DOWNTON ABBEY Season 3 Discussion Thread - SPOILERS WITHIN — Page 8

You could be hanged for "buggery" up until the early 1860s in the UK.

The Oscar Wilde trial is probably the best indicator as to how things might have been handled in Thomas' time.

There were a lot of high profile prosecutions of gay men in the early 1950s (famous examples include John Gielgud, Alan Turing, Lord Montagu) in an attempt to get "morality" back to what it was before WWII. The prosecutions produced adverse public opinion and set in line a chain of (slow) events that resulted in homosexuality being decriminalised in the UK in 1967.

It was never illegal to be a gay woman in the UK, in fact from the late c19th to 1967 it was impossible.

I would love to see some vampires at Downton!

It is going to be a sad night. No new Downton Abbey.

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I always watch with my mother--and she was on her honeymoon the past ten days, so I had to wait till now to watch the finale (I mean, the nerve of her timing!)

"Interesting. I always thought that it wasn't homosexuality itself that was illegal, rather the act of sodomy (which Thomas wasn't guilty of last night...). "

Yes, but he was caught, basically in bed--or that's what was seen. As mentioned, it all goes down to hearsay, but I could very easily see Thomas arrested in that situation. I did love Robert's line about all the guys who tried to kiss him in Eton (will we see some of that in the prequel this Summer? I kid... kinda).

I liked the finale--though I admit with the rumours that Stevens may not stay, I kept on expecting to see Matthew fall down clutching his heart at the end, or something. Will we see more of Rose?

Other than the Christmas episode that is it for series 3 JerseyGirl.

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I'm surprised no-one has picked up my comment about how it was impossible to be a lesbian in the UK. Or is this story widely known outside the UK?

There's certainly wide-spread belief that when the legislation prohibiting same sex acts between male-and-male and female-and-female was presented to Queen Victoria for royal assent, she crossed out female-and-female and wrote "impossible" above it.

I've read that the formal legislation has been inspected recently by historians and, if there was a draft with the hand-written amendment, it can't be found.

But it's a delicious anecdote.

Surprised to find this is so well known!

Obviously the lesson here is... don't invite me for dinner, guys, as the rest of my conversation is equally tired and passé.

HA, I'd LOVE to hear that version, PJ!

Scripps, you are welcome at my dinner table, any evening. :P

Downton Abbey fans look forward to Christmas special after series 3 finale

http://www.metro.co.uk/tv/916964-downton-abbey-fans-look-forward-to-christmas-special-after-series-3-finale

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They don't give a date so she could have watched them all back in September or October.I think it's pretty cool they sent her the dvd's. Maybe they did not want word to get out until the series ended over in the UK. Who knows?

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The commercial DVDs came out in the UK the day after the season ended--as they have in the past--so I suspect they just sent those, but who knows? I admit, joke or not, I kinda had the same reaction as Phyllis--it's cool that she's a fan (though really, does the article make it clear they were for her primarily and not Obama? Or is it just an assumption due to her gender?), but whoever wrote the piece either is conveniently or honestly unaware of the huge number of fans in the US who were basically as up to date as the British.

I know the show gets huge ratings by PBS standards, but it always strikes me as poor planning in the modern day of torrents that popular shows from the UK, in the US, aren't shown closer to their UK air date. I guess the ratings numbers wouldn't be hugely different, but I suspect, increasingly, it does make a genuine difference.

Hrmm the Christmas special teaser in the other piece Romantico posted seems to imply a wedding for Edith and Anthony. I can only assume the quote from the actor who plays Anthony was poorly used by the writer of the article--they say that was back in August, and he obviously was teasing the gilted at the altar storyline--not hinting at some sudden reuinion in August.

On another forum people have speculated that Robert's easy acceptance of Thomas' homosexuality was unrealistic, especially for a man who this year has been increasingly conservative compared to others. I disagree--while it probably was more pat than it may have been in real life, it makes sense (from my understanding) of British society at the time that, as long as it's not really discussed, the upper class would have less of an issue with it than some of the lower class (ie the servants). As Robert mentioned it was somewhat common in boarding schools (though with the understanding that it would be something people would grow out of). The main reason Oscar Wilde really was jailed was due to him fighting the charge itself--when Bosie's father sued him for corruption, or whatever, the charge could have been quietly settled, and probably would have, except Wilde was (understandably) indignant and pressed on with it--somewhat foolishly thinking he could come out of it successfully.

I'm suffering Downton withdrawl symptoms, and looking for a replacement. My search lead me to this trailer, for a "Spanish Downton Abbey" which began airing in the UK tonight...I can't seem to find it online yet, though. It looks good!

P.S. Please disregard my last post. I don't watch Grey's Anatomy.


Grand Hotel 30 second trailer

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Updated On: 11/18/12 at 11:01 PM