Well, big, bloody and involving finish! But I found it difficult to concentrate sometimes. Sort of used to the unconsciously AmE language or the stuff just used without a thought by young people as normal BrE, "raise" for "rise", "call her" for "ring / phone her", "do you have his address?" etc. I don't think I heard "Can I get a tea?" but probably will in next Downton.
But the last episode had someone "whose stock has crashed", "Westminster is running scared", a "nooclear" (or was it "noocular"? ), several "Piss off!"-s (one shouted down the phone and seeming rather modern), and, interestingly, "no lon(g)er" with silent g, not often heard on the BBC until "the Stron(g)est Link"*. I used to muse whether the last was an idiosyncrasy of Ms Robinson, possibly after elocution lessons in Lancashire, or the Wirral or somewhere.
But this is strangely anticipatory, retrospectively anachronistic. Or is it? Aren't anachronisms usually retrospective? What's the oppositte of anaphorically? Maybe cataphorically? Why is this one particularly disturbing? What am I talking about late at night? I am confused. And don't start me on the glasses / specs.
A shame as it all distracts from all the important and worthwhile elements, not least the interesting casting - a very beautiful but implausibly fragile Producer, for example, who, while fascinating me, made me wonder what the impressive Anna Chancellor would have done in that role. Detracts and distracts, too, from the powerful and admirable acting.
* A phrase used on BBC TV quiz show "The Weakest Link".
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