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Downton Abbey DVD

(Not Yet Reviewed)

Downton Abbey, has been avidly watched by millions of UK viewers this Autumn and has now been released, just in time for Christmas, on DVD with the Blu-Ray version due out in a couple of days. The ITV series was written by the award winning writer Julian Fellowes (see also Gosford Park) and was produced for TV by Carnival Films. Starring Maggie Smith (always an absolute joy to watch) as Violet Crawley the interfering Dowager Countess of Grantham, the series tracks the lives of the aristocratic Crawley family and their servants in pre-World War I Britain. Hugh Bonneville and Elizabeth McGovern play the Earl of Grantham (Robert) and his American heiress wife (Cora).

The series begins in 1912 just after the sinking of the Titanic which claims the lives of Lord Grantham's first cousin and heir James Crawley and his son Patrick (who had been intending to marry Robert's daughter Lady Mary Crawley played by Michelle Dockery) thereby leaving the estate with no immediate successor . As the housekeeper succinctly says, this has caused a "complication", as there is now no guarantee that the money will remain within the family. The next in line turns out to be Robert's third cousin, a young solicitor from Manchester, who none of them have ever met and who subsequently evokes resentment both above and below stairs due to class and cultural differences.

The tale continues with the Dowager Countess of Grantham and her daughter in law becoming allies as they plot to try to deprive the new heir of his fortune (most of which came from Cora - herself an heiress). Along with scandal (such as that involving Mary and a Turkish Diplomat who winds up dead!), sibling hostility (between Lady Mary and Lady Edith) and threads of feminism (as Lady Sybil dabbles with her principles), are the inevitable secrets and lies that are rife within the complex social structure of this Stately Home during this period of history.

After various side plots, cleverly convoluted and gripping but too numerous to describe here, a scheme is devised to keep the money within the family involving Lady Mary Crawley's marriage to Matthew Crawley. However, as the appalling announcement from Lord Grantham that Britain is now at War with Germany is delivered, we are left hanging with the predictable dilemma; will she or won't she lower herself to become Matthew's wife and will he or won't he accept her......?

This beautifully made series was shot, partly on location at Highclere Castle in Berkshire and partly in the village of Bampton, near Witney, in Oxfordshire. Downton Abbey is available now on DVD and the Blu-Ray edition will be out this month (available to pre-order). It has been reported that a second series is on its way for 2011. Looking forward to it!

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