By Shelby
Last week, we unveiled our new Netflix Instant Pick of the Week feature.
I’m an unabashed Anglophile and period-piece nut, so when PBS Masterpiece Theatre began promoting a new BBC period drama called Downton Abbey in January, it became appointment television for me. If you missed it, now just two months later, you can catch all the delicious costumes, sets and tensions on Netflix Instant.
Like Upstairs Downstairs before it, this seven-part series delves equally into the lives of Downton residents Lord and Lady Grantham and their three daughters (all of marriageable age, of course) and into the lives of their full staff of servants with a cast that includes Dame Maggie Smith, Hugh Bonneville, Elizabeth McGovern and Penelope Wilton (a.k.a Harriet Jones, MP for Flydale North!). All of the action takes place in the years between the sinking of the Titanic and the lead up to World War I. My favorite strand of the story was the tentative, sweet romance between the valet, Mr. Bates, played by Brendan Coyle, and housemaid Anna, played by Joanne Froggatt, but all of the characters who populate Downton, both the good and the bad, make for compelling television and must-see viewing for any Masterpiece Theatre fans.
A second season of Downton Abbey is currently in production, but if you’re having withdrawals after marathoning the first season, check out the recent spot-on skewering the show received as part of the BBC’s annual Red Nose Day programming.
Red Nose Day encourages donations to Comic Relief, which raises funds to aid people in need all over the world. For more information or to donate, click here.
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