Downton Abbey's Battle Against Technology | Downton Abbey

Experience the Crawley family and their loyal staff grapple with the relentless march of technological progress in the 20th Century. From the arrival of the telephone to the invention of the wireless. While these technologies are so common place today, how will the inhabitants of Downton Abbey react to these novelties?
Clip From:
00:00 Season 02 Episode 05
00:40 Season 03 Episode 04
01:21 Season 01 Episode 04
01:45 Season 04 Episode 05
02:11 Season 01 Episode 07
03:04 Season 01 Episode 01
03:33 Season 01 Episode 07
04:20 Season 04 Episode 01
04:50 Season 01 Episode 07
05:25 Season 04 Episode 05
05:56 Season 05 Episode 02
This is the official KZbin channel for Downton Abbey. Immerse yourself in the much loved British historical drama, relive some of your favourite moments and tragedies and keep up-to-date with the latest news!
The costume drama series, Downton Abbey, written and created by Oscar-winning writer Julian Fellowes, stars Academy Award-winner Maggie Smith as a Dowager Countess of an Edwardian English country house in 1912. The series portrays the lives of the Crawley family and the servants who work for them, in a time before the last vestige of a century’s old tradition were stripped away by World War and the modern age. The all-star cast also includes Hugh Bonneville and Elizabeth McGovern.
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[@bhinoyj]

The way the dowager speaks on the phone. Brilliant acting by Maggie Smith ...

[@m.layfette6249]

"Is this an instrument of communication or torture?!?"

[@wchopkins6653]

The Leeeeds Gennrall Infuuuuurm'arry... lol

[@coyotesayswhat]

Edith thought so too I was watching her expression.

[@sunflowerz54]

I totally agree. She is a Marvel

[@Circa1628]

why do british lords and ladies have such funny nicknames?

[@m.layfette6249]

"Well my lady, I wouldn't mind getting rid of me corset."

[@Robert08010]

And the patience in Cora's eyes... it was priceless.

[@petermacleod5710]

Dame Maggie was given absolutely the best lines in the history of scriptwriting

[@danielvanr.8681]

2:33 "The telephone is not a toy!" .... Och, Mr. Carson, if only you were still around to see the year 2024... 😂😂

[@volkmar9638]

Just think how people in 2124 will be amused by watching us and our technology ;)

[@12classics39]

You can tell Laura Carmichael is trying with all her might not to crack up watching Maggie Smith on the phone and who can blame her? 😂

[@nicolasdiez7688]

Specially in 0:20; 0:25 you can see she was about to laugh but held back with all her might 😂

[@AlbertoGarcia-wd7sc]

In fact she said she corpsed in that scene but they thought Edith would find it funny so they left it there

[@momo-castella]

How lovely Granny is ,struggling with a telephone! I love her so much!

[@kellicoffman8440]

Not much has changed “is this a instrument of communication or torture “

[@Kelaiah01]

"Well I daresay the things you do sound stupid to other people!" True words, Mr. Carson. True words.

[@Bergen98]

If you think about it, the servants had difficulties with it because those technologies posed a literal existential threat to them. With electric mixers you didn't need a lot more extra kitchen maids, with telephones - extra servants/hall boys to run small errands and with refrigerators, all those dairy maids and even cooks were becoming obsolete.

[@tobynsaunders]

"Daisy, may I ask *why* you have purchased a vibrating massage instrument?" -"It's... for me shoulder. I think I've pulled it." "I see. Well, I shall hope that this device will suit your needs." -"Yes, Mr. Carson. I'm sure it will. Thank you."

[@Robert08010]

I seem to remember a similar scene in MadMen when a certain young woman was asked to test a product. It didn't at all behave itself in an appropriate manner.

[@Robert08010]

Carson reminded me a bit of the Bucket Woman... oh pardon me, Mrs Bouquet answering her telephone.

