A House of Ill Repute? | Downton Abbey 

It was more than sweet. It was a matter of saving the retirement plan of one of their most important and loyal employees.

The cut to Lady Mary and Anna cracking up in Mary's room was the funniest! 😄

It seems funny to us but, realistically, this wouldn’t be funny at all. A rumor like that could have ruined Mrs. Patmore’s business and cost her her life savings.

They left out Lady Mary laughing after being told by Anna that Mrs. Pattimore’s B&B is a “house of ill repute.”

but we can't blame carson. it's his job protecting the honour of the crawley family

@@mypersonalcamera7256 given he had literaly driven an underling to suicide that very same day I do blame him for his total lack of compassion for poor Mrs Patmore

@@marionarda2790 That particular underling very much had it coming. He was dastardly.

@@duckduckgoismuchbetter Carson once referred to that particular underling as “foul”, and living in a “revolting world.” As the time of this episode, Carson made him feel worthless and didn’t give him anything to do because Carson couldn’t wait to be rid of him. For you to say this underling DESERVED to attempt suicide is repugnant. Have your moral compass recalibrated.

@@davidthaler7018 Have your own moral compass calibrated! Mine is right where it should be. I am a sexual minority myself. But it does not alter my views on important matters. Nor should it. My "D" does not control my mind, as it does for you. Carsons views were/are the norm for especially that time, and including today, if you really get down to the truth with most people. And I would much rather have an honest enemy than a dishonest fair weather "friend." Unlike you, I do not want people to pretend to have views they do not really have deep down. And I am allergic to people seeking or giving fake "validation", just to be "giving it". I said Thomas deserved it, not because he was gay, but because he CLEARLY was a dastardly character. If you cannot see that, you are blind. I know you've got to have bad guys in a drama, or else you're not going to have much of a story, but that doesn't mean anyone has to embrace them. Nor does any sort of personal difficulty in their lives particularly, especially in this case, excuse very much or anything in their personal behavior. As for Carson, he was doing as instructed by his boss, to set in motion the trimming of staff expenses. He cut Thomas out of the work because that was what he was supposed to do. He didn't like Thomas, but Thomas was the opposite of likeable. And that was entirely the fault of Thomas, alone. Or Julian, if you want to be technical. If Carson had reacted to his knowledge of the personal proclivities of Thomas in ANY other way, he'd have been handling it in a completely fake way for the time period. In fact, the way Julian wrote Carson, he was FAR MORE accommodating to Thomas than the vast majority of people would have been, even 40 to 50 years later.

Also Mrs. Patmore's "he means me" was gold as well. And i dont know why as well 😂

You mean in the library? I think she was about to cry in gratitude. I certainly did.

@@annec6200 I said Mrs Hughes. Not Mrs Patmore.

@@nazgullord3198 yes you’re correct. I mixed up the 2 scenes! Mrs Patmore having a "house of ill repute" would be funny if it was true!!! But that being said, she could have flown under the radar if the 2 lovers hadn’t been caught!!! 😂

A century ago you'd find the worst snobs among butlers, chefs and housekeepers. They were terrified of scandals and ill repute. But then the behaviour of their masters and mistresses reflected on the staff. Poor mrs Patmore. She entered a minefield with her B&B.... 🤶🥧🍪

Carson can only find compassion for Lady Mary . The rest can burn

@@marionarda2790 Poor Carson. Having reached the top of the household ladder, there's no way further. He has studied and adopted the attitude of the gentry. But he will never become one of them. Also there's no wife (yet). No children. So he mentally adopts the Crawley's first born, Lady Mary, and becomes her champion. Carson probably felt the injustice of Lady Mary's position in the family. Being "just a girl". Not an heir to Downton....

@@marionarda2790 that's not true, he also loves Lord Grantham to a parasocial degree.

@@Miss-Nadia he worships him . Not love

Somehow, I found that scene is very well-written. Like every characters know each others so well.

