Francesca Rudkin: Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale and Sketch

Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale 

A final hurrah for the stately saga. In the summer of 1930, the Crawleys grapple with the threat of social disgrace when Mary finds herself at the centre of a public scandal and the family faces financial trouble.  

  

Sketch  

Fantastical creatures come to life when a young girl's sketchbook falls into a strange pond. As the town starts to unravel, she and her brother try to track down the unpredictable, chaotic and real monsters before they cause permanent damage. Racing against time to find them, their father must navigate a community in crisis to reunite his family and stop the disaster they never meant to unleash. 

 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:07):
You're listening to the Saturday Morning with Jack Team podcast
from News Talk SEDB.

Speaker 2 (00:26):
News Talks V. You were Jack Tame through the Midday.
That's a new song from Yumi Zuma. The song is
called Drag. They've just announced the name of their new album.
It's going to be called No Love Lost to Kindness
twenty two to ten. Just so you know, the huge
march in Auckland has kicked off today, the pro Palestine
march that was supposed to go over the Auckland Harbor Bridge,
but then they were concerned about high winds, so they've

(00:47):
moved it to healthier square. That's just kicked off. There
are photos up at Insied Herald dot co dot inzed
and we'll be following that progress over the next couple
of hours on News Talks. He'd be time now to
catch up with our film reviewer, Francesca Rudkin is here
this morning. Good morning, good morning. Okay, two films to
talk to you this morning, both of them are showing
in cinemas. We'd better start off with the keenly eagerly

(01:10):
anticipated by millions of people worldwide, Downtown Abbey, the Grand Finale.

Speaker 3 (01:17):
It's hard to accept so if it's time to go,
but the future of Downtown Abbey is now in Mary's hands.

Speaker 2 (01:28):
He will be a sensation, a last hurrah from the
Downtown Abbey team. Tell us about the grand finale, Francesca.

Speaker 4 (01:39):
So this is the third and the final film, and look,
to be honest with you, I'm always very suspect when
someone says this will be it, this is the grand finale,
because you know what the entertainment world's like. They're always
out at some point. But look, to be honest with you,
they very much treated this as the grand finale. They
wrapped up for all the storylines. All the characters kind

(02:02):
of had their moment, you know. They made sure that
everybody kind of had a moment, and all the different
subplots and storylines kind of got wrapped up nicely. It
had a very sentimental feel. I was actually quite surprised
when I kind of left. I felt quite emotional and
sort of sad that it was all over, which took
me a little bit by surprise, because, to be honest
with you, I felt like after fifteen years had dragged.

Speaker 5 (02:23):
On a bit.

Speaker 4 (02:24):
So I think they've done a really nice job here.
I think if you have been a fan and watched
over the years like I have. You'll be very satisfied
with this film. They've done everything which we know Downton
to be. You know, it's always been a film where
they've kind of been your characters have always had their
own personal dramas, but it's always been a franchise. That is,

(02:45):
some characters will always be looking to the past, while
some will be looking to the future, and that trying
to work out how we move forward and how generations
pass on legacies to other generations.

Speaker 5 (02:56):
So all those kind of things are all in here.

Speaker 4 (02:58):
It's stepped it up a notch. I think it's even
more lavish than we've seen before. The costumes are amazing,
the sweeping shots of downtown Abbia many and you know,
and so I think they've really gone. Actually, this is
the finality. Let's go out on a bang next, give
the fans what they want and what they love about
down to Abbey and we'll wrap it up and everyone

(03:18):
will need happy. And look, it's got all the width
that you expect. But actually also it's quite moving at times,
and that's largely because of course Dave Maggie Smith isn't
there to wrap up this franchise that she was such
a big part of, so it's also quite emotional.

Speaker 5 (03:31):
They pay very much tribute to her in this film.

Speaker 4 (03:35):
So look, if you've loved down to Abbey. It's very satisfying, sentimental,
still sort of slightly sweet and of certain ridiculous. We
don't this is not a pretty realistic look at class
in society and things.