[@kellicoffman8440]

it’s bouquet 💐 lady of the house speaking

[@nicolasdiez7688]

"Why does every day involve a fight with an American?" 😂😂😂 Poor Violet, every day she has to struggle with Cora, also when Mrs Levinsons goes for a visit, and now an american invention 😂😂😂

[@morbius109]

I can imagine such battles happened on a regular basis in the post-Victorian Era as older people tried to understand such newfangled devices as the telephone or the electric light. I remember how my paternal grandfather was completely befuddled by the desktop computer my parents bought in the early 1990s. He was born in 1918 and the closest thing to a “computer” they had in those days was an NCR cash register, haha.

[@xr6lad]

The first scene is totally not believable. By the time this is set, 1915ish plus. Phones had been around for 20-25 years. They were hardly new. And the Dowager would have used one by now. We even had them in Melbourne, Australia in the 1880’s.

[@catherineball5071]

​@xr6lad phones in private houses weren't widespread in the UK until the 1950s and 60s. People mostly used payphones in the first half of the century. My grandmother didn't have one when she first got married in 1955 and they weren't poor.

[@XSilver_WaterX]

Before WW2, everyone in Europe was CONDITIONED to be an Imperialist and Traditionalist as they saw technology fairs as waste of perfectly good servants (slaves) and honor-bound ideals (lethal sword battles on pettiness).

[@nicolasdiez7688]

Carson and Lady Grantham's fightd against technology were the best of Dowton Abbey 😂😂

[@ctheflower7818]

Downton's Entire Cast is Absolutely PRICELESS ❤👍❤

[@Annamac22]

The fact that I can quote everything they say as they say it should tell me I've watched this show way too many times

[@apryll48]

Don’t feel bad! I’ve watched this entire series an ungodly amount of times 😂

[@m.layfette6249]

"I wouldn't touch that thing with a 10 foot pole."

[@jayt9608]

They young always embrace technology and drag along their unentusuastic elders, at least until such a time as the young are the elders and being dragged along. The older I get, the more my sympathies lie with the elder members of the house.

[@princessofarchetypes3870]

Amen to that!! I’m 56 and it took me years to get a smart phone

[@rustythegreatandpowerfulla2676]

Well, when you realize that the inventions of that age will likely be the end of us, you aren't wrong.

[@Robert08010]

That's as it should be. Carson would definitely tell you that.

[@amethystanne4586]

@@princessofarchetypes3870my first cell phone = $24.95(USD)/month for 30 minutes/month. It’s a better world in most aspects.

[@amethystanne4586]

Watching Downton Abbey gave me an idea of the life style of my grandparents. They would have been age peers of Mary, Edith, and Sybil, having been born in 1889, 1890, 1891, and 1901. My mother’s parents were married in June 1912, 2 months after the Titanic’s sinking. My Dad’s parents married in 1917, just before Grampa was deployed to France.

[@carolineandrews7231]

Love Maggie Smith as the Dowager, I've watched her and all Downton over and over and see their brilliant acting every time. Edith-Laura said she had to fight to contain her laughter in the phone scene, she did well to hold herself together!

[@momo-castella]

So true! At the same time I envy Laura, who had a chance to see such a wonderful acting in person. My grandmother is nearly 100 years old and she talks exactly like the Dowager did on a phone, even my grandma is a Japanese!

[@Awesomeautisticgirl]

Mrs Patmore was never keen on modern changes

[@m.layfette6249]

"But she can take it over to the laundry, or Better still chuck it out all together."

[@thomasplinguidy4588]

As Thomas pointed out: She is not exactly a futurist 🤣🤣🤣

[@Awesomeautisticgirl]

@@thomasplinguidy4588 Exactly

[@rustythegreatandpowerfulla2676]

She wasn't wrong about most of them being out of a job though.

[@themermaidstale5008]

I love the excitement displayed by the ones who are embracing this exciting new technology.

