Upstairs, Downstairs
Encyclopedia
Upstairs, Downstairs is a British
drama
television series originally produced by London Weekend Television
and revived by the BBC
. It ran on ITV
in 68 episodes divided into five series from 1971 to 1975, and a sixth series shown on the BBC
on three consecutive nights, 26–28 December 2010.
Set in a large townhouse
in Edwardian
, First World War
, and Inter-War Belgravia
in London
, the series depicted the lives of the servants "downstairs" and their masters "upstairs". Great events feature prominently in the episodes but minor or gradual changes are also noted. It stands as a document of the social and technological changes that occurred between 1903 and 1930.
and Eileen Atkins
, for a comedy called Behind the Green Baize Door. It was to focus on two housemaids, played by Marsh and Atkins, in a large country house in the Victorian era
. They soon added a family upstairs, as Marsh recognised "Servants have to serve somebody". In summer 1969, they took this idea to Sagitta Productions, which was run by John Hawkesworth
and John Whitney. They soon removed the comedy element, changed the setting to a large townhouse in Edwardian London and the title became Below Stairs. It was first offered to Granada Television
in Manchester
, but they declined as they already had a period drama, called A Family at War
, about to start. However, Stella Richman
, the Controller of Programmes at London Weekend Television
, saw potential and in April 1970 the first series was commissioned.
Characters were then developed, but when Alfred Shaughnessy
, an old friend of John Hawkesworth, was called in as script editor, he changed much of the detail to make the characters more realistic. Honor Blackman
was originally short-listed for the role of Lady Marjorie
and George Cole to play Hudson
. Eileen Atkins, who was to play the other maid opposite Jean Marsh, was playing Queen Victoria
in a stage show at the time, so Pauline Collins
took the role, and Gordon Jackson
was offered the role of Hudson after it was decided that London
er George Cole would not be suitable to play a Scotsman. The programme took many names, including Two Little Maids in Town, The Servants' Hall and That House in Eaton Square. It was called 165 Eaton Place until just before the production of the first episode when it was changed to Upstairs, Downstairs following a suggestion from John Hawkesworth.
Despite having a champion in Stella Richman the show suffered from internal politics at the station, most notably from the sales department who could not see the attraction of a period drama and master tapes of the programme spent nearly a year in storage awaiting a transmission date. Eventually the network had a space in its schedule at the unfashionable time of Sunday nights at 10.15pm and called upon LWT to fill it. They chose Upstairs, Downstairs and with no promotion of the show there was little expectation of success. However, audiences steadily grew and the series became a hit.
was to revive the series as two 90-minute episodes to be broadcast on BBC1
in the autumn of 2010, written by Heidi Thomas
and set in 1936, six years after the original series finished. The new series would see Jean Marsh
reprising the role of Rose Buck as the only original cast member from the LWT series. Buck now runs a domestic servant agency after a time away nursing a relative in the country. She returns to 165 Eaton Place as housekeeper to the new owners, the Holland family, and Dame Eileen Atkins
playing one of the characters upstairs. The two episodes were to be made in-house by BBC Wales
as a co-production with Masterpiece on PBS.
In August 2010, the BBC announced that the new series would consist of three hour-long episodes, with Keeley Hawes
, Ed Stoppard
, Anne Reid
, Claire Foy
, Adrian Scarborough
, Art Malik
, Ellie Kendrick
and Nico Mirallegro
joining Jean Marsh and Eileen Atkins in the cast. In the middle of August 2010, filming started in Cardiff
, with parts of the city transformed into 1930s Belgravia
for exterior scenes, and the interiors shot in BBC’s Llandaff
studios in North Cardiff. Further filming of exterior scenes took place in Leamington Spa
, Warwickshire
in September 2010 with a terrace in Clarendon Square (by the same architect, Peter Frederick Robinson
, as the London square used in the original series) doubling up as Eaton Place.
The new Upstairs Downstairs was scheduled for broadcast on BBC1
with the debut episode shown on 26 December 2010. A soundtrack album of music from the new series by composer Daniel Pemberton is also scheduled for release on iTunes from the same time. The three episodes have been picked up by overseas broadcasters, including ABC in Australia, NRK in Norway, Sky in New Zealand, DR in Denmark, YLE in Finland, IBA in Israel and TV4 in Sweden.
BBC1 has recommissioned six 60-minute episodes of the drama to be broadcast in 2012. Other than Jean Marsh, the cast and production details are yet to be confirmed. In August 2011 it was announced that Dame Eileen Atkins had decided not to appear in the 2012 series of Upstairs Downstairs. Reports suggested she was unhappy with the direction the new scripts were taking. Alex Kingston has joined as a replacement and will play the younger, sexier sister of Dame Eileen Atkins character, who is to be killed off. Alex will play Blanche Mottershead, a woman who is a straight talking, spinster, who smokes cheroots and is fond of a little light nudism.
For the BBC (2010) cast:
, and their servants ("downstairs").
The household is led by Lady Marjorie Bellamy (née Talbot-Carey), daughter of the Earl and Countess of Southwold, and her husband Richard Bellamy MP, the son of a country parson
. They get married, despite the objections of her parents, and set up house at 165 Eaton Place, one of several London
properties owned by Lord Southwold. Richard is a politician and several plots centre around his political ambitions and conflicts arising from his desire to follow his conscience and his allegiance to his father-in-law's political party, the Conservatives
(the "Tories").
Richard and Lady Marjorie Bellamy have two children, James and Elizabeth, who are in their early twenties and late teens, respectively, when the series starts in 1903. In 1912 James's ill-fated wife Hazel becomes the new mistress of the house, and the following year Richard's ward, Georgina comes to live at 165 Eaton Place.
The original servant staff comprises the authoritarian butler Mr. Angus Hudson, the cook Mrs. Kate Bridges, the pragmatic head house parlourmaid Rose, the sweet Irish kitchen maid Emily, the eccentric footman Alfred, the mischievous under-house parlourmaid Sarah, who dreams of a dramatic life beyond servantdom, the coachman Pearce, and Lady Marjorie's lady's maid Maude Roberts. Over the years they are joined by Edward, a cheeky footman who later becomes a chauffeur; Daisy, the parlourmaid, who eventually marries Edward; Thomas Watkins, the devious chauffeur who dabbles with Sarah's affections, and Ruby, the slow-witted kitchen maid.
In the episode 'Another Year' from series 4, Hazel Bellamy notes that there are two families living in the house, one upstairs and the other downstairs, to which she makes analogies to a related family: Mr. Hudson and Mrs. Bridges are the father and mother, Rose, the eldest daughter who lost her man at the front, Edward and his wife, Daisy, and Ruby, the youngest child.
. In 1903, Sarah Moffat applies for a job as under-house-parlour maid for the Bellamy family, pretending to be of French nobility but soon revealed to be illiterate, English, and with no work history. Later in the year, Lady Marjorie poses for Bohemian artist Mr. Scone, who simultaneously paints a nude portrait of Sarah and (an imagined) Rose; he exhibits both pictures at the Royal Academy, causing a scandal. Later the Bellamys go on vacation to Scotland, and, with Mr. Hudson gone, the servants carouse drunkenly through the house only to be caught by son James, who promises not to disclose the servants' misbehavior. James and Sarah later have an affair, resulting in Sarah's pregnancy. James is banished to India
, and Sarah is sent to live at the Southwold estate for the duration of her pregnancy, only to return to Eaton Place on the night the Bellamys host the King; Sarah goes into labour, but the baby, a son, is stillborn. James eventually returns from India just before his mother's birthday on May 6, 1910 (which coincides with the death of King Edward the VII), and brings with him his brash and gushing fiancee, Phyllis, the daughter of an army vet. James eventually breaks off the engagement, however, after deciding that Phyllis isn't right for him.
Around 1905, daughter Elizabeth returns from Germany, to be prepared to be presented to the King and the Queen Consort at a social event, but her rebellious, headstrong nature forces her to flee the event. She has a talk with her old servant Rose, who teaches her the interdependency of everyone in the household. Elizabeth is soon enchanted with German Baron Klaus von Rimmer, who is actually a spy and plans to use her father to negotiate a lucrative military deal. He and footman Alfred flee to Germany after they are caught by Rose while having sexual relations. Alfred is replaced by Edward Barnes, a young and naive footman whose fun-loving and immature nature initially annoys Mr Hudson.
In the summer of 1906, Lady Marjorie is enchanted by her son's friend Captain Charles Hammond, and has an affair with him. Her conscience gets the better of her and she breaks off the affair. Lady Bellamy leaves with Rose to the country, while Rose is gone the new under-house-parlour maid, Mary Stokes, arrives in service pregnant, having been raped by the son of a family friend, Myles Radford, a powerful politician. Richard Bellamy attempts to help her but the Radfords refuse to take responsibility and the legal system proves ineffective. Mary quits her job with the Bellamys, but departs with a small gift of money from some of the servants.
However, a couple of years later, after Hammond's death in India, his former batman attempts to blackmail Lady Marjorie with some letters that have come into his possession written by Lady Marjorie and Captain Hammond at the time of their affair. It is only through the deviousness of the Bellamy's chauffeur, Thomas Watkins, and Sarah (who's hired as nursery maid for Elizebeth's baby [see below]), that the letters are returned to Lady Marjorie and a scandal averted.
The following year, 1907, Mrs. Van Groeben arrives from South Africa and Emily falls madly in love with her footman, William. They spend several of their days off together, but Mrs. Van Groeban gets wind of the affair, and, considering Emily to be beneath William, forbids him to see her. But the affair may have ended anyway- William drops Emily like a stone when he learns of his mistress' disapproval, suggesting he never really cared about her anyway. Emily is madly in love, however, and cannot bear life without him. She commits suicide. Mrs. Bridges, distraught over Emily's death, steals a baby from its pram outside a shop and hides it in her room. The baby is returned to its parents by Richard and Lady Marjorie, and Mrs Bridges only escapes a jail sentence after Hudson agrees to marry her, once they are no longer in service. Emily is replaced first by Doris, then by Nellie, and then finally by Ruby, a hardworking young woman, though rather slow, who frequently irritates Mrs. Bridges.
