Downton Abbey Christmas Special – Name that Oriental Fox Trot??

So the cast assembled for the Downton Abbey Christmas Special 2014 – there they all were at Brancaster Castle for the holidays, the young folk of Downton – Lady Mary, Lady Rose, Lady Edith and some new blokes who look quite promising. On went the new gramaphone (well, it is 1924) and what should they dance to but an oriental fox trot.

Now Oriental Fox trots are a now largely forgotten musical genre from the 1920s that combined the infamous “plinky plonk’ sound supposedly reminiscent of Chinese music with the new vogue for ragtime and the fox-trot. I’ve blogged about the fad for Oriental Fox Trots before (specifically 1928’s Sing Song Girl of Old Shanghai) and they do date back to the early 1900s – there are references to Vincent Rose’s Oriental Fox Trot (see below) from 1905 onwards through to the early 1930s.

Here are a few examples of Oriental Fox Trots below – but does anyone know which one they played on Downton??? I’ll think of a prize if anyone can tell me????

1905

Not sure of the date on this one….

More near east than far east but still…1920

1925 – cover art by Rene Magritte no less….