[@stephenwinter8892]

Modern technology even at this year of the century seems to have baffled everyone but that is progressive world greetings from Canada 🇨🇦

[@Wcianetworksupporter]

Torture yes Telephones turned out to be the Dark Mirror! What cha think Lady Dowager? Frightful ? Yes!

[@kellicoffman8440]

She was spot on it still is

[@Shadowkey392]

Love those old candlestick phones. I actually have two, one of which is genuine (sadly it probably doesn’t work)! The other is a more modern phone from the 70s or 80s designed to LOOK like a candlestick phone.

[@user-ix1rp9ff3p]

never realized an electric Singer was already realized in the early 20th century, thought it was still either foot-pedaled or hand-cranked

[@oldmanjim2376]

Singer introduced the first practical electric machine in 1889

[@chuckfinley4757]

I'm watching this on my useful and valuable tool preventing me from going back to work.

[@diannaclarke2758]

When Carson came in at the end. Even Lady Rose left.

[@Diamondelle84]

Imagine If Carson was around for the TV 😏

[@suzannequinlan1129]

Fabulous series and movies 👍👍👍

[@tomjardine-smith2793]

Laura Carmichael does so well to keep it together in that first scene. Passing off what looked to be developing into a fairly catastrophic break of character as a smile of exasperation in-character. Oscar-worthy 😂

[@mygrammieis]

Awesome Show 👏👏👏

[@ctheflower7818]

I ADORE Maggie Smith 😊

[@WomenofWealthLuxury]

3:07 Our favorite moment. Long live the Lady Dowager Countess of Grantham!

[@wrenchinator9715]

Love how, despite being resigned to having to deal with an American invention, she's damned if she lets them beat her (with a chair no less)

[@georgeprchal3924]

Carson: Well what are you wearing? Them: A cardigan? Carson: Get off my phone!

[@Mandelbrotmat]

"Darkness called!!!!... But I was on the phone, so I missed him. I tried to *69-Darkness, but his machine picked up. I yelled "Pick up the phone, Darkness!," but he ignored me. Darkness must have been screening his calls."

[@ADRIS_CSC]

❤❤❤❤

[@TheWolfHowling]

2:30 And now we are using our telephones to look at photos of people's pets or argue with other people on the Internet while we're, shall we say, biologically required to sit down for a few minutes.

[@tomb7942]

And people think I'm backwards because I won't buy the latest cell phone.

[@user-ix1rp9ff3p]

can relate

[@rick0e295]

What is this insipid device? It is most provoking and vexatious and frankly makes us Quite Cross! 🎉 🏆. LOL from DownTURN abbey 😉

[@edwardcatt2399]

The older you get the more you empathize 😅

[@PrincessGirl8908]

I'd like to see a video of William Mason. He was pushed around badly by Thomas.

[@asteverino8569]

I am happy that we still use phones, for now.

[@Marist_Chanel]

The older I get, the more I seem to relate to Carson.

[@hpavalferr7201]

😊 💙 💯

[@ladyanime100]

I can certainly relate to their resistance. I don't like the current tech in the 21th century. I still don't have an alexa in my house. It also took me years to get used to DVDs and ipods.

[@chasegordonn]

Vapors seeping about.

[@xr6lad]

The first scene is totally not believable. By the time this is set, 1915ish plus. Phones had been around for 20-25 years. They were hardly new. And the Dowager would have used one by now. We even had them in Melbourne, Australia in the 1880’s.

[@rafaelyaguaro2842]

You could argue that it was how Downton was run, trying to remain as it was. I find that the series has a lot of those themes of the future creeping up on people who are afraid of change. Also, I don't remember, was it said how many year has passed since the former Earl, Robert's father, has passed? It could be that Robert and Cora were the ones who brought change to Downton, and that's why the telephone is a new thing in the House. The Dowager seems like the kind of women who wouldn't like her life to be disturbed by the "silly" things as the telephone.

[@beaubrent]

We are all about to be replaced by AI, so this hasn't changed much.

[@lucianasalles7272]

👒👑🤚

[@lucianasalles7272]

☕🍩