When being told that Lord Gillingham is staying the evening at Downton, Charles Blake asks: "Didn't he used to be Tony Foyle?" (Peers often use their titles as surnames when they inherit them).
Hugh Bonneville (Lord Grantham) is not in the full episode as he was filming Monuments Men at the same time.
Branson attends a political speech by John Ward (1866-1934), an English Liberal Party politician and trade unionist. He served as a Member of Parliament from 1906 to 1929.
Branson says of the Liberal Party, "There won't be much fun for them after the election," an accurate prediction. The 1922 United Kingdom general election is considered one of political realignment, with the Liberal Party falling to third-party status. The Conservative Party would go on to spend all but eight of the next forty-two years as the largest party in Parliament, and the Labour Party emerged as the main competition to the Conservatives.
When being told that Lord Gillingham is staying the evening at Downton, Charles Blake (Julian Ovenden) asks: "Didn't he used to be Tony Foyle?" Ovenden played the character Andrew Foyle from 2002-2008 in Foyle's War.