 1969 film “The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie” and gained new fans in the 21st century as the dowager Countess of Grantham in “ Downton Abbey” and Professor Minerva McGonagall in the Harry Potter films, died early Friday in a London hospital.

Margaret Natalie Smith was born in Ilford, on the eastern edge of London, on 28th December 1934. Her father was assigned in 1939 to wartime duty in Oxford, where her theatre studies at the Oxford Playhouse School led to a busy apprenticeship.

One of Smith’s most iconic early roles was as Desdemona in Shakespeare's Othello. Laurence Olivier spotted her talent, invited her to be part of his original National Theatre company and cast her as his co-star in a 1965 film adaptation of “Othello.”

Laurence Olivier offered Smith the part opposite his Othello

Smith was frequently rated the preeminent British female performer of a generation with two Oscars, a clutch of Academy Award nominations and a shelf full of acting trophies.

The role that brought Smith international fame came in 1969 when she played the determined non-conformist teacher in the title role of The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie.

The role of Jean Brodie, alongside future husband Robert Stephens, won her an Oscar

The film was adapted from the 1961 novel by Muriel Spark, set in 1930s Edinburgh, and the character was based on the author's inspirational teacher.

"Jean Brodie," in which she played a dangerously charismatic Edinburgh schoolteacher, brought her the Academy Award for best actress, and the British Academy Film Award (BAFTA) as well.

Maggie Smith won critical acclaim for her role as Betsey Trotwood in a BBC adaptation of David Copperfield at the turn of the century. The part also brought her Bafta and Emmy nominations.

She appeared with a young Daniel Radcliffe in David Copperfield.

She starred alongside a young Daniel Radcliffe, who she would later act with again in the Harry Potter films.

In 2001, she took on the role of Professor Minerva McGonagall in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone.

Dame Magie Smith is known to millions as Professor Minerva McGonagall from Harry Potter. Dame Maggie was reportedly the only actor JK Rowling specifically asked to star in the films.

In 2007, while working on Harry Potter and The Half-Blood Prince, Dame Maggie was diagnosed with breast cancer but continued filming. She was given the all-clear after two years of treatment.

From 2010, she was the acid-tongued Violet Crawley, Dowager Countess of Grantham, in the hit TV period drama “ Downton Abbey,” a role that won her legions of fans, three Emmy Awards, a Golden Globe and a host of other awards nominations.

Downton Abbey - Violet Crawley - The period ITV drama ran from 2001 to 2015, followed by two films

One of Smith's most famous later roles was as a homeless woman in The Lady In The Van, as Miss Shepherd, a redoubtable woman who lived for years in her vehicle on Bennett’s London driveway.

Smith first played Miss Shepherd on stage in 1999 and earned an Olivier nomination for Best Actress

Smith added a supporting actress Oscar for “California Suite” in 1978, Golden Globes for “California Suite” and “A Room with a View,” and BAFTAs for lead actress in “A Private Function” in 1984, “A Room with a View” in 1986, and “The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne” in 1988.

She also received Academy Award nominations as a supporting actress in “Othello,” “Travels with My Aunt,” “Room with a View” and “Gosford Park,” and a BAFTA award for supporting actress in “Tea with Mussolini.” On stage, she won a Tony in 1990 for “Lettice and Lovage.”

She was one of a select group of actors to win the treble of big US awards, with two Oscars, four Emmys and a Tony - as well as seven Baftas and an honorary Olivier Award in the UK 🇬🇧

Maggie Smith was made a Dame Commander of the British Empire 🏅 the equivalent of a knight, in 1990.

She will never be forgotten & her characters will continue on, for future generations to love 💫 🎭

RIP Maggie Smith 1934-2024 🥀 🖤

#DameMaggieSmith #Oscar-winning #star #film #ThePrimeofMissJeanBrodie #DowntonAbbey #CountessofGrantham #VioletCrawley #BAFTA #HarryPotter #ProfessorMinervaMcGonagall TheLadyInTheVan #MissShepherd #GoldenGlobe #Gettyimages

Posted 27th September 2024

[bitletsanddrabbles]

Book Review: Loch Down Abbey

Right, so, I’ve mentioned Loch Down Abbey before, but since this is apparently the year my brain has decided we’re actually going to write down some of the fanfic that it’s been kicking about since...*checks tumblr for first reference*...2022, I might as well write a review. I feel like I probably don’t do enough book reviews. Then again, these days I mostly read fanfiction, but the books I do read are good fun and our modern world could certainly use more of that. So, in this post I will discuss the books, why I like it, it’s flaws, why I don’t mind it’s flaws so much, and so on. In this way people might, at the very least, understand why I’m writing fanfiction for it.

