Hello everyone! 🙂
Welcome to ‘Bradley’s Basement’ blog and I’m Tim Bradley!
It’s time for another ‘Downton Abbey’ Christmas Special! Thankfully this Christmas Special has Christmas featured in it towards the end of the special as opposed to the previous couple of specials that didn’t have Christmas in them at all. This is of course ‘Downton Abbey – A Moorland Holiday’. 🙂
This Christmas Special was transmitted after Series 5 and on the 25th of December 2014. I enjoyed the special. There are certainly quite a number of happy endings featured in the special for some characters. There are also new characters introduced that will become prominent in the TV series. 🙂
‘A Moorland Holiday’ takes place in September and December 1924. The new in-laws of Lily James as Lady Rose – James Faulkner and Penny Downie as Lord and Lady Sinderby – have invited the Granthams to their residence: Brancaster Castle. They’ve invited them for a spot of grouse shooting.
Things aren’t plain-sailing whilst Hugh Bonneville as Lord Grantham and his family are staying in the Moorlands. Alun Armstrong as Stowell the butler is a problem, especially when he lets his snobbish ways get the better of him. He even ignores Allen Leech as Tom Branson while he’s serving dinner. 😦
Thankfully, Robert James-Collier as Thomas Barrow, through his sneaky ways, manages to bring Stowell down to a level where his reputation may be in jeopardy. Thus he respects the Crawley family’s wishes and Tom Branson gets better service from Stowell compared to what he had before.
Talking about new characters, Laura Carmichael as Lady Edith meets Harry Hadden-Paton as Bertie Pelham, who may be a potential love interest for her in the series. Michelle Dockery as Lady Mary also meets Matthew Goode as race car driver Henry Talbot, who also may be a love interest for her.
The story that Maggie Smith as Dowager Countess Violet has with Rade Serbedzija as Prince Kurgain continues in this special when she reunites him with his estranged wife. Penelope Wilton as Isobel also declines Douglas Reith as Lord Meton’s proposal of marriage, since his sons won’t approve of it.
There’s a happy ending between Jim Carter as Carson and Phyllis Logan as Mrs. Hughes in the special. At the end of the special, Carson reveals he’s bought a property in their names and he proposes marriage to Mrs. Hughes, to which she accepts. I wondered if these two would ever marry. 🙂
Meanwhile, with Robert Crawley, he has a stomach ulcer and he promises to Elizabeth McGovern as Cora that he’ll stop drinking until Christmas time. Robert also reveals to Edith that he knows Marigold is her daughter. I’m glad there’s a sense of peace between Robert and his daughter Edith. 🙂
Joanne Froggatt as Anna Bates was arrested at the end of Series 5. Brendan Coyle as Mr. Bates attempts to resolve Anna by writing a letter to confess he attempted to kill Mr. Green in Series 4. Kevin Doyle as Molesley and Raquel Cassidy as Baxter prove Bates’ innocence when they investigate in Yorkshire.
I like how the special ends with the big Christmas party at Downton. Tom is about to leave for America with his daughter Sybbie, which is sad. Bates also returns and reunites with Anna. The special felt so Christmassy with that happy reunion as well as the other celebrations that occurred. 🙂
The special also featured Sophie McShera as Daisy and Lesly Nicol as Mrs. Patmore. There’s also Matt Barber as Atticus Aldridge, Sue Johnston as Miss Denker and Jeremy Swift as Spratt. Michael Fox also makes a return appearance as Andy, and he’s become a new member of the Downton household. 😀
‘A Moorland Holiday’ was enjoyable to check out. I felt like it was Christmas time again. Maybe this is one of the Christmas Specials that should be watched regularly at Christmas. 😀 I’m currently looking forward to Series 6 of ‘Downton Abbey’ and wonder where the main characters will go next.
Thanks for reading!
Bye for now!
Tim. 🙂
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