In 1908, the daughter Elizabeth marries a young poet, Lawrence Kirbridge. Somewhat indifferent to his new responsibilities as a householder, he also avoids the baseness of marital relations with Elizabeth, preferring her pure and muse-like, and their marriage remains unconsummated. Elizabeth has a brief affair (seemingly by her husband's arrangement) with her husband's publisher. She becomes pregnant, later giving birth to a daughter, Lucy Elizabeth. She joins a group of militant suffragettes and attacks the home of a prominent politician, which inadvertently results in Rose's being sent to prison. She later becomes involved with a wealthy Armenian
gentleman called Julius Karekin, who buys her a hat shop. But Karekin is more interested in buying his way into British society than he is in Elizabeth's affections. He buys the lease of 165 Eaton Place after the Bellamys are forced to sell in the aftermath of Lady Marjorie's father's death in 1909. He offers the lease to Elizabeth who then gives it to her parents. Richard and Lady Marjorie are in Karekin's debt. Elizabeth eventually moves to America in 1910 after her split from Karekin and divorce from Kirbridge. She is later said to have married a man named Dana. Sarah and Thomas Watkins, who had previously been employed as the valet of Lawrence Kirbridge, fall in love, resulting in Sarah's becoming pregnant again. They eventually leave service. While in the Upstairs, Downstairs episode "A Family Gathering" it is stated that Thomas and Sarah were married, that fact is disregarded in the spin-off series Thomas & Sarah
.
Richard hires Hazel to type the biography of his father-in-law, the old Earl of Southwold, which he is writing. Soon after, she and James fall in love and eventually marry. Hazel becomes mistress of the household, and they are happy for a time but start to grow apart due to James' habitual self-serving ways; this estrangement is worsened by a miscarriage in the spring of 1914.
Georgina Worsely, James's step-cousin, comes to live with the Bellamys at Christmas 1913, aged 18. Georgina is the orphaned stepdaughter of Lady Marjorie's brother Hugo. She decides to 'steal' some food from the pantry and offer it to the family of Daisy, the new parlourmaid, but she is horrified when she discovers Daisy's family live in the kind of abject poverty she has never had to experience.
Rose, the head houseparlourmaid, is shocked when Alfred, the Bellamy's former footman, turns up at Eaton Place one night. He claims he's been sacked by his former employer and is homeless. She agrees to hide him in one of the basement rooms, but is horrified when it later transpires Alfred is actually on the run from the police having murdered his previous employer. After taking Edward hostage in the coal cellar, Alfred is arrested and eventually hanged for murder. The following year, Rose briefly becomes engaged to an Australian sheep-farmer called Gregory Wilmot whom she meets on an omnibus one day. She agrees to move to Australia with him, but later becomes frightened of making such a leap, and changes her mind, deciding to stay with the familiarity she knows at Eaton Place.
Richard, who has had to sell the lease of the house to James after Lady Marjorie's death (all her money passed on to James and Elizabeth), makes money after a share tip-off from a member of his gentleman's club. Richard is later unjustly accused of insider dealing and it is only the intervention of Hazel and Hudson that saves his career and reputation. (This plot was inspired by the Marconi scandal
of 1912).
During a visit to Somerby, the country house of James's school-friend Lord "Bunny" Newbury in the Autumn of 1913, Edward unwittingly becomes the witness in an impending divorce case when he spies rising Tory MP Lord Charles Gilmour leaving the bedroom of a fellow MP's wife. Edward is put under pressure to lie and change his story, but he refuses, and the case is withdrawn after pressure from Richard.
The servants are offered a day's holiday in Herne Bay
in Kent in August 1914. They enjoy a rare day out together, and Hudson goes so far as to offer a song on the vaudeville stage, but their enjoyment is curtailed by the announcement that Britain is about to go to war with Germany.
, is seriously injured in a trench battle and brought home, amid much difficulty, to recover. He is nursed by his step-cousin Georgina, who now volunteers as a VAD Nurse
and serves in France during the war. Georgina and James develop a close understanding and affection during the war, but do not go so far as to become lovers. Downstairs, Edward signs up and fights in the trenches, Hudson serves as a Special Constable
, Rose works as a bus conductress, and Ruby leaves Eaton Place to work in a munitions factory, returning to service after the Silvertown explosion
. Hazel, unknowingly echoing her late mother-in-law Lady Marjorie, has a brief affair with an RFC
Lieutenant named Jack Dyson who, like herself, has risen from the ranks of the middle classes. He is killed while James is at home on leave. Rose meets up with Gregory Wilmot again. After overcoming their emotional and practical hurdles, she finally agrees to marry him on his return from the war and follow him to Australia. Unfortunately he is killed in action. Rose is heartbroken but Gregory has left her £1200 in his will, enough to make her independent in her retirement. Edward returns, and while not physically wounded, suffers badly from shell shock
and goes into hospital. He speaks to Richard, who comforts him as if he were his own son, assuring him that mental wounds are as real as physical, and no mark on his character.
In 1918, just as the War ended, Hazel dies, aged around 35, in the worldwide influenza pandemic
. Griefstruck, James lets Georgina comfort him, but she wisely stops him from any further closeness. Richard later marries a young widow named Mrs. Virginia Hamilton, whose eldest son Michael was killed when he was 17 in the spring of 1918. Her other children are Alice, age 10 and, William, 6, when Richard proposes to Virginia in late October/November 1918. The house comes alive with the arrival of the new Lady and two children in the nursery. Alice becomes very attached to Rose, who is soon given duties that keep her upstairs with the children and the new Mrs. Bellamy. Richard is elevated to the House of Lords
as Viscount Bellamy of Haversham in the New Year Honours List of 1917.
, but is not elected.
Lord Stockbridge's parents send their son on a trip around the world to try to wean him from Georgina, under the guise of helping him discover whether his feelings are true. James returns, in October 1929, from America — where he has visited Elizabeth and become rich through speculation on Wall Street. Rose allows James to invest the money Gregory left her when he died in the war. Then the market crashes and James loses everything, plus he had "borrowed a fair bit" that he now is unable to repay. James has disgraced his family and taken advantage of a member of staff who trusted him. Depressed and ashamed of his entire life, and goes to a hotel in Maidenhead
where he commits suicide
.
The final episode, in 1930, finds things looking up at Eaton Place as Georgina is married to Lord Stockbridge on 12 June 1930. Mr. Hudson and Mrs. Bridges also finally marry, and take the uneducated but surprisingly shrewd kitchen maid, Ruby Finch, off to the seaside with them, to run a guest house called "Seaview" (however, you can only see the cliffs from the top bedroom window, over the other houses). When asked by Rose how she feels about becoming part of the Hudsons' household, Ruby says "They'll not last long and I'll get the guest house" (i.e. because of their age). Lord Bellamy has delivered his retirement speech to the House of Lords. He and Virginia, Lady Bellamy, retire to a small villa, keeping Rose Buck in their employ. Young Edward and his wife, Daisy, are elevated to the posts of butler and Head House Parlourmaid in the country household of the Marquess
and new Marchioness
of Stockbridge.
The last scene shows Rose taking a final walk through all of the (now empty) rooms and memories at 165 Eaton Place, which is up for sale. She hears the voices of Lady Marjorie, of Mr Hudson and of many incidents she had witnessed over the years but when she finally hears the voice of James, talking about Gregory's honourable death in WWI, she realises that it is time to move on and leaves through the front door.
. They engage former parlourmaid Rose Buck, now running her own agency for domestic servants, to find them staff as they renovate the house to its former glory after years of being mothballed.
As they settle into London life, they are soon confronted with Lady Agnes's fiery young sister Lady Persephone, Sir Hallam's overbearing mother who moves herself into the house along with secretary and pet monkey, and a young, barely-trained house staff serving under a reluctant Head Housemaid. Added to these stressors are the still-plangent memory of Lady Agnes's past miscarriage, a mystery surrounding Sir Hallam's sister, who died as an infant, and a surprise foster-child they feel obliged to maintain.
Downstairs, life goes on much as it always has. Rose, convinced to remain, hires a staff of strong young hopefuls, to assist her trusted friend the Cook, and the well-credentialled new Butler. Besides training the young servants and navigating between her old memories and the new demands of the house, Rose must also help train young Lady Holland in the ways and manner of the aristocracy. The new downstairs family slowly begins to pull together as a unit, overcoming obstacles of age, class and race as they come to know one another's stories.
The new series is set against a semi-fictionalised background of the rise of Oswald Mosley
and the British Union of Fascists
– including the Battle of Cable Street
– alongside government reaction to that of Hitler
in Germany and ending shortly after Edward VIII's abdication
. Anthony Eden
, Joachim von Ribbentrop
, Wallis Simpson and Prince George, Duke of Kent
also appear. The revived series was produced by BBC Wales
and was broadcast on BBC1
from 26–28 December 2010.
over extra payments for using newly-introduced colour equipment in which broadcasting unions refused to allow their members to use colour cameras, the first six episodes of the first series were shot in black-and-white
, and when colour production resumed, the first episode was remade in colour. Two endings were made, which could be shown depending on whether or not the black and white episodes were broadcast by the channel. The original untransmitted black-and-white version of the first episode is believed to have been wiped
.
The opening credits of each episode featured a cartoon
from the magazine Punch
, and the lettering was drawn by the graphic designer Terry Griffiths. The theme tune was composed by Alexander Faris
and entitled The Edwardians. It won an Ivor Novello Award
. Part of this tune would be made into the song What Are We Going To Do With Uncle Arthur?, sung by Sarah
, with lyrics written by Alfred Shaughnessy. Pauline Collins released this as a single
in 1973. The theme tune was also used as the processional march for the church wedding of Elizabeth and Lawrence in series 1, Episode 13: For Love of Love.
Many writers wrote episodes throughout the five series, including Alfred Shaughnessy
, John Hawkesworth
, Fay Weldon
, Terence Brady and Charlotte Bingham
, John Harrison, Julian Bond, Raymond Bowers, Jeremy Paul, Rosemary Anne Sisson
, Anthony Skene and Elizabeth Jane Howard
.
on London's Southbank. The first three episodes of series six were co-produced by the BBC and its US partner Masterpiece PBS.
award for Best Drama Series in 1972, 1973, 1975 and 1976, winning in 1972 and 1974. Pauline Collins was also nominated as Best Actress in 1973 for her role as Sarah
, and in 1975 Gordon Jackson was nominated as Best Actor for playing Mr Hudson.
In the United States
, Upstairs, Downstairs was honoured in both the Emmy Awards
and the Golden Globes
. In 1974, 1975 and 1977 it won the award for Outstanding Drama Series
at the Emmys. In 1975, Jean Marsh won the award for Best Actress - Drama Series
, while Bill Bain
won the award for Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series
. The following year, it won the Outstanding Limited Series category and Gordon Jackson won as Outstanding Supporting Actor, while Angela Baddeley was nominated as Outstanding Supporting Actress - Drama Series. In 1977, Jacqueline Tong was nominated for Outstanding Supporting Actress - Drama
. In the Golden Globes, Upstairs, Downstairs won the Best TV Show - Drama in 1975 and it was nominated for this in 1978. Jean Marsh was nominated in 1976 and 1977 as Best TV Actress - Drama.
