Downton Abbey (TV Series)

Episode #1.4 (2010)

Jim Carter: Charles Carson

Quotes 

• Robert Crawley, Earl of Grantham : [about Branson, the new chauffeur]  He seems a bright spark after poor old Taylor. And to think Taylor's gone off to run a tea shop. I cannot feel it will make for a very restful retirement, can you?

  Charlie Carson : I would rather be put to death, m'Lord.

  Robert Crawley, Earl of Grantham : ...Quite so.

• Mrs. Hughes : Before I first came here as head housemaid, I was walking out with a farmer. When I told him I'd taken a job at Downton, he asked me to marry him. I was a farmer's daughter from Argyle, so I knew the life. He was very nice. But then I came here and I-I did well, and I... I didn't want to give it up. So, I told him no, and he married someone else. She died three years ago, and last month, he wrote asking to see me again, and I agreed, because all this time, I've wondered.

  Charlie Carson : Go on.

  Mrs. Hughes : I met him the other night. We had dinner at the Grantham Arms and after, he took me to the fair.

  Charlie Carson : And he was horrible and fat and red-faced and you couldn't think what you ever saw in him?

  Mrs. Hughes : He was still a nice man. He is still a nice man. Well, he was a bit red-faced, and his suit was a little tight, but none of that matters. In the real ways, he hadn't changed.

  Charlie Carson : And he proposed again... and you accepted?

  Mrs. Hughes : In many ways, I wanted to accept. But I'm not that farm girl anymore. I was flattered, of course, but... I've changed, Mr Carson.

  Charlie Carson : Life's altered you, as it's altered me. And what would be the point of living if we didn't let life change us?

• Lady Mary Crawley : Do you know where His Lordship is?

  Charlie Carson : Gone to bed, m'Lady. He felt tired after he put Lady Grantham into the car.

  Lady Mary Crawley : I bet he did.

• Robert Crawley, Earl of Grantham : [speaking of his former chauffeur]  And to think Taylor's gone off to run a tea shop! I cannot feel it would make for a restful retirement, can you?

  Charlie Carson : [hyperbolically]  I would rather be put to death, My Lord.