Late to the Downton Party

I should like to have my own blend of tea named after me.
I should like to have long silk dresses dripping with beading.
I should like to have a houseful of servants.
In short, I'd like to live at Downton Abbey.

The social nuances, the strict code of conduct, the gossip and the intrigue. The crushed velvet!

The dialogue is snappy, crackling, tight and eminently quotable.

I can see why the show has caused such a fever. I deferred my invitation to the DA party for 2 seasons, afraid to accept another television show into my life. But when I heard that Shirley MacLaine was joining the cast I could no longer mount a resistance.

One episode in and I'm hooked, line and sinker. What a credit to the show's creators that they can so immediately draw viewers in to care about and be invested in the characters, from the lowliest scullery maid to the highest lady and lord.

Like the pull of the town that keeps pulling the residents back to Downton in their hearts and minds, so viewers have been genteelly sucked in to English country life in 1917.

I don't ever use Netflix but I'm going to have to. Such is the power of Downton Abbey. And let's not even get started on the hats.