PBS Masterpiece Classic 2012-2013

[pedln]

 

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

I was surprised last night to find that Week 6 was a 2-hr performance.  I've been taping them each week in case one of the kids telephones or I fall asleep or something else interrupts.  Fortunately nothing happened; the VCR was set only for an hour.

My thoughts were the same as those of Bates -- I never thought I'd feel sorry for Thomas.  I love that Bates now has a secret weapon against O'Brien, even though as he told Anna, "I don't know what it meant."

[Frybabe]

I don't think we only had six hours this season. Wasn't one earlier one an hour and a half? Last night's was 2 hours and the last one is listed as 95minutes. Even with the shows ending 5 or 10 minutes before the hour, it still comes up to more than six hours.

[JeanneP]

Goodness, there is a lot to show before it closes.  Maybe it will be another 2 hour one.  Bet quite a few people get let go. O'Brien for one. Maybe the one who was the Scullery maid.  Although she is well liked so maybe not. I think I know what the thing will be in order to leave us guessing.  I they haven't started the next series in UK yet, then it will be a while for us.

[ginny]

Somebody pointed out in a class that the date on that thing is By Chris Hastings
UPDATED: 06:51 EST, 7 January 2011, and it may in fact pertain to the first season.

Either way it's not the fault of the producers of the film.  Still makes me angry.

I don't, Marcie, I didn't catch it in time, it was two men and that's all I caught, perhaps in the servant's hall? Not sure. At any rate, some Latin students who also watch the show have it on tape, nobody seems to be sure of what they heard,  so they're going to check.

[marcie]

Jeanne, Thomas wasn't really "caught in the act." Nothing happened but a one-sided kiss.

I was looking to see how much kissing was done as greeting during the 1800s. Europe had/has a lot of check kissing by both sexes. I hope you all don't mind the diversion but I thought this (current) article about kissing when you say good bye in a social setting was hilarious: http://www.chow.com/food-news/54365/the-awkward-lip-kiss-greeting/

Pedln, I didn't notice either that yesterday's episode would be 2 hours. The second hour was a welcome addition. As Frybabe says, next week we'll have a 95 minute episode to end the season.

[pedln]

From my local PBS Website

Downton Abbey, Season 3: Episode Seven
The Season 3 finale of "Downton Abbey" finds the family, save for Branson and little Sybil, heading to a Scottish hunting lodge owned by Rose's parents. In other events, Mrs. Patmore is wooed by a local merchant; a new maid has eyes for Branson.

DURATION: 120 MIN

[marcie]

hmm, the official Masterpiece site says 95 minutes for episode 7. I guess we have to wait and see!

[pedln]

There's probably another 25 minutes with "previouslies" and "to comes"

My station probably just figured it has two hours devoted to Masterpiece.

[marcie]

LOL, that could be it, Pedln.

[ginny]

AHA!!  One of my very sharp Latin students at Furman found the Latin reference. She writes:

At about 20 minutes into the episode, there was a scene where Thomas is telling James (who originally introduced himself as Jimmy) that everyone likes him.  But James says that Carson prefers Alfred (even though Alfred's always messing up with his work - he had recently spilled a serving tray on the dowager).  James seems to think that no one there likes him and he says, "It's just like it's always been - JIMMY CONTRA MUNDI".  While they've been talking, O'Brien has joined them and she says, "Is that Latin?  You ought to use that with Mr Carson to get into his good graces."

And that, of course, immediately springs to mind Sebastian and Charles and their mantra of contra mundum, from Brideshead Revisited which Julian Fellows, the creator of Downton, cannot be ignorant of.


Contra as a preposition takes the  Accusative, perhaps Jimmy is not up on his Latin.


It also has other meaning in Catholic church history apparently.

I can't believe I never even heard O'Brien say the word Latin!!!!

Man, that was driving me crazy. Latin is everywhere, if you can catch  it quickly enough.

[ginny]

Oh and speaking of catching, if you're in the States, Maggie Smith is going to talk about her role in Downton  Abbey this Sunday night on 60 Minutes.

[CallieOK]

Thank you for the "heads-up", Ginny!!!

[JeanneP]

Will be sure to watch 60 min. Sunday.  Curious to see what she looks like now with out the Makeup. Think she is about 72 years old. Not sure.

Be sad to see the show DA ending on Sunday.

[JoanK]

We need "bad" people to give the plot spice. They've terned the middle daughter from bad to good, now they're working on turning Thomas. Thank goodness for Mrs. O'Brien, or it would be all sugar and no spice!

"Oh how  I love to be  patronized."

Yes, that's pretty bad. Not as bad as when the american versions of Harry Potter turned every mention of "I think" to "I reckon", but bad.

[ginny]

Apparently Maggie  Smith is 78.
She looks better than I do. 

[marcie]

Thanks for identifying the Latin quote, Ginny. I now remember that he said that.

