PBS Masterpiece Classic 2012-2013

[CallieOK]

 

Masterpiece Classic brings back favorite authors and programs and introduces new programs. See the 2013 MASTERPIECE CLASSIC schedule.

NOW DISCUSSING
What's playing on your PBS station? What programs do you continue to enjoy?


Downton Abbey: Season 3, Episode 7
1 95-minute episode — Sunday, February 17, 2013
The Crawleys head to a Scottish hunting lodge, while the downstairs staff stays behind at Downton Abbey. New romances flare up, and a fresh crisis unfolds.

COMING


Page Eight
February 24,, 2013 at 9pm
One 120-minute episode
Sixty-something MI-5 agent Johnny Worricker has amassed an impressive art collection, an amicable collection of ex-wives, and a droll, unflappable relationship with the work he enjoys alongside his boss and best friend, MI5 chief Benedict Baron. But when Benedict brings to light damning evidence of British complicity with illegal American torture operations, it falls to Johnny to do the right thing.


Song of Lunch
March 24,, 2013 at 9pm
One 120-minute episode
A dramatisation of Christopher Reid's narrative poem, telling the story of a book editor who, 15 years after their break-up, meets his former love for a nostalgic lunch at the Soho restaurant they used to frequent. The production is unusual in featuring little spoken dialogue, the action instead being an enactment of incidents described in poetic monologue of the male character. Starring Alan Rickman & Emma Thompson.


Mr. Selfridge
March 31,, 2013 at 9pm
One 120-minute episode
Upstart American Harry Selfridge moves heaven and earth to build his visionary department store in London. But opening day is just the start of his retail revolution.  Three-time Emmy® winner Jeremy Piven (in his first television appearance since his iconic role as Hollywood agent Ari Gold in Entourage) stars as Harry Gordon Selfridge, the flamboyant entrepreneur and showman seeking to provide London's shoppers with the ultimate merchandise and the ultimate thrill. Mr. Selfridge is created by Emmy® Award-winning writer Andrew Davies (Pride and Prejudice, Bleak House).


ALREADY DISCUSSED

Downton Abbey: Season 3, Episode 6
1 120-minute episode — Sunday, February 10, 2013
Change arrives in a big way for several key characters at Downton Abbey. A yearly cricket match with the village sees old scores settled and new plots hatched.


Downton Abbey: Season 3, Episode 5
1 60-minute episode — Sunday, February 3, 2013
Things go badly amiss at Downton Abbey. Robert and Cora are not speaking. The servants are shunning Matthew's mother Isobel. And Matthew and Robert have fallen out. Also, Bates takes a gamble.


Downton Abbey: Season 3, Episode 4
1 60-minute episode — Sunday, January 27, 2013
The Crawley family faces its severest test yet. Meanwhile, new faces try to fit into the tight-knit circle of servants. And new evidence turns up in a baffling case.


Downton Abbey: Season 3, Episode 3
1 60-minute episode — Sunday, January 20, 2013
Two social revolutions arrive at Downton Abbey: the Irish civil war and the fight for women's suffrage. A mysterious conspiracy keeps Anna and Bates apart.


Downton Abbey: Season 3, Episode 2
1 60-minute episode — Sunday, January 13, 2013
The fate of Downton Abbey hinges on a letter from a dead man. Edith and Sir Anthony face their own fateful moment. Mrs. Hughes confronts a crisis.


Downton Abbey: Season 3, Episode 1
1 120-minute episode — Sunday, January 6, 2013
Wedding guests descend on Downton Abbey, where disasters large and small threaten. One is Cora's freewheeling American mother, who tries to loosen up her in-laws.


Downton Abbey Revisited
1 90-minute episode — Sunday, November 25, 2012
Savor highlights from the first two seasons and get a preview of Season 3 in this new PBS special.


Upstairs Downstairs: Season 2, Episode 6
1 90-minute episode — Sunday, November 11, 2012
A chance remark at the Foreign Office alerts Hallam that one of his associates is a German spy—with tragic consequences. As war is declared, life upstairs and downstairs is transformed at Eaton Place.


Upstairs Downstairs: Season 2, Episode 5
1 90-minute episode — Sunday, November 4, 2012
With war looming, romance is in the air—illicit and otherwise. Hallam, Agnes, Landry, and Persie each pursue their heart’s desire in different ways. Harry and Beryl get engaged. And even Pritchard finds a soulmate.


Upstairs Downstairs: Season 2, Episode 4
1 90-minute episode — Sunday, October 28, 2012
All of London sees Agnes’s shapely legs when she models stockings for Landry’s company—offending Hallam. Intent on impressing Beryl, Harry enters the servants’ boxing competition as Johnny’s manager.


