Downton Abbey – Nomad Authors Blog

TV shows of the century! Or at least, the one I like best #MFRWauthor

Favorite TV show of all time. Why?

That is a hard question when there have been, and are, so many wonderful TV shows.

I’m torn between three: –

Fawlty Towers, the hilarious British sitcom about the inept, rude, irreverent English hotel owner Basil Fawlty and his acerbic wife Sybil. Only two series of six shows each were made, each tightly scripted and very funny. My favorites are The Kipper and The Corpse, The Psychiatrist, and Basil the Rat.
The Bodyguard, the British political thriller about an army war veteran suffering PTSD now working for the Royalty and Specialist Protection Branch. The episodes were tense and absorbing, I was hooked.
Downton Abbey, about the trials and tribulations of the aristocratic Crawley family and their domestic servants. Maggie Smith as the Dowager Countess of Grantham was superb, but my favorite characters were Mr Bates, the Earl of Grantham’s valet and Anna Bates, lady’s maid.

I think Downton Abbey wins by a very short nose.

However, no such struggle for my daughter Leonie, her favorite TV show of all time is Friends. She has video copies of every series, she wears Friends pyjames, Friends T-shirts and just in case anyone has any doubts, there is a copy of the Friends framed print Aux Buttes Chaumont on her wall.

What do you think?

Read the next blog in the blog hop by going here.

Jan

Perilous Love
The Proposition
The Woman Behind the Mirror
Lies of Gold—Silver Historical for 2019: Coffee Pot Book Club

Character desires—Jan #MFRWauthor

As a reader what attracts you most to a character?

I think all of us want to read books with a captivating story and memorable characters, books we can’t put down until the last page.

I’m not attracted to the he-man with hot eyes, growling voice and the body of Adonis, or the luscious blonde with an impossible hourglass figure because they aren’t real.

It doesn’t matter if our choice is historical, modern or futuristic, I believe our characters should have faults and flaws, just like us. We can relate to how she’s feeling when those scales notch up another 5 pounds, smirk a bit when he finds a few more grey hairs, mutter ‘don’t be so damned stupid’ when they stuff up and feel happy for them when they come through.

Downton Abbey, the incredibly popular British drama television series, is a perfect example of wonderful true-life characters. Whether they were the aristocracy, the poor relations or below stairs servants, they were not plastic stereotypes, they were believable. Just the same as not wanting a good book to end, we hated saying goodbye to them.

I loved the Poldark series, based on the novels of the same name by Winston Graham. Those characters, with their strengths and weaknesses, held millions of people captivated until the final scene.