In later seasons Alfred professes a lifelong desire to be a chef. He even applies to the Ritz and gets accepted into their cooking school. Yet in this episode, he seems to hate gourmet food. After Edith is jilted at the alter, the staff gets to eat all the fancy food made for the wedding. Alfred not only makes fun of it, he refuses to eat and asks for some cheese instead. This makes no sense for someone with the lifelong desire to become a chef.
From the minute Edith showed interest in Sir Anthony, everyone in her family made a huge deal about their age difference. He was 25 years older than her. On the wedding day, she was 28 and he was 53.
The truth is, any family in 1920 would have been delighted for their spinster daughter to marry a wealthy member of the peerage, that had a title and an estate. It was extremely common for a man of his rank to marry a much younger woman when his first wife died. That Edith's family makes such a fuss about their age difference just would not have happened, it would have never even occurred to them. They would have given up that Edith would ever find a decent man to marry, her best years were behind her. Sir Anthony was someone they would hope one of their daughters would marry. Indeed, when Mary was looking for a husband a few years earlier, the family was pushing Sir Anthony at her. Why was it OK for a older man to wed Mary, but not Edith, who is only 2 years younger than Mary,
It's still accepted today among the wealthy. There are scads of rich older men married to much younger women, it was no different in 1920.
Sir Anthony Strallan is constantly referred to as broken down and crippled and yet he never seems noticeably impaired by his vague arm injury.
When Cora is comforting Edith, a shadow of the boom mic can be seen moving on Edith's headboard.