Downton Abbey - S1 recs post

[thisbluespirit]

As promised! A recs post for DA S1 to tide us over until next Sunday. As always, in no way complete and obviously highly subjective etc.

Firstly, a great pimping post, in case anyone still needs convincing: 10 Reasons to Watch Downton Abbey

There, now you're convinced and been and watched it, here are some goodies. (Those who have already watched can go straight to them.)


Fanvids
General/Trailers
Downton Abbey - "Every breath you take" PROMO (ITV's own trailer.)
Downton Abbey Tribute by mrdammvan (S1 fanmade trailer/tribute.)
Downton Abbey: Pavanne by elleoneiram (Gorgeous tribute to the series.)
How Far Will You Go? by stylomatisch (Nicely made introduction to Episode 1 & the show's set up)
Downton Abbey Theme Tune (Full version of the theme by John Lunn.)

Humour/Parody/Mash-Ups
Mean Girls Trailer | Downton Abbey Style by Dawnofthedusk. (What it says. Brilliant editing.)

BBC's 2011 Comic Relief spoof (taking in Upstairs Downstairs, but mainly focused on Downton) starring Joanna Lumley, Victoria Wood, Kim Cattrell, Simon Cowell, Jennifer Saunders et al: Part one and Part Two.

Character Tributes
Lady Mary Crawley: Angel of the Morning by slc36
His evilness, Thomas the footman: Thomas ~ Downton Abbey by AmnotMexiCannot
The females of Downton: Downton abbey ~ She's Always A Woman by cherrycakesbaybee

Ships: Multi-ship vids
Remember Last Time by o0amish0o (Anna/Bates, Matthew/Mary, Sybil/Branson)
You Wait For Rain by KatSw3 (Anna/Bates, Matthew/Mary, Sybil/Branson)

Anna/Bates
Fast As I Can by favbacon
Falling Slowly by KincaidFan
Only Time by JoSiris69

Matthew/Mary
Hardest of Hearts by summersparkle2 (One of the best edited & gorgeous fanvids I've seen.)

Sybil/Branson
Swans by melodyofafallentree (Short but sweet)

Fanfic
Umbrella by cosmic_llin
(All ages, ficlet. Anna, John Bates, Daisy, Mrs Hughes, Mrs Patmore, Sarah O'Brien. Anna/Bates). Anna is out in the rain, and Bates worries. Charming snippet of fic.

A Matter of Some Importance by jusrecht
(All ages, 935 words. Violet, Dowager Countess of Grantham. AU. I hope.) Violet's secret life as an assassin. Yes, you read that right. Courtesy of NYR 2011.

And Then There Were Us by jusrecht
(PG/Teen. 5121 words. Thomas, Cora, Anna, John Bates, William, Daisy, Gwen, Edith Crawley, Tom Branson.) An AU reworking of Murder on the Orient Express with the Downton characters. It works surprisingly well.

Utopia by lorannah
(PG, 2180 words. Sybil Crawley, Tom Branson. Sybil/Branson.) Very shortly to be AU, but beautifully done nonetheless - Sybil and Branson meet again in 1916.

What Didn't Happen to Edith by Ankaret
(All ages, 1640 words, AU. Edith Crawley, Sir Anthony Strallen, Isobel Crawley, Violet, Dowager Countess of Grantham. Sir Anthony/Edith.) What the title says - and probably still my favourite Downton fic. The characterisation is excellent throughout.

Also, one that defies proper description:
Downtolly Abbers - Deletey Sceneloader A bit of Anna/Bates DA fanfic in Unwinese. Um. I cannot explain. But it is v v funny and brilliant. (All ages.) A second installment is here. (Clearly Brendan Coyle found it amusing while Hugh Bonneville was baffled.)

Other
There's a comm: downton_abbey - much of this post's contents was found there, so it's a great place for news, icons, fic, picspams, discussions, resources, spoilers, reaction posts etc. There's also a dedicated Downton Abbey Forum.

There's an Official Twitter (I know, and Mr Carson was having enough trouble getting used to the telephone...). If you're on Twitter, loves_glamour has compiled a list of all the main Downton-related Twitters

Images etc
Sybil and Branson have their own Tumblr.

buckbeakbabie has a beautiful and even-handed comparison picspam of Downton and the 2010 Upstairs Downstairs.

Resources etc
Let's Do the (Downton Abbey) Time Warp Again! by thelastcountess (a thoughtful and carefully observed 'essay' post on the passing of time during S1 - which dates eps are set on, and where the gaps are.)
A recommended list of books and online sources for historical info for Downton fanficcers (or those curious about the era).
birdienl has downloadable S1 screencaps

Comments

[persiflage-1.livejournal.com]

Never come across Prof Unwin before, but I laughed at both - and really wish Bates would say this to Thomas: Upstarty, snottly-nose troubly-makist. :D

[thisbluespirit]

Maybe next week he will!! :-D And I kind of knew about Stanley Unwin, except just as a guest character in a Carry On - I hadn't realised that was his signature act until I found the blog. Aw, glad you enjoyed it - it made me laugh when someone pointed me towards it.

[persiflage-1.livejournal.com]

Ah! That's why it sounded vaguely familiar - I must have caught whichever Carry On film he was in at some stage (my dad's got them all), but I knew I'd not seen the Blog before.

[thisbluespirit]

Yes. And it's Carry On Regardless he's in. (Apparently he said Kenneth Williams was the only other person he ever met who could do the Unwinese properly! Which isn't surprising, really... :-D)

[persiflage-1.livejournal.com]

No, it's not!

[jjpor.livejournal.com]

I am Looking Forward to It Quite a Lot, to be honest. Which is more than I can say about most non-Who-related telly for quite some time...

[thisbluespirit]

:-)

[emerald-happy.livejournal.com]

I'm so looking forward to it but annoyed it's at the same time as Spooks. I'm going to have to watch Spooks on iplayer and watch Downton Abbey on Sundays methinks....argh!

[thisbluespirit]

I know! What got into the BBC? (And, hey! Nice to see you again, btw. Hope you've been okay?)