Let's face it. Downton Abbey would be NOTHING without the loyal service of the men and women who toil below stairs (and above) to make sure Lady Mary has her fire lit before she sets one dainty foot upon the richly carpeted floor of her bedroom.
Nor would the fine folks who dine on eight course meals on the perfectly laid table have any morsels to put into their silver-spooned mouths were it not for the eighteen hour days Daisy and Mrs. Patmore et al put in day in and day out.
I've always been fascinated by the dichotomy represented by these two groups of people, whose lives are worlds apart in terms of wealth and comfort, yet they're existing within the same household... "Howard's End," "The Remains of the Day," "Gosford Park"...all great movies! And...The Grand Hotel is a great series set in Spain that also deals with the upstairs/downstairs drama. It's all in Spanish but it's subtitled.
For the purposes of brevity (cue the roar of the crowd) I'm just going to focus on a few of the folks who make the wheels run smoothly at Downton.
Mr. Carson and Mrs. Hughes...
As butler, Mr. Carson is the head of the service household. People stand up when he walks into the room. He rules with a thundering velvet hand and expects his staff to toe whatever line he chooses to enforce. He is the Rosetta Stone of Edwardian manners and is highly suspicious of anything that smacks of progress..social, political or economic.
His many tasks involve decanting wine (sometimes through a sieve...Ron says he has to do that because it's so old it has an excess amount of sediment and heaven forbid any of the blue bloods upstairs get a speck of sediment stuck between their teeth), making sure the table is set impeccably at all three meals and keeping all the boys under his charge in line (meaning no hanky panky with the girls).
Mrs. Hughes, the head housekeeper, also runs a tight ship, but with a great deal of understanding and empathy. I'm not sure how many girls are under her purview, but it's not insignificant. Most of the girls are very young and prone to heartbreak and the usual teen angst, but Mrs. Hughes doesn't allow too many shenanigans because there are fires to be laid (and stoked during the day), clothes to be mended, ladies to be dressed and undressed, then dressed and undressed, then dressed again and undressed...it's all rather ridiculous, but it's also what makes it so grand.
Thomas and O'Brien...
Thomas has been promoted from First Footman to Under Butler and is, accordingly, now called Barrow. It makes me think of Clyde Barrow (Bonnie & Clyde) every time I hear him called that. He is, without a doubt, one of the vilest characters on the series. Always scheming and angling to obtain gossip in order to further his position. It's almost as if he thinks he can actually become a Crawley if he connives enough. Just when I think he's done the most despicable thing ever and is about to be tossed out on his ear, he does something heroic and is saved by the skin of his teeth. Grrrrr.
O'Brien, who left the show last season, was Thomas' partner in crime. She was the lady's maid for Lady Grantham and did equally despicable things, on which I will not elaborate in case you haven't watched any of the series (again, tsk, tsk, tsk). Since her departure, Thomas has yet to find a long-term accomplice, but it's not been for lack of trying.
Bates and Anna...
Perhaps the best story line downstairs. Bates, a wounded veteran who served with Lord Grantham in some military endeavor, is now his valet (pronounced valett, not valay, like we uncultured Americans say it). There was grave concern that he would not be able to manage the labryinth of stairs in the castle, or his many duties due to the marked limp created by his war wound. That idiot Thomas even went so far as to trip in in front of the whole family, causing him to fall into the oyster-shelled driveway in season one with a resounding crunch. Undeterred, Bates has won the hearts of the entire staff and family...and, remarkably, his limp seems to have vanished. Or at least diminished quite a bit. But, wait. Bates has a past...and a dark one at that. That part of the story has yet to be finished so I'll leave it at that.
Anna, sweet Anna! A peach of a girl, perfectly content to be Lady Mary's maid for the rest of her life. It was apparent right away that she was attracted to Bates and, defying the protocol of not dating co-workers, married him and is now dealing with what might, or might not be, a really devastating turn of events.
Anna has a very close relationship with Lady Mary...so close that Lady Mary gave her a book about birth control and made her go buy one of the devices for a clandestine tryst with one of her suitors. Anna was so distressed at having to actually go into the local pharmacy and buy it that she waived off the instruction booklet. If I'm right, it was probably some sort of diaphragm, which is not the easiest method to employ. Eyebrows raised...Lady Mary...tryst...???
I don't want to minimize the other below stairs staff. Each brings a layer of wonderful color to the tapestry of life below the castle. Molesely is a hoot, with his quirks and feelings of inferiority. (And his name is spelled Molesely, not Mosely, as I once thought. I know that because, again, I watched the "Manner of Downton Abbey" and they had these lovely placards with the character's names spelled out in perfect calligraphy.) Daisy is a delight, with her metamorphosis as a shy, uneducated young girl to a competent, eager cook's assistant. Baxter, the new lady's maid for the Countess, has proven to have a strong backbone, resisting Thomas' demand for dirt on the family. Brava to her! And Mrs. Patmore, the woman who makes sure the family (upstairs and down) is well-fed, is a study in organization and chaos.
Dang. I love this show.
Here's a link to a spot the cast did for a charity during the holidays. It is hilarious! Alas, the rumors of George Clooney joining the cast this season are false...or are they?
http://vimeo.com/115023404
Next time: the do's and don'ts of Downton Abbey
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