Upstairs Downstairs: Season 2, Episode 3
1 90-minute episode — Sunday, October 21, 2012
Hallam’s Aunt Blanche appears in a novel by a former lover, sparking a scandal that threatens the good name of Eaton Place. Meanwhile, Agnes’s demands on the servants bring a social worker to set her straight.


Upstairs Downstairs: Season 2, Episode 2
1 90-minute episode — Sunday, October 14, 2012
Ambassador Kennedy and his dashing son Jack come to dinner at Eaton Place. But Agnes is more entranced by another guest: millionaire Caspar Landry. Before the evening is over, Mrs. Thackeray resigns.


Upstairs Downstairs: Season 2, Episode 1
1 90-minute episode — Sunday, October 7, 2012
Pritchard takes the rap for Johnny in a shocking incident, which leads to a revelation that casts the butler into disgrace. On a diplomatic mission to Germany, Hallam meets Persie, who has a Nazi lover.


Upstairs Downstairs: Season 1 - rebroadcast
3 60-minute episodes — Sunday, Sept. 30, 2012
It's 1936, a tumultuous time in Britain, and within the walls of 165 Eaton Place, characters from an orphanage, a damp Welsh castle, the heart of the British Raj and elsewhere together will face a changing world, not just upstairs and downstairs, but side by side. Written by Heidi Thomas (Cranford, Madame Bovary), Upstairs Downstairs stars co-creators of the original series Jean Marsh and Eileen Atkins (Cranford, Bertie and Elizabeth). Also starring are Ed Stoppard (Any Human Heart), Keeley Hawes (Wives and Daughters), and Claire Foy (Little Dorrit). Available online at http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/watch-online/

Discussion Leaders:  JoanP and marcie

WOW. Downtown Abby... I didn't  expect that tonight..not at all

Rosemarykaye..you sure kept that under your hat.

How in the world did I miss this discussion beginning?  So glad I found you.

Re:  Shirley McClaine in Episode One...   I was hoping for more "Sass" and wondered if she was directed to be as low-key as she was.

I also love Maggie Smith's throw-away lines!

It seems to me that the first episode of any series' season has multiple plot lines going in different directions.  Surely, these will be sorted out as this season of DA continues.

[Frybabe]

I agree, Callie, I was also expecting a little more "in your face" from Shirley's character. I expected more of a head butting contest between her and Maggie Smith; maybe, that is because we generally see Americans portrayed in these shows as being brash, boorish, very outspoken and direct in approach.

[MaryPage]

I enjoyed last night's episode enormously.  Poor Edith.  Well, Downton is saved, and which of us can possibly be surprised at this, as it is, after all, Downton Abbey, this series.

I hate grimness, albeit this world is full of it and we should not close our eyes, but I just want Anna to find a way to get Bates cleared and get him back to Downton.  Those prison scenes, and the wretched poverty ones, and the prostitute scenes, they all fill me with such dreadful angst.

But oh what a lovely bride Edith was, albeit for such a short time.  I rather desperately want True Love to enter her world.

[Frybabe]

I was so disappointed in Sir Strallon waiting until the altar to make up his vacillating mind about marrying Edith. I am surprised, since it wasn't uncommon for older men to marry much younger women (even today, with the monied set). I put at least half of this down to meddling and disapproval from family members. She did look wonderful, didn't she - simple but elegant.

I see that Matthew's mother is still insisting on helping people who don't want, for the most part, to be helped. I get the feeling that many of the girls just see it as a "free lunch" on their time off.

[marcie]

I enjoyed the episode too. I thought there had to be a way for Matthew to feel he could take the money to save Downton.

[mabel1015j]

I'm thinking that the writing is being done in a victorian mode, the bride left at the alter, the privileged woman seeking to help the prostitute, the estate in danger if being lost. Aren't they all typical of victorian novels?

Jean

[JoanK]

Good point, Jean.

I thought Edith loved him: it was cruel. Given how common such marraiges are now (and probably were then) it seemed unrealistic.

[JeanneP]

 enjoyed Downton Abbey last night. Thought they moved around a little more. Got into more things.
 Glad to see that they were not going to have the housekeeper dying. I don't think that Shirley McClain going to show up much.  May be getting money through Mathew anyway. Bet he does have to go out to India
.
Tough on the one daughter left at the Alter. Though it was sort of silly that part anyway. Acted like she was desperate for a husband. Never did see what she saw in him.  I think she will go and work with Mathew's Mother now.

She did make a pretty bride though. She will find someone soon.

[rosemarykaye]

I don't want to give too much away, but there are great things in store for the lovely Edith.  I think she's the best actress out of the three daughters,- in fact after Maggie Smith and Penelope Wilton she's probably the best in the whole show.

Rosemary

[marcie]

Rosemary, that's good to hear about the Edith character. I didn't like the character at all at first but now I've warmed up to her.

