Downton Abbey, ITV1, episode eight, the Telegraph readers" review ooopiop: "Getting more like "The Archers" with period costume now. All the plot lines resolved far too easily and happily finishing with a nice game of cricket. This wasn't the only reader who thought that the drama went too far in trying to tie up its loose ends neatly: propiety: ..."syrup never ran so freely and I am disappointed...." Meanwhile, some took issue with the cricket match itself. downtonfan: "Lord Grantham's questionable decision-making extends to his captaincy, alas. Surely, given that Branson's experience of cricket was limited to ten minutes in the nets with Matthew, it was unwise to have him open the batting? There was also much discussion about the "borrowing" of a plot device from Jane Eyre after Laura Carmichael's Lady Edith phoned The Daily Telegraph to find out as much as she could about the dashing journalist Michael Gregson (Charles Edwards), only to discover that he was married. He later confessed that his wife was in an asylum. There was a suggestion that the device also owed a debt to Wilkie Collins's The Woman in White. And there was a discussion of other borrowings, foxie: "And - probably not many people will get this one - the incident with the taxi driver retrieving Lady Rose's scarf leading to her discovery in a jazz club. Which is straight from Nancy Mitford's The Pursuit of Love. The question of the plausibility of Downton's plotting was also raised. montalybert: "Ludicrous storylines? Has to be anything to do with Matthew Crawley. Sole survivor of his troop in WW1, made full recovery from paralysis, lucky recipient of not one but two massive inheritances and ends up hitched to Michelle Dockery. I hope he does the Lottery each week as well.