Ages ago I heard about this airing in the UK and emailed my local PBS station to see if they knew when we’d get it. They said "the “had no plans” at that time.
How excited am I that it is finally coming here!?! I loved 1900 House and Frontier House. I think this is going to be fantastic. It starts on my local station on the 28th and is on each night following thru the 30th. Anyone else planning to watch?
Twiddle I was going to start one if no one else did - but you did - cool!
I loved Frontier House also. We had pretty good threads going here about those shows. I hope Manor House will be as good. My local paper had a little blurb a few days ago. I guess it was hard to keep scullery maids. I can understand the motivation to “go back in time” and see what it was like to live on the frontier, but I am not sure what the motivation would be to be a servant - or worse - servant to the servants.
As prep for this I pulled out my What Jane Austen Ate and Charles Dickens Knew: From Fox Hunting to Whist-The Facts of Daily Life in Nineteenth-Century England by Daniel Pool. What a great book - gives really detailed info about Victorian life. Granted that Manor House is Edwardian (1905 I think?) but still most of the stuff in the book applies.
I’d not want to be a servant either. They lived hard lives. I think one of the chambermaids quits in the first episode!
I’m greatly looking forward to it—but hugely annoyed at the scheduling. Why not one hour once a week, rather than two hours, three days in a row? V. inconvenient. Plus, my mother’s PBS station runs it at 9:00 and mine at 8:00, so won’t be able to compare notes.
But those quibbles aside, I have my teacart and scones set up for viewing tonight!
The Mrs. and I will be attached to our couch for this tonight.
Unlike the Upstairs Lady Eve, I shall be eating chips and salsa and drinking beer. This may result in me throwing things at the TV, but someone has to step up to the plate and take care of the Downstairs role.
Anybody else catch the passing resemblance in the orchestration (string section) at the very beginning of the dinner party (c. 9:45 EST) to Michael Nyman’s score for “The Cook, The Thief, His Wife & Her Lover”? It only lasted for, oh, 10-15 seconds… Good for a smile, anyway.
Let’s hope the main course bears no similarity to that of the movie! :eek:
The trouble of playing “let’s pretend it’s 1906” is just that the volunteers are playacting. The trouble is that 1906 England no longer exists; in a very real sense, the volunteers are trying to live in a foreign country without understanding the language or culture. They weren;t born within a hierarchical society and they lack the bacic background knowledge of the erra that would help them cope with their roles. Naturally, the downstairs staff will have difficulty knucking under because they have not been acculturated from birth to accept the subservient roles they are supposed to play.
And I hope we get to see more shots of Rob the second footman naked–mercy, that man is fine!
True, gobear, but you’d think the people volunteering to be servants would be more willing to immerse themselves in their roles, knowing it’s only playacting and in 3 months they’ll be free, than they turned out to be.
I was surprised when, for example, Rebecca (I think…one of the lower maids) was put out by the fact that Anna didn’t acknowledge her when they passed on the stairs – clearly, Anna was playing her part, too, and it wasn’t a personal slight.
I say, that French cook is certainly a piece of work, isn’t he?
I think both footmen, and the groom, and the hall boy are ALL quite easy on the eyes. They weren’t kidding when they said Edwardians would hire footmen for their looks.
The butler’s outlook on all this that is interesting and a little weird. It’s good that he’s taking his role so seriously, but unrealistic about viewing the servants as a “family.” He’s so emotional, and when the two guys were sufferering hangovers, I felt badly for the butler but at the same time I couldn’t help but think he was taking things far too personally.
Young master Guy is a hoot, he seems like an essentially good natured kid, and obviously it would be very cool to have one’s own pony and be living large on the manor. However, I think if he were my kid, I’d be more concerned about his understanding of the situation. Yes, I realize that they’re supposed to be acting like a 1906 family, but I’m not sure I’d sacrifice my kid’s moral upbringing for the sake of historical accuracy. I’d make sure to make him aware of the reasons that we don’t live that way any longer – that being a servant was incredibly difficult and often unhealthy, and precluded an education and all that. (Of course it’s entirely possible that this is happening off-camera, and who knows what they’re saying to the kid to prompt his whimsical “to the manor born” comments while the film is rolling.)
I was disappointed that we didn’t see more of the tutor – hopefully in upcoming episodes.