Alfred Shaughnessy
, the script editor and frequent writer, was nominated for an Emmy twice, for the episodes Miss Forrest and Another Year
. Another frequent writer was the producer, John Hawkesworth
, who was nominated for Outstanding Writing in a Drama Series for the episode The Bolter. Fay Weldon
won a Writers' Guild award for Best British TV Series Script of 1971 for the first episode On Trial
.
were thought of. These included having the new Lord and Lady Stockbridge buying back 165 Eaton Place and an American
company wanted to make a programme based around Hudson and Rose emigrating to the United States. Jack Webb
was interested in a series of Marsh and Gordon Jackson reprising their roles as head of a Los Angeles Employment Agency. Another idea, called You Live or You Die, was to have Frederick Norton seeking his fortune in the US. A further idea would have followed Hudson, Mrs Bridges and Ruby running their seaside boarding house, and this probably would have been made had it not been for the death of Angela Baddeley
on 22 February 1976. The only spin-off to make it onscreen was Thomas & Sarah
, which broadcast in 1979, and this followed the adventures of Thomas
and Sarah
after they left Eaton Place.
A short-lived CBS
series entitled Beacon Hill, which aired in the fall of 1975, was loosely based upon Upstairs, Downstairs; its executive producer, Beryl Vertue
, was Jean Marsh's literary agent and had been responsible for helping sell the original Upstairs, Downstairs to the BBC.
In 2011, the BBC ran a series entitled "Royal Upstairs Downstairs" in which Tim Wonnacott and Rosemery Shreger tour country houses visited by Queen Victoria. Tim tours the Upstairs concentrating on the architecture and events of Victoria's visit, while Rosemery concentrates on the downstairs, demonstrating recipes cooked for the Queen.
. The novelisation of the first series, "Upstairs, Downstairs or the secrets of an Edwardian household", was written by John Hawkesworth and published in 1972. Hawkesworth also wrote the series two novelisation, "In My Lady's Chamber" and this was published in 1973. The following year, Mollie Hardwick's
novelisation of the third series, "The Years of Change", was published and she also wrote the 1975 "The War to End Wars", the fourth series novelisation. The fifth series, which was longer than the others, was novelised in two books, both by Michael Hardwick and published in 1975. They were called "On With The Dance" and "Endings And Beginnings".
As well as these novelisations, five books were separately published, again by Sphere Books, with each being the biography of a main character before the series started. "Rose's Story" was written by Terence Brady & Charlotte Bingham and published in 1972. The following year, Mollie Hardwick's "Sarah's Story" and Michael Hardwick's "Mr Hudson's Diaries" were both published. "Mr Bellamy's Story", by Michael Hardwick, was published in 1974 and "Mrs Bridge's Story" by Mollie Hardwick was published in 1975. Also in 1975, "The Upstairs, Downstairs Omnibus", featuring all five slightly edited stories, was published.
series The Duchess of Duke Street
is widely seen as the BBC's answer to Upstairs, Downstairs, not least because some of the same producers and writers worked on it, and it also has a theme tune by Faris. The 1990 BBC sitcom You Rang, M'Lord?
also featured a similar situation. In the early 1990s, Marsh and Atkins created another successful period drama, The House of Eliott
, for the BBC. In 1975 an American version, entitled Beacon Hill, debuted but due to low ratings it was soon cancelled, running for just thirteen episodes. Tom Wolfe
called the series a plutography
, i.e. a "graphic depiction of the lives of the rich".
A Monsterpiece Theater
sketch starring Grover
and Alistair Cookie
from Sesame Street
was also based upon Upstairs, Downstairs.
In 2000, a stop-motion animated series called Upstairs Downstairs Bears was based upon Upstairs, Downstairs.
In the 2005 family film Nanny McPhee
many of the characters were based on Upstairs, Downstairs characters. Colin Firth
's character is based on Robert, Marquis of Stockbridge. Kelly Macdonald
's character, the scullery maid, is based on Ruby. Angela Lansbury
's character is based on Lady Prudence Fairfax. Finally, the character of Imelda Staunton
, the kitchen maid is based on Mrs Bridges character.
Company Pictures
' 2008 television series The Palace has been described as a "modern Upstairs, Downstairs" as it features the points of view of both a fictional royal family
and their servants.
From November 2008 to January 2010 variations (played in different styles, e.g., a fugue
, jazz
, calypso
, death metal
) of the theme music were played on BBC
Radio 4
's PM
programme to introduce a segment entitled "Upshares, Downshares", in which Nils Blythe
ran through the day's business news. In November 2010, with the composer Alexander Faris
's blessing, a special CD of collected versions was released to raise money for the charity Children in Need
.
episodes and the first episode with the original ending were released. Thomas & Sarah was released in matching packaging in 2004. In 2005, VCI stopped making these DVDs, none of which had included any extras.
Network Video released the entire programme series-by-series from 2005 to 2006. The episodes were digitally remastered
and the black-and-white episodes were put in chronological order in the first series. Some episodes also featured audio commentaries
, the LWT logo, commercial bumper
s and the original preceding countdowns. In addition, each series was accompanied by a special one hour documentary
relating to that series featuring new and archive interviews. The fifth series release also featured the 1975 documentary Russell Harty
goes ... "Upstairs, Downstairs". In 2006, a boxed set featuring all the DVDs was released.
DVDs of the series have also been released in Denmark
, Finland
, Germany
, the Netherlands
, Portugal
, Spain
, and Sweden
.
The show is rated PG in New Zealand for its low level violence.
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
drama
Drama
Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance. The term comes from a Greek word meaning "action" , which is derived from "to do","to act" . The enactment of drama in theatre, performed by actors on a stage before an audience, presupposes collaborative modes of production and a...
television series originally produced by London Weekend Television
London Weekend Television
London Weekend Television was the name of the ITV network franchise holder for Greater London and the Home Counties including south Suffolk, middle and east Hampshire, Oxfordshire, south Bedfordshire, south Northamptonshire, parts of Herefordshire & Worcestershire, Warwickshire, east Dorset and...
and revived by the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
. It ran on ITV
ITV
ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...
in 68 episodes divided into five series from 1971 to 1975, and a sixth series shown on the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
on three consecutive nights, 26–28 December 2010.
Set in a large townhouse
Townhouse
A townhouse is the term historically used in the United Kingdom, Ireland and in many other countries to describe a residence of a peer or member of the aristocracy in the capital or major city. Most such figures owned one or more country houses in which they lived for much of the year...
in Edwardian
Edwardian period
The Edwardian era or Edwardian period in the United Kingdom is the period covering the reign of King Edward VII, 1901 to 1910.The death of Queen Victoria in January 1901 and the succession of her son Edward marked the end of the Victorian era...
, First World War
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, and Inter-War Belgravia
Belgravia
Belgravia is a district of central London in the City of Westminster and the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. Noted for its immensely expensive residential properties, it is one of the wealthiest districts in the world...
in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, the series depicted the lives of the servants "downstairs" and their masters "upstairs". Great events feature prominently in the episodes but minor or gradual changes are also noted. It stands as a document of the social and technological changes that occurred between 1903 and 1930.
Origin and 20th century
Upstairs, Downstairs was originally an idea by two actress friends, Jean MarshJean Marsh
Jean Lyndsey Torren Marsh is an English actress, occasional screenwriter, and co-creator of the television series Upstairs, Downstairs and The House of Eliott....
and Eileen Atkins
Eileen Atkins
Dame Eileen June Atkins, DBE is an English actress and occasional screenwriter.- Early life :Atkins was born in the Mothers' Hospital in Clapton, a Salvation Army women's hostel in East London...
, for a comedy called Behind the Green Baize Door. It was to focus on two housemaids, played by Marsh and Atkins, in a large country house in the Victorian era
Victorian era
The Victorian era of British history was the period of Queen Victoria's reign from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. It was a long period of peace, prosperity, refined sensibilities and national self-confidence...
. They soon added a family upstairs, as Marsh recognised "Servants have to serve somebody". In summer 1969, they took this idea to Sagitta Productions, which was run by John Hawkesworth
John Hawkesworth (producer)
John Hawkesworth was an English television and film producer and writer best known for his work on the period drama Upstairs, Downstairs.-Early life:...
and John Whitney. They soon removed the comedy element, changed the setting to a large townhouse in Edwardian London and the title became Below Stairs. It was first offered to Granada Television
Granada Television
Granada Television is the ITV contractor for North West England. Based in Manchester since its inception, it is the only surviving original ITA franchisee from 1954 and is ITV's most successful....
in Manchester
Manchester
Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...
, but they declined as they already had a period drama, called A Family at War
A Family At War
A Family At War is a British drama series that aired on ITV from 1970 to 1972. It was created by John Finch and made by Granada Television for ITV. The director was David Giles....
, about to start. However, Stella Richman
Stella Richman
Stella Richman was a British television producer.Originally an actress, she had a bit part in the second episode of The Quatermass Experiment in 1953, Richman was appointed script editor at Lew Grade's Associated TeleVision in 1960 working on single plays. Grade's sole condition was that her...
, the Controller of Programmes at London Weekend Television
London Weekend Television
London Weekend Television was the name of the ITV network franchise holder for Greater London and the Home Counties including south Suffolk, middle and east Hampshire, Oxfordshire, south Bedfordshire, south Northamptonshire, parts of Herefordshire & Worcestershire, Warwickshire, east Dorset and...
, saw potential and in April 1970 the first series was commissioned.
Characters were then developed, but when Alfred Shaughnessy
Alfred Shaughnessy
Alfred James Shaughnessy , sometimes known as Freddy Shaughnessy, was an English scriptwriter and producer best known for being the script editor of Upstairs, Downstairs.-Early life:...
, an old friend of John Hawkesworth, was called in as script editor, he changed much of the detail to make the characters more realistic. Honor Blackman
Honor Blackman
Honor Blackman is an English actress, known for the roles of Cathy Gale in The Avengers and Bond girl Pussy Galore in Goldfinger .-Early life:...
was originally short-listed for the role of Lady Marjorie
Lady Marjorie Bellamy
The Lady Marjorie Helen Sybil Bellamy was a fictional character in the ITV drama Upstairs, Downstairs...
and George Cole to play Hudson
Angus Hudson
Angus Hudson was a fictional character in the ITV drama Upstairs, Downstairs, portrayed by actor Gordon Jackson from 1971 until 1975.-Biography:...
