Downton Abbey | The Downton Staff Impresses the King and Queen 

Well they did him right in the sequel.

He got his scene of dignity. You need to see the second Downton Abbey movie for it.

I think that the first part of his speech is full of dignity. He is proud of his house staff and speak loud for them. And even if he is made uneasy after because he wasn't supposed to speak, I think that everybody is aware of the deep truth of his words and the fact that he made things clear. The bow is a bit ridiculous but very touching too.

He's at his peak at the end of the 2nd movie

The bow or curtsy reminds me of Mr. Collins in "Of Pride and Prejudice." He too curtsied to Lady Catherine de Bourgh! @@delphinec9307 🤣🤣

That is the paternal grandmother of the late Queen Elizabeth II, the paternal great-great-grandmother of Prince William; she was a kind and dignified lady.

@@felinequeen9243Though not so kind to her own children.

It was not “cringeworthy” What the hell is it with people stuck in these shows that they adopt the stupid ideology dpeicted in them Like people can’t watch without agreeing with it

@@felinequeen9243and?

@@mareksicinski3726 Please familiarize yourself with contemporary usage of words in the English language. It will help you get along better with the rest of humanity. And Fun Fact: not EVERYTHING is political

Queen Mary is played by Geraldine James.

@@carolinewhiteside3631 I'm rewatching The Jewel in the Crown. Geraldine James plays a central role, as exceptional, compelling, magnificent as this small but delightful role in Downton Abbey.

@@shermaniac46 Check out her role as Marilla in Anne with an E & Milner in Utopia (Uk). Two excellent performances.

And she delivered it flawlessly.

Stop being such a sob sloppy complainer. He was great the way he is! The buffoon in me is as dignified as anyone who's polished. I love him the way he is and he loves himself too.

Yes! He doesn’t get enough praise for this expertly acted scene. The sheer terror, regret, and relief in his face. Just great!

Genuflects not curtsies

That's what I thought when I watched the film. However, Downto's staff, made it in a way that cannot be traced to them, otherwise the repercussions would have been dire ( no doubt they would have been thoroughly interrogated by the police and secret services)

I haven't seen the movie and this popped up as a random video in my feed. It makes sense now but I actually thought this was a class thing at first. Like going to a restaurant expecting a celebrity chef and getting the Sous-chef. I studied English history and should have realized the queen would come with her own chef. It's fascinating.

On the note of poisoning, the European royalties are very trusting of their staff and their hosts. Every other sovereign of another culture would have a taster who risked his/her life to ensure the safety of the sovereign.

@@michaelscampini1573I agree it is fascinating. I LOVE Victorian and Edwardian history, and most of British royal history for the first half of the 20th century. Alas, the golden age or royalty seems to have ended.

Lol! The idea that British royalty was fearful of being poisoned at this time is hilarious! And they ate all over the place - often at large official events away from home (including overseas) where people who weren't their staff did the cooking.

Wow thanks! I had been wondering since so long

woah thanks for this!!!!

Thank you! That is a good thing to know!

Yes, Geraldine James

Oh my god!!!!!

They are indeed

Shut up

Queen Mary was indeed known as quite a stickler for protocol--and I would guess also very aware that people might indeed "behave strangely" in the presence of royalty--I can imagne her reactng with just such a well-turned response.

It's Molesley 😂

That was more of a head dress and not a tiara.

Lol - why?! Even today, staff serving at a formal dinner wouldn't/shouldn't take it upon themselves to address the whole table of diners!

People work as waiters in every country in the world, even yours.

Oh, the utter hypocrisy of people like you! Have you never eaten in a hotel, restaurant, cafe, fast-food place? You'll be amazed to know there were (usually low-paid) people there to serve you, prepare your food and clean up after you. Have you ever stayed at a hotel or B&B? You'll presumably be amazed to know that there were people who cleaned your toilet, changed and washed your bedding and towels, dusted and vacuumed etc. Have you ever worked in any workplace? You'll be amazed to know that when you're not there people come and clean the kitchens and toilets you use, etc. Have you ever shopped in a shop, mall etc? You'll be amazed to know that outside trading hours people come and clean and restock them so that you can use them. Have you ever been served by anyone, anywhere, in any capacity?

Haven't you heard? They're better than everyone but the royals themselves.

Servants got their status from the status of their employers.

Whoa...so edgy. OMG man, you're elite...ELITE!!

Did you eat it?

@@clairenoon4070 Only a few times. The fish and chips were good, the cafe fare was not.

@@1hayes1 Lol! Fish and chips and cafes! This is your idea of 'English dining'? Are you from one of those places that struggles to even use cutlery? Give it a rest.

​@@clairenoon4070 I disparaged English food, not the dining. Please try to keep track. Or are you from one of those (outdated, imperialist, racist) places that cannot imagine eating food with means other than a set of three silver-plated metal tools?

@@1hayes1 Indeed, but my comment had moved onto you and your habits! Outdated to eat food with cutlery? That'll be pretty much the whole of Europe, then, plus large swathes of the rest of the world. Why would cutlery need to be silver-plated? Imperialist? The vast majority of people in this country were either children or weren't even born when Britain had an empire. I turned 18 in the 1980s. My family on my father's side were Irish. Struggling to see how 'imperialist' could possibly apply? Racist? That'll be the country that thousands of non-white people hand over their life savings to people-smugglers and risk their lives trying to get to in small boats across the Channel almost every single day. Despite already being in France and free to claim asylum there. Then there are the hundreds of thousands who arrive here via 'regular' processes - for example on student visas hoping to subsequently extend into residency, or because of existing family in the UK. Amazing, really, just how many people, from all over the world, would prefer to live here if they could. And for good reason. On full-time-equivalent salaries always below the UK national average, and with no other household income, I've been able to work part-time since my 40s and will never work full-time again. I have a glorious, civilised life. What really amuses me is that you were watching Downton Abbey in the first place!

