"I Should Have Been Upstairs ..."

[therealsnape]

Everyone, hop over to a lovely new community I discovered, downton_abbey. In honour of Red Nose Day, they've made a Downton Abbey series that's downright hilarious. Not with Dame Maggie, unfortunately, but it's still a hoot. They've casted Joanne Lumley as the housekeeper (much to her dismay, as she's clearly more the Lady of the Manor), and she carries the whole show. Brilliant. I could almost forgive her her jawbones and cheekbones for that performance. Almost.

You'll find the link here and the second part is in the comments. With even more Lumley.

Happy Procrastination ... and not that I want to keep you from writing or anything, but there are rather fetching Maggie Smith icons to be found on that com.

Comments

[queen-of-snapes.livejournal.com]

I almost choked on my tea this morning when I saw the Lady of the Manor was none other than Kim Catrall! Lovely!

[ragdoll.livejournal.com]

Oh, thank you so much for finding the comm. I knew about the parody but hadn't found it anywhere (am still looking for a downloadable version) so that's fantastic. I'm a huge fan of the show so am really excited about icons and the like. :)

[minervas-eule.livejournal.com]

I will watch it tomorrow, can't do now as I just finished watching the REAL show with Antje: we both can't wait for the second season!! But we do disagree about if Mary and Mathew should get together or not... Antje can't like Mary at all, whereas I can ;-)...she on the other hand is able to sympathize with Edith, which I can't °o°

[tetleythesecond]

I think I really need to watch Downton Abbey.

Lumley must be a hoot. Do you think one will understand the parody without having seen the original? I haven't yet dared to click on the link because I didn't want to spoil myself for anything.

[therealsnape.livejournal.com]

Yes, you really must see the series - they're brilliant. BBC costume drama at its very best, and a good part for Dame Maggie. I love it to bits.

As to the parody, I think it's best if you've seen the series, but giving you the basic idea won't spoil anything and it's still a hoot to watch this.

Upper class family lives in manor as shown in credits. The heir to the manor (who was engaged to oldest daughter Mary - it's one of those entailment things) drowns with the Titanic - that's how the series opens - so now you know the first 5 minutes, that's all.

The house (and the money, brought in by the American-born lady of the manor, Mary's mother) now must go to someone else. Yeah, yeah, I know, Austen did this before.

The someone else is a cousin (the blond chap they all welcome). There's a parody of his first visit, with the line-up of all staff, the angry looks exchanged, etc. The blond chap works for a living (doctor), you'll understand how the Dowager Duchess (Maggie in the original version) and the rest of the snobbish lot feel about that.

Rest of plotline is wonderfully complicated, but I won't give more info. You really must get the series.

[the-winterwitch.livejournal.com]

*giggle* Even without knowing any Downtown Abbey so far, I had much fun watching it. I didn't understand much of the allusions, though.
And since still nobody gave me the DVDs, neither for bithday nor Christmas, I'm now giving them to myself. I just ordered. *iz exited*