Downton Abbey 1/7, series 1 ITV1 London
Sunday 26 September 9:00pm - 10:30pm
I felt a twinge of indigestion after the opening 90-minute episode of ITV1's mighty new costume drama, as if I'd eaten just one slice too many of a rich fruit cake because Downton Abbey is such a stodgy mixture of formality and politesse. Yet it's still a winning, fleshy rump of escapism from Julian Fellowes, who has taken his own, brilliant Gosford Park, lightened its many dark shadows, thrown in a bit of Upstairs, Downstairs and a smidgen of EM Forster and come up with Downton Abbey. The first episode is inevitably chewy and overly stately because there's an awful lot of complicated stuff about wills, entails and primogeniture that characters have to explain to each other and thus to us, plus lots of details about the running of a big country house in 1912 - who's allowed to wait on whom, that kind of thing. Inevitably, most of the bustle and movement is with the servants below stairs, while upstairs the tremendously decent Robert Crawley, Earl of Grantham (played by Hugh Bonneville, who else?) is a proper gent who always does the right thing. The cast is bursting with big names - Maggie Smith plays the querulous Dowager Countess of Grantham, Jim Carter is the Mr Hudson-ish Carson - and once Downton Abbey stops trying to impress us, it should settle down to be perfect, feet-up, Sunday-night fare.
VIDEO Plus+: 8317
Subtitled, Widescreen, High definition, Audio-described
Cast * Violet, Dowager Countess of Grantham - Maggie Smith
* Robert, Earl of Grantham - Hugh Bonneville
* Lady Sybil Crawley - Jessica Brown Findlay
* Lady Edith Crawley - Laura Carmichael
* Mr Carson - Jim Carter
* John Bates - Brendan Coyle
* Lady Mary Crawley - Michelle Dockery
* O'Brien - Siobhan Finneran
* Anna - Joanne Froggatt
* William - Thomas Howes
* Thomas - Rob James-Collier
* Gwen - Rose Leslie
* Mrs Hughes - Phyllis Logan
* Cora, Countess of Grantham - Elizabeth McGovern
* Daisy - Sophie McShera
* Mrs Patmore - Lesley Nicol
* Matthew Crawley - Dan Stevens
* Isobel Crawley - Penelope Wilton
* Duke of Crowborough - Charlie Cox
* George Murray - Jonathan Coy
* Taylor - Lionel Guyett
* Postmaster - Jonathan Jaynes
* Paperboy - Perry Millward
* Postmaster's wife - Helen Sheals
Directed by: Brian Percival
http://www.itv.com/dramapremieres/downtonabbey/]ITV
