This is the best dramatic series ever produced in Britain or aired on PBS. It chronicles life at 165 Eaton Place, depicting the personal lives of the aristocratic Bellamy family above stairs and their servants below. Actual historical events are incorporated into the story, including the death of Queen Victoria, the sinking of the Titanic, World War I, the General Strike, and the Wall Street Crash. It paints a vivid portrait of the discrepancy in social status of those in service as compared with their wealthy, titled employers. Nevertheless, we see the loyalty and affection these servants frequently have to the family they serve.
The master of the household is Richard Bellamy, a Conservative Member of Parliament and clergyman's son who married above his station in life. He is a man of both professional and personal integrity, whose political views sometimes come into conflict with his wife's titled family, the Southwolds. His wife, Lady Marjorie, is the Earl of Southwold's daughter, an elegant and gracious lady, the very epitome of poise, who can handle any situation with admirable aplomb.
Their tall, dark, and handsome son and heir, Captain James Bellamy, is transformed from a haughty, aimless cad to a wounded, anguished officer devastated by war. Really, much of the series is a depiction of James's struggle to "find himself". The spoiled and rebellious daughter, Elizabeth, disdains the debutante life expected of her, opting instead for charitable and feminist causes, frequently setting the household into a stir. Eventually she makes an ill fated match with the poet Lawrence Kirbridge.
The middle class comes into play when James marries his father's stately, radiant, and dignified secretary Hazel, a kind and giving individual who is neglected and rejected by her husband in favour of his step-cousin, Georgina Worsley. Georgina is a stunning but absolutely self absorbed creature, initially engrossed with the social whirl of her own season. Her sole redeeming behaviour is her wartime nursing but alas, she follows it up with a decade of partying, cigarette holder in one hand and cocktail in the other.
After the untimely death of Lady Marjorie on the Titanic, the genuine chemistry at Eaton Place is between Hazel and her father-in-law Richard, who hold the fort together while James is off soldiering. Later Richard marries a Scottish widow, Virginia Hamilton, a rather willful individual I never much took to. She lacks both Lady Marjorie's grace and Hazel's earnest integrity, making an uninteresting lady of the manor when compared with her two predecessors. Once again 165 is home to children after Virginia moves in with her two young offspring, Alice and William.
Frequent upstairs visitors include Lady Prudence, Lady Marjorie's loyal and outspoken friend, the most overbearing creature on earth and provider of comic relief, and Sir Geoffrey Dillon, the Southwold family solicitor. I quite enjoyed the character of this harbinger of financial gloom and discrete maker of "arrangements" to cover up the frequent family scandals.
Downstairs the servants form a family unto themselves at their own kitchen table, with Mr. Hudson presiding in state at its head. Hudson is the stern Scottish butler who takes pride in the Bellamy family upstairs, manages their household efficiently, and puts the other servants in their proper place when necessary. The cook, Mrs. Bridges, is queen of her own domain, the kitchen. She can be maternal, but is generally in fine scolding fettle, always in a huff over some outrage, culinary or otherwise, and shouting at her poor scullery maid.
Rose, the longtime parlourmaid, is one of the real stars of the entire series. We see much of life at "good old 165" through her eyes. She is such a kind, hard working, and loyal soul and deserving of so much better than life in service offers. She longs for a husband and children of her own, and has her own ill fated romance with Australian sheep farmer Gregory Wilmot. There's also the blossoming romance and marriage between the vulnerable housemaid, Daisy, and her footman, Edward. During the series, we witness Edward's progress from cheeky young footman to shell shocked soldier to struggling unemployed husband to new chauffeur to butler-in-training.
Various other servants come and go from 165 Eaton Place, including the feisty, brazen Sarah who both causes trouble in the household and induces it upon herself; the crafty chauffeur Thomas; Lady Marjorie's aloof and snooty personal maid Roberts; the deranged footman Alfred and the smug one Frederick; the naive parlourmaid Lily; the embittered governess Miss Treadwell; the tragic Irish scullery maid Emily and her later replacement, poor dear Ruby.
Upstairs Downstairs depicts society galas, country house weekends, and an elegant dinner party fit literally for a king. It features five series, which can be divided into three groups based upon who is mistress of the household. Series 1-2 with Lady Marjorie involves almost a scandal an episode! Series 3-4 sees Hazel as the new mistress and casts a darker, more serious tone with her marital difficulties and all the drama of the Great War. The final Series 5 features Richard's new wife Virginia, Georgina's flapper years, and focus on James's post war wanderings. The characters do not age during the thirty or so years spanned by the series, from the latter Victorian era to the Roaring Twenties.
It's an absolutely magnificent series that boasts both wonderful screen writing and acting, as well as authentic period costumes and decor. It flawlessly captures a past era, contrasts graphically its titled and servant class distinctions, and involves the viewer emotionally in the fate of its characters, both those above and those below stairs.
