I know that there’ll be a new Downton Abbey movie in 2022. But Hugh Bonneville, who plays Robert Crawley, has lost a lot of weight. What kind of a story will they build around that to explain it?
Why do they have to explain anything?
My guess is they will explain it by saying he lost a lot of weight.
Among the more period-appropriate causes that I think would massively improve the plot of the next Downton movie and make use of Hugh Bonneville’s new physique would be:
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a touch of dysentery
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abject lack of self-care as his fortune collapses in the Great depression
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there were numerous new-agey fads going around, so maybe he got into Madame Blavatsky, yoga and vegetarianism in a big way
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the new cook is actually an unknown Crawley cousin and is secretly poisoning him to inherit Downton Abbey
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one-man hunger strike in protest at Ramsay Macdonald’s government and their socialistic policy of providing milk for schoolchildren
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getting super-fit to cross the Andes by frog.
I would put this on a par with De Niro’s physical transformation for Raging Bull and potentially equally Oscar-worthy.
I did think the Great Depression would be how the series ended, but so far they haven’t got to it.
I believe Maggie Smith didn’t want to do any more, or I could imagine the Dowager making some sniffy remarks about this newfangled craze for “banting”.
I thought they missed a trick by not having Edith enthusing over dinner about seeing one of the early demonstrations of television in London. They could have had the Dowager dismissing the idea of sitting around watching a screen at home: “It will kill the art of conversation!” - followed by stony silence.
Maybe they can tie in Robert’s weight loss with his ulcer somehow. The doc told him to leave off the port, and for that matter, a whole lot of other consumables.
I vaguely remember the Dowager Countess having a conniption fit when a telephone was installed at the house. (Sorry, it was Mr Carson who had trouble adjusting.) And then when there was an issue with Lord Grantham’s formal dress, he came to dinner wearing a tuxedo (which I believe she called “pajamas”, so informal did that seem to her). Most famously of course, “What’s a week-end?”
Seriously, why do they have to explain anything. If they can replace Darrin on Bewitched or Dumbledore in Harry Potter I don’t see why a trimmer actor needs a story line.
I was sort of hoping for a prequel, so we could find out about all the times “someone tried to kiss [him] at Eton.”
Very cool. First I’ve heard about this upcoming movie. From what I’m now reading, all of the principal original cast will be in it, and the script is once again by the master himself, Julian Fellowes. Looking forward to it.
As for Hugh Bonneville, geez, I thought he looked healthier in his original Downton Abbey days. I hope he doesn’t have an illness.
I think it’s just a lockdown health kick.
Yes, he always looked very healthy to me, too. He was the picture of a ruddy, robust country squire.
Apparently his wife would disagree with you. I see he says she told him “You’re as fat as a pig”.
Don’t forget, Downton was made a good few years ago.
This is one of those rare shows that I really enjoyed the hell out of it, but at the same time I’m so over it too.
Anyway I hope people enjoy it.
Looking forward to it!
Didn’t they do something like that when Downton got its first wireless set?
“Death begins in the colon!” was a 1920’s slogan, and removing a foot or two of the intestine was common. That could keep the weight loss contemporary.
Also from that era, poking a syringe into a goat’s testicle, withdrawing fluid, then plunging the needle into a man’s scrotum. That might explain Lady Grantham’s neck being even more loose and wobbly.
There was a funny bit when the house received its first telephone. Carson seemed to be flustered by it and I think they hid it away in an office someplace.
I wonder how big of a time jump there will be. Fascism became fashionable in some aristocratic circles in the 1930s. That could be interesting; especially after the focus shifted from Italy to Germany.