Here’s more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Housekeeper_(domestic_worker)
Yes. In some households, the Cook and the nanny were equal to the Housekeeper. In some eras, a nanny was actually a fairly respectable profession, and not considered actual servant class. This would not include the wet nurse, but the Nanny who acted as Governess and teacher.
OK, thanks. I had inferred that, but it was never quite clear to me that there was a gender divided system like that. Were they actually separate in the sense that Carson had no authority over Mrs Hughes? I thought that Carson was the ultimate authority in the servants’ world.
The Butler was First among Equals, he had more status than the Housekeeper, but in general, he’d defer to her authority over the female staff.
That’s a pretty accurate description of all the plotlines Fellowes wasted.
It’s not that odd; Rose is still Christian and he’ll do anything to make her happy. Also despite what they said raising the children with both religions their kids have a better chance of converting to Christianity than they do Judaism (in the 1920s not even Reform Jews considered the child a Jewish father & gentile mother Jewish). On the other hand I can still see Rose converting simply to piss her mother off further. 
As housekeeper she has authority over all the female staff except the kitchen & scullery maids (who answer to the cook) and the lady’s maids (who answer directly to their mistresses). That’s one of the reasons why O’Brien was able to get away with so much crap. Likewise Carson doesn’t really have any authority over Bates because as a valet he answers directly to Lord Grantham.
Not always in the very grandest households (owned by the kind of families with multiple Downton Abbeys) the Butler would actually answer to the Head Housekeeper.
Which also why we never saw Mrs. Hughes do too much later on, because the rest of the female staff we saw were either the lady’s maids or the kitchen crew.
Not to mention Atticus already celebrated Christmas in the last special, so we know he’s willing to go along with it.
Yeah, the maids kept either quitting (Jane, Gwen), getting promoted (Anna), or getting fired (Ethel, Edna). By the time of season six, all the housemaids are day staff and there’s little point in investing in them dramatically.
A nice WSJ short profile of Julian Fellowes and what’s next for him - love the picture, too!: Julian Fellowes’s Class Act - WSJ
Supposedly, Julian Fellowes is working on a project called The Gilded Age, a series set in New York in the late nineteenth century.
Yes. Discussed in my link.
Yes, but your link was to an article on the WSJ website, and isn’t readable by non-subscribers.
Huh. It was when I found it via Google.
Bumped.
PBS has a I Miss Downton Abbey special coming up on Aug. 28, hosted by Allen Leech (Branson), for those still going through withdrawal. Check local listings: PBS Pressroom - Page Not Found.
Good. I was catching up on the episodes I missed in S1 and S2 (KQED+ is airing re-runs on Tues nights) but I still missed 2 of them by forgetting to set my DVR.
A DA movie is looking more and more likely: Downton Abbey movie appears certain as actor confirms Maggie Smith's involvement | Movies | The Guardian
I think this is good news, but what ground is left to cover in a movie? :dubious: Skipping ahead to everyone’s adventures during WWII seems too much; especially if Maggie Smith is involved. Unless she’s a ghost haunting the Dower House that the rest of the family get’s crammed into when the whole Abbey get’s requisitioned. It be nice to see Thomas finally get a hookup before they have to age up Rob James-Collier too much. 
The obvious thing they could cover is what happens to the family fortune after the stock market crash of 1929.
I’m still let down that Downton Abbey and Boardwalk Empire never had a crossover episode, so I guess it will just have to happen in the movie.
Over tea, Chalky explains to the Dowager Countess the meaning of such modern words as “weekend” and “motherfucker.”
Gillian is hired as Downton’s new nanny.
Edith falls madly in love with Eddie.
Fellowes, Winter, here’s your chance to make the dream happen.
I was shaking my head that Fellowes never did anything with the “opening the Abbey one day a year” thread. If they concentrated on the stock market crash and the Depression, opening the Abbey on a more regular schedule would, I think, become one of the regular storylines. Since Cora knew more of the Abbey’s history than anyone else, she could be the curator.