Downton Abbey

I doubt I will ever read Moby Dick and I never thought I’d watch Downton Abbey. Now I’m hooked on the latter.

Julian Fellowes knows how to write a soap; a soap with a difference. Peripheral characters come and go in implausible subplots – but they are all true and spice up every episode. Early on Thomas, first footman, is revealed as having an affair with a duke. Between the wars Lord Beauchamp had to leave England when his brother-in-law (2nd Duke of Westminster) was about to expose his affair with his valet. He would almost certainly have been imprisoned.

A new medical procedure advocated by Mrs Crawley but opposed by the old school doctor crops up. It is successful, by the way. The latest episode I’ve watched has an imposter to the Grantham title and inheritance, reminding me of the Tichborne claimant. Curiously my great-great grandfather had a role in this celebrated Victorian trial. I would write about it but I already have in 201: The Tichborne Tattoo. Every episode rattles along and I’m torn between Downton and Echoes from Wuhan that is equally addictive.

Now for something completely different. I have eschewed ETFs, cryptocurrencies and even tracker funds, although trackers are cheap. But it depends what the tracker is tracking and living in the UK a FTSE 100 tracker might seem sensible, so how would I have fared?

If I’d bought in 2000 I would have diddly squat. Of course other indices have done better but I cannot get my head around what happens to the notional income in a tracker, so I will continue to eschew.