[MaryPage]

For some reason, I thought she and Shirley MacLaine were both 79.  I must have read that somewhere, as goodness knows, I would not know of my own knowledge.

Shirley was born April 24, 1934.  I just looked it up.  And Maggie was born December 28, 1934.  So Shirley is the elder.

And I was born in 1929.  Shhhhh!

[JeanneP]

Thank Goodness. She has stayed away from having any cosmetic work done.  Looks good.  It seems like the British stars are not into doing it.
I am trying to think of an American Star who was on the other night. The face work was awful. Skin was just shiny from the pulling. So sad.

[JoanK]

She's younger than I am. But being fat saves me from the wrinkles! (What a dilemma -wrinkles or heart attack! Hmmm. Guess I'll go and eat some chocolate while I think about it.)

[MaryPage]

Maggie Smith was on 60 Minutes tonight.  Fabulous.  And Julian Fellowes is obviously much taken with her.  You can go to the 60 Minutes website and see the clip, and also one that did not appear which is mostly Fellowes praising her.
Well, the verdict is in and we have TWO HOURS of new and final episodes of Season Three of Downton Abbey tonight.  I had to giggle at reading to today's Washington Post that two news anchors on Fox News thought until corrected just this past Friday that it was DOWNTOWN Abbey!  Boy, they sure are not in the swim of things!
My DVDs are on their way from Barnes & Noble.  We usually get all that the Brits got to see on them, so we don't really miss out in the long run.

[MaryPage]

Well, we only had like an hour and 40 minutes of Downton Abbey, and then it was all over until Season Four comes to us whenever.  I understand they have everyone signed up, except the one who played Matthew Crawley, who refused to do another season and thus they had to kill him off last night.  Which I thought was done beautifully.  It satisfied me that he had seen his baby boy and fallen in love with him and was a very happy man.  The other 20 minutes last night PBS filled up by rerunning the special about Highclere Castle, which I did not mind seeing again at all, at all.
So altogether, it was a pleasant evening of television.

[JoanK]

Notice they didn't acxtually say that he died: left it open, in case he decides to come back. very clever. And how well he did the final scenes.

I thought he was going to get it when they were hunting, and relaxed when that was over. Too soon, alas. And they didn't listen to me, and layed the groundwork for getting rid of O'Brien. But perhaps substituting the other mean maid.

[Frybabe]

Oh, yes - Wilkins. What a piece of work. O'Brien has an opponent of her ilk now. I expect that since they set up for Rose and Mum to stay at Downton Abbey while Shrimpy is in India, that Wilkens will be coming too.

I actually thought that they weren't going to do Matthew in until the beginning of next season. So Sybil dies just after baby Sybil arrives, and now it looks like Matthew is a goner just after Mary gives birth. Not terribly inventive are they.

Loved the bit with the bagpipes. Can you imagine waking up to a bagpipe reveille every the morning?
 

[pedln]

They could have left it a real cliffhanger if Julian Fellowes hadn't spoken out.  Will Matthew survive?  Did he die?  But now we all know it's all due to a three-year contract.

[jeriron]

They killed Sybil off because the actress wanted to leave the show as well.

[CallieOK]

I didn't catch that Mummy is going to be at DA with Rose.  I, too, was pleased that Matthew got to see the baby.

Hmm...does this mean the other son-in-law will now manage the Estate on his own?  I should think that will open more conflict between the "classes" - since he still thinks of himself as part of the "Downstairs" but is expected to act as if he's completely "Upstairs".

I wonder how old the babies will be when Season 4 opens?  That could be interesting, too.

[MaryPage]

No! No! No!  Rose is going to be at Downton without either of her parents.  Her mother is going to India with her father.  Don't you remember her mother begging Cora to mention her to her daughter from time to time?
Rose is to become Robert and Cora's ward, and they will even have to bring her out.

[marcie]

The loss of Matthew is a big one. Mary says that he's the only one who sees her as "good." He seems to bring out the best in her.  And he's the one behind the changes  at Downton. Can Tom Branson take charge?

At least he got to see his baby boy and tell Mary how much he loved her.

[BarbStAubrey]

looks to me like the next season will feature Rose as she goes through her youth and Edith - will she shock the family or keep her love life a secret. Only Matthew knew his situation and how he felt and Matthew died with the secret. Will Mary dote on her son or keep him at arms length as to0 much a memory to bare. I do not know English history before WWII did they go through a depression or where they consumed by  their aversion to war.

[CallieOK]

Somebody wrote I expect that since they set up for Rose and Mum to stay at Downton Abbey while Shrimpy is in India, that Wilkens will be coming too.  and I was pretty sure I remembered a conversation between the two mothers about Rose being at DA alone. 

