One is that I happen to read the Daily Mail every day. Yes, yes, I know, your teacher spent all those years when you were in the juniors telling you that only newspapers such as 'The Telegraph' were reliable. Did that teacher's quiz team come top in the current affairs section of the last staff quiz night though? I suspect not. The fact that we came last overall of course being beside the point and one for which I entirely blame the rest of my team!
My other confession is that I love cosy historical dramas on a Sunday evening. In recent months it has been disappointment after disappointment as we've seen the end (as in the literal end, never to be filmed again) of both 'The Royal' and 'Lark Rise to Candleford'. However, all is not lost for Sunday sees the start of a new series of 'Downton Abbey'. Do not expect me to do any marking on Sunday evenings as I shall be curled up on the sofa with the lovely Matthew Crawley (he's a character in the programme might I add!).
So why am I telling you all this? You've probably never seen 'Downton Abbey' as STV decided not to show it first time around when the rest of the UK enjoyed it but they have been showing the first series on Sunday afternoons recently. Let me tell you that STV's dodgy scheduling means that you have missed a treat. Scandal and bitchiness abound at Downton Abbey. There's nothing prim and proper about this drama although Dame Maggie Smith's (Professor McGonagall) character the Dowager Countess adds a somewhat formidable air to proceedings. You've got to wonder, therefore, how the unmarried Lady Mary plucked up the courage to invite a lover into her bed. Unfortunately for her he was also a Turk and died in situ. The family's attempt to cover up her indiscretion (this is the beginning on the 20th century remember) was somewhat spoiled by the fact that her sister, Lady Edith, then wrote to the Turkish ambassador in London and spilled the beans!
Anyway, enough about that, it's the second series that I'm really interested in. It opens two years after the close of the first in 1916. Downton Abbey has been transformed into a military hospital and the men are all away fighting in the war.
It seems to me that this is the perfect way to gently further and cement your understanding of the First World War (if anyone mentions Hitler again I might not be responsible for my actions) and watch a cracking drama at the same time. It's on at 9pm on Sundays so after prep and is the perfect way to relax before a hard day's work at school on Monday.
And the Daily Mail? Well imagine my delight when I saw the Downton Abbey special last weekend! If you want to read more about the programme there are some appropriately frothy and not in the slightest bit academic Daily Mail articles on the links!
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2034761/DOWNTON-ABBEY-SPECIAL-Its-great--Jan-Moir-return-ITV-s-blockbuster-costume-drama.html
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2034758/DOWNTON-ABBEY-SPECIAL-Look-whos-coming-dinner-As-horror-war-descends-new-faces--fresh-scandal--shake-foundations-Downton-core-.html
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2035574/Downton-Abbey-The-cast-crew-reveal-secrets-filming-Downton.html
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2035619/DOWNTON-ABBEY-SPECIAL-Is-thrilling-new-frock-The-magnificent-outfits-shows-big-stars.html
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2035597/DOWNTON-ABBEY-SPECIAL-The-upper-lower-classes-different-love-lives--passion-knew-boundaries.html
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2035458/DOWNTON-ABBEY-SPECIAL-While-men-away-war-women-left--stairs--independence-new-opportunities.html
I must say that i have watched all of the Downton Abey episodes and i did watch the newest episode on sunday. I felt that it highlighted the fact that at the end of the day, all humans are human and no matter whether you are rich or poor, men were put through the same degarding and shcoking experience during the time of the First world war. we see the heir of Downton go off to war whilst we also see that one of the lowly servants too wants to go to war despite his fathers worries. Furthermore, the appearance of the suffragette movement and their white feathers at the fund raising event at Downton highlights some of the common ignorant feeling un Britain at the time and that not going to war was cowardly. This concept of being considered cowardly juxtaposes the vile scenes of the trenches at both the beginning and end of the drama.
ReplyDeleteI too also watched the first series of Downton Abbey and I am keeping up to date with the second series too. As much as I love the drama in it, as Freya has said about the white feathers I thought it was hankichiefs that were given to the men or white roses or was it just something sentimental in white? Moreover, Thomas's actions at the front line in order to get sent back to England/Downton was this done a lot or is this just a twist to keep the story exciting? The trench scenes are quite horrific and the trenches don't even seem that deep too. As Freya also mentioned, all men who went to war were put through the same experience however bad it was at certain points whatever social status or class and this was certainly key in the first episode.
ReplyDeleteI've just done a little bit of research on googlebooks (it's a good resource, you should all be using it to help you to source critics) and it appears that the frequency of recorded 'blighties' is low but Major General Sir Wyndam Childs suggests that it was 'a very prevalent crime'. There were certainly enough cases of if for the British government to make it an offence punishable by court martial and 3904 cases were brought. There must have been many more than this 3904 men though.
ReplyDeleteInfo from 'War Wounds: Medicine and the Trauma of Conflict' by Elizabeth Stewart and Ashley Ekins.
Link here: http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=UJ4_2m_kvu8C&pg=PA47&dq=blighty+wounds&hl=en&ei=F0mDTsr2GoTEswbSteWXDg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCwQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=blighty%20wounds&f=false