Badger

Princess Alexandra was the posthumous daughter of King Alexander of Greece who was a great grandson of Queen Victoria as well as Philip's first cousin on his father's side, and his morganatic wife, Aspasia Manos. Alexandra married King Peter II of Yugoslavia, and they had one son Crown Prince Alexander.

That was a nanny, not a governess. Supposedly she loved David and didn't care much for Bertie so she pretty much starved him to the point where it impacted his digestion for the rest of his life. Also, she used to pinch David hard so he would cry and his parents would tell her to take them back to the nursery.

There's another connection too. Lord Mountbatten had an older brother named George who succeeded his father as Marquess of Milford Haven. George married Countess Nadeja de Torby who was the daughter of Grand Duke Michael Mikhailovich of Russia and his morganatic wife Countess Sophie von Merenberg. She was a great granddaughter of the Russian poet, Alexander Pushkin who was partially black through his great grandfather Abram Petrovicah Gannibal. Nadeja was known in the parlance of the day as "a famous lesbian" and Gloria Vanderbilt's mother was rumored to be one of her lovers which came out in the custody trial when a maid claimed she saw them naked in bed together. Both Mrs. Vanderbilt and Lady Milford Haven denied it. Nadeja's son David who inherited the title when his father died in 1938, was Philip's best man at the wedding. They also had a mentally challenged daughter. She had an older sister named Anastasia (Zia) who married into the British aristocracy. Zia's granddaughter Natalia Westminster is one of Prince William's godmothers. Her son, who just inherited his father's title and a 9 billion dollar fortune is one of Prince George's godfathers. Speaking of Thelma Furness, she knew something was going on with Wallis and David when Wallis slapped David's hand away when he picked a piece of lettuce out of a salad absent mindedly. David may have been "modern" but that was something he would not have tolerated.

https://allisonslaw.wordpress.com/2015/03/08/6-3-280-lb-transwoman-and-martial-expert-punches-woman-when-she-questions-his-presence-in-the-womens-bathroom-woman-loses-5-teeth-and-accrues-60000-in-medical-expenses/

There was also a third child, Princess Johanna who did not go on the flight because she was still a baby. Sadly, she died of meningitis a couple years later.

Does Andrew remind anyone else of Clay Aiken?

Lemon meringue pie is one of my favorites, but I never thought you could use other types of citrus. I'd love to try a grapefruit meringue pie.

For anyone interested in hearing Tapeface talk. This is an interview he did a few years ago. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rlv_3BJYLHs

Michael O'Hare is going to be a judge later this series, but I don't know when.

BBC Radio is not geoblocked. Here's Paul Hollywood's Desert Island Discs: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b05nsb47 And Mary Berry: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01l5pll

FWIW, when it was first announced she would be coming back, I thought it would be for the Christmas special and that she might be in one or two more episodes rather than that she would be in every episode. But it looks now like the Christmas episode will be it.

Maybe she could marry Charlie Bryant, Ethel's son.

I heartily recommend the scriptbooks which contain not only the original uncut versions of each episode but also JF's commentary. He did them for Series 1-3, but there are no plans to do any more. Also, the press packs for Series 1-4 and 6 are available online. For whatever reason, they did not do one for Series 5. They're mostly interviews with the cast and crew, plus character descriptions, but if you like that sort of thing, you might want to check them out.

Harriet Walter will be joining the cast next series as "Sister Ursula."

From what I understand, they use real babies for the close-up scenes. However, when you see a baby in the background, that's usually an animatronic doll.

They also changed some of the music in this episode. In the original, the wedding guests dance to "Let's Twist Again" by Chubby Checker. The end song was "Till" by Shirley Bassey.

I'm watching it, and I think it's much better than last season.

Actually, starting with Season 3, "Downton Abbey" added scenes for the US. The only season where they definitely did delete scenes was Season 1. They may have for Season 2, but I'm not positive about that. If you watch "Indian Summers", they also add scenes for that one too.

Don't forget Jenny had to sneak Jimmy in, and they were just friends.

Here's a link to the Simply June "Call the Midwife" page. Scroll down for Season 5. These are the complete uncut episodes. http://www.simplyjune.org/p/call-midwife.html

I remember Alberta Hunter returned to singing after working as a nurse for many years.

Regarding cuts, actually the version of "Downton Abbey" we see on PBS has added scenes starting with Season 3. I know they cut scenes in Season 1, not sure about Season 2. They also added scenes for "Indian Summers." A lot of that has to do with the fact that both those shows air on stations where they have commercials, whereas the BBC does not. There's a Youtube channel called "Thalidomide UK" where they show documentaries about thalidomide and the people it affected. Yay for Chummy being back. Truthfully, the show did fine without her, but it will still be great to see her again.

Laura Carmichael is in a new ITV drama called "Marcella." The first episode aired Monday. Robert James-Collier has been cast in a new ITV crime drama called 'The Level." They just started filming in London and Brighton recently.

The "Wesen of the Week" reminded me of an old Roger Corman film called "The Wasp Woman."

Here are some portions of the wedding of Bertie and Elizabeth on Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v36LiBNhzpo Speaking of Marigold, it's a good thing that kid is so placid considering all the changes she's been through in her short life. First, she's Swiss, then she's the daughter of a Yorkshire tenant farmer, then she's the ward of the Earl of Grantham and finally she's presumably going to be the adopted daughter of the Marquess and Marchioness of Hexham.