. Eileen Atkins, who was to play the other maid opposite Jean Marsh, was playing Queen Victoria
Victoria of the United Kingdom
Victoria was the monarch of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death. From 1 May 1876, she used the additional title of Empress of India....
in a stage show at the time, so Pauline Collins
Pauline Collins
Pauline Collins, OBE is an English actress of the stage, television, and film. She first came to prominence portraying Sarah Moffat in Upstairs, Downstairs and its spin-off Thomas & Sarah during the 1970s. She later drew acclaim for playing the title role in the play Shirley Valentine for which...
took the role, and Gordon Jackson
Gordon Jackson (actor)
Gordon Cameron Jackson, OBE was a Scottish Emmy Award-winning actor best remembered for his roles as the butler Angus Hudson in Upstairs, Downstairs and George Cowley, the head of CI5, in The Professionals....
was offered the role of Hudson after it was decided that London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
er George Cole would not be suitable to play a Scotsman. The programme took many names, including Two Little Maids in Town, The Servants' Hall and That House in Eaton Square. It was called 165 Eaton Place until just before the production of the first episode when it was changed to Upstairs, Downstairs following a suggestion from John Hawkesworth.
Despite having a champion in Stella Richman the show suffered from internal politics at the station, most notably from the sales department who could not see the attraction of a period drama and master tapes of the programme spent nearly a year in storage awaiting a transmission date. Eventually the network had a space in its schedule at the unfashionable time of Sunday nights at 10.15pm and called upon LWT to fill it. They chose Upstairs, Downstairs and with no promotion of the show there was little expectation of success. However, audiences steadily grew and the series became a hit.
21st century
In October 2009 it was announced that the BBCBBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
was to revive the series as two 90-minute episodes to be broadcast on BBC1
BBC One
BBC One is the flagship television channel of the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It was launched on 2 November 1936 as the BBC Television Service, and was the world's first regular television service with a high level of image resolution...
in the autumn of 2010, written by Heidi Thomas
Heidi Thomas
Heidi Thomas is an English screenwriter and playwright.-Career:After reading English at Liverpool University, Thomas gained national attention when her play, Shamrocks And Crocodiles, won the John Whiting Award in 1985. Her play Indigo was performed by the Royal Shakespeare Company in their...
and set in 1936, six years after the original series finished. The new series would see Jean Marsh
Jean Marsh
Jean Lyndsey Torren Marsh is an English actress, occasional screenwriter, and co-creator of the television series Upstairs, Downstairs and The House of Eliott....
reprising the role of Rose Buck as the only original cast member from the LWT series. Buck now runs a domestic servant agency after a time away nursing a relative in the country. She returns to 165 Eaton Place as housekeeper to the new owners, the Holland family, and Dame Eileen Atkins
Eileen Atkins
Dame Eileen June Atkins, DBE is an English actress and occasional screenwriter.- Early life :Atkins was born in the Mothers' Hospital in Clapton, a Salvation Army women's hostel in East London...
playing one of the characters upstairs. The two episodes were to be made in-house by BBC Wales
BBC Wales
BBC Cymru Wales is a division of the British Broadcasting Corporation for Wales. Based at Broadcasting House in the Llandaff area of Cardiff, it directly employs over 1200 people, and produces a broad range of television, radio and online services in both the Welsh and English languages.Outside...
as a co-production with Masterpiece on PBS.
In August 2010, the BBC announced that the new series would consist of three hour-long episodes, with Keeley Hawes
Keeley Hawes
Keeley Hawes is an English actress and model, known for many television roles. She is best known for her roles as Zoe Reynolds in Spooks and Alex Drake in Ashes to Ashes and Lady Agnes in the remake of Upstairs, Downstairs...
, Ed Stoppard
Ed Stoppard
Edmund Stoppard , often credited as Ed Stoppard, is a British actor.-Life and career:Stoppard was born in London, United Kingdom, the son of playwright Tom Stoppard and physician/author Miriam Stoppard , through whom he is related to former MP Oona King...
, Anne Reid
Anne Reid
Anne Reid, MBE is a BAFTA Award-nominated English film and television actress from Newcastle upon Tyne, best known for her roles as Valerie Tatlock in Coronation Street and Jean in dinnerladies....
, Claire Foy
Claire Foy
Claire Foy is an English actress, best known for playing the title role in the BBC One production of Little Dorrit and Anna in the 2011 film, Season of the Witch.-Personal life:...
, Adrian Scarborough
Adrian Scarborough
Adrian Philip Scarborough is an English character actor and won an Olivier award for best actor in a supporting role in 2011.Scarborough was born in Melton Mowbray, and trained at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, winning the Chesterton Award for Best Actor.In 1993, he was nominated for the Ian...
, Art Malik
Art Malik
Art Malik is a Pakistani-born British actor who achieved international fame in the 1980s through his starring and subsidiary roles in assorted British and Merchant-Ivory television serials and films...
, Ellie Kendrick
Ellie Kendrick
Ellie Kendrick is a British actress best known for playing Anne Frank in the BBC's 2009 miniseries The Diary of Anne Frank.Kendrick said she was "absolutely terrified" at the thought of playing the 15 year-old Anne Frank...
and Nico Mirallegro
Nico Mirallegro
Nico Cristian Mirallegro is a British actor who played the role of Barry "Newt" Newton in the British soap opera Hollyoaks between 22 October 2007 and 25 June 2010....
joining Jean Marsh and Eileen Atkins in the cast. In the middle of August 2010, filming started in Cardiff
Cardiff
Cardiff is the capital, largest city and most populous county of Wales and the 10th largest city in the United Kingdom. The city is Wales' chief commercial centre, the base for most national cultural and sporting institutions, the Welsh national media, and the seat of the National Assembly for...
, with parts of the city transformed into 1930s Belgravia
Belgravia
Belgravia is a district of central London in the City of Westminster and the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. Noted for its immensely expensive residential properties, it is one of the wealthiest districts in the world...
for exterior scenes, and the interiors shot in BBC’s Llandaff
Llandaff
Llandaff is a district in the north of Cardiff, capital of Wales, having been incorporated into the city in 1922. It is the seat of the Church in Wales Bishop of Llandaff, whose diocese covers the most populous area of South Wales. Much of the district is covered by parkland known as Llandaff...
studios in North Cardiff. Further filming of exterior scenes took place in Leamington Spa
Leamington Spa
Royal Leamington Spa, commonly known as Leamington Spa or Leamington or Leam to locals, is a spa town in central Warwickshire, England. Formerly known as Leamington Priors, its expansion began following the popularisation of the medicinal qualities of its water by Dr Kerr in 1784, and by Dr Lambe...
, Warwickshire
Warwickshire
Warwickshire is a landlocked non-metropolitan county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, although the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare...
in September 2010 with a terrace in Clarendon Square (by the same architect, Peter Frederick Robinson
Peter Frederick Robinson
Peter Frederick Robinson was an English architect.-Life:Peter Frederick Robinson began his career in Henry Holland's office and worked under William Porden at the Brighton Pavilion in 1801–2...
, as the London square used in the original series) doubling up as Eaton Place.
The new Upstairs Downstairs was scheduled for broadcast on BBC1
BBC One
BBC One is the flagship television channel of the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It was launched on 2 November 1936 as the BBC Television Service, and was the world's first regular television service with a high level of image resolution...
with the debut episode shown on 26 December 2010. A soundtrack album of music from the new series by composer Daniel Pemberton is also scheduled for release on iTunes from the same time. The three episodes have been picked up by overseas broadcasters, including ABC in Australia, NRK in Norway, Sky in New Zealand, DR in Denmark, YLE in Finland, IBA in Israel and TV4 in Sweden.
BBC1 has recommissioned six 60-minute episodes of the drama to be broadcast in 2012. Other than Jean Marsh, the cast and production details are yet to be confirmed. In August 2011 it was announced that Dame Eileen Atkins had decided not to appear in the 2012 series of Upstairs Downstairs. Reports suggested she was unhappy with the direction the new scripts were taking. Alex Kingston has joined as a replacement and will play the younger, sexier sister of Dame Eileen Atkins character, who is to be killed off. Alex will play Blanche Mottershead, a woman who is a straight talking, spinster, who smokes cheroots and is fond of a little light nudism.
Characters
For the ITV (1970–1975) cast:For the BBC (2010) cast:
Plot
The stories depict the lives of the wealthy Bellamy family ("upstairs"), who reside at 165 Eaton Place in London's fashionable BelgraviaBelgravia
Belgravia is a district of central London in the City of Westminster and the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. Noted for its immensely expensive residential properties, it is one of the wealthiest districts in the world...
, and their servants ("downstairs").
The household is led by Lady Marjorie Bellamy (née Talbot-Carey), daughter of the Earl and Countess of Southwold, and her husband Richard Bellamy MP, the son of a country parson
Parson
In the pre-Reformation church, a parson was the priest of an independent parish church, that is, a parish church not under the control of a larger ecclesiastical or monastic organization...
. They get married, despite the objections of her parents, and set up house at 165 Eaton Place, one of several London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
properties owned by Lord Southwold. Richard is a politician and several plots centre around his political ambitions and conflicts arising from his desire to follow his conscience and his allegiance to his father-in-law's political party, the Conservatives
Conservative Party (UK)
The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...
(the "Tories").
Richard and Lady Marjorie Bellamy have two children, James and Elizabeth, who are in their early twenties and late teens, respectively, when the series starts in 1903. In 1912 James's ill-fated wife Hazel becomes the new mistress of the house, and the following year Richard's ward, Georgina comes to live at 165 Eaton Place.
The original servant staff comprises the authoritarian butler Mr. Angus Hudson, the cook Mrs. Kate Bridges, the pragmatic head house parlourmaid Rose, the sweet Irish kitchen maid Emily, the eccentric footman Alfred, the mischievous under-house parlourmaid Sarah, who dreams of a dramatic life beyond servantdom, the coachman Pearce, and Lady Marjorie's lady's maid Maude Roberts. Over the years they are joined by Edward, a cheeky footman who later becomes a chauffeur; Daisy, the parlourmaid, who eventually marries Edward; Thomas Watkins, the devious chauffeur who dabbles with Sarah's affections, and Ruby, the slow-witted kitchen maid.
In the episode 'Another Year' from series 4, Hazel Bellamy notes that there are two families living in the house, one upstairs and the other downstairs, to which she makes analogies to a related family: Mr. Hudson and Mrs. Bridges are the father and mother, Rose, the eldest daughter who lost her man at the front, Edward and his wife, Daisy, and Ruby, the youngest child.
1903-1910
The first and second series span the period 1903 to 1910, during the reign of Edward VIIEdward VII of the United Kingdom
Edward VII was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions and Emperor of India from 22 January 1901 until his death in 1910...
