Write an almost universally popular TV Drama and you can be sure that some misanthrope will grumble about it. I was waiting for someone with a chip on his shoulder to try to take Downton Abbey apart, and sure enough, such a piece recently appeared in The Guardian. I love the Guardian. It is the last remaining paper in the English-speaking world to champion ordinary people. But it can be incredibly pompous. A columnist called Viv Groskop has called it “depressing”. “What we’re actually exporting”, he proclaims, “is nostalgia, an unhealthy obsession with class, and a peculiarly dusty form of conservatism. Foreign viewers love it because it portrays a snobbish world of “dowagers, entails and primogeniture” – a world they think we still inhabit. Downton Abbey a triumph for British culture? I hardly think so”.
Downton Abbey, now onto its fifth series, is watched by 160 million people around the globe. They eagerly consume the show in Iran, Russia, Korea and China.
It is a fact that Downton Abbey is escapist. Who doesn’t want to escape the crass consumerism, corporate greed, bad manners, poorly educated people you have to deal with, and the lack of (and denigration of) style, decorum, and consideration for others – all promoted by a media that includes Mr. Viv Groscop. It’s a TV show, Sir, not a manual on how make a home made shotgun and murder your aunt. Lighten up!
Epicurus told us to have a pleasant life, and Downton Abbey offers a harmless mixture of enjoyment, excitement and even anguish that lightens all our lives – or most of them.
A story against myself. I attended a lunch about three years ago arranged by the arts club of my old school. I sat next to a very personable and charming younger man, who introduced himself and told me he was an actor, mainly on television. We chatted during the meal. “Difficult life”, I commented, a propos his career. “I’ve been lucky, ” he said. “I’ve hardly had a day without work since I left school” . This seemed very unusual, so he had to be someone out of the ordinary. His name hadn’t rung a bell, so when I got home I looked him up on the internet. He played the character Lord Grantham in Downton Abbey, and his CV was pages long. And no, he has been fully employed since leaving school. I dare say you too would have felt an idiot if this had happened to you!
Too impatient to wait for January when Downton hits the U.S. airwaves, I went to the Guardian for reviews of Season 5 episodes so far. I came across Viv Groskop’s column which pitched nothing but leaden snark. Methinks that the oh-so-clever put-downs are generated by an envy for Julian Fellows’ impressive success.