Yes, I think we agree that accents are hard, but also interesting! Believe it or not, last summer when I was in London (for "Much Ado"), someone stopped me on the street to ask for directions, and then complimented me on my accent. I was floored, because no one normally thinks that an American accent is very interesting to listen to. Except apparently for this woman, who was English, but didn't know London very well. Not that I know London well either, but I had a map. So maybe she was just being nice. *g*

Downton Abbey is definitely shown in the US - I think on PBS as part of Masterpiece, if that makes any sense to you?

Yep, that makes sense! It doesn't tell me when it's going to be on, but it does help to track that information down. (Each local PBS station does slightly different things, so having to look it up for my own station was kind of inevitable, really.)