I agree with Gobear—these kids thought it would be “a lark to be on the telly,” and had no idea what they were getting into . . . Though the cook (not the chef!) and the lady’s maid seem to Know Their Place. Most of the staff would have been turned out without a reference and would have wound up in the streets (or in the factories, which was almost as bad).
Why does the master not have a valet, to get him the right waistcoat for the dinner?! I mean, his wife has a lady’s maid.
Highly entertaining; I’ll be tuning in tonight and tomorrow.
I agree with gobear’s assessment. This is a bit of a culture shock to everyone, and if this were really 1906, there would be no bickering amongst the staff. I felt some contempt for the scullery maids…how wimpy are they, to barely last two days! (Not that I’m saying I would last much longer, but hell, girls, where’s your pride?)
I don’t think there’s enough help for a house that large. There needs to be at least another maid, and certainly the chef needs more help, and perhaps another scullery maid.
I’ve got to give it to the chef…handling multi-course meals by himself on 1906 appliances…major kudos to him. I think I understand why he’s such a prima donna. Since he’s a chef in high class restaurants in real life, I’m sure it’s very difficult to him to have a kitchen maid argue with him. She’s supposed to be cooking for the staff, and instead I see her doing clean-up work.
In 1906, how did they expect the staff to work on 6 hours sleep a night? And don’t they get days off?
I feel so bad for Mr. Edgar. He’s trying so hard, and I can understand his disappointment when two of the staff are passed out near the lake at noon. He wants them to get into it. I don’t think the younger staff had a clue how hard it would be.
I too thought it was strange that there was no valet for the Lord of the manor, and the show seemed to really concentrate on the staff and not the family getting pampered.
Yes the little boy was cute but didn’t he ever get bored and want to play with kids his own age or watch the telly? I was a little dissappointed in the Lady of the Manor as she is a doctor and she seemed to really like going from career woman to ‘lets work out the seating chart’ really easily.
I knew the scullery maid would have a hard time because there is no way a modern english woman is going to veiw that as fair or reasonable or (as a real edwardian woman of that position) as a great job. They didn’t come from abject poverty and they are not making a career of being in service. The scullery maid is never going to work up to kitchen maid or house maid so she has nothing to look forward to as a goal.
Even I thought the male servants were some good looking guys, while the female staff were mainly plain janes. (although Mrs.Z pointed out that they have no make-up or hair products and she thougth the stable boy was the best looking but I thought the hall boy was the cutest)
I felt bad for the chef because losing 100 years of cook tech has got to suck.
I want to see more of the ‘upstairs’. I want to see how the pecking order up there affects their behavior.
Love this show!! I’m fascinated with the details and minutae of daily life in that time period. It’s amazing how much work and stress went into just figuring out the place settings for the dinner party, for example.
I think Edgar the Butler was born to play the role. It’s as if he’s acting out a lifelong dream–I don’t think I’ve ever seen a reality show participant that was so into playing the role like Edgar is. I felt bad for him too when he found the two footmen passed out drunk. That one single tear rolling down his cheek and all that talk about his childhood and his stern grandfather–poor guy.
As for the two scullery maids, well, what did they expect? They were hired as scullery maids–the lowest person on the totem pole. Of COURSE they are going to be required to work hard and have people order them around. What did they think they were going to be doing, wearing cute maid’s outfits and flirting with the footmen down at the stables? I think some of them assumed it was going to be “The Real World” set in a 1906 Manor. I got a little annoyed at hearing their constant complaining and the first one didn’t even last 2 whole days! Funny how the 2nd one tried to pass off her work on the hall boy too.
Eve, I was wondering the same thing–why was there no valet? I think the footmen were doing double-duty as valets which is was not accurate at all. Maybe the show’s budget didn’t allow for the hiring of a valet?
Still a great show though. I’m completely hooked. I’m even thinking of gasp taping 24 tonight so I can watch Manor House instead.
Have you checked out the PBS site? There are all sorts of neat facts, interviews, and quizzes about the show and Edwardian England in general. (Mr. Edgar is really an architect, and he designed the mausoleum mosque of the wife of King Hussein of Jordan – pretty neat!)
This quizlet tells you what your prospects would be if you lived in 1905. I would be pretty nicely set up.
