Who are the privileged owners of Downton Abbey, the English country estate at the heart of the famous TV drama? In the minds of the tens of millions of fans of the series, which was first broadcast in 2010 and set around 100 years earlier, Downton will always belong to Robert and Cora Crawley, 7th Earl and Countess of Grantham. Continue reading “The Real Lord and Lady of Downton Abbey”
When is a hobby more than just a hobby? When it’s a way of moving up in the world…
Research conducted for the Great British Class Survey suggests how you spend your free time significantly affects your social status. Hobbies, in the words of Philip Trippenbach, the survey’s producer, ‘are an actual mechanism for obtaining and maintaining social advantage. They are a key means of exercising power and influence in today’s society.’ Continue reading “Aristocratic Hobbies – Spend Your Spare Time like Lords and Ladies”
The festive edition of BBC One’s comedy Ghosts is a highlight of the 2020 Christmas TV schedule. The episode, titled ‘The Ghost of Christmas’, promises to deliver the same wonderful blend of humour and poignancy that won Ghosts millions of fans over the course of two seasons (a third is in the pipeline) and led to the press crowning it ‘British telly’s best sitcom’.
Continue reading “How the Crumbling Button Hall Inspired the BBC Series Ghosts”