. In 1903, Sarah Moffat applies for a job as under-house-parlour maid for the Bellamy family, pretending to be of French nobility but soon revealed to be illiterate, English, and with no work history. Later in the year, Lady Marjorie poses for Bohemian artist Mr. Scone, who simultaneously paints a nude portrait of Sarah and (an imagined) Rose; he exhibits both pictures at the Royal Academy, causing a scandal. Later the Bellamys go on vacation to Scotland, and, with Mr. Hudson gone, the servants carouse drunkenly through the house only to be caught by son James, who promises not to disclose the servants' misbehavior. James and Sarah later have an affair, resulting in Sarah's pregnancy. James is banished to India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
, and Sarah is sent to live at the Southwold estate for the duration of her pregnancy, only to return to Eaton Place on the night the Bellamys host the King; Sarah goes into labour, but the baby, a son, is stillborn. James eventually returns from India just before his mother's birthday on May 6, 1910 (which coincides with the death of King Edward the VII), and brings with him his brash and gushing fiancee, Phyllis, the daughter of an army vet. James eventually breaks off the engagement, however, after deciding that Phyllis isn't right for him.
Around 1905, daughter Elizabeth returns from Germany, to be prepared to be presented to the King and the Queen Consort at a social event, but her rebellious, headstrong nature forces her to flee the event. She has a talk with her old servant Rose, who teaches her the interdependency of everyone in the household. Elizabeth is soon enchanted with German Baron Klaus von Rimmer, who is actually a spy and plans to use her father to negotiate a lucrative military deal. He and footman Alfred flee to Germany after they are caught by Rose while having sexual relations. Alfred is replaced by Edward Barnes, a young and naive footman whose fun-loving and immature nature initially annoys Mr Hudson.
In the summer of 1906, Lady Marjorie is enchanted by her son's friend Captain Charles Hammond, and has an affair with him. Her conscience gets the better of her and she breaks off the affair. Lady Bellamy leaves with Rose to the country, while Rose is gone the new under-house-parlour maid, Mary Stokes, arrives in service pregnant, having been raped by the son of a family friend, Myles Radford, a powerful politician. Richard Bellamy attempts to help her but the Radfords refuse to take responsibility and the legal system proves ineffective. Mary quits her job with the Bellamys, but departs with a small gift of money from some of the servants.
However, a couple of years later, after Hammond's death in India, his former batman attempts to blackmail Lady Marjorie with some letters that have come into his possession written by Lady Marjorie and Captain Hammond at the time of their affair. It is only through the deviousness of the Bellamy's chauffeur, Thomas Watkins, and Sarah (who's hired as nursery maid for Elizebeth's baby [see below]), that the letters are returned to Lady Marjorie and a scandal averted.
The following year, 1907, Mrs. Van Groeben arrives from South Africa and Emily falls madly in love with her footman, William. They spend several of their days off together, but Mrs. Van Groeban gets wind of the affair, and, considering Emily to be beneath William, forbids him to see her. But the affair may have ended anyway- William drops Emily like a stone when he learns of his mistress' disapproval, suggesting he never really cared about her anyway. Emily is madly in love, however, and cannot bear life without him. She commits suicide. Mrs. Bridges, distraught over Emily's death, steals a baby from its pram outside a shop and hides it in her room. The baby is returned to its parents by Richard and Lady Marjorie, and Mrs Bridges only escapes a jail sentence after Hudson agrees to marry her, once they are no longer in service. Emily is replaced first by Doris, then by Nellie, and then finally by Ruby, a hardworking young woman, though rather slow, who frequently irritates Mrs. Bridges.
In 1908, the daughter Elizabeth marries a young poet, Lawrence Kirbridge. Somewhat indifferent to his new responsibilities as a householder, he also avoids the baseness of marital relations with Elizabeth, preferring her pure and muse-like, and their marriage remains unconsummated. Elizabeth has a brief affair (seemingly by her husband's arrangement) with her husband's publisher. She becomes pregnant, later giving birth to a daughter, Lucy Elizabeth. She joins a group of militant suffragettes and attacks the home of a prominent politician, which inadvertently results in Rose's being sent to prison. She later becomes involved with a wealthy Armenian
Armenians
Armenian people or Armenians are a nation and ethnic group native to the Armenian Highland.The largest concentration is in Armenia having a nearly-homogeneous population with 97.9% or 3,145,354 being ethnic Armenian....
gentleman called Julius Karekin, who buys her a hat shop. But Karekin is more interested in buying his way into British society than he is in Elizabeth's affections. He buys the lease of 165 Eaton Place after the Bellamys are forced to sell in the aftermath of Lady Marjorie's father's death in 1909. He offers the lease to Elizabeth who then gives it to her parents. Richard and Lady Marjorie are in Karekin's debt. Elizabeth eventually moves to America in 1910 after her split from Karekin and divorce from Kirbridge. She is later said to have married a man named Dana. Sarah and Thomas Watkins, who had previously been employed as the valet of Lawrence Kirbridge, fall in love, resulting in Sarah's becoming pregnant again. They eventually leave service. While in the Upstairs, Downstairs episode "A Family Gathering" it is stated that Thomas and Sarah were married, that fact is disregarded in the spin-off series Thomas & Sarah
Thomas & Sarah
Thomas & Sarah is a British drama series that aired on ITV in 1979. The only spin-off from the BAFTA Award-winning series Upstairs, Downstairs, it stars John Alderton and Pauline Collins reprising their Upstairs, Downstairs roles.-Background:...
.
1912-1914
Lady Marjorie, her brother Hugo Talbot-Carey (the Earl of Southwold), and his new wife (widow Marion Worsley) die in the sinking of the RMS Titanic, her last known words being uttered to her maid – "Keep this for me, Roberts" – as she hands over her jewellery case. Miss Roberts returns alive refusing to let anyone touch the jewellery box, believing she is keeping it for Lady Marjorie. Richard's new secretary, Hazel Forrest, wins the hearts of all when she very gently persuades Miss Roberts to open the box. That means accepting Lady Marjorie is gone and she breaks down into sobs, as she cries, "I tried to save her! I tried to make them [the life boat] go back! I tried to save my Lady."Richard hires Hazel to type the biography of his father-in-law, the old Earl of Southwold, which he is writing. Soon after, she and James fall in love and eventually marry. Hazel becomes mistress of the household, and they are happy for a time but start to grow apart due to James' habitual self-serving ways; this estrangement is worsened by a miscarriage in the spring of 1914.
Georgina Worsely, James's step-cousin, comes to live with the Bellamys at Christmas 1913, aged 18. Georgina is the orphaned stepdaughter of Lady Marjorie's brother Hugo. She decides to 'steal' some food from the pantry and offer it to the family of Daisy, the new parlourmaid, but she is horrified when she discovers Daisy's family live in the kind of abject poverty she has never had to experience.
Rose, the head houseparlourmaid, is shocked when Alfred, the Bellamy's former footman, turns up at Eaton Place one night. He claims he's been sacked by his former employer and is homeless. She agrees to hide him in one of the basement rooms, but is horrified when it later transpires Alfred is actually on the run from the police having murdered his previous employer. After taking Edward hostage in the coal cellar, Alfred is arrested and eventually hanged for murder. The following year, Rose briefly becomes engaged to an Australian sheep-farmer called Gregory Wilmot whom she meets on an omnibus one day. She agrees to move to Australia with him, but later becomes frightened of making such a leap, and changes her mind, deciding to stay with the familiarity she knows at Eaton Place.
Richard, who has had to sell the lease of the house to James after Lady Marjorie's death (all her money passed on to James and Elizabeth), makes money after a share tip-off from a member of his gentleman's club. Richard is later unjustly accused of insider dealing and it is only the intervention of Hazel and Hudson that saves his career and reputation. (This plot was inspired by the Marconi scandal
Marconi scandal
The Marconi scandal was a British political scandal that broke in the summer of 1912. It centred on allegations that highly-placed members of the Liberal government, under H. H...
of 1912).
During a visit to Somerby, the country house of James's school-friend Lord "Bunny" Newbury in the Autumn of 1913, Edward unwittingly becomes the witness in an impending divorce case when he spies rising Tory MP Lord Charles Gilmour leaving the bedroom of a fellow MP's wife. Edward is put under pressure to lie and change his story, but he refuses, and the case is withdrawn after pressure from Richard.
The servants are offered a day's holiday in Herne Bay
Herne Bay, Kent
Herne Bay is a seaside town in Kent, South East England, with a population of 35,188. On the south coast of the Thames Estuary, it is north of Canterbury and east of Whitstable. It neighbours the ancient villages of Herne and Reculver and is part of the City of Canterbury local government district...
in Kent in August 1914. They enjoy a rare day out together, and Hudson goes so far as to offer a song on the vaudeville stage, but their enjoyment is curtailed by the announcement that Britain is about to go to war with Germany.
1914-1918
James serves in World War IWorld War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, is seriously injured in a trench battle and brought home, amid much difficulty, to recover. He is nursed by his step-cousin Georgina, who now volunteers as a VAD Nurse
Voluntary Aid Detachment
The Voluntary Aid Detachment was a voluntary organisation providing field nursing services, mainly in hospitals, in the United Kingdom and various other countries in the British Empire. The organisation's most important periods of operation were during World War I and World War II.The...
and serves in France during the war. Georgina and James develop a close understanding and affection during the war, but do not go so far as to become lovers. Downstairs, Edward signs up and fights in the trenches, Hudson serves as a Special Constable
Special constable
A Special Constable is a law enforcement officer who is not a regular member of a police force. Some like the Royal Canadian Mounted Police carry the same law enforcement powers as regular members, but are employed in specific roles, such as explosive disposal technicians, court security, campus...
, Rose works as a bus conductress, and Ruby leaves Eaton Place to work in a munitions factory, returning to service after the Silvertown explosion
Silvertown explosion
The Silvertown explosion occurred in Silvertown in West Ham, Essex on Friday, 19 January 1917 at 6.52 pm. The blast occurred at a munitions factory that was manufacturing explosives for Britain's World War I military effort...
. Hazel, unknowingly echoing her late mother-in-law Lady Marjorie, has a brief affair with an RFC
Royal Flying Corps
The Royal Flying Corps was the over-land air arm of the British military during most of the First World War. During the early part of the war, the RFC's responsibilities were centred on support of the British Army, via artillery co-operation and photographic reconnaissance...
Lieutenant named Jack Dyson who, like herself, has risen from the ranks of the middle classes. He is killed while James is at home on leave. Rose meets up with Gregory Wilmot again. After overcoming their emotional and practical hurdles, she finally agrees to marry him on his return from the war and follow him to Australia. Unfortunately he is killed in action. Rose is heartbroken but Gregory has left her £1200 in his will, enough to make her independent in her retirement. Edward returns, and while not physically wounded, suffers badly from shell shock
Shell Shock
Shell Shock, also known as 82nd Marines Attack was a 1964 film by B-movie director John Hayes. The film takes place in Italy during World War II, and tells the story of a sergeant with his group of soldiers....
and goes into hospital. He speaks to Richard, who comforts him as if he were his own son, assuring him that mental wounds are as real as physical, and no mark on his character.
