Downton Abbey

Episode #1.2 - S1-E2

Question: How does Edith know that Mary and the Duke were in the men's quarters? I never saw her there. Only Bates sees them. Was she hiding? Bates wouldn't have told her.

Episode #1.4 - S1-E4

Question: Why does Daisy "take a turn" in Lady Mary's room? She never saw them take Pamook's body from Mary's room. She only saw them putting him back in his room, which is said to be "miles" away.

Answer: Word gets around. The staff are gossips amongst themselves, but those loyal to the family know who to keep secrets from and who they can trust to share in the knowledge.

Phixius

Answer: Lady Mary was one of the three women Daisy saw carrying Pamuk's body. Daisy realised he could not have died in Cora's (Lady Grantham) room, as she sleeps with husband Robert, nor would Cora and Mary ever help carry Pamuk from Anna's bedroom in the upstairs servants' quarters. Lady Sylvia and Lady Edith were completely unaware of what happened and Edith later quizzed Daisy for information. That left Mary, who everyone noticed was particularly distraught. Daisy could have overheard Thomas later telling O'Brien that he had shown Pamuk where Mary's bedroom was located (though he never saw Pamuk go inside).

raywest

Episode #1.1 - S1-E1

Question: Lady Grantham did not want electricity in the bedrooms, but near the end of the episode doesn't she turn out a light at her bedside while Lord Grantham blows out a candle?

Answer: It's possible it's a paraffin lamp. My grandparents have these for power cuts - There is a thick wick which can be raised or lowered by turning a little knob. This can make a brighter flame or cut it out entirely. The flame is covered with a glass tube and, for fancy versions, a lampshade fits over the top.

Episode #2.7 - S2-E7

Other mistake: When the dowager visits Matthew in his bedroom to tell him Mary is still in love with him before he goes through with marrying Lavinia, the curtains hanging behind Matthew are so wrinkled and creased just as curtains are when they come out of a package from the store. The crease lines are terrible! One would think set design would have steamed them as in real life, they would have been custom-made and certainly not folded up like that for shipping, thus never having creases like that.

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Season 5 generally

Trivia: Set in 1924, a set of publicity shots of the Series 5 cast members, new and old, were rolled out, and one shot in particular was quite revealing. Sitting on the mantelpiece behind cast members Hugh Bonneville and Laura Carmichael, who play the Earl of Grantham and Lady Edith, was a modern-day plastic bottle of water.

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