Downton Abbey: Episode 1.2

Downton Abbey: Episode 1.2
ITV
9 January 2011
Historical Drama
DVD
B-

This is arguably a better episode than the premiere, but I was too squeamish for the medical scenes.  The local hospital is the scene of some of the jockeying and readjusting that the characters do as the new heir-- a middle-class lawyer-- and his ex-nurse mother arrive in the village.  And of course there are further romantic complications, as well as the butler having a surprising but not too scandalous background.  (He was in the music halls!)

Kevin Doyle and David Robb debut as respectively Joseph Molesley and Dr. Clarkson.  Andrew Westfield makes his first of two back-to-back appearances as Lynch, while Fergus O'Donnell and Cathy Sara would return the following season as John Drake and Mrs. Drake.  Nicky Henson wouldn't be back until Season Four as Charles Grigg.  Ben Bolt would direct the following episode as well, and he'd already directed the Doc Martin TV-movie I watched part of.