Watch George Clooney in Downton Abbey: The Full Episode

George Clooney and Downton Abbey? Thanks to UK charity Text Santa (which raises money for a variety of good causes), the Hollywood star made his first (and probably last) appearance in Downton Abbey as the Right Honorable George Oceans Gravity, Marquis of Hollywood in a nine minute pastiche of the long-running drama.

Owing a little more to Dickens’ Christmas Carol than your average episode (although writer Julian Fellowes has made homages before, including an outrageous spin on Mrs Minniver in the first series) we have Lord Crawley losing the family fortune (again!) and wishing he had never been born (riffing It’s a Wonderful Life in to the bargain). In for a penny, in for a pound as they say!

So appears an angel played by the lovely Joanna Lumley who whisks him away to see what life would have been like without him.  This enables the new Lord, played by Clooney to make his appearance and, well, anyway, here’s the whole episode.  It’s a massive plug, of course, for the Text Santa (and rightly so) which this year made over £5 miliion.

Downton Abbey Goes to the Dogs (and Cats)

No, this isn’t Kuriositas’ first ever TV review – even though with the events at the end of the last series we might be forgiven for being a little sniffy about the show’s future.  Yet even though some feel that Downton has become Downturn, the show's general appeal seem to be enduring.

So much for my play on words. If you want to toy with the show’s name then you should really do it like Massachusetts based artist Toadbriar, aka Kim Parkhurst.  Her latest pieces are a very fond homage to the show’s characters entitled collectively Houndton Tabby.  I am not sure which came first, the idea for the collection or its name.  It doesn’t matter to be perfectly frank – these beautifully created prints are absolutely wonderful. And what a way to demonstrate a love for all things Downton and our furry friends by combining the pair!

Out of Time

This is interesting.  Time magazine took two up and coming British actors on what is ostensibly a fashion shoot and made a science fiction short film at the same time. Directed by Josh Appignanesi and Jonathan De Villiers, Out of Time sees a couple of time travelers fetch up in the London of 2012.  Scarily enough this is what you might call a post-pre-apocalyptic movie: our time traveling duo discuss (telepathically) what is just about to happen to us – and it’s not nice!

Those of you have watched Downton Abbey will be familiar with the female lead here.  Michelle Dockery plays Lady Mary Crawley in the series, snob, prude and occasionally badly behaved daughter of Lord and Lady Crawley.  Tom Hiddleston is probably the better known of the two – globally at least.  He played Loki in the 2011 Marvel Studios film Thor, Captain Nicholls in Steven Spielberg's World War I film War Horse.