[JeanneP]

Glad they will be doing something nice for Edith. Poor girl, they had her play a part were we really didn't like her.  She does play her parts well. Hope they do something nice for the Poor Kitchen maid also. She plays that part well. I suppose she will end up owning her husband of  sorts, fathers farm.  Then she will find a nice husband.

Got to wait and see, Can't be guessing.

You are smiling there Rosemary because you already know....

[ANNIE]

Did you all enjoy Jeremy Brett's old "Sherlock Holmes"hour on PBS before "Downton Abbey"?

[jeriron]

Nice video "ALL ABOUT EDITH"

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/watch-online/shorts/downton-abbey-all-about-edith/

[marcie]

Annie, I didn't see the Jeremy Brett Sherlock Holmes before Downton but I've seen all of the episodes in the past and really liked his quirky portrayal.

[Radioman]

Unfortunately that clip cannot be viewed in Canada
The one thing I seem to have lost track of is why O'Brien has turned against Thomas.    In previous episodes they were always conspiring in some devious plan.

[ANNIE]

Radioman,
Thomas told one of the workers that O'Brien was quitting and that he could probably get the job for a friend or daughter??

I think our PBS channel just chose to reshow a Sherlock program.  I would be very happy if they continued that in place of "Midwives" which doesn't interest me.

[MaryPage]

Don't you remember? O'Brien asked Carson if he would consider taking on her nephew, her sister's son, as a footman.  Carson DID.  That new, very tall and quite nice young man is O'Brien's nephew.  Now mind, I hate O'Brien ever since she caused Cora's miscarriage, but you cannot hate that nice young man.  Besides, Daisy has a crush on him.

And O'Brien feels, quite naturally, closer to blood kin than to Thomas.  So the evil Thomas started doing nasty tricks on the nephew in order to make himself, Thomas, look good.  And O'Brien saw this happening and got boiling mad and started doing nasty tricks (the missing shirts for the Earl, for instance) back, to make Thomas look bad.  Now they are complete and total enemies, these one time evil collaborators. O'Brien will defend her nephew no matter what.

[JeanneP]

I thought that "Downton Abbey" was really good last night.  Never did say what happened to Shirley McClain did it.  Wonder if it was just a one shot showing for her.

[CallieOK]

I loved the closing scene with Anna and Bates reading the letters that had been withheld. 

I like the "spunky" Edith!!!

Surely was a lot of publicity about Shirley MacClain becoming a part of the cast if she is only going to be in one episode.

[Frybabe]

Callie I thought it was a little puzzling that they only had Shirley in the first episode after all that noise that was made about her being on the cast. I thought she would be there for two or three episodes at least.

Even though there seemed to be a lot going on, I had the feeling that the whole episode was a bit weak - like they were setting things up for what comes next. The Anna/Bates letters thing was very well done.

[JeanneP]

How many shows is this Series 3 suppose to cover. I thought it was only 5 but has to be more that that.  Can't really see what could happen to bring Shirly McClain back into it.

Rosemary will know how many there will be. Have a lot of ends to tie up as already done 3.  So we know that it will carry on doing number 4

[marcie]

There are seven episodes in season three.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/schedule/

[kidsal]

Jeremy Brett (Sherlock Holmes) -- he played in My Fair Lady -- was the man who fell in love with the girl and sang "On the Street Where You Live."  He died quite young of heart problems.

[marcie]

kidsal, I had always thought that Jeremy Brett was older than his actual chronological age. I see in wikipedia that he was only 61 when he died of heart failure. It seems that his poor health and the medication that he took, made him look older.

From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeremy_Brett

" In the latter part of 1986, Brett exhibited wide mood swings that alarmed his family and friends, who persuaded him to seek diagnosis and treatment of manic depression.[27] Brett was given lithium tablets to fight his manic depression. He knew that he would never be cured; he had to live with his condition, look for the signs of his disorder and then deal with it.[28] He wanted to return to work, to play Holmes again.

The first episode to be produced after his discharge was a two-hour adaptation of The Sign of the Four in 1987. From then on the difference in Brett's appearance and behaviour slowly became more noticeable as the series developed. One of the side effects of the lithium tablets was fluid retention; he was putting on weight and retaining water. The drugs were also slowing him down.[29] According to Edward Hardwicke, Brett smoked up to 60 cigarettes a day, which "didn't help his health."[30] He also had heart troubles. His heart was twice the normal size;[31] he would have difficulties breathing and would need an oxygen mask on the set. "But, darlings, the show must go on", was his only comment.[32]

During the last decade of his life, Brett was treated in hospital several times for his mental illness, and his health and appearance visibly deteriorated by the time he completed the later episodes of the Sherlock Holmes series. During his last years, he discussed the illness candidly, encouraging people to recognise its symptoms and seek help."

