Downton Abbey 2: Carson & Lady Maud Is A New Era’s Best Meta Joke
Warning: SPOILERS for Downton Abbey: A New Era
The best meta joke inDownton Abbey: A New Era involved Carson (Jim Carter) and Lady Maud Bagshaw (Imelda Staunton). InDownton Abbey: A New Era, Lord Grantham (Hugh Bonneville) leads a contingent of the Crawley family to the South of France to learn why Lady Violet, the Dowager Countess (Maggie Smith) was willed a villa on the Riviera by a Marquis she knew in the 1860s. Meanwhile, Lady Mary (Michelle Dockery) looks after Downton while a British production company shoots a film at the castle. Carson and Lady Maud join the trip to the Riviera, which sets up a hilarious comedy beat about their real-life relationship.
Until he had to retire due to palsy at the end of the Downton Abbey TV series, Mr. Charles Carson was Downton's butler for decades. Later in the series, Carson fell in love with Mrs. Elsie Hughes (Phyllis Logan) and they married in Downton Abbey season 6. Elsie and Charlie moved into a cottage on the Downton estate and Carson trained his replacement, Thomas Barrow (Robert James-Collier), to become Downton's butler. This didn't stop Lady Mary from asking Carson to return to Downton during the King and Queen's visit in the 2019 Downton Abbey movie, which is where Lady Maud Bagshaw was introduced. Maud feuded with her cousin, Lady Violet, for years over the heir to the Brumpton Estate, which Maud planned to give to Lucy Smith (Tuppence Middleton), who was secretly her daughter. In Downton Abbey: A New Era, Lady Mary tricked Carson into accompanying Lord Grantham to the Continent so that the proud butler wouldn't interfere with the film production at Downton.
Related: A New Era's Ending Makes Up For Downton Abbey's Biggest Snub
The best meta joke in Downton Abbey: A New
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