First off, it’s always billed as a parody of Downton Abbey. While this isn’t entirely untrue, I do find it a bit misleading. I mean, yes, the title is clearly a play on Downton Abbey, but it is also a play on “lock down”, having been written during the Covid 19 pandemic and being set during a fictitious outbreak of Virulent Pernicious Mauvaise in the 1930s resulting in, well, lock down, among other things. Functionally the only other great resemblance is that it’s set in a country house relying heavily on upstairs, downstairs dynamics, and an ensemble cast. This means less than you’d think. Beyond that, the dogs are named Grantham and Belgravia, and there the resemblance pretty much ends. Even with Lady Georgiana as the dowager countess being comparable to any character based off of Julina Fellowes’s great aunt, the family dynamic is quite different. The estate set up is different, leading to different issues, even though both families face financial issues. There’s more garish tartan and less lavatory paper. Honestly, if we’re looking at other works by Julian Fellowes, I could make more comparisons between it and Gosford Park given that they’re both country house mysteries.

Above all, it’s Scottish, not English.

In short, I would not bill it as a parody of Downton Abbey so much as a humorous country house mystery with nods to the period drama genera in general and the works of Julian Fellowes in particular that will appeal to Downton Abbey fans and anyone who lived through the Covid Pandemic.

That being said, I will allow that “Downton Abbey Parody” is much shorter and easier to say.

The main plot revolves around two things: the aforementioned outbreak of Virulent Pernicious Mauvaise and the mysterious death of Lord Inverkillen. Your main PoV character is the housekeeper, Mrs MacBain, although it does shift – more on this later. When Lord Inverkillen dies, it’s proclaimed an accident by the local (not overly skilled) constabulary, but that doesn’t sit quite right with her, so she becomes our detective, sniffing out the truth of the matter. This is made much more difficult by the fact her staff keeps shrinking due to the pandemic and that the first person in the house to come down ill of (and promptly die of) the disease was Nanny. Saying the Inverkillen children are a handful is inaccurate. They are six handfuls. Solving the mystery is ultimately far easier than getting the family to make adjustments to allow the house to keep running with a skeleton crew that’s missing a femur, five ribs, six vertebrae, and the skull.

Meanwhile, upstairs, the entire family, with the exception of Fergus, the second son, is attempting to find ways to ignore the fact they’re broke. Completely broke. “Do something or the house goes on the auction block, oh wait, it’s too late for that” broke. They generally accomplish this by fighting with each other, complaining about the pandemic, complaining about the servants, or, in the case of the new Lord Inverkillen and his brother-in-law, spending all of their free time in the tennis pavilion. Oh, or looking for expensive family knick-knacks to make off with in the case of the late Lord Inverkillen’s brother.

Yeah. This family is ridiculous. I mean, beyond ridiculous. I personally suspect that Fergus is a changeling, it’s the only way to explain why he’s part of this group. Of course, according to the “about the author” part of the reason for this book is that she was “hoping it would be enough to get her disinvited from the annual family walking holiday”, so that explains the rest of the family. Alas, it didn’t work.

(Incidentally, I have chatted a little with Beth Cowan- Erskine on Instagram and she seems to be a nice person. She’s answered my questions on how Scottish titles work vs English. She even bought some of the Loch Down tea I made on Adagio and gave it a nice review. So if you live in the Cotswolds and are looking for an interior designer, which is her main profession, you might consider looking her up.)

Now, moving on to the structure of the book. I must stress that this is a first novel, and as such, it’s rather ambitious. That ‘ensemble cast’ I mentioned earlier? Yeah. The opening list of characters has thirty names on it. Now, they aren’t all PoV characters, but still – thirty. If you have ever tried to write an ensemble cast, even if it’s just Downton Abbey fanfic that touches on everyone who was around during the season in question, you know that is not an easy task. In many ways I really hope the rumors that it’s being developed into a television program are true, because there are things that will just work better in a visual format, such as the opening. The opening is probably the most Downton thing in the entire book, following the characters through the arrival of the family home from a local ball in much the same way Downton opened by following Daisy and Thomas through the building. The big difference is that you get the PoV of each character. Yes, in one scene. Yes, that is very difficult to do to the extent that most writing instructors will tell you not to do it. Yes, it gets confusing. And that is, honestly, the book’s biggest failing – the PoV is less “third person limited” than it is “third person wandering”, especially at the outset. It gets better as you go, and then will occasionally backslide. However, particularly bearing in mind what the author is trying to do here (thirty characters!) I feel this is more of a failing on the editor’s part, and even then…yeah, I don’t know you’d do that intro any better. I could probably figure it out if I really worked at it, but dang. That is a doozy of an undertaking.