I also learned that his singing was dubbed in "My Fair Lady" (as was Audrey Hepburn's) although Jeremy Brett had a good singing voice.

[MaryPage]

In LAST WEEK'S episode of Downton Abbey, the one just previous to this week's, Cora's mother (Shirley MacLaine) went to the Earl and told him her money is tied up in trusts and she cannot touch the principal in order to help him out of his financial difficulties.  She also said her visit had come to an end and she was going home.  Look for this when you watch reruns.  It really did happen.  Yes, it would seem she was not becoming a member of the cast (no surprise there), but was making a star appearance.  I think that was all it was ever meant to be.  It was certainly all I was given to expect.

[ANNIE]

Thank goodness for that, Mary!  She really looks awful.  Is she older than Maggie Smith?  

[jeriron]

I noticed her saying that in that episode and figured that's what it was, a one time shot.

[CallieOK]

I also remember her saying that and wondered....because the publicity sounded as if she was joining the cast (as in "will be on regularly"). 

The story is moving along nicely, IMO, so it won't be a big loss if she doesn't return.

[jeriron]

Callie

I agree. It did sound like she was going to be on this season not just one day. But for me the one episode  was fine. I really don't think I care to have her on for much longer. But then I was never a big fan anyway.

[MaryPage]

She just made the trip to Downton for the wedding.  As a grandmother, she certainly would have made every effort to be there for the wedding.  And she would have stayed for AT LEAST a month, because in those days you did not fly over and the ships took 8 days to reach England.

I remember going over on the Red Star Line in May of 1934, and a little boat came out and took off the passengers who were going to England.  We were going to Antwerp.  But of course, you could book on a ship going to England itself.  We are watching a tale taking place in 1920.

Bottom line, no one made the trip and stayed only one week back then.  And possibly she will be needed to play her grandmotherly role yet again.  Who knows what we have in store!

I am gratified that some of you besides me remember her goodbye scene with her son-in-law.

I believe I read that Shirley McC and Maggie S are both 79 and have been friends for decades.

[CallieOK]

Shall we have a game predicting the return (or not) of Shirley MacLaine? 

I predict she will appear in at least one more episode - when least expected and creating a furor of some sort.

[JeanneP]

I didn't even know that Jeremy Brett was dead. 18 years now. It is just that he always seems to be showing up on TV as Holmes.  He was the best.  His wife staying with him through all his problems. He was married to the Daughter of Raymond Massey. Remember him? Always scared me.

[JeanneP]

Even in real life. (No
 Screen makeup) those 2 women look 79 if not older. Guess they did not have any cosmetic work done. So wrinkled.
Shirley had really led a strange life.

[ANNIE]

I have always thought that Jeremy Brett died of congestive heart failure while he awaited a heart transplant.  Wonder if that was true??  Did not know he was bi-polar or that he had other problems.  Never too old to learn.  

Didn't know his wife, Anna,  was Massey's daughter either.  Does anyone remember Ilona Massey?  Wonder if she was related to Raymond Massey?  Think I will look that up. No she wasn't.  Born in Budapest.

I read more about Jeremy Brett and he was not married very long to Anna Massey.  1956-1962? They had one son. She remarried later. Said she preferred to be a grandmother and a wife.  She died of cancer at 71 in 2006, leaving behind a husband, son and grandson.

[MaryPage]

I have always thought Ilona Massey was the most beautiful woman I have ever seen.  Even more so than Elizabeth Taylor.  I cannot now find any photographs of her on line which do her justice, but honest to gosh, she had the most sparkling sapphire blue eyes and gorgeous natural blond hair and exquisite features.  She was dazzling, and if I had my druthers of any person I have ever seen, I would most want to look like her.

[marcie]

I had to look up Ilona Massey to see what she looked like. She is beautiful MaryPage. I couldn't find a photo of her sapphire eyes but this black and white is lovely I think http://www.doctormacro.com/Images/Massey,%20Ilona/Annex/Annex%20-%20Massey,%20Ilona_02.jpg

[ANNIE]

Here's a whole set of Ilona Massey:  Ilona Massey

And this is my favorite:  Ilona Massey

[MaryPage]

Her pictures do not do her justice, truly they don't.  She was pure magical princess to look at on the screen.

Turn on your sound and have a look at this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fvXwZbviVoE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWzsp2v13Bw

[MaryPage]

Ilona Massey only appears towards the very end of this video clip, but her exquisite glory is worth waiting for.  Besides, this clip will take you back to the days of Hollywood extravagances and remind you that we had great stars with great talents back in the day.  I mean, they just don't make 'em like this any more!  Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=InO3PPHXTek

[ANNIE]

She was a classic, MaryPage!