It is both, it just depends on where it was viewed. It ran for two hours (120 minutes) with commercials when first broadcast on ITV in the UK. In the US, it runs on PBS commercial free (begathons notwithstanding <g>), and therefore runs 93 minutes.
A little more distant, but Eleanor Roosevelt was a 5th cousin to FDR (as well as the niece of Teddy Roosevelt). Like Mary,with Matthew, she had no need to change her name upon marriage either.
Blue eyes are the absence of pigment, thus brown cannot underlie it. The eye colour of the respective grandparents is irrelevant since what is known is that Robert and Cora only received the recessive blue genes, at least with regards to simple Mendelian inheritance.
Of course there can be more to it, as discussed further up in the thread.
Largely correct as percentages, the casualty ratio for junior officers was about 17%, vs 10% for enlisted soldiers. However the officer to enlisted ratio was about 1:30, and as high as 1:45 for infantry. So in shear numbers, the lower classes did suffer significantly greater loses. Also, while the elite public schools had very high casualty rates among their graduates, junior officers more often came from the middle class than the aristocracy. It is also true that in the war years, many of the elite schools did have near 100% participation rates among their graduates in the military.
There was a note about a headmistress that in 1917 told to the girls of her school that only 1 of 10 could be married, the answer: because all the men in ther class have died in combat. In the series Sybil said something about all boy with she danced once were dead, also Edith says something similar. The fact remain that a woman in their ages could only get married to a man of lower social class (Mary-Talbot) or to a very old man (Edith-Strallan).
That was the senior mistress of Bournemouth High School For Girls. It was a bit of an exaggeration, at least in general. I have not found statistics specific to the aristocracy or upper class, however.
The crests are not props but actual features of Highclere Castle, thus any correlation with the number of Crawley Earls would be entirely coincidental.
That was actually brought up in one of the behind the scenes specials. Typically the bells would each have individual tones, but in the show they do not. Of course it will continue to move for a short time after ringing, so that would be one way to tell.
The ordinality of Earls does not necessarily go in strict accordance with generations. For example, in the case of George, the title will skip a generation because the title holder (Robert), outlived the only heir (Matthew) of the next generation.
One of the problems is that the contemporaneous Highclere castle had about three times as many servants as represented in DA. The kitchen staff, for example, consisted of a chef, a sous chef, three cooks, and a requisite compliment of kitchen maids. There were 12-14 butlers, under butlers and footmen, and a small army of maids of various types.
Due to both labor saving technology and financial exigency, staffs were reduced over the time period represented in DA which does show it relatively in proportion, but the reduction highlights just how understaffed DA is relative to actual large estates of the time.
Wow, Forbes is using this forum post as a reference. :)
A logical guess is that in the first series, before the war, the staff size was large enough that all but the senior members of staff had to double up. Through and after the war, the staff, if not the cast size, would have both been reduced and more members of staff would either come in from town or have cottages on the estate. As a result, fewer people would need to double up.
By the last series, even Andy had his own room. Presumably that would be the case with the remaining female staff as well.
As an aside, the butler would typically sleep with the silver and wine, to see to it that nothing got stolen, since it was his head if it did. DA shows his room to be up with the other male staff.
In a grand house like Downton, a valet would not generally be called upon for those duties. See here , for example.
My mother, who never died her hair in her life, had no discernable grey into her 60s, although her hair is much lighter than that of 54 year old Elizabeth McGovern.
It is well known since the beginning that Fellowes updated the language to appeal to modern audiences. This article describes many of the linguistic anachronisms and Americanisms found in the early series.
To be fair, many films and shows, including renditions of Beowulf, works of Shakespeare, etc. often use modern language despite the period in which they are set. For many audiences, they would be very difficult to follow if the language were not updated, so what has been done in DA isn't exactly outrageous.
Anna and Mrs. Hughes appear to have figured it out from the picture found after the fire. It is not clear whether they have told anyone else, including Mr Bates, however there has been no indication that anyone else below stairs knows.