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Downton Abbey and the Grace of the Agitated Allegorical Swan
Putting it on the big screen amplifies what Downton Abbey is, and isn’t. It’s the anti-blockbuster, the polar opposite of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Depending on which version of the story you believe, the English started using the term “my cup of tea” sometime in the 1800s and always in the positive tense. It was only in the 1920s that the more negative “not my cup of tea” entered the lexicon as a rejection of something. Which is fitting, since the film version of Downton Abbey finds the story now well into the 1920s. With its widest audience and attention ever, folks are deciding again whether the trials of the Crawley family & staff are worth their time and attention. If taking the number one slot at the weekend box office — despite having fewer screens showing than its two main competitors — the return of the beloved show is still very much folks’ cup of tea.
Just how it is that machinations of English country life became an international phenomenon first as a TV show, and now as a feature film, is rather amazing. There was little chance the show would be a failure, with the pedigree of those involved, but few saw it becoming what it now is. Creator Julian Fellowes won an Oscar for screenwriting penning…