In 1918, just as the War ended, Hazel dies, aged around 35, in the worldwide influenza pandemic
Spanish flu
The 1918 flu pandemic was an influenza pandemic, and the first of the two pandemics involving H1N1 influenza virus . It was an unusually severe and deadly pandemic that spread across the world. Historical and epidemiological data are inadequate to identify the geographic origin...
. Griefstruck, James lets Georgina comfort him, but she wisely stops him from any further closeness. Richard later marries a young widow named Mrs. Virginia Hamilton, whose eldest son Michael was killed when he was 17 in the spring of 1918. Her other children are Alice, age 10 and, William, 6, when Richard proposes to Virginia in late October/November 1918. The house comes alive with the arrival of the new Lady and two children in the nursery. Alice becomes very attached to Rose, who is soon given duties that keep her upstairs with the children and the new Mrs. Bellamy. Richard is elevated to the House of Lords
House of Lords
The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster....
as Viscount Bellamy of Haversham in the New Year Honours List of 1917.
1919-1930
Georgina and her friends rebel against the depression and hard times of the war in the roaring 20s but her frivolity and merriment are brought to a quick end firstly, by the suicide of a friend who professes his love for her and threatens to kill himself if she doesn't marry him; he makes good on this threat in the schoolroom at 165 Eaton Place, while a roaring 20s party rages below. Secondly, Georgina accidentally kills a working class man early one morning after borrowing Richard's car without asking (and without Edward driving) in order to win a prize for completing a scavenger hunt. Her friends, part of the set of moneyed, bored and pleasure-seeking "bright young things", desert her at the inquest, except the very rich, but stupid Lady Dolly and the seemingly dull Lord Stockbridge, heir to a dukedom, who defends her despite his family's wishes. He is in love with Georgina and she very quickly falls in love with him. James never settles and is never able to come to terms with his war experiences of Hazel's death. Restless, he stands for ParliamentBritish House of Commons
The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which also comprises the Sovereign and the House of Lords . Both Commons and Lords meet in the Palace of Westminster. The Commons is a democratically elected body, consisting of 650 members , who are known as Members...
, but is not elected.
Lord Stockbridge's parents send their son on a trip around the world to try to wean him from Georgina, under the guise of helping him discover whether his feelings are true. James returns, in October 1929, from America — where he has visited Elizabeth and become rich through speculation on Wall Street. Rose allows James to invest the money Gregory left her when he died in the war. Then the market crashes and James loses everything, plus he had "borrowed a fair bit" that he now is unable to repay. James has disgraced his family and taken advantage of a member of staff who trusted him. Depressed and ashamed of his entire life, and goes to a hotel in Maidenhead
Maidenhead
Maidenhead is a town and unparished area within the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead, in Berkshire, England. It lies on the River Thames and is situated west of Charing Cross in London.-History:...
where he commits suicide
Suicide
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...
.
The final episode, in 1930, finds things looking up at Eaton Place as Georgina is married to Lord Stockbridge on 12 June 1930. Mr. Hudson and Mrs. Bridges also finally marry, and take the uneducated but surprisingly shrewd kitchen maid, Ruby Finch, off to the seaside with them, to run a guest house called "Seaview" (however, you can only see the cliffs from the top bedroom window, over the other houses). When asked by Rose how she feels about becoming part of the Hudsons' household, Ruby says "They'll not last long and I'll get the guest house" (i.e. because of their age). Lord Bellamy has delivered his retirement speech to the House of Lords. He and Virginia, Lady Bellamy, retire to a small villa, keeping Rose Buck in their employ. Young Edward and his wife, Daisy, are elevated to the posts of butler and Head House Parlourmaid in the country household of the Marquess
Marquess
A marquess or marquis is a nobleman of hereditary rank in various European peerages and in those of some of their former colonies. The term is also used to translate equivalent oriental styles, as in imperial China, Japan, and Vietnam...
and new Marchioness
Marchioness
Marchioness could refer to:*A noblewoman with the rank of Marquess, or the wife of a Marquess.*The Marchioness, a pleasure boat that was sunk on the River Thames in 1989....
of Stockbridge.
The last scene shows Rose taking a final walk through all of the (now empty) rooms and memories at 165 Eaton Place, which is up for sale. She hears the voices of Lady Marjorie, of Mr Hudson and of many incidents she had witnessed over the years but when she finally hears the voice of James, talking about Gregory's honourable death in WWI, she realises that it is time to move on and leaves through the front door.
1936
Sir Hallam Holland, a diplomat, moves into the townhouse along with his wife, Lady Agnes, in January 1936 shortly before the death of George VGeorge V of the United Kingdom
George V was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 through the First World War until his death in 1936....
. They engage former parlourmaid Rose Buck, now running her own agency for domestic servants, to find them staff as they renovate the house to its former glory after years of being mothballed.
As they settle into London life, they are soon confronted with Lady Agnes's fiery young sister Lady Persephone, Sir Hallam's overbearing mother who moves herself into the house along with secretary and pet monkey, and a young, barely-trained house staff serving under a reluctant Head Housemaid. Added to these stressors are the still-plangent memory of Lady Agnes's past miscarriage, a mystery surrounding Sir Hallam's sister, who died as an infant, and a surprise foster-child they feel obliged to maintain.
Downstairs, life goes on much as it always has. Rose, convinced to remain, hires a staff of strong young hopefuls, to assist her trusted friend the Cook, and the well-credentialled new Butler. Besides training the young servants and navigating between her old memories and the new demands of the house, Rose must also help train young Lady Holland in the ways and manner of the aristocracy. The new downstairs family slowly begins to pull together as a unit, overcoming obstacles of age, class and race as they come to know one another's stories.
The new series is set against a semi-fictionalised background of the rise of Oswald Mosley
Oswald Mosley
Sir Oswald Ernald Mosley, 6th Baronet, of Ancoats, was an English politician, known principally as the founder of the British Union of Fascists...
and the British Union of Fascists
British Union of Fascists
The British Union was a political party in the United Kingdom formed in 1932 by Sir Oswald Mosley as the British Union of Fascists, in 1936 it changed its name to the British Union of Fascists and National Socialists and then in 1937 to simply the British Union...
– including the Battle of Cable Street
Battle of Cable Street
The Battle of Cable Street took place on Sunday 4 October 1936 in Cable Street in the East End of London. It was a clash between the Metropolitan Police, overseeing a march by the British Union of Fascists, led by Oswald Mosley, and anti-fascists, including local Jewish, socialist, anarchist,...
– alongside government reaction to that of Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
in Germany and ending shortly after Edward VIII's abdication
Edward VIII abdication crisis
In 1936, a constitutional crisis in the British Empire was caused by King-Emperor Edward VIII's proposal to marry Wallis Simpson, a twice-divorced American socialite....
. Anthony Eden
Anthony Eden
Robert Anthony Eden, 1st Earl of Avon, KG, MC, PC was a British Conservative politician, who was Prime Minister from 1955 to 1957...
, Joachim von Ribbentrop
Joachim von Ribbentrop
Ulrich Friedrich Wilhelm Joachim von Ribbentrop was Foreign Minister of Germany from 1938 until 1945. He was later hanged for war crimes after the Nuremberg Trials.-Early life:...
, Wallis Simpson and Prince George, Duke of Kent
Prince George, Duke of Kent
Prince George, Duke of Kent was a member of the British Royal Family, the fourth son of George V and Mary of Teck, and younger brother of Edward VIII and George VI...
also appear. The revived series was produced by BBC Wales
BBC Wales
BBC Cymru Wales is a division of the British Broadcasting Corporation for Wales. Based at Broadcasting House in the Llandaff area of Cardiff, it directly employs over 1200 people, and produces a broad range of television, radio and online services in both the Welsh and English languages.Outside...
and was broadcast on BBC1
BBC One
BBC One is the flagship television channel of the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It was launched on 2 November 1936 as the BBC Television Service, and was the world's first regular television service with a high level of image resolution...
from 26–28 December 2010.
Episodes
Upstairs, Downstairs ran for five series from 10 December 1971 to 21 December 1975. The first four series consisted of thirteen episodes each, while the final series consisted of sixteen episodes. Due to an industrial disputeColour Strike
The Colour Strike was an industrial action by technicians at all ITV companies from 13 November 1970 to 8 February 1971 who, due to a pay dispute with their management, refused to work with colour television equipment.At that time ITV had recently switched to...
over extra payments for using newly-introduced colour equipment in which broadcasting unions refused to allow their members to use colour cameras, the first six episodes of the first series were shot in black-and-white
Black-and-white
Black-and-white, often abbreviated B/W or B&W, is a term referring to a number of monochrome forms in visual arts.Black-and-white as a description is also something of a misnomer, for in addition to black and white, most of these media included varying shades of gray...
, and when colour production resumed, the first episode was remade in colour. Two endings were made, which could be shown depending on whether or not the black and white episodes were broadcast by the channel. The original untransmitted black-and-white version of the first episode is believed to have been wiped
Wiping
Wiping or junking is a colloquial term for action taken by radio and television production and broadcasting companies, in which old audiotapes, videotapes, and telerecordings , are erased, reused, or destroyed after several uses...
.
The opening credits of each episode featured a cartoon
Cartoon
A cartoon is a form of two-dimensional illustrated visual art. While the specific definition has changed over time, modern usage refers to a typically non-realistic or semi-realistic drawing or painting intended for satire, caricature, or humor, or to the artistic style of such works...
from the magazine Punch
Punch (magazine)
Punch, or the London Charivari was a British weekly magazine of humour and satire established in 1841 by Henry Mayhew and engraver Ebenezer Landells. Historically, it was most influential in the 1840s and 50s, when it helped to coin the term "cartoon" in its modern sense as a humorous illustration...
, and the lettering was drawn by the graphic designer Terry Griffiths. The theme tune was composed by Alexander Faris
Alexander Faris
Alexander "Sandy" Faris is an Irish composer, conductor and writer, known for his television theme tunes. He has composed and recorded many operas and musicals, and has composed film scores and orchestral works.-Life and career:...
and entitled The Edwardians. It won an Ivor Novello Award
Ivor Novello Awards
The Ivor Novello Awards, named after the Cardiff born entertainer Ivor Novello, are awards for songwriting and composing. They are presented annually in London by the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors and were first introduced in 1955.Nicknamed The Ivors, the awards take place...
. Part of this tune would be made into the song What Are We Going To Do With Uncle Arthur?, sung by Sarah
Sarah Moffat
Sarah Moffat , also known as Sarah Delice and Clémence Dumas, is a fictional character in the ITV drama Upstairs, Downstairs and its spin-off Thomas & Sarah...
