Abbey-Normal

The cast of Downton Abbey's recent spoof of  "It's a Wonderful Life" is a RIOT!!

DOWNTON ABBEY just unveiled a hilarious Christmas spoof to support ITV's "Text Santa" fundraiser. Channeling the holiday classic IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE, the cast goes on a 9-minute adventure, featuring DOWNTON newbie George Clooney. 

Clooney portrays 'George Oceans Gravity, Marquis of Hollywood' in this hilarious Christmas treat. Watch below! Clooney will portray an American guest at a wedding in the highly anticipated fifth season of DOWNTON ABBEY. Season 5 will premiere in the U.S. on January 4 on PBS. 

Text Santa is a charity fundraiser to help several U.K.-based cancer and children's charities.

Both parts are on this one video, so just wait once "Part One" ends...



OMG...the Dowager Countess skiing and then, later, rolling off the couch after George Clooney kisses her hand. Hilarious!!!



I can't wait for the new season to start on January 4th.

Amen!

The rumored Downton Abbey movie has now been confirmed and starts filming this summer!!

It’s official, the Downton Abbey movie is a go. Focus Features has set production with Carnival Films to begin this summer for a return to all things Crawley. The original principal cast, including Maggie Smith, Michelle Dockery, Hugh Bonneville and more, are set to reprise their upstairs/downstairs roles with Focus and Universal Pictures International distributing.

Creator Julian Fellowes has written the film’s screenplay and will produce alongside Gareth Neame and Liz Trubridge. Brian Percival (The Book Thief), who directed the series’ pilot, will helm the film. Nigel Marchant will also return to executive produce.

The game-changing Downton Abbey followed the lives of the Crawley family and the servants who worked for them for six seasons on the UK’s ITV and PBS’ Masterpiece in the U.S., garnering a massive worldwide following and helping to kick-off the so-called new golden age of television while making period drama chic again — we also learned terms like “entail” and, famously, mused “what is a weekend?” The series won three Golden Globe Awards, 15 Primetime Emmys (out of 69 nominations in total) and a special BAFTA. Downton is the most nominated non-U.S. television show in the history of the Emmys.

And this is exactly how I feel about that...

Lady Downer of Debbington

Sadly, and as speculated, it seems that the next season of Downton Abbey will be the last...

NBCUniversal-owned Carnival Films, the producer of Downton Abbey, today announced that Season 6 will be the final season of the worldwide hit TV drama.

“With this show we always try to get our timing right. Our feeling is that it’s good to quit while you’re ahead. We feel the show is in really strong shape…The show is so popular globally but the danger with this sort of thing is to let it go on forever. It’s very addictive to want to do that.” 

Neame seemed to dodge queries about a Downton Abbey spinoff, but said both he and Fellowes like the idea of a Downton movie, as has been speculated, but maintained nothing had been done on that front.

I have enjoyed this show from the beginning and would love to see an additional movie, once the series ends.

However, I must agree with the Dowager Countess above...I do not approve of this decision.

Now, if you'll excuse me...I think I need to go upstairs and change my hat.

Downton Sadly

As depressing as Downton Abbey was this past Sunday, I think the most devastating part was watching the Dowager Countess (the amazing Maggie Smith) as she walked slowly across the entryway, trying desperately to control her emotions before seeing the family in the other room.



Heartbreaking.

Downton Abbey

I've really been enjoying the second season of the UK's Downton Abbey on PBS. If you're a fan of British films like Room With A View or television like Upstairs, Downstairs...then you'll definitely enjoy this.





It has a great cast, including Elizabeth McGovern (who I've loved since seeing her in Ordinary People and She's Having a Baby so many years ago). It's so nice to see her in something new.

The British cast is really good, but my favorite is Mrs. McGonagall herself..Dame Maggie Smith.



That woman can convey more with the pursing of her lips or a roll of the eye than most people can express throughout their entire career. Plus, playing the uppity Dowager Countess of Grantham (the Duke's mother), she gets to say so many bitchy lines that a variety of videos have been made to feature them, including this recent one titled "Sh*t the Dowager Countess Says"...



I love how they edited that, re-cutting back to her ringing her bell or giving a look.

She's the best.



Of course, one of the other stars of the series is the stunning HighClere Castle which is where they film Downton Abbey.











It's a gorgeous castle that most of us could imagine living in (although I wouldn't want to mow the expansive lawn).

If you have a chance to see both seasons (the second season is airing now on Masterpiece Classics on PBS), you definitely should. Both seasons are also available on DVD and Blu Ray.

If nothing else, do it for Maggie Smith.

And, of course, for the children.

If you watch this show (or want to catch up), New York Magazine does a very entertaining weekly recap here.

Downton Abbey: The Movie

It looks like we will be getting a Downton Abbey movie after all...

The wheels are moving on the Downton Abbey movie as NBCUniversal International Studios confirmed on Wednesday that production for a big screen adaptation of the hit series is set to begin next year. 

NBCU Int’l Studios President Michael Edelstein told the Associated Press that the company hopes to assemble 20 cast members from the Carnival Films/Masterpiece series, which ran on ITV in the UK and PBS in the U.S., for a production start date in 2018.

“We are working on getting the script right and then we’ve got to figure out how to get the [cast] together,” said Edelstein. “Because, as you know, people go on and do other things. But we’re hopeful to make a movie sometime next year.”

