Nurse Isobel Crawley

[BizBuzz]

Can't explain it, but by far my favorite character on Downton Abbey, second only to the Dowager.

Maybe because I fell in love with her on Doctor Who (Harriet Jones, Former Prime Minister), but it really doesn't matter because I look for her parts in the show specifically. 

I love her view on the world, accepting change, and trying to do her part to make it a better place.

I love her scenes with The Dowager.  All of them.

[Portia]

I love her as Shaun's mum in Shaun of the Dead! Isobel's a tad sanctimonious at times, but she has such a good heart. Sure hope she gets hitched before the series ends.

Edited April 20, 2014 by Portia

[Athena]

Penelope Wilton always plays her character very well. I adore her as well. I think the one time where she played someone who is less empathetic for the audience was in The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. Still a great performance in a wonderful movie.

One of my favourite Isobel moments was the last season as she talked with Tom or Edith. I love the scene where she touches Edith's face because the latter was comforting her.

[Andorra]

I love Isobel, because she has a good heart and tries to help whereever she can. She is not perfect (who is?) and can be exhausting sometimes, but overall she is my third favourite character after Tom Branson and Elsie Hughes.

I especially love her relationship with Tom. I think he can be a bit of a surrogate son to her now that Matthew is gone and I hope she will beware him of awful Sarah Bunting!

[SnarkySheep]

 

I love her view on the world, accepting change, and trying to do her part to make it a better place.

I think you hit it on the head with this! Isobel is just one person, but she tries to do whatever she can, wherever and whenever she can...and she does make a difference. She even makes a difference in inspiring people like the Dowager Countess, who will mock and give her a hard time about it, but in the end she does show that she's listening to Isobel's suggestions.

Personally I would've liked to know more about Isobel's life prior to DA. What was she like as a wife and mother of a growing child? 

[OhioSongbird]

How are Isobel  and Lord Grantham related?  Isn't she his sister?  I forgot.  Just now to Matthew & Mary's wedding.  They're cousins (M&M) right?

[Carrie Ann]

I think Matthew's father and Lord Grantham were cousins, something like a second or third cousin relationship. So Mary and Matthew were distantly related, yeah.

[Ananayel]

If I remember correctly, Matthew was the great-great (great?) grandson of the youngest son of the 2nd earl. So whichever number Robert is (I want to say 6th, but I couldn't find it anywhere,) they had to go back that many generations to find a male heir descended solely through sons. Younger sons, but still sons. Patrick was more closely related to Robert, first cousin once removed, I think.

[OhioSongbird]

Thanks guys.  My darling son bought me season 1-3 for Christmas and I'm working my way thru.  I absolutely adore this show.  Great casting, acting and I'm in the vintage clothing biz so I would watch for the clothing alone.

[helenamonster]

I think he was actually the great-great-grandson of the younger brother of the third earl, Ananayel (I just recently rewatched the M&M wedding episode and I think that's what I remember him saying to Martha when she asked how he was related). But I think you're correct in saying Robert is the sixth earl...idk where I heard that either but it sounds right. Either way, Matthew is very distantly related to Mary, enough so that there's nothing icky about their relationship (imo). And Isobel is only related to the Crawleys through marriage, not blood, to answer OhioSongbird's original question. Her late husband, Reginald Crawley, would have been the great-grandson of the third earl.

[Constantinople]

I didn't particularly like it when Isobel misdiagnosed Moseley's skin condition, and Violet figured out it was from coming into contact with some plant after working in his father's garden for the first time in a long time.  I felt as if JF just did that so Violet could even the score after Violet so vehemently objected to sobel's proposed treatment for Farmer Drake, which ended up saving his life.  But I think Isobel has enough on the ball to ask a basic question about whether he was doing anything differently recently.  So Isobel's reaction to Moseley's skin condition seemed a bit false.

[cattykit]

I guess, as an actual registered nurse, I have to object to the title of this thread.  I don't remember Isobel ever saying she had completed actual nursing training, but simply was the Wife Of A Doctor.  Please correct me if I'm wrong. 

[Badger]

Her father was a doctor and so was her late husband.  I think she said she trained as a nurse during the Boer War or something.

[Cameltoes]

Yes, she trained as a nurse during a war, just as Sybil did during WWI. Sybil planned to work as a nurse in Dublin (I can't remember if there was confirmation that she had a nursing job prior to her pregnancy) so I imagine Isobel would have been qualified to do the same but it seems that she practiced more informally, via her husband's medical practice. I think that if she was a full-fledged civilian nurse after the war, she could have gotten an official nursing posting for WWI.

 

I didn't particularly like it when Isobel misdiagnosed Moseley's skin condition, and Violet figured out it was from coming into contact with some plant after working in his father's garden for the first time in a long time.  I felt as if JF just did that so Violet could even the score after Violet so vehemently objected to sobel's proposed treatment for Farmer Drake, which ended up saving his life.  But I think Isobel has enough on the ball to ask a basic question about whether he was doing anything differently recently.  So Isobel's reaction to Moseley's skin condition seemed a bit false.

 

I found this pretty believable. Sometimes experienced doctors leap to conclusions involving a more "exciting" condition only to be proven wrong by a less experienced doctor, a PA, a nurse, or even a patient. Given that the bulk of Isobel's health care work was alongside her husband, it makes sense that she would make this kind of leap and miss the more "ordinary" diagnosis. It seems like her husband was a pretty cutting edge doctor for his time so her medical world was a bit larger than ordinary life.

[Camera One]

I was reading this quote from the actress in this article

http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/tv/downton-actors-hint-at-political-romantic-developments-in-season-5/2015/01/02/174edae6-92bf-11e4-a412-4b735edc7175_story.html

 

The friendship between Violet and Isobel Crawley, played by Penelope Wilton, deepens over the season, but Isobel still often bears the brunt of the dowager’s sharp tongue. Wilton said those scenes are tough.

 

“They are quite fast play, and if they aren’t played fast they don’t work,” said Wilton, who added that there is no improvisation on the set because the show’s creator, Julian Fellowes, “would not allow it. Every word that is said, Julian has written.”

 

--

 

In one of the other threads, we were discussing why certain actors leave, but this quote does explain why some actors stay, since they still find challenge in the work, and good for her for that.  Wilton does a wonderful job in her scenes with Maggie Smith.

[P3pp3rb1rd]

I was disappointed that when they were discussing what to do about the local hospital, Lord Merton told Isobel "I'm glad we are on the same side in this" but she snapped at him (saying "Don't count on it" or something like that)!  Lord Merton is the sweetest fellow, and he has not had much happiness in this life. He has told Isobel that he loves and admires her, and she admits that she loves him. I saw no reason whatsoever for Isobel's pertness or putdown to him. He looked quite hurt. Isobel is so super independent, but as Dickie's wife she could make a big splash as a new social leader in the community, a much wider circle than she has now. I understand why she was reluctant to marry Dickie immediately, given the rudeness and hostility of his children. I felt that Violet was wrong to make sarcastic comments about the potential marriage; Violet has few peers or friends, so she should value what she has, and treat them well. (Violet even owes her life to Isobel, who nursed her so patiently through a respiratory infection.)

 

Isobel seems to value her female friends over the male friends (Dickie and Dr. Clarkson). She needs to soften this attitude, or risk being alone.