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La vittoria dei bersaglieri del colonello Montemurro a El Mechili, 8 aprile 1941

Il post odierno è dedicato alla vittoriosa battaglia dell’8 aprile 1941 che vide i bersaglieri del XII battaglione agli ordini del colonnello Montemurro inquadrati nell’ 8° bersaglieri della divisione corazzata Ariete sconfiggere la 3ª brigata indiana trincerata nel campo di El Mechili e alla curiosa concomitanza di eventi che portarono nel giro di due giorni alla cattura di ben 6 generali…

On a recent afternoon, the skies over Highclere Castle were a brilliant blue more reminiscent of Southern California than the Hampshire countryside, but otherwise things on location at "Downton Abbey" were characteristically English. That is to say, there were...

New Post has been published on http://www.therakyatpost.com/life/television-life/2015/03/27/downton-abbey-ends-after-season-6/

'Downton Abbey' ends after Season 6

A GRAND manor will close its doors to millions of weekly guests after Downton Abbey concludes next year.

Producers of the popular British period drama on Thursday confirmed it would end after its sixth season, scheduled to air in the United States in early 2016.

The series, which airs earlier in the UK, will have its finale on Christmas Day 2015.

“Our feeling is that it’s good to quit while you’re ahead,” executive producer Gareth Neame said.

“We feel the show is in incredibly strong shape, the scripts that we’re working on for the upcoming season are fantastic and the show is so popular globally. But the danger with this sort of thing is to let it go on forever.”

He said the decision to wrap was made by him and Julian Fellowes, who created the series and has written every episode, in conjunction with the cast. He said there were no plans in place for a rumored Downton Abbey feature film or a series spin-off.

The acclaimed, beloved and awards-showered drama has tracked the fates of the aristocratic Crawley clan and its servants amid the social upheavals of pre-World War 1 Britain into the 1920s, as the characters of upper and lower classes cope with their rapidly changing world.

Stars include Hugh Bonneville, Jim Carter, Michelle Dockery, Elizabeth McGovern and Maggie Smith.

The series premiered on the UK’s ITV network in 2010 and on PBS’ Masterpiece anthology in early 2011, inspired in part by the 2001 Robert Altman film Gosford Park (written by Fellowes) and presented as a variation on the British classic Upstairs, Downstairs.

“When we set out to do this in the first place, we thought we would have a good success in the UK and that very traditional outlets for British content globally would be there,” said Neame.

But almost instantly Downton Abbey took on a life of its own.

“We did not know we would be in 250 territories worldwide,” Neame said.

“We didn’t know we would be one of the biggest shows on American television.”

In the UK, it became the highest-rated drama of the past decade, with an average of 11 million viewers over its five seasons. Season 5, which concluded in the US this month, drew an average audience of 12.9 million viewers.

Masterpiece executive producer Rebecca Eaton called the series “a gift from the television gods”.

She said it coincided with the 2009 rebranding of Masterpiece, which, among many changes, led to dropping Theatre from its title.

“And along came Sherlock and Downton in the same season and transformed us in many ways: drawing a giant audience, a new audience; helping pull in an underwriter; solidify our position with stations and donors to the station,” Eaton said.

“Then we created the Masterpiece Trust. So, a complete game-changer.”

Downton also benefited from the shift in how TV is consumed, including binge viewing, and the growth of social media, which turned watching telecasts into group experiences, she said.

She was optimistic about life after Downton. She noted that Poldark and Indian Summers, in the Downton mode of extended British series, are coming to Masterpiece.

Indian Summers is even sexier than Downton, she said.

“And Poldark has a death and a birth and money and all the things you would expect.”

And, for one more turn, there’s Downton Abbey.

Production of the upcoming 13-hour season was well underway, Neame said, but he kept mum on any details apart from saying the current characters would be back and be given satisfying resolutions.

“We very much have an eye to where the characters will end up,” he said.

“What will become of poor Edith? Will Anna and Bates ever get a break? People want to know these things!”

While Neame acknowledged the temptation to carry on such a breakout success indefinitely, the series, he said, “has always been viewed by everyone involved as a bespoke, well-crafted piece of popular television”.