, with lyrics written by Alfred Shaughnessy. Pauline Collins released this as a single
Single (music)
In music, a single or record single is a type of release, typically a recording of fewer tracks than an LP or a CD. This can be released for sale to the public in a variety of different formats. In most cases, the single is a song that is released separately from an album, but it can still appear...
in 1973. The theme tune was also used as the processional march for the church wedding of Elizabeth and Lawrence in series 1, Episode 13: For Love of Love.
Many writers wrote episodes throughout the five series, including Alfred Shaughnessy
Alfred Shaughnessy
Alfred James Shaughnessy , sometimes known as Freddy Shaughnessy, was an English scriptwriter and producer best known for being the script editor of Upstairs, Downstairs.-Early life:...
, John Hawkesworth
John Hawkesworth (producer)
John Hawkesworth was an English television and film producer and writer best known for his work on the period drama Upstairs, Downstairs.-Early life:...
, Fay Weldon
Fay Weldon
Fay Weldon CBE is an English author, essayist and playwright, whose work has been associated with feminism. In her fiction, Weldon typically portrays contemporary women who find themselves trapped in oppressive situations caused by the patriarchal structure of British society.-Biography:Weldon was...
, Terence Brady and Charlotte Bingham
Charlotte Bingham
Charlotte Mary Thérèse Bingham is an English novelist who has written over 30 mainly historical novels and has also written for many television programmes including Upstairs, Downstairs, Play for Today and Robin's Nest...
, John Harrison, Julian Bond, Raymond Bowers, Jeremy Paul, Rosemary Anne Sisson
Rosemary Anne Sisson
Rosemary Anne Sisson is a British television dramatist and novelist. She is the daughter of the scholar of Elizabethan drama Charles Jasper Sisson ....
, Anthony Skene and Elizabeth Jane Howard
Elizabeth Jane Howard
Elizabeth Jane Howard, CBE is an English novelist. She was previously an actress and a model.In 1951 she won the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize for her first novel, The Beautiful Visit...
.
Production
Each episode of Upstairs, Downstairs was made in a fortnightly production schedule. The first week and a half would be spent rehearsing, with two days in the studio - the latter part of the second day being used for recording. Location footage was usually shot beforehand. The exterior shots of 165 Eaton Place were filmed at 65 Eaton Place with the "1" painted on. Upstairs, Downstairs was one of the first major colour productions to be made by LWT. Interior sequences were first recorded in LWT's first studio production area in Wembley in London, for all of series one and the episode "A Pair of Exiles" in series two. For the rest of series two and for the remaining three series the interior sequences were recorded in LWT's brand new studio complex called Kent House, or as it is known today The London StudiosThe London Studios
The London Studios is a television studio complex which is owned by London Weekend Television and has been home to the London Weekend ITV provider since 1972...
on London's Southbank. The first three episodes of series six were co-produced by the BBC and its US partner Masterpiece PBS.
Awards
Upstairs, Downstairs was nominated and won many national and international awards. It was nominated for the BAFTA TelevisionBritish Academy Television Awards
The British Academy Television Awards are presented in an annual award show hosted by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts . They have been awarded annually since 1954, and are analogous to the Emmy Awards in the United States.-Background:...
award for Best Drama Series in 1972, 1973, 1975 and 1976, winning in 1972 and 1974. Pauline Collins was also nominated as Best Actress in 1973 for her role as Sarah
Sarah Moffat
Sarah Moffat , also known as Sarah Delice and Clémence Dumas, is a fictional character in the ITV drama Upstairs, Downstairs and its spin-off Thomas & Sarah...
, and in 1975 Gordon Jackson was nominated as Best Actor for playing Mr Hudson.
In the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, Upstairs, Downstairs was honoured in both the Emmy Awards
Primetime Emmy Award
The Primetime Emmy Awards are awards presented by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences in recognition of excellence in American primetime television programming...
and the Golden Globes
Golden Globe Award
The Golden Globe Award is an accolade bestowed by the 93 members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association recognizing excellence in film and television, both domestic and foreign...
. In 1974, 1975 and 1977 it won the award for Outstanding Drama Series
Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama Series
This page lists the winners and nominees for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama Series, since its institution in 1951. The award is often cited as one of the "main awards" at the Emmys ceremonies, and has changed names many times in its history. It was first called Best Dramatic Show...
at the Emmys. In 1975, Jean Marsh won the award for Best Actress - Drama Series
Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress - Drama Series
This is a list of winners of the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress – a Drama Series.-Superlatives:-1950s:*1952: Helen Hayes*1953: no award*1954: Loretta Young – The Loretta Young Show*1955: no award...
, while Bill Bain
Bill Bain (director)
Bill Bain was an Australian television and film director. He directed numerous episodes of British television series, including Emerald Soup, The Avengers, Redcap, and Armchair Theatre. He won an Emmy Award in 1975 for Outstanding Directing in a Drama Series for his work on the Upstairs,...
won the award for Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series
Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series
The Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series is an Emmy presented to the best directing of a television drama series.-Best Direction of a Single Program of a Drama Series:*1959: Jack Smight – Alcoa-Goodyear Theatre ...
. The following year, it won the Outstanding Limited Series category and Gordon Jackson won as Outstanding Supporting Actor, while Angela Baddeley was nominated as Outstanding Supporting Actress - Drama Series. In 1977, Jacqueline Tong was nominated for Outstanding Supporting Actress - Drama
Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress - Drama Series
This is a list of winners of the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series-Superlatives:-1960s:*1960: no award*1961: no award*1962: Pamela Brown – Victoria Regina*1963: Glenda Farrell – Ben Casey...
. In the Golden Globes, Upstairs, Downstairs won the Best TV Show - Drama in 1975 and it was nominated for this in 1978. Jean Marsh was nominated in 1976 and 1977 as Best TV Actress - Drama.
Alfred Shaughnessy
Alfred Shaughnessy
Alfred James Shaughnessy , sometimes known as Freddy Shaughnessy, was an English scriptwriter and producer best known for being the script editor of Upstairs, Downstairs.-Early life:...
, the script editor and frequent writer, was nominated for an Emmy twice, for the episodes Miss Forrest and Another Year
Another Year (Upstairs, Downstairs)
Another Year is the ninth episode of the fourth series of the period drama Upstairs, Downstairs. It first aired on 9 November 1974 on ITV.-Background:Another Year was recorded in the studio on 25 and 26 July 1974...
. Another frequent writer was the producer, John Hawkesworth
John Hawkesworth (producer)
John Hawkesworth was an English television and film producer and writer best known for his work on the period drama Upstairs, Downstairs.-Early life:...
, who was nominated for Outstanding Writing in a Drama Series for the episode The Bolter. Fay Weldon
Fay Weldon
Fay Weldon CBE is an English author, essayist and playwright, whose work has been associated with feminism. In her fiction, Weldon typically portrays contemporary women who find themselves trapped in oppressive situations caused by the patriarchal structure of British society.-Biography:Weldon was...
won a Writers' Guild award for Best British TV Series Script of 1971 for the first episode On Trial
On Trial
On Trial is an early talking drama film produced and distributed by Warner Brothers and directed by Archie Mayo. The picture stars Pauline Frederick, Lois Wilson, Bert Lytell, Holmes Herbert and Jason Robards. Obviously a film where many a silent player was crossing over to sound for the first...
.
Spin-offs
Following the final episode of Upstairs, Downstairs many ideas for spin-offsSpin-off (media)
In media, a spin-off is a radio program, television program, video game, or any narrative work, derived from one or more already existing works, that focuses, in particular, in more detail on one aspect of that original work...
were thought of. These included having the new Lord and Lady Stockbridge buying back 165 Eaton Place and an American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
company wanted to make a programme based around Hudson and Rose emigrating to the United States. Jack Webb
Jack Webb
John Randolph "Jack" Webb , also known by the pseudonym John Randolph, was an American actor, television producer, director and screenwriter, who is most famous for his role as Sergeant Joe Friday in the radio and television series Dragnet...
was interested in a series of Marsh and Gordon Jackson reprising their roles as head of a Los Angeles Employment Agency. Another idea, called You Live or You Die, was to have Frederick Norton seeking his fortune in the US. A further idea would have followed Hudson, Mrs Bridges and Ruby running their seaside boarding house, and this probably would have been made had it not been for the death of Angela Baddeley
Angela Baddeley
Angela Baddeley, CBE , born Madeline Angela Clinton-Baddeley, was an English actress best remembered for her role as Mrs Bridges in the period drama Upstairs, Downstairs...
on 22 February 1976. The only spin-off to make it onscreen was Thomas & Sarah
Thomas & Sarah
Thomas & Sarah is a British drama series that aired on ITV in 1979. The only spin-off from the BAFTA Award-winning series Upstairs, Downstairs, it stars John Alderton and Pauline Collins reprising their Upstairs, Downstairs roles.-Background:...
, which broadcast in 1979, and this followed the adventures of Thomas
Thomas Watkins
Thomas David Watkins is a fictional character in the ITV drama Upstairs, Downstairs and its spin-off Thomas & Sarah. He was portrayed by John Alderton.-Greenwich:...
and Sarah
Sarah Moffat
Sarah Moffat , also known as Sarah Delice and Clémence Dumas, is a fictional character in the ITV drama Upstairs, Downstairs and its spin-off Thomas & Sarah...
after they left Eaton Place.
A short-lived CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
series entitled Beacon Hill, which aired in the fall of 1975, was loosely based upon Upstairs, Downstairs; its executive producer, Beryl Vertue
Beryl Vertue
Beryl Vertue is an English television producer and media executive. She is founder and chairman of the independent television production company Hartswood Films....
, was Jean Marsh's literary agent and had been responsible for helping sell the original Upstairs, Downstairs to the BBC.
In 2011, the BBC ran a series entitled "Royal Upstairs Downstairs" in which Tim Wonnacott and Rosemery Shreger tour country houses visited by Queen Victoria. Tim tours the Upstairs concentrating on the architecture and events of Victoria's visit, while Rosemery concentrates on the downstairs, demonstrating recipes cooked for the Queen.
Novelisations
Each series of Upstairs, Downstairs was accompanied by a novelisation, with additional detail in each, but also with some episodes missing. All books were published by Sphere BooksSphere Books
-History:Founded in 1961, Sphere Books began work on its first publication, the 1962 paperback edition of Gottfried Benn's The Trainee Man. Originally part of The Thomson Corporation, Sphere was sold to Pearson PLC in 1985 and became part of Penguin...
