He could commit treason. That would strip him of any right to the title.
He’s not a bad looking guy, but I like Hugh Bonneville (Lord Robert) myself. Very silver-foxy. (Trivia: the two actors were born less than a month apart in 1963.)
But being not conceivable is the problem. 
Well, if the plot jumps ahead to 1920 and Robert has died and Matthew is still alive, I guess we’ll see.
Back when Series/Season 1 aired in the USA, I did a back-of-the-envelope genealogy of the Crawleys. Of course I can’t find that envelope now, but from what I remember, yeah, they’ll have to look a long way back in the Crawley pedigree to find a new heir presumptive. Would be cool if it was some soccer hooligan or Welsh tradesman. (Up Downtown, anyone?) But come 1920, when entails can be broken, things might change.
Ta! Ya know, I waffled on the two terms and, because I’m lazy, instead of looking up the definitions I flipped a coin. It figures I’d get the wrong word. 
Forgot to mention: Iain Glenn, who plays “Sir Richard Carlisle”, played “Hamlet” in Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are Dead (1990) and “Bishop Octavian” in two Doctor Who episodes, The Time of Angels and Flesh and Stone (2010). And, “Ser Joah Mormont” in Game of Thrones (2011-2012)
Cora’s American; she really doesn’t care about the title (at least not as much as Lord Grantham) or wether the next Earl of Grantham has a proper estate or not. She does think (like most Americans, then & now) that her dowry going to a stranger rather than her own daughters is absurd. It’s actually kinda strange that her father even allowed her to sign a marriage settlement that didn’t take this scenario into account in the first place.
Violet, yes one would expect her to be more concerned, but her reaction is perfectly believable. After all the next heir is a common, middle-class, lawyer and a total stranger to her. Remember that Lord Grantham and his cousin (Patrick’s father) grew up together, and the family had been planning for Patrick to marry Lady Mary (or even Lady Edith) for years.
And it’s entirely possible that she and Lord Grantham had sons other than Robert; they all could’ve died by the time Robert married Cora.
Shirley MacLaine joins the cast of Downton Abbey (as Cora’s mother) for next season.
She’s a great actress when she feels like it, though she sometimes just dusts off Aurora Greenway footage and emails it in, so, it could go either way.
Ah! Thank you! It has been bugging me why I knew him!
Why don’t they go whole-hog and get Mary Tyler Moore and Dick Van Dyke as Cora’s parents?
It’ll be nice for the Countess of Grantham to have someone to knock back the Sherry with.
Dick insisted on doing his “impeccable Cockney accent, guvnah!” and for a rich 19th century American it didn’t work anymore than Mary saying “Oh robbbber baron!”
And at least it’s not Betty White for a change.
Unconfirmed, but my sources report the other big change to Downton next season is a new theme song by Reba McEntire. I have some of the lyrics:
“It’s rich English folk livin
in a big old castle
and a single mama
who don’t want no hassle
Upstairs they’re sippin’ tea
most every night
She works her fingers to the bone
but she’s still got fight!”
It’s unclear who the “single mama” or the “She” is, but rumor is it’s a new maid from America played by Jamie Pressly who’s walked out on an abusive marriage and crossed the ocean to find work. The new season will also feature a live audience and laugh track and the title episode will be called MY NAME IS EARL OF GRANTHAM.
How long until Robert and the new maid get it on?
What’s the England in 1919 equivalent of “Bow chicka wow wow?”
A low key unsmiling “Lovely”.
From the linked article: Ms. MacLaine will play a new character, Martha Levinson, the mother of Lady Grantham (Elizabeth McGovern).
“Levinson?!?” Was Cora’s maiden name “Levinson”? Or did Martha divorce/survive Cora’s dad and then marry a Mr. Levinson? If Cora was born “Levinson”, is she Jewish? Or perhaps, descended from Jews who converted to a Protestant faith? If Cora’s ethnic heritage is Jewish…wowee wow wow wow!
I know they were using X-Rays in France during WW1 (one model was called “Le Petite Curie”, or just ‘The Marie’ in English), but I wonder if somebody like William would have been examined with one. Matthew’s mother would certainly know of them and probably want one used to examine his spinal injury; it’d be an interesting twist if it turned out he wasn’t rendered impotent by the injury but was left sterile due to radiation.
I’ve wondered if she’s (very loosely) based on Alva Vanderbilt. I mentioned her earlier in this thread: penniless Alabama belle who married a Vanderbilt and forced her daughter to marry the Duke of Marlboro. The reasons I wondered:
-They’re roughly the same generation (Alva was born in 1853, Cora’s mother would probably be slightly older but wouldn’t have to be much older)
-The “rich American who arranged daughter’s marriage for a title” bit
-After Alva forced her daughter to marry Marlboro she divorced her husband and married O.H.P. Belmont, who was Jewish by ancestry (though not by religion)
-By the time of WW1, Alva Vanderbilt was a zealous suffragette and general women’s rights advocate
It’s highly doubtful a British Earl would consider a marriage to an American Jewish heiress for himself or his heir; he might consider one or the other but both would be highly unlikely as it would have been a MAJOR departure from all the norms of his world in late Victorian England. Remarriage, however, would explain Cora’s mother having a Jewish surname.
In addition, this being Shirley MacLaine, you can be pretty well sure that Cora’s mother isn’t going to be Miss Manners, but at the same time she at least once cared enough about respectability she wanted to wed her nouveau rich robber baron lineage to genuine aristocracy, so an Alva character would seem a nice fit. (Cora is luckier that Consuelo Vanderbilt in that she loves Robert; Consuelo hated her husband.)
I’m enjoying Season 2 very much, and think I just might be falling in lust with the youngest Crawley daughter. But can’t she see the Irish chauffeur is all wrong for her?!?!?!?!?
LOL. Thank you for this!
Jim Carter also played Goering to Ian McKellen’s Hitler in the chilling British Fascist-era movie version of Richard III.
ISTR from Jeffrey Archer’s excellent British political novel First Among Equals, in which it was a minor plot point, that they were none too generous, and thus became something of a national disgrace/political football in later years.
He also played a Moriarty-like evil genius in an episode of Law & Order UK not long ago. Very talented guy.
Nitpick: Marlborough.
I’d heard there was a Downton Abbey Christmas special. Is that right? If so, will it air at the end of the current season, or has it already aired in the U.S.?
Not yet aired in the USA. Here’s a link to IMDB.com’s plot synopsis. NOTE: May contain spoilers. (It probably contains spoilers, I haven’t read it and won’t until I’ve seen the last episode of Series/Season 2.)
OK, thanks. I’ll keep an eye out for it.