Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Downton Abbey/Upstairs Downstairs - Battle Of The Period Dramas

Oh yeah, let the battle commence as both period heavyweights release tantalising spoilers for their 2012 episodes.

While we have ages for Downton Abbey's third season to air, it's now been revealed that Shirley MacLaine has been cast as Martha Levinson, the mother of Lady Cora Grantham (Elizabeth Mcgovern) and we can expect her character to be clashing with Maggie Smith's Countess Violet of Dowager throughout the series. Filming for the third year begins in February with the series slated to air on ITV in September. Now that's an impressive coup for the series.

Not to be outdone, Upstairs Downstairs, whose second year begins airing next month for six weeks is set to have a lesbian relationship between Alex Kingston's character, Dr Blanche Mottershead and Emilia Fox's character Lady Portia Alresford as well as some other steamy affairs between the main characters. However it's been reported that Eileen Atkins will not be appearing in the second season of the show. I watched the first series over the Christmas and it's actually quite a decent show, so I'm intrigued to see where the second series goes.

Upstairs Downstairs Season 2 airs Sundays at 9pm on BBC1 from February 19th while Downton Abbey Season 3 will air on ITV from September.

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