...okay, you’re not actually meeting all thirty characters in the first scene, but you meet enough of them! Actually, give me a second. I borrowed Mum’s copy since I couldn’t find mine. We have four in the first section, which doesn’t sound like much, but is still twice as many as Downton follows in the same space of time, and we’re doing it with character PoV shifts.

This leads to the second, absolutely unavoidable failing – character development. Some characters get much more PoV screen time than others, which means more development. With a cast that size, this was going to happen. Now, you might think “But it’s a novel! There’s not a one hour time limit! Surely she could have done better!”

Sorry, but no. A novel still has to have good pacing. Giving equal development, or even near equal development, to a cast that large would make it drag. Even half of that cast would make it drag. This book is supposed to make you laugh, not serve as a cure for insomnia. More to the point, while it is a comedy it does have it’s more serious, drama points and there are character arcs that just aren’t funny. At all. In fact, if you dig into them, some of them are straight up kind of depressing, which is why these characters don’t get much screen time. You can acknowledge what they’re going through well enough, but getting inside of their heads would have ruined the entire tone of the book. So there are places you just need to go with the surface knowledge or go write yourself some nice fanfiction. That’s what fanfiction is for, after all.

So! Having covered the flaws, what do I like about this book? Seriously, what’s had me read it multiple times, make tea based off of it (supporting salmon conservation), writing fanfiction, and hoping there’s a TV version eventually?

As a comedy, it succeeds. It really is funny. Visually I want to see what a TV production crew would come up with for the Inverkillen tartan.

It’s also a pretty good mystery. I can’t really say a lot without saying too much, but the mystery works on two different levels. And it stays both a good comedy and a good mystery through multiple reads, which is a bonus.

The fact that the family name is Ogilvy-Sinclair family which reminds me of "Thomas and the Earl of Findlater" by @alex51324 is a personal amusement.

You do care about the characters, even the less developed ones. There’s a list of characters at the end that matches the one at the beginning as circumstances change quite drastically over the course of the book (it serves as sort of an ‘epilogue to the epilogue’), and I can’t say it leaves you needing more, but you’re certainly interested in where everyone’s going. There’s been talk online of a sequel, and while it’s not necessary, you’re definitely invested enough to not say ‘no’ if one comes along. There are more stories to be told of these characters, and you are left suitably curious to what they are.

And, of course, if you were an essential worker during the 2020 Covid pandemic, you connect with the servants. Seriously, trying to convince people who will not listen that, no, there is no more toilet paper in back. No, there’s no flour either. I’m sorry you need fifteen bags, we only have three. No, you can’t have an extra pack of toilet paper either, I’ve already said that, is bad enough when they aren’t the most ridiculous family of aristocrats to ever carpet their house in the Clan tartan. Mrs MacBain’s experience helps put everything else in perspective. Bless the woman.

I need to read it again now that I’ve actually been to Scotland. I suspect there are a few things that will be even funnier, like the rival family trying to buy the estate.

And the ending is just satisfying. Parts of it are predictable, others you absolutely don’t see coming, but it all comes to leave you with that “Ah, yes. That is as it should be” feeling. It’s also a fast read that’s easy to pick up and put down at meal times and for sleep, which I consider a bonus.

Anyway, that is why I recommend it. If nothing else, see if you can borrow a copy from the library.

[eolewyn1010]

Downton Abbey Fashion 2 - Edwardian outdoors fashion

Picking this back up again after... a year? Who cares; time is an illusion and so is the soundness of my mind. I wanna talk coats and walking dresses today, let's look at Downton Abbey's season 1!

To my amusement, Violet in the first season is almost exclusively seen in walking dresses and coats; they definitely dominate her fashion aside from the black evening dresses she wears for dinner during mourning. Mostly because the dower house isn't very prominently featured in the first season, so Violet is usually "coming over" rather than seen in her home. And she establishes the color palette that not only honors her name, but is thematically tied to all the Crawleys. Starting with that plum walking suit which I quite like; the embroidery on the jacket is so nice! And just, the color coordination in this outfit. Check out that plumage on the hat. I'm just not sure about the fur stola she has in the second picture. It may be the light, but this fur looks so blue?? It also hides the prettiest part of the jacket, hmph.

