Dark Days in Downton Abbey

At the beginning of this week’s Downton Abbey, there was a warning for “violent scenes which some viewers may find upsetting”, leading me to wonder what the cause could possibly be. Given the most significant crisis thus far this season has been a matter of inheritance tax, it was difficult to imagine anything too disturbing: an emergency over the spillage of hot tea, perhaps? A tear in Lady Mary’s dress which leaves her unable to meet some viscount or another?

Yet after an otherwise standard episode, featuring a tense scene involving a misplaced gramophone, and a truly heart-stopping moment in which a footman drops a jam jar, the final few minutes depicted a fairly graphic rape scene. As the rest of the household sits watching an opera singer perform, downstairs, ladies’ maid Anna is dragged screaming by her hair, and raped by a guest servant staying the house. It isn’t an easy scene to watch, but it was more than just the content of the scene that left me feeling uneasy, leaving me to question whether storylines such as these really have a place in a show like Downton Abbey.

Regular viewers of Downton will know that it has a track record of making miserable things happen to its characters. The third series had one of the main characters dying in childbirth, which was shortly followed by the Christmas special in which the heir to the estate is killed in a car crash whilst his wife is giving birth (the take-away message being, apparently, don’t get pregnant in Downton). Even Anna’s character has already had her fair share of difficulties, with her husband Bates being sent to prison for a crime he didn’t commit, so perhaps this latest twist shouldn’t come as a surprise. However, storylines about rape have become something of a lazy plot device, an easy way to shock audiences and get viewers talking.

I’m not suggesting that the subject of rape shouldn’t be tacked in TV programmes. Only, it has to be handled with a degree of care and sensitivity above most other topics, given that a not-insignificant number of viewers will have been affected to some degree, and I’m not sure Downton, which is little more than a glorified period soap opera, is best placed to do that.

The thing is, there’s no way of dealing with the issue with the gravitas it warrants, whilst also following the otherwise mundane storylines in the show. No matter how much it likes to pretend otherwise, Downton isn’t a gritty, high-brow drama. It gained its fans through the will-they-won’t-they romance of Lady Mary and middle-class solicitor Matthew, the sharp witticisms of Lady Grantham (played by a fantastic Maggie Smith), and the glorious fashions of the early twentieth century. It’s therefore not surprising that viewers were shocked after the episode aired on Sunday evening; ITV apparently received over 60 complaints regarding the scene, with headlines about the episode appearing in many newspapers the next day.

The fallout from the rape will presumably be one of the themes of this series, with Anna so far determined to keep her assault a secret from her husband, fearing he will be sent back to prison if he attempts to take revenge. Although it’s too early to tell, it’s not a stretch to imagine that the main purpose of Anna’s rape will be to add a new source of drama to the show, in particular to force a confrontation between her husband and her rapist. This sits even more uncomfortably when considering the other storylines of the series so far, which include Lord Grantham being condescending to his daughter by expressing doubt in her ability to manage the estate, and the Abbey’s youngest resident, Rose, portrayed as flighty and reckless after daring to dance with a man before asking his name. Sometimes, Downton veers dangerously between evoking a rose-tinted nostalgia for ‘the olden days’ and pointing out, heavy-handed, at how far we’ve come since then. It’s easy, whilst watching, to get a self-congratulatory sense of ‘but look how things have changed’ (see also: Mad Men), and yet rape, sexism and debates over women’s sexuality are hardly issues relegated to the past. And there’s enough gratuitous rape in ‘edgy’ drama as is, without the likes of Downton deciding to join in.

For once, there appears to be a consensus that, this time, the writers have gone too far. It seems this may be a misstep from the show’s creator, Julian Fellowes; by attempting to be hard-hitting and controversial, the show has alienated its core viewers. It will be for them to decide whether the show is worth saving, but until then, let’s hope Fellowes has learned from his mistake.