Upstairs Downstairs...

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Any opinions?

I think they may be repeating Downton in the New Year.

I want a butler like Mr Pritchard.

Anyone else in love with Hallam?

No, I'm in love with Mr Amanjit and his beautiful hair...

I haven't seen DA, but I was v disappointed by Upstairs Downstairs. The 1st part was OK(ish) but then it got sooo clunky - like drama by numbers. Erk.

yes midnight IKWYM the symbolic 'white wool and marbles ' were odd a bit OTT the old UD didn't go in for that type of stuff odd considering the writers were the same, were they??

I'm half jewish and we have a lot of jewish friends and the german jews considered themselves german so were totally unprepared for the holocaust (not all of course).

I didn't catch what happened to Lotte in that 'clinic' was she given electric shock therapy? All a bit rushed IMO.

i thought the balance was a bit wrong, and tbh i'd blame jean marsh for that. she seemed too weak to run that house, iykwim? i didn't watch the original and don't give a shitty shite about Rose, and she didn't really justify her existence to me. she should have been the beating heart of the house, but she was too frail.

AitchTwoOh - I agree the balance was wrong. Rose was too old to run that house (and it didnt fit with her age in the old Upstairs). I think it lavked heart. The stories were a bit rushed yet also flat. I think you needed some knowledge of history at the time to understand the significance of The Mrs Simpson crisis and the battle of Cable Street I kept having to explain to my teens about what was happening. They much preferred Downton and the old Upstairs/Downstairs on ITV3 on Saturday morning. They also didn't believe those Upstairs would be so nice to the servants - taking on Lotte for example and reinstating the footman or letting Lotte's mum off the cleaning with her asthma etc without a peep. Missed the mark.

Downton, although it functioned with a laughably small staff had better intrigues (schemimg servants) and the ghastly fun of the Mr Pamuk scandal.

i did enjoy it, however, but that is because i like that sort of thing rather than pitch-perfectness of UD. was brought up on The Duchess of Duke St.

I enjoyed it all but felt it was all too rushed. They tried to pack too much into 3 episodes instead of letting everything develop more expansively over a - say - six episode series like Downton which I loved

i also thought the accents were rarely right, which is fair enough because we would find them unbearable nowadays, however they should have taken ONE sub-cut glass and stuck to it, rather than allow the cast to roam all over the thames estuary. the only person getting it remotely right was king george and i found him the worst-cast actor in the whole thing. no disrespect to the guy himself, who was good, but he was so handsome and camp that i genuinely didn't realise who he was playing until dh pointed it out in ep3.

God, I thought it was dreadful. But wasn't the original too? Sort of Acorn Antiques meets Coronation Street but with aprons and caps? Acting awful, plot slow.

I am bereft without DA and Garrow's Law (smoothed a little by a dose of Andrew Buchan in the marvellous Nativity...)

"king george and i found him the worst-cast actor in the whole thing."

I thought he was the Duke of Kent-younger brother of both Edward 8th & George 6th?

Oh I thought he was the future king George VI too. Thanks for clarifying.

They really jammed in as many refs to the 1930s as they possibly could, didn't they? Someone down from t'pits for the depression, a refugee Jew from Germany, a nazi ambassador, the abdication, Moseley, Cecil Beaton, the end of the Raj. I was just waiting for the Mitfords to come tripping into a cocktail party. Or perhaps Al Jolson.

And as a result the plot seemed v trite, whisking all the characters in and out with unseemly haste. Here's Rachel from Germany - oh she's dead; here's Johnny from Yorkshire - oops he's in borstal; here's a fascist - oh he's seen the error of his ways; here's another fascist - oh she's off to Berlin with the ambassador.

And. As. For. The. Childbirth. Scene.

I quite liked the Hudson and Mrs Bridges replacements though. Anne Reid is always good for a laugh.

"the only person getting it remotely right was king george and i found him the worst-cast actor in the whole thing. no disrespect to the guy himself, who was good, but he was so handsome and camp that i genuinely didn't realise who he was playing until dh pointed it out in ep3."

But they introduced him as the Duke of Kent in the first episode!!

He was the fourth son and if he came over as a bit camp that was probably very good casting. I googled him and apparently he had a string of affairs with both men and women.

I thought it was a thoroughly enjoyable way to spend 3 hours. I wanted entertainment, not a spot on history lesson.

How scrummy was that baby? :o

Wilfself, Oh Garrows Law. oh fabarooney.

Thinking of starting a new thread, best programmes of 2010.
shall I add those two ?

oh god the labour scene was atrocious.

There ought to be a law about how you can portray labour on tv. I can't ever recall seeing it done well.

midnight, I assumed Lady Persie's completely unexplained descent into Moseley-worshipping fascism was intended as a reference to the Mitfords. Can't believe no-one really seemed that fussed that she was off to Berlin - Eden tells Hallam to sort it and instead he goes chasing off round the countryside looking for Lotte?

I originally thought the Duke of Kent was meant to be the future King as well, hence the "well it's not as if he's the King" comment about him turning up to the cocktail party. Having wikipaediaed him, I think the Duke of Kent will make a better character for a serial.

I think Blake Ritson was fantastic as Duke of Kent tbh.

Seemed well bred, at ease socially, caring, sensitive & possibly ambiguous sexuality-perfect!

"oh god the labour scene was atrocious."

Yes.

Although was galed that he shipped MIL off out of the way.

But wouldn´t he have been replaced after he´d seen M´Lady´s bits?