I'm not sure why, but I've come to think of this particular outfit as pretty iconic for the Dowager™, even though she doesn't wear it again after this season. The outfit looks a lot like one I've seen in a fashion plate from 1901, but we know Violet doesn't always keep up with times. The blouse underneath seems to be the same as she wore with the previous outfit, the walking suit itself is comparatively simple in its making; no more decoration that the black braiding, which is a wise choice as the fabric is doing all the work here. Where did they even get this? Where do I get this? How does Violet pull off such a waist cinch a good 50 years after these would have been all the rage? Will she ever not be the queen of magnificent headgear? Questions aplenty!

Granted, this one doesn't seem to be so much a walking dress as a house dress that she easily repurposes by adding the fur stola and a very nice hat with velvet roses. We do see her wearing it inside, but it does seem to suffice to take a walk over to the abbey. Simple one, but I like it quite well for a grey dress. Also note the brooch which she has worn with the previous outfit, too.

Another feathered hat, another blouse, but this time it's purple silk, and the white lace becomes the upper instead of the under layer, and thereby the center piece of this outfit. That is some glorious lace, but I'm also noticing these earrings. I'm pretty sure Mary has similar ones.

--------------

I wasn't sure if I should add in Isobel's outfits - she's not dressing to the nines in season 1 yet, as she hasn't settled in the nobility environment she's recently finding herself in. That not to say she dresses badly; I envy her this burgundy, velvet-lined coat (and she seems to like it enough to keep wearing in in season 2). But it doesn't try to be high fashion; it's simple and nice... and Isobel already knows to let her hats do the work for her outfit.

Similar color, but slightly different style; that flowery fabric chosen for collar and cuffs is just lovely, and it really pops before that background. And if I'm not mistaken, this one has pockets~ Also a very pretty belt with double buckle. Isobel may not be as obscenely rich as the Downton Abbey Crawleys, but she has style.

Not much to say about this coat tbh; it's kinda boring. But check out that elegant feathered hat; someone is very quickly taking fashion cues from Violet.

Comparing this coat directly with those that came before I'd say this is one that Isobel only bought recently - I'd hazard a guess this one is couture. The beautiful embroidery, the cream color where she stuck with dark, muted shades before. This one is supposed to Keep Up, and it does not disappoint!

--------------

If there's purple for the Dowager, there must be purple for Lady Grantham. I think Cora is introduced in this coat, and while it's not much to look at, I will grant that it looks cozy. And, of course, a plain coat with undecorated lapels makes for a nice background to a pretty Edwardian hat!

This coat is one of my favorite pieces in the entire run of the show. I can't believe that this one wasn't a keeper for later seasons. Look at all this wonderful chocolate-colored silk satin! Look how that minimal decoration of a few buttons and a couble chevrons in gold thread makes the lapels and cuffs pop! Thankfully, Cora pairs it with hats that, while chic, are in neutral colors so they still let the coat be a statement of itself.

A pretty walking suit, this one looks less grand and a little more girlish that the last. The hats balance that out; especially the richly decorated and color-coordinated first hat is definitely more ladylike than girlish. I'm wondering if Cora had it made to match this suit; the color goes so perfectly with the sheen of the silk. Also worth noting: Lovely lace collars.

This velvet walking suit... hm. I'm not sure how I feel about it. How about, "I wouldn't wear it, but it's definitely good-looking"? Something about this, despite it being the fashionable sihouette, feels dated. Maybe that's just how I feel about velvet, or it's the fluttery blouse cuffs working in tandem with the golden and bronze piping. Also, the hat with the big striped ribbon is giving off slight Rose-boarding-Titanic vibes.

Last but not least, this beauty in white. You know, these loosely-falling lapels that fold onto themselves are a recurring element in Downton Abbey costumes, but I'm actually not sure I've ever seen them on something I knew to be historically authentic. But who cares; she is beauty, she is grace, she lets this one go entirely undecorated so she can shine. I have a slightly softer spot for the second hat she combines this with, if only because it being tied to her chin with a scarf is an element of elegance we haven't seen on any outfit before.

--------------

Rosamund doesn't appear a lot in the first season, but I'd feel amiss not to mention her - look at her trying to step in her mother's shoes, hat-wise. Eh, this metaphor got lost in the wardrobe. It's a bit of a shame that the finish they used on this hat makes it look so plastic-y, but it's still the most eye-catching piece of this outfit; I think Rosamund chose a rather plain coat to go with this on purpose.

Oh, she's serving here. That black skirt looks like it might be a hobble skirt, but there's only so much I can be mad at an outfit that includes this gorgeously tailored coat. But again, it is fairly understated in colors and decoration. I think Rosamund just likes to show off her hat collection.

