DOWNTON ABBEY - THE COMPLETE SCRIPTS - SEASON THREE - Book review

Julian Fellowes script for Season Three of Downton Abbey was published in 2014.  The ITV series was broadcast in 2012. There are eight episodes plus the controversial Christmas Special. Dotted lines alongside the script text indicate sections of text that were cut or partially cut from the original script to make the final edited version; however, in some cases it appears that some ‘cut’ scenes did make it into the DVD version.

The format follows that of the first two season books, with many pages containing illuminating and interesting footnotes on the scene, the characters or the reasoning behind the text; sometimes with humorous asides and personal anecdotes. There are eight pages of black-and-white photos from this season, and lists of cast and crew.

Episode one begins with Robert losing a lot of money on an investment in the Grand Canadian Trunk Line railway, a real event. Sadly, the genius behind the line died on the Titanic – a disaster which neatly creates fresh repercussions for Lord Grantham, echoing episode one of the first season.

Alfred, a new Downton footman, was 6ft6ins tall. Apparently, before the period of the drama, footmen were paid by height; the tall six-footers commanding a higher salary; essentially status symbols (p21).

Besides a great deal of social commentary and history (including ‘the Troubles’ in Ireland), there are insights on constructing the drama – which apply to fiction-writing in general. Mr Fellowes makes a comment about avoiding repeating information the viewer (or reader) already knows. ‘You structure a scene so that it finishes just as they’re about to get the information you already know, or you start the scene when they’ve just got it. Sometimes you can’t avoid a slight repeat, but you do work against it’ (p56).

There’s an interesting and even topical aside when Bates is in prison, accused of murder. ‘If you want a country to accept the end of the death penalty (which I am sure is right), then people need to feel confident that a murderer in cold blood is going to have a very tough time of it. The more who come out after six years and then immediately murder someone else, the more damage is done. One of the main arguments against the death penalty used to be that there was a risk of wrongful conviction, but the trouble is, far more innocent people have died at the hands of released murderers than were ever hanged wrongly, so it doesn’t really hold water. The point being that too many today do not have faith in the legal system’ (p209/210).

I wasn’t aware of the fact that unlike in America (and elsewhere) an English agent will not allow a client to sign for more than three years for anything (p254). This explains why at least three main characters had to be written out at some stage. Sometimes, it may be some way through the season before an actor or actress announces they don’t wish to go on further. This creates problems for the script writer: for instance the first five episodes of this season had been written and cast before Dan Stevens made his intentions known.

Throughout the series there are cases of ‘moments of bonding: Carson and Robert, Carson and Mary, Mary and Anna, and so on. (Showing) a chance of birth that has made Anna work for Mary and not the other way round, and these scenes underline that’ (p311).

The travails of Thomas are thoughtfully presented. ‘I’m always against judging anyone according to a type. It doesn’t matter if it is something positive. All type judgements are worthless, because they generalise the individual. Here, what happens to Carson is that eventually, although he doesn’t approve, he comes to see that it is not Thomas’s fault’ (p405). Mr Fellowes also mentions a relative Constance Lloyd who actually married Oscar Wilde. When the scandal broke and Wilde was imprisoned for ‘the love that dare not speak its name’ apparently Constance was ostracised by all who knew her. She changed her name and wandered through Europe until her early death aged 40.  

There are many reasons why some scenes/text had to be shortened or removed. One amusing excision is this:

ROBERT: Someone should invent a new kind of telegram, so you could send a whole document at once. Just like that.

ISOBEL: And if a document, why not a person? Like H.G. Wells’s Time Machine. You’d just get in, press the button, and step out in Deauville.

VIOLET: Would we be allowed to take a maid? (p423).

Certainly, Maggie Smith (Violet) tends to get most of the best lines:

EDITH: How tiny the glens make one feel.

VIOLET: That is the thing about nature. There’s so much of it. (p516).

What is impressive that the ensemble cast – about eighteen – all have a part to play and a story to tell. The casting is perfect, even when newcomers appear for one or two episodes. On reading the scripts I can hear the actors’ voices. There’s emotion, laughter, tragedy, plotting, villainy; in fact all human nature is here – what we’ve come to expect.

To date, this appears to be the last book of scripts. Certainly Mr Fellowes has been busy since, apart from three Downton films after the end of the series. He’s a workaholic, despite his uncontrollable neurological condition, essential tremor.

Minor pedantic gripe about the TV credits: it states Written and created by Julian Fellowes. However, surely it was created and then written?