[BarbStAubrey]

That is what I remember also Callie

[Frybabe]

Yes, they did discuss Rose going to DA alone but later Shrimpy was talking to Lord Gratham about divorcing his wife. So, maybe, I got confused, but I thought Rose's mother later said that they, meaning she and Shrimpy, needed time apart and therefore implying she would not be going to India either.  Perhaps she meant Shrimpy was suggesting that Mom and Rose needed time apart, which is certainly so. Does anyone remember Rose's mother's name?

[marcie]

Rose's mother is Susan MacClare, Marchioness of Flintshire or "Lady Flinshire." She is the Dowager Countess' niece. She is played by actress Phoebe Nicholls.

I do think it was meant that mother and daughter needed time apart.

[JeanneP]

They are going to have to do good writing for the 4th. season. I was disappointed with them really killing off Mathew even though we knew he was leaving the show. His part was a big one. Him being the owner of the Title. tying to put things in order. He was main one in keep the Irish SIL there and giving him responsibilities.  Just to many things to now change. Is the father going to be back in charge? The baby now has the rights to Title. Will Mary be talking for him until he grows up?

Going to be interesting.  Only thing No.4 can do is advance about 20 years. Showing a more modern time with the 2 babies all grown up.
Not much will be shown now of Mathews Mother. I sort of liked her and the Dowinger nit picking each other.  Maggie Smith can't get much older in it. So have to be flash backs.
I wanted Mathew just to show going out to India to look into the Plantation he now owned and then having a chance to return in later shows. Like they do in the Soap operas.
Had to have been a little problem there. Most probably because he was big in the show he wanted lots more money for his new contract. His 3 years were up.

Only Rosemary will know and she will not be telling us.

[Frybabe]

Matthew's Mom sure blew it with the Dr. He looked like he was about to propose. Was she so oblivious as to think he was talking about someone else? Or was her comment, interjected before he could finish, a foil against having to reject him?

Regarding Matthew, I was under the impression that he would probably be in the first one or two of next season. I guess they decided not.

[MaryPage]

I think Mrs. Crawley knew perfectly well where the doctor was going with the "question" he wanted to ask her.  And I think Mrs. Crawley is the ultimate in a lady of tact and compassion, and she wanted to save the doctor embarrassment by cutting him off at the pass, as it were.  She quickly inserted her own desire to remain single and free, thereby keeping him from popping the question.  And hey, he KNEW and understood what she had just done, and later on he thanks her for it and she pretends she does not know what he means and he says he thinks she does.  Which, of course, she does!
Actually, I have had some parallel experiences;  so I could empathize totally.
I read that the actor playing Matthew had been fairly unknown until Downton and now that he is a star everyone wants him and he had an opportunity to do something, I think on stage, that he really, really wants to do but could not do and do a 4th year of Downton, as well;  so he elected not to sign up for Season Four.  Fellowes did want him very much, but decided he was too popular now to replace, so he had to write him out.
I place my bet that Season Four will not begin more than 3 years after this one ended.  I am betting Tom Branson will be managing the estate.  Matthew's mother, Mrs. Crawley, will be working hard at good deeds, as always, and adoring her wee grandson, who will doubtless be named Matthew Robert.  Edith will have become a really good columnist, popular with the readers.  Little Sybil will have EVERYone, including her one year younger cousin, twisted around her little finger.  She will be learning to ride a pony.  Rose will be sweet and darling, but flitting about nearly ruining the family reputation, just as Lady Sybil threatened to do!

You see, Fellowes has not even begun to film this one, so I am clueless and free to exercise my imagination!

[BarbStAubrey]

Yep I agree I think she knew what was coming and with her smarts and tact she avoided any further consideration.

As to our hero Matthew I remembered last fall he was planning to leave - and here is the recent interview where he talks all about it.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/downton-abbey/9765334/Dan-Stevens-Why-I-left-Downton-Abbey.html

[JeanneP]

I think that Mrs Crowley will accept the Dr. next series.  Her life will change not having her son by her side as in the past. Will not be invited to the Abbey all the time. Live their way of life.  Maybe her and the Dowinger  will get more friendly, although they are nothing alike. But they do enjoy trying to get the last word in.
She may be the grandmother but won't have daily contact with the child.
I look for Mary to maybe move out to a home of her own. Somewhere still close but more private.

[MaryPage]

I do not think Mrs. Crawley and the good doctor have compatible personalities.
But if Shrimpie's wife and Rose's mother should die of a fever out there in India and Shrimpie come home to mourn with his Rose, maybe he and Mrs. Crawley would be a match made in Heaven.  Leastways, I would write it that way!
I don't think the Lady Mary will ever leave Downton until her son comes home with a bride and she moves into her grandmother's Dower House.
One of my all time favorite moments in this dear series was Mr. Carson with Baby Sybil.  I wanted to cry!

[JoanK]

Don't forget that now that Mary is a widow, and Branson a widower, they are available for new romances: perhaps with each other or with other characters (Rose for Tom? the two rebels).