Parallel Characters
(May Carleton from “Peaky Blinders” and Mary Crawley from “Downton Abbey.”)
I’m sure it’s the English major in me, but when I watch a new show or movie, I often notice connections to other shows or books. We watched The Breakfast Club again recently, and it hit me that Judd Nelson’s character, John Bender, was probably the inspiration for Bender the robot in “Futurama.” Turns out, he was. And I can’t prove it, but I’m fairly certain that Stewie, the evil baby in “Family Guy,” is based on Ray Bradbury’s short story, “The Small Assassin,” about another evil baby who plots to murder his poor mother. Sound familiar?
When I watched “Peaky Blinders” recently, I was struck by the similarities between May Carleton, the second season love interest of Thomas Shelby, and “Downton Abbey’s” own Mary Crawley. At this point in television history, it’s safe to say that “Downton Abbey” has become an icon, and I just can’t help but wonder if the writers from “Peaky Blinders” decided to take a tiny stab at its influence.
May Carleton, played by Charlotte Riley, is an English aristocrat living on her family’s enormous estate, jokingly called “The Farm” by the Shelby brothers. Recently widowed (her husband presumably died in World War I), she trains horses with her father and bumps into Thomas Shelby at a horse auction. Soon after, she agrees to train his racehorse, and things progress quickly from there. Shelby finds excuses to visit May at her home, and smoothly insinuates that he’ll need a map to find his way to her room after the maids have gone to bed for the evening. That statement reminded me of poor Mr. Pamuk, Mary’s ill-fated and very short-lived suitor from the first season of “Downton Abbey.” May is bored with her predictable world and sees in Shelby a chance to feel alive again.
Mary Crawley, in case you’ve forgotten, is the oldest daughter of an Earl, and lives in her family’s ancestral home. As a young widow, she has taken an interest in the agricultural aspects of the family estate, and spends her time helping her father and brother-in-law, while also juggling the very patient advances of two possible suitors. Mary is cold and quick-witted, but she’s also looking for true love.
Aside from their very similar names, appearances, and family backgrounds, May and Mary are both searching for their places in the world after losing their husbands, and they both struggle with the confines of their class. Both shows take place during the same time period after World War I, and it’s even possible that May and Mary could have known each other from the same social circles. May quickly falls for Thomas Shelby, despite his lower rank in society and the fact that he’s also a gangster, while Mary very slowly goes back and forth between her two boring suitors.
It’s fun to imagine a mash-up between the two shows, but after watching “Downton Abbey” for five seasons, I know that a real romance between May and Tommy would never work. Their relationship is much more passionate and so much sexier than anything in “Downton Abbey,” but that’s part of the edginess of “Peaky Blinders.” Still, it’s fun to imagine May as the Crawley girl gone bad, and the similarities between the two characters are pretty fascinating, I think.
