More S2 spoilers courtesy of Yorkshire Post
Fairly long article, which incorporates previous articles & interviews (from the press pack) and fresh new details (mostly about the men, ie. Robert, Matthew, Carson, William). Would like to have some other source back it up, but here's what caught my attention in any case (let me know if I missed anything):
[...] It’s made clear from the outset of the new series that Downton Abbey is a stately home in Yorkshire. [...] within minutes of the new series opening we are left in no doubt about where we are. And to cap it all, the master of the house, the Earl of Grantham (played by Hugh Bonneville) becomes the Lord Lieutenant of the County. [...]
The wider context is now the middle of the First World War and a fictional Yorkshire regiment is woven into the story. The heir to the Earldom, Matthew Crawley, has enlisted, been made an officer, and gone off to fight. The servant William Mason, beau of scullery maid Daisy, remains at home, forbidden by his elderly father to join the forces. But when he’s handed a white feather and called a coward he makes for the nearest recruiting office and on the Western front he encounters the gilded Crawley. The two are swept up in the Battle of the Somme and are reported missing. [...]
“What gave me the greatest delight”, [Alistair Bruce] says, “is that they asked me to invent a completely new and fictional regiment that the Earl of Grantham could have served in.
“So I came up with the North Yorkshire Volunteers, of which he is Colonel-in-Chief, and which I stationed in Richmond.
“There’s a formal mess dinner going on, and the Earl assumes that he will soon be leading his men in France. It was such a lot of fun researching everything and making it all look authentic, right down to the cut of the jacket, the caps, the badges and the tunic buttons.”
It certainly passed muster so far as Hugh Bonneville, playing the Earl of Grantham, is concerned.
“I must say that the uniform of the North Ridings that Alistair concocted was wonderful to wear and it was beautifully tailored and cut,” says Hugh. “It looks so authentic and I hope that it finds a home in a display somewhere. It really does inform you, as an actor, because you stand in a different way and it makes you straighten your back.
“Sadly, those scenes which were supposedly in Richmond are actually in some rather beautiful buildings in central London, more’s the pity.” [...]
Jim Carter says that his character, Carson, the loyal butler, has an ambivalent reaction to the war. “I’m sure that he’s an extremely patriotic man”, says Jim.
“But I think that he feels that having many of his male staff desert him and his Lordship is frightfully inconvenient, and that running a big house with maids, instead of footmen, serving at meal-times just isn’t on.
“The routine to which he adheres is upset and the demarcation between jobs gets horribly blurred. He believes in the status quo, but he’s also the sort of man for whom the phrase ‘Keep calm and carry on’ could have been invented.
“In the face of almighty odds, he remains the same - he doesn’t bend a lot. And because of all the extra pressures, his health starts to suffer. Anxiety kicks in, it’s a nightmare for the poor man, and then, indignity of all indignities, he collapses while supervising dinner in the main dining room…
[...] It’s made clear from the outset of the new series that Downton Abbey is a stately home in Yorkshire. [...] within minutes of the new series opening we are left in no doubt about where we are. And to cap it all, the master of the house, the Earl of Grantham (played by Hugh Bonneville) becomes the Lord Lieutenant of the County. [...]
The wider context is now the middle of the First World War and a fictional Yorkshire regiment is woven into the story. The heir to the Earldom, Matthew Crawley, has enlisted, been made an officer, and gone off to fight. The servant William Mason, beau of scullery maid Daisy, remains at home, forbidden by his elderly father to join the forces. But when he’s handed a white feather and called a coward he makes for the nearest recruiting office and on the Western front he encounters the gilded Crawley. The two are swept up in the Battle of the Somme and are reported missing. [...]
“What gave me the greatest delight”, [Alistair Bruce] says, “is that they asked me to invent a completely new and fictional regiment that the Earl of Grantham could have served in.
“So I came up with the North Yorkshire Volunteers, of which he is Colonel-in-Chief, and which I stationed in Richmond.
“There’s a formal mess dinner going on, and the Earl assumes that he will soon be leading his men in France. It was such a lot of fun researching everything and making it all look authentic, right down to the cut of the jacket, the caps, the badges and the tunic buttons.”
It certainly passed muster so far as Hugh Bonneville, playing the Earl of Grantham, is concerned.
“I must say that the uniform of the North Ridings that Alistair concocted was wonderful to wear and it was beautifully tailored and cut,” says Hugh. “It looks so authentic and I hope that it finds a home in a display somewhere. It really does inform you, as an actor, because you stand in a different way and it makes you straighten your back.
“Sadly, those scenes which were supposedly in Richmond are actually in some rather beautiful buildings in central London, more’s the pity.” [...]
Jim Carter says that his character, Carson, the loyal butler, has an ambivalent reaction to the war. “I’m sure that he’s an extremely patriotic man”, says Jim.
“But I think that he feels that having many of his male staff desert him and his Lordship is frightfully inconvenient, and that running a big house with maids, instead of footmen, serving at meal-times just isn’t on.
“The routine to which he adheres is upset and the demarcation between jobs gets horribly blurred. He believes in the status quo, but he’s also the sort of man for whom the phrase ‘Keep calm and carry on’ could have been invented.
“In the face of almighty odds, he remains the same - he doesn’t bend a lot. And because of all the extra pressures, his health starts to suffer. Anxiety kicks in, it’s a nightmare for the poor man, and then, indignity of all indignities, he collapses while supervising dinner in the main dining room…