January 24,2016
by Fr. James Martin, SJ
Like many other Jesuits I know (including many in my community), I’m a big fan of “Downton Abbey.” This is the case even though, as I wrote during its first season, I sometimes feel guilty about enjoying a show that is, in essence, all about England’s one percent enjoying their perks.
One of the charms of this wonderful show is its almost slavish insistence to authenticity. There was even a recent BBC special (which I watched, dutifully) about the man whose sole job it was to ensure the absolute authenticity of the show. The dress, the posture, the way that the family and the downstairs staff would eat, how the butler (not to mention the sub-butler) would behave in the presence of a lord or lady, and so on, are all the source of scrupulous attention. Nothing is left out, seemingly.
Which leads to one obvious question about recreating this period between the wars: “Where’s God?”
This was especially obvious at the long-awaited wedding, last night, of Mr. Carson and Mrs. Hughes (now Mr. and Mrs. Carson). There they were, in a lovely stone chapel, with a vicar pronouncing a Trinitarian blessing over their rings, “In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost.”
It was striking. Because all three of them have been otherwise absent from the series, now in its final season.
If you’ve read any books written at that time, or written about that time, you’ll find an England steeped in, well, religion. This is not to say that everyone was religious, or that some of the gestures were not simply window dressing, but many books of the time talk about vicars and chapels and Christianity quite regularly.
To wit, I’m currently rereading some of P.J. Wodehouse’s “Jeeves and Wooster” stories, which are roughly contemporaneous, and there are more than a few vicars, vicar’s nieces, and vicarages peppered throughout. It was simply part of the atmosphere. It’s just as much an element of Bertie Wooster’s world as the Drones Club. (E.g., “‘There is the risk, of course that the vicar will recognize him….’ said Gussie broodingly.”) Or read “To Serve them All My Days,” by R.M. Delderfield, another novel, set in an English boarding school, which takes place during the same period. One of the main characters, Algy Herries, is an Anglican vicar.
So where is religion in “Downton Abbey”? Yes, I know we’re not at Brideshead (and yes, I know, not Anglican) but why do we never see Lord Grantham and his family saying grace before meals, even perfunctorily, as they surely would have? Why are they never at church on Sundays? After all, they have a chapel on the grounds of their estate, as far as I can tell. Why, in conversations about the right thing to do (which is about half the show) don’t they talk about, as they surely would have, the “Christian thing” to do?
In short, where, as this article wonders pointedly, is the vicar? https://the-toast.net/…/watching-downton-abbey-with-an-hist…/
Most likely, this is a case of the producers not wanting to offend the sensibilities of the English and American audiences. But it is interesting that authenticity only goes so far.
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