www.byzcath.org Forums General Discussions Town Hall DOWNTON ABBEY

Is anyone else watching and enjoying Downton Abbey on PBS?

Yes. definitely. I wish we could see it the same time as it is shown in the UK.

I had never heard of it until a few weeks ago (I live without TV). Then someone told me that there was a PBS website with some good shows. I watched the first episode of Season 3 of Downton and got hooked. Maggie Smith, especially, is great! Unfortunately, they've already taken down all the Season 1 and 2 episodes.

Got a kick out of the dinner with the Anglican cleric with the Irish son-in-law at the table when the reverend remarked about "incense and bells" and all that "pagan stuff"

Obviously, he'd never been to St. Mary the Virgin Anglican Church in midtown Manhattan/New York City also known as "Smokey Mary's" because of the generous use of incense. It's a beautiful edifice with much ritual - some say it's more Catholic than most Roman Catholic churches. Looking forward to my next visit.

Absolutely,Missed season 1, got hooked season 2, this weekend is the last of Season 3. I am thinking about looking for the book. Not exactly Lenten reading is it?

Same here! I understand there will be a season 4.


Well, at least it isn't trashy, crass, rude, ugly, maccabre, gruesome, perverted and overtly sexual like most other television entertainment these days!

I was hooked the first season, missed much of Season Two, and have followed Season Three, faithfully. I enjoy the show immensely, but somehow feel guilty for enjoying it.

Why do you feel guilty? If anything, it reminds me of days gone by when society was more formal and polite. I still remember that my grandmother was addressed as Mrs. xxx by even her neighbors, and that she addressed her neighbors and people she would meet with Mrs. xxx, instead of the automatic familiarity we assume today.

I also remember her looking a bit like the ladies downstairs when they would go out for some errands...donning coat, hat, gloves and hat (and never pants) and always looking like a lady.

Alas, by the mid-to end sixties, formality started slowly waning, but my grandmother's generation still kept it.

I'm sure it is, in praxis - not a hard feat anyway. In terms of belief, though, I believe that parish is like most of the rest of that denomination (certainly nothing approaching Catholic).

Does anyone know what the reference to Catholics as 'left footers' implied??

Why are Catholics sometimes called 'left-footers'?

THE answer lies in the rich folklore of the humble spade - and provides a good illustration of the inadequacy of calling a spade 'a spade'.

The saying turns on a traditional distinction between left- and right-handed spades in Irish agriculture. It has been used as a figure of speech and often, sadly, as a term of abuse to distinguish Protestants from Catholics: 'He digs with the wrong foot.'

Most types of digging spade in Britain and Ireland have foot-rests at the top of their blades; two-sided spades have foot-rests on each side of the shaft and socket, while an older style of one-sided spade had only one. Two-sided spades may well have been introduced by the Protestant 'planters' in the sixteenth century.

By the early nineteenth century specialised spade and shovel mills in the north of Ireland were producing vast numbers of two-sided spades which came to be universally used in Ulster and strongly identified with the province. One-sided spades with narrow blades and a foot-rest cut out of the side of the relatively larger wooden shaft continued in use in the south and west. The rural population of Gaelic Ireland retained the Catholic faith and tended also to retain the one-sided spade and 'dig with the wrong foot'. In fact, the two-sided spade of Ulster was generally used with the left foot whereas the one-sided spade tended to be used with the right foot. Instinctively, the 'wrong foot' of the Catholics has come to be thought of as the left foot. The figure of speech has now been extended to kicking with the wrong foot.

Hugh Cheape, National Museums of Scotland, Edinburgh.

I don't know, exactly, but I pretty much feel guilty about everything, lately, so why not feel guilty about a harmless BBC mini-series, too? Food that tastes too good is next on my list, right after pillows that are too soft.

I suppose it's because the show depicts certain sinful occurrences or behavior and at times includes dialogue that excuses it. It doesn't scandalize me at all, mind you, but when I hear certain Christian commentators express how they have been scandalized or offended by the show, it makes me feel guilty that I have not also been scandalized or offended by it. It makes me suppose that I must be so desensitized to sin that I am all but hopeless. Does that make sense?

I am comforted by the fact that so many of you have posted positive reactions to the show, however. I honestly expected just the opposite. I kind of breathed a sigh of relief after reading this thread.

Well, as far as depicting the things that really do happen in life, it (Downton Abbey) isn't terribly scandalizing, though I did depict a bit of a present day 'agenda' on the last episode. Historically speaking, some of that situation, the actions and the attitudes were 'off' for the times in which it was depicted, according to someone I know who is an avid historian and reader.

Just watched the most recent episode last night, and I had the exact same feeling when I was watching it.