Musician (top) among the first black actors to appear on “Downton Abbey” in a scene from season 3
*It looks like PBS’s wildly popular “Downton Abbey,” which just wrapped its third season this month, is about to introduce its first black character as part of a storyline about race relations in the1920s.
According to The Sun, producers sent casting notices out to agents seeking an actor to play Jack Ross, described as “Male, 25-30. A musician (singer) at an exclusive club in the 20′s.” The casting note adds, “He’s black and very handsome. A real man (not a boy) with charm and charisma.” Whoever lands the role should “ideally be able to sing brilliantly,” and “should be a very attractive man with a certain wow factor.”
Jack Ross will reportedly have a key role in season four, which begins filming on March 23.
Several black actors in non-speaking roles did appear on the series this season as jazz musicians performing at The Blue Dragon [see photo above], located on Greek Street in the Soho area of London. Lady Edith Crawley, Matthew Crawley and Lady Rosamund Painswick ventured there reluctantly in search of free-spirited Lady Rose MacClare after being told by a taxi driver that he had taken her to the spot. [See photo above.]
I loved this show until they decided they want to add a token. I like the all white cast as is.
A fabulous plot twist if the black character claims to be an heir, in fiction and in reality. That would be great fun. As someone who loves “Downton Abbey,” who has been watching it since the first season, who has been e-mailing Julian Fellowes asking him to include a black character, and who is writing a book about my British noble ancestors, I know a twist. One of the firstborn male nobles in an earlier season in “Downton Abbey” lived abroad and others could be too.
Like Colin Powell who has a Scottish coat of arms, I am an African American with Caribbean roots who surprisingly discovered a Scottish noble ancestor when I did my family’s genealogy.
My ancestral cousins in the House of Lords were cordial when they discovered that they have a black cousin in America. One member of the House of Lords telephoned me. Another lord was very stiff upper lip, he said he “deferred to the Court of the Lord Lyon,” which granted me my ancestors’ coat of arms, and acknowledged the birth records our noble ancestors left in genealogical archives in America. My coat of arms, granted in 2005:
http://www.clan-duncan.co.uk/duncan-armorial-arms.html
My friendly lord cousin invited to me visit his castle, as grand as “Downton Abbey.” Our ancestor who had the black child was a firstborn son, and his black firstborn son should have been an heir who inherited, if the laws of primogeniture were applied. Now that’s a plot twist – a black heir at “Downton Abbey.” So historical. So funny.