Not to hijack the Downton Abbey thread, I wanted to get out grandmother’s tea set, break out the digestive biscuits and talk about some of the older British series.
I have all three above-mentioned on DVD (Upstairs Downstairs, 1971-75; The Duchess of Duke Street, 1976-77; and Brideshead Revisited, 1981) and rewatch them regularly–Brideshead, just this past month.
I am enjoying Downton, but I just don’t think the writing and the acting are quite up to the Old Standards. Any other 1960s-80s British miniseries fans out there? Louisa Trotter and Lady Marjorie and Sebastian groupies?
Another good one – The House of Elliot, about two sisters who become fashion designers in '20s London. Some stunning costumes in that.
Warning: it ends *very *abruptly – apparently there was a major set fire a few episodes before the end of the third season, and since they hadn’t been renewed, they just … stopped … with a couple of big plot points dangling.
Oh, that *was *enjoyable, I had forgotten about that one. Also, Flickers, with the great Bob Hoskins and Frances de la Tour, about the British film business in the 1910s.
I watched all of these back in the day, except Brideshead Revisited. I enjoyed them all immensely, as I enjoy Downton Abbey. But nothing - NOTHING - can top Upstairs, Downstairs. Downton Abbey is to U.D. as a Dove bar is to a 5 lb. box of Godiva chocolates. Even my husband watched it with me, and he never watched anything on TV except football. He was SO upset when (a major character) committed suicide near the end, and we were both in tears when we watched the very last episode, with Rose going through the empty house…
Not the same era, but anyone ever watch Poldark on PBS? (That was an entrancing show, a rich man-poor man historical soap set in the 1700’s, full of beautiful people. And a big BIG country house.) Poldark seems to have just disappeared from public consciousness, never mentioned, and it was really special.
I loved those ornate costumes. Imagine them making a living, turning out endless lacey/sequined/bugle-beaded gowns for the society dowagers to wear at their endless social occasions. A new dress for every occasion! How very One Percent-ish, sparing no expense.
S’trewth, it *is *the gold standard. They got the hair and (lack of) makeup and the clothes just right–the only thing wrong was that the actresses all had early-'70s meth-whore skinny eyebrows. I guess period eyebrow merkins were not in the budget.
One of my favorite minor characters on *U/D *was the great Lady Pru, played by Joan Benham–I wished that *she *had been Richard’s second wife, and not that rather middle-class Virginia Hamilton.
I never saw Poldark, but it’s currently streaming on Netflix. As is Bramwell–about a female physician in Victorian England.
Netflix Streamers I’ve seen include Wives & Daughters–with Francesca Annis as the stepmother & Iain Glenn as a cad & bounder. A younger Ms Annis plays Lillie–Lillie Langtry in Mauve Decade London (& later).
Only the first series of Upstairs/Downstairs is streaming but I remember the original with pleasure. You really got to know those people over the years…
And* Brideshead Revisited* might be worth buying–it’s a camp masterpiece.
Watching Downton Abbey, I’ve been constantly comparing it unfavorably to Upstairs, Downstairs. I’ve also been rewatching the original 1960s Forsyte Saga lately, and comparing it to the 2002 remake with a similar opinion.
There is something about those early, cheaply produced BBC period dramas that the later shows lack. The newer shows have bigger budgets, sharper editing, and look far more polished, but they don’t somehow seem to go as deep. I think it’s something in the writing, a complexity of characterization or points of view that makes you forget entirely about the flimsy sets.
Was never a big fan of Upstairs Downstairs except that I loved Jean Marsh. About all I really remember from it is Mr. 'Udson railing against “the beastly Hun.” Never saw Brideshead Revisited at all. But I loved loved loved Duchess of Duke Street. Loved the characters. Loved the theme music. (Even when they played the sad version at the end of episodes with a downer ending.) Loved watching the food being prepared. Great series.
Huge DoDS fan here - as I’ve mentioned before, seeing it back when I was a teen-ager really started me on my love of food and cooking.
Ditto Flickers.
I came to be a fan of most things British because in Gainesville in 1979, if you didn’t have cable, you were limited to Wink Martindale’s game show, or PBS. I chose PBS and have always been the better for it.
I thought the second Mrs. Bellamy looked a lot like Jackie Kennedy. If she was middle-class, perhaps that was appropriate as she and Richard were so downsized at the end of the show that they were middle class then.
I love The Duchess of Duke Street too! I watched all the episodes on their first run in the U.S. on PBS, attracted firstly by the cooking scenes and then I got hooked on the acting and the characters.
I like spotting actors from this series in British movies. Anyone see the Major in A Hard Day’s Night? The stodgy stiff upper lip guy that the Beatles annoy in the train carriage right at the beginning.
And he was only ~40 when he played that stuffy old codger.
David Langton (Mr. Bellamy) is also in A Hard Day’s Night. There’s a scene where the Beatles are in a dressing room before their TV show, where a serious actor is also preparing for his performance in some other show. He’s only there for a minute or two, but it’s definitely him.
Simon Williams–who played James, David Langton’s son, in U/D–was interviewed ages later and said that as the series went on and he was “aged” with unconvincing grey sideburns, his “father,” David Langton, kept darkening his hair to look younger, so by the end of the series James and his father appeared to be the same age.
Of course, Rose was about 40 when the series started in 1901, and only about 35 when it ended in 1930.