Looking down on someone for finding joy in their work..how wonderful of you.

Nice to see the reddit r/antiwork crowd in the comments.

What a bitter person you are and narcissistic

Just because you think yourself better than a job does not mean a life was wasted doing that job. For most of these people, working in service was their only opportunity at something better than digging ditches or working as farm hands, and it was a skilled job that helped many of them go on to something better.

These were actually very highly regarded sought after jobs. They gave workers a place to live and free food and many of them did become very close to the families.

He's a servant. He spoke without being directly addressed, in a casual manner to a table which hosted the King and Queen. Such a thing back then would've gotten you dismissed. Servants never spoke to their superiors unless they were addressed first. I thought it was very out of character for Molesley. He'd been the butler to Mrs Crawley for years, and would have known to not speak so openly.

@@YorkshireNutte Within the historical and cultural context of the time your words make perfect sense. It is good to see things have been and continue to change and monarchs can be spoken to as normal human beings without the impression that one is speaking to a god!

And he is too nervous to act properly at the moment he knew the King and Queen would come to visit because his deep loyalty and addiction to the Monarchy. Anything he acted is something out of his excitment to see the Royal and be part of the acceptance.@@YorkshireNutte

Wow such a dumb pretentious culture if you ask me​@@YorkshireNutte

@@primeminister1040 Many cultural practices in the past are seen as pretentious and dumb according to today's norms, whereas they were perfectly fine and necessary at the time. Or even vice versa, people in the past would have looked at our fast food culture (USA, I'm looking at you) and shaken their heads in disbelief.

Edward VIII and that cold hearred witch he married, yes. But we got a better King in George VI.

When will some people understand this is set in another time? And people at that time thought like that??

This particular movie was set in a time almost exactly 100 years ago. There have been significant changes since then. This is a glimpse into another time, not the present.

This is a period drama lol, you know from a time in which you could just take pride in your work instead of seething with jealous outrage about people who have more than you

Serving the King and Queen meant you reached the highest point of a footman "career", meaning that person has mastered a skill. It's as if you were an academic and were made a Rhode Scholar. Things are relative, and you can take pride in the humblest of jobs.

It was a very different time then. For the most part, only those from wealthy families had the time and means to get a higher education. There was a definite division of the social classes. Have you seen the Rex Harrison movie, “My Fair Lady”? The time period portrayed is what the Dowager Countess would have felt very comfortable in. The fashion is different than that of Downton Abbey, but the division between social classes was very very similar. Having a job in a wealthy household provided wages to those from not-well-off families. The more a person learned and the more training he/she received = avenues of advancement = better wages. My lifelong career (outside of my home) has been in food service. From another person’s point of view, it’s not the most prestigious or most high paying. But I have enjoyed it! I graduated college with a B.A. in Home Economics, with a minor in Educational Theory. During student teaching, I decided my temperament was not suited to that profession. In fact, I get greater personal satisfaction from an average day as a school Lunch Lady than I ever did during the whole 5-6 weeks as a teacher.

They can't talk to them unless the king or queen directly addresses them. Same goes for almost any servant and their master.

No-one may speak with His/Her Majesty unless spoken to. This is a legitimate code of conduct. Followed to this day. This is to prevent and conserve the Monarch's time. To prevent unnecessary conversation.

Not just the royal family, in those diners they had to stay quite unless it's really necessary, like for serving since they are not supposed to listen to the conversation. A servant had to be discret and respect their privacy, plus he didn't bow like a gentlement, but like a lady XD

@@hblask4192 *quiet*

@@hblask4192 The conversation started with each woman at the table speaking to the person to her left for X number of minutes, then X number of minutes to the right, then reverse-led by the hostess changing in which direction she was speaking-and the subjects were things like the weather, the shooting, Lady so and so's flowers, their horses, riding, their dogs, hunting with their dogs, possibly the theater-but only innocuous plays-books-but only high minded and quite "moral" books, travel, and other pleasant and non controversial subjects.Praising the food and the wine were popular subjects as well. No drama, no secrets, no scandals, and no addressing the table at large except for the hostess "asking" if the ladies were ready to retire to whichever room was to be used for the after dinner conversation and *no* cross table talk. The same rules hold for formal dining even now. It was, and still is, possible to converse politely and without a word being said by anyone that could possibly be considered controversial or that might bring even a tiny breath of scandal about anyone present, even if the servants were disloyal enough to spread it abroad from the house. Formal dining conversation was, and still is, an art form. Anyone who could possibly be considered for an invitation to dine at a great house with nobility, and possibly royalty, had been taught this art from childhood. Any secrets anyone wanted to speak were reserved for places without servants within earshot and where complete privacy was assured. Informal dining with one's family had fewer people at the table, looser rules and talk around the table would be more general, including across the table and everyone participating and hearing every word, but still no scandal and no secrets in front of the servants.

He deserves an academy award at pulling it off so well. Most fans I know love this scene .

@@manna_bell Only if you love cringey so-called "humor". But it's an awful scene if you don't. Real humor does not have to rely on cringiness.

​@@DUCKDUCKGOISMUCHBETTERYou're a barrel of laughs aren't you?

@@Lana.S.Boyd49 Cringey so-called "humor" is not quality humor. And anybody who thinks otherwise, needs their attitude adjusted!