Downton Abbey (TV Series)

Episode #1.2 (2010)

Brendan Coyle: John Bates

Quotes 

• [the servants are discussing Matthew Crawley, Lord Robert's heir, and his mother Isobel] 

  Thomas : So what d'you think we'll make of them?

  Sarah O'Brien : I shouldn't think much. *She* hasn't even got a lady's maid.

  Anna : It's not a capital offence.

  John Bates : She's got a maid - her name's Ellen. She came a day early.

  Sarah O'Brien : She's not a lady's maid. She's just a housemaid that fastens hooks and buttons when she has to. There's more to it than that, you know.

  Anna : We want some *very* precise reporting when dinner's over.

  Thomas : Are we to treat him as the heir?

  Sarah O'Brien : Are we heck as like! A doctor's son from Manchester? He'll be lucky if he gets a civil word out of me.

  Anna : [drily]  We're *all* lucky if we get a civil word out of you.

• John Bates : Even Mr. Carson wasn't born standing to attention.

  Thomas : I hope not, for his mother's sake.