Everybody laughed at the situation. Anna, Mary, Cora, Robert, Rosamund and even kind Isobel and Violet (Dowager). It was an unfortunate but funny situation. And they were laughing and not hushing away at it precisely because they were not snobbish.

What made the Anna & Mary scene even more funny was that right before it, Carson is telling Mrs. Hughes that he doesn't want the story repeated upstairs. Oops.... 😄

That scene was left out of this video.

He’s a snob, and at times heartless and unjust towards ‘his kind of people’.

I've been saying this throughout the entire show. I wish we had more employers like the Grantham family

She is amazing!

Oh yes she’s so sweet

Reminiscent of when they said they'd pay for her eye surgery and she apologized for needing to sit in their presence. 💖

Yes! That was so cute!

and that quick glance from robert as if thinking "are you ok?" i like how it worked out, even though the characters can be a bit at odds with each other, as long as they communicate it seems to work out, carson shows his loyalty to the family, the family shows its loyalty to mrs padmore, everyone doing what we hope/expect of them :-D though it is scary to think if rosamund hadn't thought of it nothing would have been done despite the well wishes of the family.

Brought tears to my eyes.

I love scenes between Mrs Patmore, Mrs Hughes, and Carson.

IIRC, in the first episode they weren't that close, but in the more than a decade that passed, they became best friends Enough so that Mrs. Hughes would send her on that little "errand" to Mr. Carson.

They became like sisters: their interacctions reminded me of those of my mother and aunt.

those two women are the heart and soul of the staff

He sees himself as the gatekeeper of sorts. Like Daisy can't address them without permission, but he can.

Good butlers are by nature snobs. They'd have to be snobs to be the kind of person who'd be so devoted and protective of the aristocrats

I agree. Too many times he showed no kindness or loyalty to his peers. Not one of my favorite characters. PEACE.

@@sheilaburns8977 sure, by 21st century standards but this is how servant servants lived a hundred years ago. Being in service was not just a job, it was a way of life that meant leaving home and staying away for years, maybe the rest of your working life. The butler had to be a fair man but he wasn’t there to be your friend. Having been n the military I understand the parallel. I found a lot to admire about Carson.

@@itsabovemenow1016 I think he was arrogant and downright cruel just look at how he treated Thomas in season 6

@@itsabovemenow1016 including his last line in the video’ he pushed Thomas to suicide and still doesn’t give him any respect the least he could do is refer to him as the under butler NOT the footman as that hadn’t been his job for many years

There was a scene that Daisy mentions again: “a house of ill repute,” and Mrs. Pattimore replies: “I know what it means, thank you.” Hilarious

And zero compassion for carson as usual .

@@marionarda2790 Carson puts perception of propriety above all. He wouldn't have lasted for decades and risen to the top of his profession, had he let personal affection cloud his judgment. Not saying he is right, far from it. Just that he believes what he is doing is correct. I think Carson massively overstepped his place by trying to tell the family what they can and cannot do.

@@robertmoore6149 it lets it affect his judgement . Since he was wrong . I get where he comes from . But I think the writers went a bit overboard with his complete lack of compassion in season 6 , with Mrs patmore , his own wife and " the suicidal footman in the attic" ( who hadn t been a footman for a decade btw)

@@marionarda2790 I think Carson is used to being basically the Lord of Downstairs. And he doesn't like his perception or ways of doing things to be questioned, by anyone. (Including the family) However he is still stung when told no.

@@marionarda2790 I think Carson still sees Thomas merely as a footman, regardless of his status or his prior attempts to mend his ways. But, to be fair, later in the episode, Carson does keep Thomas in the house to give him some relief about his future, and he admits to Lord Grantham his guilt about viewing him as nothing more than a heartless opportunist. Carson has a heart, he just prefers that nobody sees it.

Samantha Bond is ALWAYS a win!

Quite! Downton can be so comforting and comfort-taking at the same time 😂 Yes, Anna's attack had me sleepless for nights 😔

While I'm happy to see him called out, I actually suspect that this incident was more consistent with how Mr Carson viewed Ethel than an issue of a lack of courage

@@forgottenfamily not lack of courage. Lack of compassion

Carson puts the Crawleys up on a pedestal as he would have to as a butler. It has nothing to do with having no backbone. It has to do with him wanting to keep the family away from scandal. Adultery, children out of wedlock, divorce and such was a huge deal back then.