THE LOVING SPIRIT - book review

 

Daphne du Maurier’s debut novel, The Living Spirit, published in 1931, is remarkable, the writing is so assured; whether she is writing about sailing on a storm-tossed sailing vessel or travelling through the beautiful countryside of her beloved Cornwall, you’re there. Within 350 pages she covers four generations of a family’s history: Jennifer Coombe (1830-1863); Joseph Coombe (1863-1900); Christopher Coombe (1888-1912); and Jennifer Coombe (1812-1930).

It begins in 1830, with the marriage of Janet Coombe to her second cousin Thomas. It is a good match, and yet Janet hankered for an adventurous life, away from the small harbour town of Plyn. ‘She loved Thomas dearly, but she knew in her soul there was something waiting for her greater than this love for Thomas. Something strong and primitive, lit with everlasting beauty’ (p18). She wanted to stride across the deck of a sailing boat, but felt chained by her sex and the mores of her time.

‘… the peace of God was unknown to her, and that she came nearer to it amongst the wild things in the woods and fields, or on the rocks by the water’s edge, than she did with her own folk in Plyn. Only glimpses of peace came her way, streaks of clarity in unawakened moments that assured her of its existence and of the certainty that one day she would hold the secret for her own’ (p32).

And: ‘… the rest of her stole from the warm, cheerful room, and the dear kindly faces, and fled away, away she knew not whither, beyond the quiet hills and the happy harbour of Plyn, through the seas and the sky – away to the untrodden air, and the nameless stars’ (p34).

This longing for she knew not what persisted until she absconded from a Christmas attendance at the local church and instead was drawn to the ancient castle ruins overlooking the sea. ‘She leant against the Castle ruins with the sea at her feet, and the light of the moon on her face. Then she closed her eyes, and the jumbled thoughts fled from her mind, her tired body seemed to slip away from her, and she was possessed with the strange power and clarity of the moon itself’ (p37).

It is here, as if experiencing an out-of-body and out-of-time revelation, when she encounters the man from the future, her son. This episode is eerie and moving. And its haunting sequel can be read on p187. Thus, finally, after giving birth to Samuel and Mary, what she had waited for occurred. Her son Joseph was born: ‘And when Janet held her wailing baby to her breast, with his wild dark eyes and his black hair, she knew that nothing in the whole world mattered but this, that he for whom she had been waiting had come at last’ (p51). While she continued to be a loving wife and mother, there was something other binding her to Joseph, ‘a love that held the rare quality of immortality’ (p66).

Janet had three more children, Herbert, Philip and Elizabeth, and of these three Philip proved to be the darkest, most spiteful individual who blighted the lives of others in the family.

Joseph’s wife gave birth to four children: Christopher, Albert, Charles and Katherine. And Christopher fathered three – Harold, Willie and Jennifer.

Both Joseph and Christopher’s lives are seriously damaged by the thoroughly unpleasant Philip’s scheming. The family is displaced to London while Jennifer is a child; these days are well told, displaying the young girl’s burgeoning character and self-reliance. Jennifer seems to have inherited Janet’s restlessness and affinity for the sea. ‘She could not imagine a world without the sea, it was something of her own that belonged to her, that could never be changed, that came into her dreams at nights and disturbed her not, bringing only security and peace’ (p258).

Du Maurier’s descriptions are always so visual, whether about nature or people, such as Jennifer’s grandmother: ‘Slowly she came into the room swaying from side to side, her great breasts heaving beneath her black dress, her white hair piled high on her head like a huge nest. As she moved she grunted to herself, and it took her nearly three minutes before she was seated in her chair, her bad foot on a cushion, and the Bible open before her’ (p264).

Though somewhat grotesque, several scenes involving her grandmother are highly amusing as she frequently misinterprets meanings or miss-hears words – see pp290-291, for example.

The book’s title is taken from one of Emily Bronte’s poems – and is echoed here:

Janet – Joseph – Christopher – Jennifer, all bound together in some strange and thwarted love for one another, handing down this strain of restlessness and suffering, this intolerable longing for beauty and freedom… bound by countless links that none could break, uniting in one another the living presence of a wise and loving spirit’ (p309).

A powerful saga – and an emotional one, too.

Editorial comment

Du Maurier isn’t the only writer who does this: telling you of a dramatic happening and then goes on to detail the actual incident, thereby destroying any surprise, shock or suspense. Sometimes, it may simply be a misplaced afterthought, as this example suggests. On p206: ‘… Christopher made the acquaintance of a young man of his own age, who seemed friendly, and the pair spent their free time together…’ Then on p207: ‘His friend, Harry Frisk, was waiting for him…’ The friend’s name should have been introduced when he was first mentioned, not almost a half-page later. Blame the editor.

Get to know different writers and genres perhaps not visited before!