“Julian and I are enthusiastic to do it,” said Neame at the time. “And so are the cast, I believe, so hopefully it will happen.” 

That's awesome news and I hope it all works out.

I've really missed me some Dowager Countess...

Father Christmas

Downton Abbey has once-again partnered with ITV's "Text Santa" fundraiser and created another fun video short (like the one they did last year with George Clooney).

This one is about the search for someone to play Santa Claus for the kids in the Abbey. They are treated to auditions from the likes of a dirty-mouthed Gordon Ramsay, an indignant Jim Broadbent, Brenda Blethyn as DCI Vera Stanhope and Warwick Davis, who’s looking for a big payday. But Carson (Jim Carter) really wants the job.



The banter at the audition table is especially entertaining.

The new season of Downton Abbey begins on January 3rd.

Behind the Abbey

CBS News did a nice behind-the-scenes story on Downton Abbey over the weekend that I thought I would share...



Season 3 of Downton Abbey starts here in the States on Masterpiece Classics January 6th.

Can't wait!

Downton Crabby

The cast of Downton Abbey completed filming their sixth and final season last week and, to mark the occasion, the production team released some new photos of the cast for people to enjoy before the show starts airing in the UK next month (and then here in the U.S. on Sunday January 3rd).















I was very surprised by how much I enjoyed this show. From the beautiful scenery and cinematography, the witty and touching writing, to the actors who did such an amazing job making you care for them, even when a couple of them got on your last nerve at times.

I'm really going to miss the show and them.



But, I think I'm going to miss the Dowager Countess (Dame Maggie Smith) most of all.

She definitely expresses, below, exactly how I feel about Downton Abbey coming to an end...

Shoes

Cinderella opens today.



Yes...that is Lily James from Downton Abbey and Richard Madden from Game of Thrones.



Yes...that is crazy-but-fun-to-watch Helena Bonham Carter.



Yes...that is Cate Blanchett and Sophie McShera (on the left) who plays Daisy on Downton Abbey.

And YES...I am definitely going to see this movie.

Don't judge.

Lady Weezer

Very exciting news about the upcoming third season of Downton Abbey...

Shirley MacLaine has been cast in the third season of PBS’s “Downton Abbey”. The show features an American-born Lady Grantham character, played by Elizabeth McGovern, so MacLaine can play her mother convincingly, even with her flat mid-Atlantic accent.

“Masterpiece” executive producer Rebecca Eaton seems to get it, noting in Monday’s announcement: “Shirley MacLaine is a great actress and she’s as American as the day is long.” Eaton also promised that there would be much sparring in the show between MacLaine’s character and Maggie Smith’s Lady Violet.

Watching Professor McGonagall taking verbal whacks at Weezer should be a lot of fun.

I'm in!

Rings the Bell

Maggie Smith is NOT leaving Downton Abbey after the upcoming third season...

Despite weekend reports that Maggie Smith has asked to be written out of Downton Abbey after season three, a representative for Carnival Films says the rumors are "complete nonsense." She goes on: "We never comment on future story lines but it's not true that she's leaving."

Whew!

I love me some Maggie Smith and, to prove it, here is a reposting of some of her best lines of the past couple of seasons.



She is so damn funny...

January Jonesing

The new season of Downton Abbey will premiere here in the U.S. on Sunday January 5th.

The upcoming season will see the return of series regulars Hugh Bonneville, Elizabeth McGovern, Maggie Smith, Michelle Dockery, Jim Carter, Joanne Froggatt, Brendan Coyle and more. They will be joined by guest stars Shirley MacLaine, Tom Cullen, Nigel Harman, Dame Harriet Walter, Joanna David, Julian Ovenden, Dame Kiri Te Kanawa and Gary Carr.

I hate that we can't watch it until after it airs in the U.K first (they get to see it in the fall), but I'll wait.

Not patiently....but I'll wait.

Also, there was a brief public panic when it was announced that Sean "Diddy" Combs was joining the cast of the new season of Downton Abbey. Thankfully, it just turned out to be an entertaining FunnyOrDie video.



Here is what Lady Violet thinks about him possibly joining the cast...

Downton Zombie

You all know how much I enjoy Downton Abbey. However, if they ever changed formats and incorporated zombies, I'd have to stop watching.

That being said, this is still pretty entertaining....



I love that the Dowager Countess is indestructible.



As it should be.

Downton Boogie

This edit of the cast of Downton Abbey singing One Direction's "What Makes You Beautiful" is very well done and funny.



The "Pappa...Mamma" section is especially entertaining.

That...and the Dowager Countess getting to ring her bell a couple of times.

I'm easily amused.

via: Towleroad

Downton Glammy

The ladies of Downton Abbey are looking regal on the cover of the latest issue of Bazaar.

I think the Dowager Countess would be very pleased.

Welcome to Downton

The trailer for the upcoming season of Downton Abbey was finally released...



They've obviously focused on more upbeat music and visuals to let viewers see that the new season won't be a big box of downers after the two major deaths last season.

Thankfully, they didn't show anyone twerking.

We all know how the British feel about that new phenomenon...

Abbey Normal

New character posters were just released for the upcoming Downton Abbey movie...



















They are stunning portraits and I can't wait until this opens on September 20th!!