DOWNTON ABBEY - A NEW ERA

Cert PG

125 mins 

BBFC advice: Contains mild bad language, sex references

"Excellent. I really enjoyed it and some people were cheering!"

Mrs W's verdict on Downton Abbey - A New Era was the evening before I took my mum and dad to Showcase in Coventry.

Mum was an avid fan of the TV series so I had to warn her that she might be carried away on the emotional ride.

She stayed calm but did said that a lady in the toilets after the film admitted she would be emotionally affected for the rest of the day.

Good grief.

In my view, despite the plaudits, this Downton was a huge let-down by comparison to the first film about the Granthams, their friends and their servants.

Its predecessor stood gloriously alone and could have been enjoyed by non-Downton devotees. This picture seems to have been created only for dedicated fans.

It stars Maggie Smith as the ailing Dowager Lady Grantham who is left a villa in the south of France in the will of an aristocrat with whom she had a brief romance.

Meanwhile, as her family discuss her "mysterious past", they receive an approach from a film company for Downton to be the set of a silent movie.

Initially, Lord Grantham (Hugh Bonneville) is set against the invasion but there is a dire need for cash to keep Downton maintained.

Thus, his daughter, Mary (Michelle Dockery) takes on the responsibility of keeping the film-makers in check.

This leaves her mother (Elizabeth McGovern) and father to lead a delegation to France to see the villa and confront the widow (Nathalie Baye) who is angered by her husband's unexpected bequest.

My problem is that Simon Curtis's film moves between the two locations at such regularity and rapidity it made me want to shout - "for goodness sake, stay in the same place for at least a minute."

Unlike the first Downton film, it also demands prior knowledge. For example, there is a storyline involving a film star (Dominic West) and head butler (Robert James-Collier) which is a direct follow-on.

I also found the acting rather stilted - especially, dare I say that of talented folk such as Bonneville and Penelope Wilton

Anyway, those with buy-in may lap it up like Mrs W and Mrs W senior but I am afraid neither Mr W senior nor I could connect with it.