That heading’s the comment from one of three 5-star reviews for the anthology Crooked Cats’ Tales, 20 short stories from some of the publisher’s authors. 

Anthologies like this are ideal for reading in waiting rooms, while travelling or in between reading novels. And they have the happy knack of introducing new authors without huge commitment on the part of the reader. Yes, very much like a sampler in old record parlance (that dates me!)

Please give these tales a try. It’s possible you might not like all of them. But I guarantee that there’s something for every taste here, and it’s a bargain for such little outlay.

The blurb goes like this: You will find twenty tantalising tasters from Crooked Cats from the UK and the US, all keen to showcase their writing skills with glimpses into their existing releases, or with something new altogether.

Twenty stories of historical and contemporary fiction, crime and drama, fantasy, humour and ghostly shenanigans. Murder. Love. Adventure. Gossip. Growing up. Scheming. Friendship – Crooked Cats’ Tales has it all:

 
Cocktail Hour by Pamela Kelt
A Rescue in Graphite by Maggie Secara
Once Again by KB Walker
The Pied Piper of Larus by Kathy Sharp
Her Visitors by Ailsa Abraham
White Rose by Carol Hedges
A Bright New Copper by Catriona King
Altared by Adele Elliott
Misgivings by Nancy Jardine
Saturday Fever by Sue Barnard
The Wanderer by T.E. Taylor
Sheffield Steel by Trevor Ripley
The Blue House by Carol Maginn
Processionary Penitents by Nik Morton
The Second Summer of Love by Michela O’Brien Young Loves by Jeff Gardiner
Cradle of Man by J.L. Bwye
Silken Knots by Frances di Plino
The Thread that Binds by Mark Patton
Boo! by David W Robinson

Amazon UK Reviews

Stories to suit all tastes 25 May 2014 - By Sue Roebuck

Twenty authors from one publisher (Crooked Cat Publishing) have created an anthology of twenty short stories that vary in genre and style. It's a book for dipping into when you want to enjoy a twenty minute or so break and need to be entertained by a new narrative voice that comes with each story. I cannot say I disliked any of the stories since each covered a cross section of themes that were enjoyable in their own way and I found I was moved, unsettled, and definitely entertained as I was taken on journeys around the world: UK, US, France, Holland, ancient Greece, Spain (where one of the characters mistakes the Spanish ancient religious ceremony garb for Klu Klux Klan!), Kenya (a very atmospheric story). Since I love quirky stories, my favourite was The Pied Piper of Larus by Kathy Sharp and I laughed aloud at David Robinson's Boo. From this anthology I've found new authors whose books I want to read and that can never be a bad thing.

Something for Everyone 16 May 2014 - By Ms. Carol Hunter

This is an eclectic collection of short stories from every genre and a brilliant read. I found crime, romance, suspense, historical fiction just for starters. Some stories are shorter, some longer, and all are well written. Definitely recommended.

20 fine reads 26 May 2014 - By J Gundlack

A great collection of murder, mystery, humour, and different cultures. A perfect travelling companion on the train or a late night read. Anthologies are a great place to get to know different writers and genres perhaps not visited before.
 
Amazon UK - £not-a-lot - here

Amazon COM - $1.22, a bargain - here

FFB - STAGE STRUCK by Suzanne Stokes

Originally published 2008, now re-published as an e-book.

For Brits and expat Brits, both the run-up to Christmas and the month of January bursts with pantomime productions. Right now, this book is a timely read, as it features an amateur dramatics group setting up a pantomime. Of course, it'll appeal to readers anywhere!

 

Rose’s friend Lauren has been talked into going along to an amateur dramatic society meeting in the village of Sipton – unfortunately the initials are SADS. Rose is a wilting flower and Lauren wants to help. Surprisingly, Rose is quite attracted to the group – and the pantomime, and before she realises it, she’s a cast member! She meets an interesting assortment of people – Mason Fairfax is the director and he’s quite attractive, though married to Candy, who is secretly sweet on Nick, the technician. There are several others involved in the production and each seems to own a closet where the skeleton is kept. So Rose is in good company, since her past haunts her most nights. When she finds herself attracted to the Yank John, Rose realises that she must confront her nightmares or lose this adorable attractive man.

The run-up to the Christmas production of the pantomime reveals the gradual destruction of a marriage, infidelity, regret and jealousy. The path of true love for several couples is somewhat rocky along the way.

Some moments are humorous and others quite poignant. Whether or not you’ve been involved in amdram, you should find this a most enjoyable read.

 

Suzanne Stokes has two other books available, both published as Musa e-books:

 

Would like to meet - here

 

 

Venetian Masquerade - here