[cinema-tv-etc]

Maggie Smith

Wit, Wisdom, and Withering Remarks: An Appreciation of Downton Abbey's Dowager Countess How Maggie Smith's Violet Crawley became a pop-culture icon, whether she'd like it or not. Warning: spoilers ahead. By Elizabeth HolmesPublished: Sep 27, 2024 Following the news of Maggie Smith's death, we're resharing this 2022 ode to her performance as the Dowager Countess in Downton Abbey.

hen we last saw Maggie Smith as Violet Crawley, the Dowager Countess of Grantham, she was seated in a dimly lit room as her family waltzed the night away just outside the door. In the sobering twist towards the end of the first Downton Abbey movie, she requests a heart-to-heart with her granddaughter.

“I may not have long to live,” the Dowager Countess says plainly to Lady Mary, played by Michelle Dockery, her satin-gloved hand holding tight to her walking stick.

The thought of Downton existing without the biting wit of Smith’s character was both expected and devastating.

*

The Absolute Best of Maggie Smith | Downton Abbey

[reiignonme]

BRIDGERTON STARTER CALL!!

i'm living my best regency life rn so like this for a randomised starter from one of these muses. connections will likely be pre established and shipping may occur. only like this if you're okay with that.

muses are below... some are canon, others have their own verses.

Alice Crawley / sister of Earl Grantham, ages with Francesca.

Anne Boleyn / loyal lady in waiting to the Queen.

Anthony Bridgerton / canon.

Arthur Fitz-Clarence / newly inherited Duke of Oxford.

Catherine Gordon / Countess of Huntly in her own right, Scottish.

Daphne Bridgerton / canon.

Henry Talbot / father is a member of parliament, nephew of Dowager Baroness Shackleton.

Richard, Duke of Gloucester / nephew of the King.

Robert Bruce / King of Scotland, godson of the Queen.

Sherlock Holmes / advisor for the royal family.

Thomas Barrow / Butler for the Bridgertons.

[somerandommuffinpaper]

I just saw that Dame Maggie Smith has passed. So I asked ChatGPT to write a memorial speech … and it’s just beautiful.

**Memorial Speech for Dame Maggie Smith**

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Today, we gather not only to mourn the loss but also to celebrate the extraordinary life of a woman who touched countless hearts across generations—Dame Maggie Smith.

Maggie was an artist of rare talent, who brought to life characters with depth, grace, and often, with a sharp wit that left us all in awe. From her captivating portrayal of Professor Minerva McGonagall in *Harry Potter*, where she became the stern yet deeply caring figure to many young fans, to the iconic Dowager Countess of Grantham in *Downton Abbey*, whose one-liners have echoed in homes worldwide, Maggie Smith was never just acting; she was living and breathing these characters.

Her career spanned over seven remarkable decades, and in that time, she garnered the highest accolades our industry can bestow—two Academy Awards, multiple BAFTAs, Emmys, Golden Globes, and most importantly, the affection and admiration of audiences across the globe. Whether on the grand stage of theatre or the intimate screen, her presence was undeniable.

But beyond the applause and the standing ovations, there was something profoundly personal about Maggie. Her sons, Chris and Toby, have spoken about her deep humility and fierce love for her family, a quiet but steady presence in their lives. Though intensely private, she managed to give the world a piece of her heart through every role she embodied.

Maggie taught us that acting is more than just performing—it’s storytelling. It’s about making people feel seen, heard, and understood. She did that, with the wisdom of a seasoned veteran and the soul of a true artist.

Her absence today is felt by all—her friends, her family, and those of us who were touched by her performances. But while we grieve, we also take solace in knowing that her legacy will live on. She leaves behind a treasure trove of unforgettable performances, moments that will continue to inspire and bring joy to those yet to discover her brilliance.

Dame Maggie Smith was, quite simply, one of the greatest. And though we say goodbye to her today, her spirit will remain with us, in every corner of theatre and film, in every heart that beats a little faster at the sound of her name.

Rest in peace, dear Maggie. You will never be forgotten.

Thank you.

[downton-tourney]

S3, E8:

The annual cricket match takes place, Matthew coaches Tom. Alfred complains about Thomas to the police, but Lord Grantham persuades him to retract the complaint. Lady Rose comes to visit and ends up with her much older, married lover. Mary and Matthew discover they both went to the same doctor about their fertility issues.

S4, E7

Robert leaves for America, with Thomas rather than Bates as his valet. The Dowager countess falls ill and is nursed by Isobel. Tom meets Miss Bunting. Rose pursues her romance with Jack Ross while Edith wonders if she should abort. Lord Gillingham and his valet come back to Downton, and Mrs Hughes threatens the latter.

[baxtersbarrow]

Redo because omg I forgot my darling Daisy