The critically acclaimed, Emmy Award-winning period drama series Downton Abbey has made its debut in India.
It’s one of Star World’s latest offerings, the premiere of Season 5 of the mini-series. However, the channel’s plunging into the latest season without having screened the first four on Indian television comes as a surprise. It seems a bit unfair to leave the series’ history to the imagination of first-timers.
Nevertheless, a fictitious magnificent Yorkshire country estate in post-Edwardian era — before the invention of telephones, the plot’s association with real-life historic events and the aristocratic costumes of the bygone era, all spun into a fine storyline has been the secret of the show’s success so far.
Season 1 of the series begins in 1912, with Lord Grantham Robert Crawley (played by Hugh Bonneville) — owner of the Downton Abbey estate that houses an enormous number of servants — receiving a telegram informing that his first cousin and his nephew, the heir to his estate, has died in the Titanic tragedy. Panic runs through the estate as they are left heirless.
Those are the days when women could not inherit property, and Lord Grantham, having three daughters, is helpless. He ends up summoning his long-lost third cousin’s son, Matthew Crawley (played by Dan Stevens), from Manchester, where he has practised as a solicitor, to take charge of the estate.
And the family is forced to welcome him, a stranger yet a blood relative, and watch him snatch Lady Grantham’s inherited fortune that constitutes a huge part of the estate. Grantham’s mother, Violet, the Dowager Countess (played by Maggie Smith), the epitome of sarcasm, decides that Matthew is a fine suitor for her first granddaughter Lady Mary Crawley (played by Michelle Dockery), once engaged to marry her deceased second cousin. Mary, however, loathes Matthew.
Season 2 and 3 go on to show the impact of the First World War on the family, where the men dedicate themselves to the fight at the border and the women — the third daughter of the house, Lady Sybil, who studies nursing, and Matthew’s mother (Isobel), a trained nurse — turn the estate into a rehabilitation centre for injured soldiers.
The clashes between Lord Grantham and Sybil’s love interest Tom Branson, their socialist chauffeur, Sybil’s fight for women’s voting rights and second daughter Lady Edith’s passion to write for a newspaper against her father’s wishes highlight the ordeals of women. Some shocking deaths in the family, and in the close servants’ circle, is a heart-wrenching reality check.
Season 4 begins in 1921, with the sudden death of Matthew, leaving behind his wife Lady Mary and their newborn George, and the estate being written in Mary’s name. While Mary loses interest in nurturing her son, Tom Branson as a son-in-law advises Grantham on the running of the estate.
In a few months’ time, Lady Mary is back on her feet taking sides with Tom on the reformed ways of managing the estate, much to her father’s disappointment. The servant’s circle, a vital part of the estate, has secrets of its own.
The mysterious death of head housemaid Anna’s rapist, and her husband, the valet, John Bates’ leaving town on the same day only adds to Anna’s misery. The much awaited Season 5 will reveal Mary’s plans, pregnant Edith’s estranged lover’s location and the fate of the estate amid a major fiscal deficit.
However, the question is, will the show manage to keep the audiences engaged overcoming the colossal shift in circumstances that have occurred in the earlier seasons?
If you are a fan of Maggie Smith, sarcasm and intense (slow-moving) costume dramas from old-England, this is the current best on the charts. Travel back in time to another world and be amazed by the myriad distinctive characters in the show Downton Abbey, every Thursday at 10 pm, on Star World Premiere HD.