Downton Abbey

I know that I am behind the times on this, but I have begun binge watching Downton Abbey. I had never watch the show before because my local PBS station never really advertised when it first started being shown. I tried watching an episode out of sequence, but I just couldn't get into the show. I recently started from the beginning and I'm totally hooked.

First of all, I'm a big fan of several of the actors in the show. How can you not love Maggie Smith? I am also a big fan of Penelope Wilton who played the recurring role of Harriet Jones in Doctor Who. 

However, for years I have been an admirer of Allen Leech. In 2003 Leech played gay fashion designer Vincent Cusack in a little known gay movie called Cowboys & Angels. n 2007, Leech appeared in the HBO drama series Rome (another favorite show of mine) as Marcus Agrippa, Octavian's top soldier and friend. In 2010, he appeared on the small screen in The Tudors as the doomed Francis Dereham, former lover of Catherine Howard. Leech, of course, appears  as chauffeur Tom Branson, whose political ideologies clash with the upper class, on Downton Abbey. As an Irish actor, I figured it was appropriate to pay homage to Leech in this post on St. Patrick's Day.

I am about halfway through the third series, but I've fallen in love with the show. Each time I say how much I like the show someone asks me if I have seen the finale, but like I said, I am only halfway through the third series, so no spoilers please.

Happy St. Patrick's Day! I hope you are wearing your green.