No, in reality she's quite pretty, I think. And I think she would be seen as so, it's just the show that drives the message in that she's the ugly daughter.
As a potential investor in this project I want to see it find an international audience and add much needed $ and £ to Scrippsy's pension pot.
So I am pleased, nay, amazed to have won the British director concession.
But who to suggest? Nunn would have the abbey either levitate or collapse. Daldry would turn the show into socialist propaganda. Hytner would make it worthy-but-dull. Mendes wouldn't pick up the 'phone. Boyle is too eclectic and Doyle just plain wrong.
So I guess I'll just have to step up to the mark (with no experience whatsoever) myself.
Mrs Crawley's number definitely gets reinstated. I see it as the communist equivalent of Springtime for Hitler: a big production number with Isobel hoofing away alongside Marx, Lenin, Stalin and Trotsky.
I grew up with a family who had a subscription to The Guardian--which I used to slodge through to try to keep liberal minded, so that's a visceral image. Though I'm not sure it's one I'd agree with in terms of shows I've seen of Hytner (granted, they were two--Carousel on tour and Miss Saigon in London.)