Old Upstairs Downstairs Series

[19Sandy]

OMG, I am still watching this series and learned more about WW1 than I thought I already knew. Just rent out Series Four if you want to see some fine acting and reliving history through ordinary people.

Here's a link to what in tonight's episodes turns out to be a true story http://www.history.co.uk/study-topic...town-explosion

The scullery maid took a job a few months ago at a munitions factory taking home a substantial income. During dinner one night, a huge explosion rocked the house at Eaton Place. They thought a Zepplin might have crashed on the river. The maid came back to the house around 3 a.m. the next day. She'd been at the plant when it blew. A huge order of TNT was sitting on the trains waiting to be taken out. The rooming house she lived in was blown to bits. She had nowhere to live. This was January 1917. She did a great acting job conveying what happened. This explosion is enormous. This is the cost of war to ordinary people. This is one of the reasons I became a pacifist, portrayals like these show me what happens to people trying to live through such times.

The footman had also returned from the front with serious shell shock. What an acting job here too. The look in this guys eyes when he was able to speak about what was happening. The guy had been at the front for 2 years by now. He went from a cheeky, fun, young man with everything to live for to a crazed, anxious state. I realize it's only a story but it's helped me understand why war is always a bad choice IMHO. I've never celebrated any war nor wanted one to happen. I always feel I cannot express these thoughts. I would guess there cannot be much living history left. This is what good story telling can do, in a film or book, remind us what's important and why we come to certain beliefs.

Yes, it was a show ahead of the times. I rewatched it a couple years ago on library DVDs. They made a new series too.

[Cypress]

Yes, Louisa sets out to be a good cook, is taken up by the Prince of Wales,as a mistress, then he fifts her property which she parlays into a small hotel.

I'm not sure I would ask my library to buy it if they don't nt have it since it is so old. I would think there is another way to get it, but I dont inow what that is.

I finished Upstairs Downstairs and have started watching The Duchess of Duke Street. It's on You Tube! The picture quality is a little off but it's taken my public library more than a week to get this in for me.

I am up to Episode 4 and finally getting used to Louisa. It's an interesting series as it's focused on women in the early 1900s and what it would have been like to be a cook or any working women at the time. Louisa has a strong, strong strident tone in her voice which is starting to calm down finally. She put me off at first with how she talks. I suppose I've become accustomed to demure women during this time period in history. She's a go getter and nobody's fool. Is this based on a real life person?

It's a little vague on if she was the mistress to the Prince of Wales. It's suggested but the way she talks, I am not sure if it was a friendship and sexual relationship. Strange how she rejects the husband when the affair is ended.

Anyway, it's worth watching for the look at how a kitchen and business is run in London. Thanks for the suggestion

[iris lilies]

I finished Upstairs Downstairs and have started watching The Duchess of Duke Street. It's on You Tube! The picture quality is a little off but it's taken my public library more than a week to get this in for me.

I am up to Episode 4 and finally getting used to Louisa. It's an interesting series as it's focused on women in the early 1900s and what it would have been like to be a cook or any working women at the time. Louisa has a strong, strong strident tone in her voice which is starting to calm down finally. She put me off at first with how she talks. I suppose I've become accustomed to demure women during this time period in history. She's a go getter and nobody's fool. Is this based on a real life person?

It's a little vague on if she was the mistress to the Prince of Wales. It's suggested but the way she talks, I am not sure if it was a friendship and sexual relationship. Strange how she rejects the husband when the affair is ended.

Anyway, it's worth watching for the look at how a kitchen and business is run in London. Thanks for the suggestion

She was mistress to the Prince of Wales. Thats why they needed her to be safely married, otherwise he would have been a cad for "ruining" a young woman. She rejects her husband because he is a lout.

The Louisa character is based on a real person, I am pretty sure.

The Louisa character's broad accent and bossy loud voice is a turn off to many viewers, but I never minded it.