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Just how mad for Downton Abbey can you get?

By January 6, 2013 Performance

Is there anyone left who hasn’t seen Season 3 of Downton Abbey? Illegal downloads, friends who send tapes from Britain-it appears the merry few who gather tonight at my house for my Downton Abbey party may be the only ones left to watch tonight’s season opener on PBS!

My guests were told to dress “upstairs or downstairs ” ( a hat or an apron) and if I promise certain favours, I may entice hubby to be Carson the butler. We won’t look anything like that gorgeous cast or the Ralph Lauren models who traipsed about Highclere Castle to show off Lauren’s latest collection. The design house signed on last fall to become a presenting sponsor for Masterpiece Theatre. Lauren has created several new ads that will show up throughout Season 3 of Downton Abbey and various other Masterpiece series. This is the design company’s first television sponsorship.

The franchise is now “sold out” for corporate sponsorship for the first time since Exxon Mobil stopped underwriting the franchise in 2004. That’s Big Bird you hear exhaling. Ralph Lauren’s crew were not the only ones descending on the hit show’s opulent digs. Since Downton Abbey began, visitors to Highclere Castle have increased by 1000 a day although limited to certain times of year to accommodate the filming schedule and operation of what is still a working estate. The current owners of the estate no longer live in the castle but nearby in their own posh pad. The actual Highclere property is a working farm with several gorgeous gardens.

( You can feast on photos of them here)

Hit TV shows have often spawned this kind of cultural echo but how many of them have inspired this?

(My own gingerbread is looking lame.)

The whole tweedy mania began with Robert Altman who directed the superlative 2001 film Gosford Park.  The film was written by Julian Fellowes who scooped an Academy Award and decided then that a movie wasn’t enough.

I liked this film very much so it’s not much of a stretch to find me hosting a house party tonight. But you will have to guess what part I’ll play!

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