Speaker 5 (03:48):
It's set in the nineteen thirties, this one, but it
is wonderful, pleasant, lovely entertainment. It's a great film to
take your mom to. Friend of mine got.

Speaker 4 (03:57):
Invited into the screening and she said, oh, I've never
watched any down there before.

Speaker 5 (04:00):
My mom loves it. Took her mom.

Speaker 4 (04:02):
Not only did mum love it, but she fell in
love with it as well and was gone back to
start watching from the beginning.

Speaker 2 (04:06):
There you go, oh, there you go. Oh that is great. Okay,
So that's down to Navy the Grand Finale next up,
also showing in cinemas. This is sketch.

Speaker 4 (04:18):
It's always kind of been her thing, right, trying.

Speaker 5 (04:21):
Oh, kids like to draw, but has she always been so.

Speaker 3 (04:27):
She's working through some.

Speaker 2 (04:29):
H Okay, that's sketch. So it's a family film, but
it's a little bit of a dark edge, doesn't it.

Speaker 4 (04:35):
Yeah, it's kind of a gentle kid's horror if you
can have that. I this came to my attention and
I quite liked it because it's just a little bit different.
It's not what we're used to. And I'm also a
huge fan of all the adventure sort of family films
that I grew up with, whether it was Et or
The Gremlins and things like that. You know, a lot
of the family entertainment moved to animation, and they are

(04:56):
amazing and wonderful in their own right as well. But
I do love it when we have when you've got
a family film which is live action and things. But
the visual effects here are also really quite neat as well.
And I also like the fact this one doesn't shy
away from thinking that, you know, kids can deal.

Speaker 5 (05:16):
With quite hard, difficult stuff. I mean, this is a
film about grief and.

Speaker 4 (05:19):
Pain and how we deal with it and how it manifests.
So we've got Amber and Jack, two siblings. Their mother
has died their sort of elementary sort of primary school
age and their father, played by Tony Hale, is doing
his best. He adds a nice comedic element to things
but Amber really takes out her anger and her grief
and things by drawing, and she draws these very dark

(05:43):
pictures monsters, and she disturbingly, she draws these pictures of
sort of quite violent scenes, often including her classmates, which
is a bit of a concern. Her brother's really worried
about her, and her brother finds in the backyard they
sort of live semi rurally.

Speaker 5 (05:57):
He finds is an American film.

Speaker 4 (05:59):
He finds in the backyard this magic pond and if
we throw something in it, like his phone. Somehow it
gets fixed about throwing his mother's ashes in this pond
to maybe she will come back and it will heal
their family. But instead him and Amber have a bit
of a fight, and Amber's drawing book goes in so
all these mondifying ways to kind of defeat these monsters

(06:19):
and overcome them and things.

Speaker 5 (06:20):
So look, watch the trailer.

Speaker 4 (06:24):
It will kind of depend on your kid and what
they're used to whether they will find some of this
a little bit scary or not.

Speaker 5 (06:30):
Watch the trailer, work it out.

Speaker 4 (06:31):
But I like the creativity and the original thought, especially
with these monsters coming to life as if there's sketches
sort of the visual effects and things, and I just
like the fact that, yeah, there's sort of training children
with a little bit of respect with the heaviness.

Speaker 5 (06:46):
Of the topics. So it may or may not be
for you.

Speaker 4 (06:49):
It's a bit like Inside Out, I suppose, right where
it talks about real emotions and real things that can
potentially happen, but in a live action format.

Speaker 2 (06:58):
Nice, Okay, cool, that sounds really interesting. So that sketch
that showing cinemas at the moment so is down to
maybe the grand finale in both of those films and
all of their details will be for the News website.

Speaker 1 (07:08):
For more from Saturday Morning with Jack Tame, listen live
to News talks 'B from nine am Saturday, or follow
the podcast on iHeartRadio.