Trev, well I do like that tenor voice, and maybe I'm not that much better looking than Colin Firth, and if it makes me intimate with Poirot, I mean the Dowager ...

I'm certainly for making Shadow Minister the villain! But what about Maggie Smith? She's conservative and condescending...

WmTrevor,

Thomas is rather villainously attractive in a way and sees himself as the "Shadow Valet". So yes SM or even SPQR would fit the bill.

But what about Lexi? Surely she has a part.

Squeers, Cora and Mr Carson - that would be a turn up for the books. I think I'll pass up the smelling salts in favour of a good stiff gin and tonic. (Gin and tonic is apparently always "stiff" so we don't need to go any further with that, WmTrevor : )

Having got myself this far I'll just have to keep digging… like Charles Bronson in The Great Escape.

I know it's my strange cast of mind that does the strange casting but with the obvious exception of Poirot it's almost never about appearance. More usually the tone of voice or the characterisation or the plot line associations…

Given the nursing links, I have thought of Lexi as Lady Mary – but if that mother-daughter thing is too much for you, Countess – she could be reassigned as Penelope Wilton, seeing as how at heart Isobel is a dedicated mother and not really a creepy Crawley.

I think you're on to something with the drink (some things don't have negatives; a bad stiff gin and tonic being non-existent) and I can imagine you wanting the Butler to give it to you on a tray wearing only a vest and suspender socks, err… that's Carson wearing the vest by the way.

"…so we don't need to go any further with that" – why do people always look over their shoulders and say that, especially when my reputation is preceding me?

WmTrevor,

This is proving a most delightful diverson.....

"...I can imagine you wanting the Butler to give it to you on a tray wearing only a vest and suspender socks...."

Absolutely...is there any other way?

I was thinking that Lexi may perhaps be best suited to Mrs Hughes - stoic, ethical and caring. Lexi's like that on OLO, usually diplomatic, yet capable of a dressing down when necessary. Whadaya think?

As far as looking over my shoulder, I've learned that if I carelessly leave a thread hanging, you'll whip out the crochet hook and in no time will turn it into something spectacularly clever and suggestive - and see-through.

After checking with the Downton wiki to find, "She is very stoic, but she is ethical and never two-sided." I'll grant you the Mrs Hughes idea.

Though spookily it quotes her saying, "In many ways, I wanted to accept. But I'm not that farm girl any more. I was flattered, of course, but... I've changed, Mr Carson."

And all I could visualise was Carson in a nappy. Now problematically for Squeers, this turns him into a student of incontinental philosophy. (He can explain why that's funny, if necessary).

As for your crochet – am I and it so transparent? On your part, that's just another attempt at tat-for-tit.

WmTrevor,

(Just quickly as I'm nipping over the visit the Dowager)

"...just another attempt at tat-for-tit." - which is fitting because, according to Basil Fawlty, "It's only the upper class that would have tat like that". We're big in the tat department.

I thought I was the one who was changing Mr Carson? And now it turns out Lexi has been seeing him behind closed doors.

Crushing blow, I'll have you know.