“Downton” Rips Off “Mrs. Miniver”
My friend Erica Silverman, who her whole life has aspired to be like Greer Garson in “Mrs. Miniver”, points out to me that the flower-show rivalry in this past Sunday’s “Downton Abbey,” which occasioned the sharp exchange in an earlier LW posting today, was lifted from that 1942 Oscar winner for Best Picture. In that movie, Mrs. Miniver, played by Garson, arranges for the village’s actual best gardener to win the flower-show prize instead of it going to the dowager-like Lady Beldon (Dame May Whitty). This is a shameless steal on the part of “Downton”‘s creator, Julian Fellowes. But as Martin Luther said, “Sin bravely!”
Good call on the Mrs. Miniver ripoff. When I started watching this show I thought I was waching Pride and Prejudice. Then I thought it was The Shooting Party. Now, it’s Mrs. Miniver. What’s next, War and Peace?”