. The novelisation of the first series, "Upstairs, Downstairs or the secrets of an Edwardian household", was written by John Hawkesworth and published in 1972. Hawkesworth also wrote the series two novelisation, "In My Lady's Chamber" and this was published in 1973. The following year, Mollie Hardwick's
Mollie Hardwick
Mollie Greenhalgh Hardwick was an English author who was best known for writing books that accompanied the TV series Upstairs, Downstairs....
novelisation of the third series, "The Years of Change", was published and she also wrote the 1975 "The War to End Wars", the fourth series novelisation. The fifth series, which was longer than the others, was novelised in two books, both by Michael Hardwick and published in 1975. They were called "On With The Dance" and "Endings And Beginnings".
As well as these novelisations, five books were separately published, again by Sphere Books, with each being the biography of a main character before the series started. "Rose's Story" was written by Terence Brady & Charlotte Bingham and published in 1972. The following year, Mollie Hardwick's "Sarah's Story" and Michael Hardwick's "Mr Hudson's Diaries" were both published. "Mr Bellamy's Story", by Michael Hardwick, was published in 1974 and "Mrs Bridge's Story" by Mollie Hardwick was published in 1975. Also in 1975, "The Upstairs, Downstairs Omnibus", featuring all five slightly edited stories, was published.
Influence
The BBCBBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
series The Duchess of Duke Street
The Duchess of Duke Street
The Duchess Of Duke Street is a BBC television drama series set in London between 1900 and 1935. It was created by John Hawkesworth, the former producer of the highly successful ITV period drama Upstairs, Downstairs...
is widely seen as the BBC's answer to Upstairs, Downstairs, not least because some of the same producers and writers worked on it, and it also has a theme tune by Faris. The 1990 BBC sitcom You Rang, M'Lord?
You Rang, M'Lord?
You Rang M'Lord? is a British television series written by Jimmy Perry and David Croft, the creators of Dad's Army, It Ain't Half Hot Mum and Hi-de-Hi! It was broadcast between 1990 and 1993 on the BBC...
also featured a similar situation. In the early 1990s, Marsh and Atkins created another successful period drama, The House of Eliott
The House of Eliott
The House of Eliott is a British television series produced and broadcast by the BBC in three series between 1991 and 1994. The series starred Stella Gonet and Louise Lombard as two sisters in 1920s London who establish a dressmaking business and eventually their own haute couture fashion house...
, for the BBC. In 1975 an American version, entitled Beacon Hill, debuted but due to low ratings it was soon cancelled, running for just thirteen episodes. Tom Wolfe
Tom Wolfe
Thomas Kennerly "Tom" Wolfe, Jr. is a best-selling American author and journalist. He is one of the founders of the New Journalism movement of the 1960s and 1970s.-Early life and education:...
called the series a plutography
Plutography
-definition:Plutography is a word coined by Tom Wolfe to categorize books and other media that describe the lives of rich and famous people, often uncritically. He used the term to describe the television serial Brideshead Revisited and Upstairs, Downstairs. . Perhaps the most famous example of...
, i.e. a "graphic depiction of the lives of the rich".
A Monsterpiece Theater
Monsterpiece Theater
Monsterpiece Theater is a recurring segment on the American version of the popular children's tv series Sesame Street portrayed as a children's educational parody of Masterpiece Theatre.-Format:...
sketch starring Grover
Grover
Grover is a Muppet character on the popular television show Sesame Street. Self-described as lovable, cute and furry, he is a monster who almost never uses contractions when speaking or singing....
and Alistair Cookie
Alistair Cookie
Alistair Cookie is Cookie Monster's alter ego when hosting "Monsterpiece Theater" on Sesame Street. Created as a spoof of the original Masterpiece Theatre host Alistair Cooke, Alistair Cookie is basically Cookie Monster in an English smoking jacket and ascot tie, although Cooke was neither a pipe...
from Sesame Street
Sesame Street
Sesame Street has undergone significant changes in its history. According to writer Michael Davis, by the mid-1970s the show had become "an American institution". The cast and crew expanded during this time, including the hiring of women in the crew and additional minorities in the cast. The...
was also based upon Upstairs, Downstairs.
In 2000, a stop-motion animated series called Upstairs Downstairs Bears was based upon Upstairs, Downstairs.
In the 2005 family film Nanny McPhee
Nanny McPhee
Nanny McPhee is a 2005 fantasy film starring Emma Thompson and Colin Firth. Thompson also wrote the screenplay, which is adapted from Christianna Brand's Nurse Matilda books.-Plot:...
many of the characters were based on Upstairs, Downstairs characters. Colin Firth
Colin Firth
SirColin Andrew Firth, CBE is a British film, television, and theatre actor. Firth gained wide public attention in the 1990s for his portrayal of Mr. Darcy in the 1995 television adaptation of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice...
's character is based on Robert, Marquis of Stockbridge. Kelly Macdonald
Kelly Macdonald
Kelly Macdonald is a Scottish actress, known for her role in the independent film Trainspotting and mainstream releases such as Nanny McPhee, Gosford Park, Intermission, No Country for Old Men and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2...
's character, the scullery maid, is based on Ruby. Angela Lansbury
Angela Lansbury
Angela Brigid Lansbury CBE is an English actress and singer in theatre, television and motion pictures, whose career has spanned eight decades and earned her more performance Tony Awards than any other individual , with five wins...
's character is based on Lady Prudence Fairfax. Finally, the character of Imelda Staunton
Imelda Staunton
Imelda Mary Philomena Bernadette Staunton, OBE is an English actress. She is perhaps best known for her performances in the British comedy television series Up the Garden Path, the Harry Potter film series and Vera Drake...
, the kitchen maid is based on Mrs Bridges character.
Company Pictures
Company Pictures
Company Pictures is an independent British television production company which has produced drama programming for many broadcasters. Their productions have included:*drama series Wild at Heart for ITV1, written by Ashley Pharoah....
' 2008 television series The Palace has been described as a "modern Upstairs, Downstairs" as it features the points of view of both a fictional royal family
Royal family
A royal family is the extended family of a king or queen regnant. The term imperial family appropriately describes the extended family of an emperor or empress, while the terms "ducal family", "grand ducal family" or "princely family" are more appropriate to describe the relatives of a reigning...
and their servants.
From November 2008 to January 2010 variations (played in different styles, e.g., a fugue
Fugue
In music, a fugue is a compositional technique in two or more voices, built on a subject that is introduced at the beginning in imitation and recurs frequently in the course of the composition....
, jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
, calypso
Calypso music
Calypso is a style of Afro-Caribbean music that originated in Trinidad and Tobago from African and European roots. The roots of the genre lay in the arrival of enslaved Africans, who, not being allowed to speak with each other, communicated through song...
, death metal
Death metal
Death metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal. It typically employs heavily distorted guitars, tremolo picking, deep growling vocals, blast beat drumming, minor keys or atonality, and complex song structures with multiple tempo changes....
) of the theme music were played on BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
Radio 4
BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a British domestic radio station, operated and owned by the BBC, that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. The station controller is currently Gwyneth Williams, and the...
's PM
PM (Radio 4)
PM, sometimes referred to as the PM programme to avoid ambiguity, is BBC Radio 4's long-running early evening news and current affairs programme.-Broadcast times:...
programme to introduce a segment entitled "Upshares, Downshares", in which Nils Blythe
Nils Blythe
Nils Blythe is a British journalist who worked for BBC News until 2011. He specialises in business and economics. He is currently Executive Director of Communications at the Bank of England- Early life and education :...
ran through the day's business news. In November 2010, with the composer Alexander Faris
Alexander Faris
Alexander "Sandy" Faris is an Irish composer, conductor and writer, known for his television theme tunes. He has composed and recorded many operas and musicals, and has composed film scores and orchestral works.-Life and career:...
's blessing, a special CD of collected versions was released to raise money for the charity Children in Need
Children in Need
Children in Need is an annual British charity appeal organised by the BBC. Since 1980 it has raised over £500 million. The highlight of the Children in Need appeal is an annual telethon, held in November. A teddy bear named "Pudsey Bear" fronts the campaign, while Terry Wogan is a long...
.
Region One
Upstairs, Downstairs was first released to Region One DVD in December 2001 by A&E Home Entertainment. During 2002, it released the remaining series and then released Thomas and Sarah on DVD in 2004. The individual releases have also been collected together into two boxed sets, the second of which, The Collector's Edition Megaset, also includes Thomas and Sarah. These are all out of print. Acorn Media is due to re-release the entire series, without Thomas and Sarah, in a 21-disc set that duplicates the content of the Network set listed below.Region Two
Upstairs, Downstairs was originally released on DVD by VCI in Region 2 (UK). The colour episodes of the first series were released in 2001 followed by the other series finishing in 2003. In 2004, the black-and-whiteBlack-and-white
Black-and-white, often abbreviated B/W or B&W, is a term referring to a number of monochrome forms in visual arts.Black-and-white as a description is also something of a misnomer, for in addition to black and white, most of these media included varying shades of gray...
episodes and the first episode with the original ending were released. Thomas & Sarah was released in matching packaging in 2004. In 2005, VCI stopped making these DVDs, none of which had included any extras.
Network Video released the entire programme series-by-series from 2005 to 2006. The episodes were digitally remastered
Remaster
Remaster is a word marketed mostly in the digital audio age, although the remastering process has existed since recording began...
and the black-and-white episodes were put in chronological order in the first series. Some episodes also featured audio commentaries
Audio commentary
On disc-based video formats, an audio commentary is an additional audio track consisting of a lecture or comments by one or more speakers, that plays in real time with video...
, the LWT logo, commercial bumper
Commercial bumper
In broadcasting, a commercial bumper, ident bumper or break-bumper is a brief announcement, usually two to 15 seconds that can contain a voice over, placed between a pause in the program and its commercial break, and vice versa...
s and the original preceding countdowns. In addition, each series was accompanied by a special one hour documentary
Documentary film
Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...
relating to that series featuring new and archive interviews. The fifth series release also featured the 1975 documentary Russell Harty
Russell Harty
Russell Harty was an English television presenter of arts programmes and chat shows.-Early life:Born Frederick Russell Harty in Blackburn, Lancashire, he was the son of a fruit and vegetable stallholder on the local market...
goes ... "Upstairs, Downstairs". In 2006, a boxed set featuring all the DVDs was released.
DVDs of the series have also been released in Denmark
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
, Finland
Finland
Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, the Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
, Portugal
Portugal
Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...
, Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
, and Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
.
Region Four
Universal DVD released all five series to DVD in Australia and New Zealand. These were later deleted. Timelife is beginning to issue the series as a mail-order collection.The show is rated PG in New Zealand for its low level violence.
External links
- The Upstairs, Downstairs Web Pages
- Upstairs, Downstairs Encyclopedia of Television