@@itsabovemenow1016 - That's literally him having no figurative backbone. It's Carson thinking the family is fragile. A plant that does not grow fighting the wind will grow up weak.

@@jpaxonreyes Uh… it’s 1924.

He definitely became harsher and less likeable in the later seasons.

Part of his character was always to show that he was trained to always do the what he thought was the right thing and he is a bit like an over protective dog when it comes to the family. I think his character is a man that cares deeply and struggles to show it in the right way. We do see some tender scenes, like his comfort of Lady Mary and his fondness for Mrs Hughes. I do agree however, that in this scene I very much was hoping someone would say “oh do shut up Carson!” 😁

@@mariafury1047 Oh the character is played well for sure. I do enjoy that when is being unreasonable, he is infuriatingly so. 😄 I suppose he also has to be that way to balance out the more "liberal" ways of thinking Downstairs.

@@mariafury1047 I know its subtle, but I feel like Lord Grantham does just that in the scene with Mrs Patmore in the Library as she's leaving. Carson certainly wasnt roasted over the coals to be sure, but he knew then and there that he had pushed too far.

Carson's role is to speak for the aristocracy and oppose the change, thus making the Family look good when they do good deeds 😁 someone had to be the "villain"

Yes. That was the best part!

@Gerard Collins - Not to argue but, rather to converse about the matter, I think this is a cleaned-up approximation of what would have been expected in this post-Edwardian era. After Edward VII's well-documented affairs with women like Lillie Langtry, and before the ongoing dissipations of Edward VIII with Wallis Simpson and so many others, it was not shocking for the royals. However, the aristocracy worried more that their titles might be revoked if the monarch felt there was real profligacy afoot that could weaken the hold of the ruling classes on property, loyalties. However, in the village the impostor and his inamorata pretending to be a local physician and his wife would have been quite the scandal when the divorce papers hit the news. And in accordance with "you are known by the company you keep," the B&B would have come to be known as a nice "back street" sort of place for illicit lovers to meet without fear of the town's most virtuous or aristocratic personages broadcasting it as self-appointed town criers, assuring no one missed there were others than David, Prince of Wales, who were getting all sorts of action. Things were changing after WWI, but not so fast that the local villagers in most places would benefit from changes.

The butlers often were/are

That’s because Downton is royalist propaganda. I love it but that doesn’t change the fact that it is purposely painting the wealthy aristocrats in the best possible light. Noblesse oblige IS a negative term, because it never functioned the way Downton implies. “Special rich people feel-good charity” never solved anything like simply paying your fair share of taxes does.

Are there any examples in real life where a wealthy family put its public reputation on the line to protect a servant? I can't see the events in this video playing out in real life.

You would’ve broke n your telly at the Christmas special

Yes, he danced with her when he brought the news that Anna was in the clear for Green's death. He might have liked her, but the topic would have been uncomfortable for any man to discuss with a woman in those days. 😀

I think what they found so funny was that Mrs. Patmore was the very LAST person one would suspect of running a house of ill repute. Lady Violet is more likely to run one, than virginal/innocent Mrs. Patmore. It's utterly laughable.

@@vbrown6445 you're absolutely right. The reason the punchline in most jokes is funny is because it's utterly ridiculous and contrary to all expectations.

So when this originally aired I paused this scene to google what a “house of ill repute” was. When I discovered it was an antiquated term for whorehouse I literally CRIED laughing. The thought it Mrs. Patmore running a whorehouse is so ridiculous it calls for laughter.

They never laughed at her. And yes, it was funny due to the reasons the others have mentioned. When I saw Lesley Nicol call her husband a c*nt on "The Boys", I couldn't stop laughing because I remembered her as Mrs. Patmore.

They tried to help though so they were not cruel . The only cruel one here was Carson