Los de arriba y los de abajo

I love a good period drama, and Upstairs, Downstairs is that and more. Everything about it is wonderful, and it is also very classy and a delight to watch. The series looks sumptuous; the photography is marvellous while the locations, scenery and costumes are a delight to the eyes. The music is beautifully composed, the pace is warm and lively without being too rushed or draggy and the direction is always controlled. There is also the fabulous writing, the engrossing stories and the rich characters and their development. And the acting is great across the board, I personally do not think there is a weak link in the cast. All in all, this is a wonderful series and worth looking out for. 10/10 Bethany Cox

I would just like to say that Upstairs Downstairs has got to be one of my most favorite British Soaps of all time. It's such a shame that it had to end. The era is fascinating to me, and I really enjoyed the way the servants interacted with each other and the occupants of the household.

The story lines were believable, as were the characters. And when the Titanic was mentioned as the cause of death to the first Mrs. Bellamy, it brought a sense of reality to the show.

The whole premise of the show was brilliant, because I'm sure that was the ways it really was in those days. What with the class distinctions and all.

Over all I truly enjoyed the entire production.

I first viewed this series in the 1970's on PBS and have taken up the habit again. It is just so entertaining and classy that I can't shake my addiction to this wonderful period drama. Sadly, most of the actors have passed, only the younger ones are still alive. But that doesn't reduce the rich legacy of the whole cast. During the five seasons of this series, viewers witness the evolution of an aristocratic London family from 1901 to the early 1930's.

We journey with the family upstairs and their downstairs staff through many of the pivotal events of the era: the Titanic disaster, the Great War, the clash between labour and wealth, the market crash and depression. Not all the episodes are riveting but most of them kept this viewer transfixed to the screen. Lord and Lady Bellamy, performed by David Langton and Rachel Gurney, are the main characters upstairs as the series begins. Richard Bellamy is a Member of Parliament; Lady Marjorie, who comes from the landed gentry, oversees the staff with grace and a strict code of behaviour. She has her society friends and Lord Bellamy comes in touch with the leading figures of the day, from Lloyd George to Churchill. We even watch the family welcome Edward VII, the King of England, whose visit is punctuated by a servant giving birth.

Downstairs is dominated by the butler Angus Hudson, performed by Gordon Jackson, as an upright, no-nonsense Scot who runs the household with admirable efficiency and strict discipline. Angela Baddeley is the cook, a true perfectionist in the kitchen who tolerates no insubordination. If things go wrong, she can become unhinged until Hudson steps in to calm her down. Jean Marsh, who conceived the series with Eileen Atkins, is the head parlourmaid, Rose. Rose typifies many of the changes going on in her world and manages to be a friend and confidante to characters upstairs and down. Atkins never did appear...more the pity, but with the rest of this stellar cast, the series always sparkled anyway.

The cast changes as time passes and some remain to the end. Some characters with minor roles rise in prominence and more prominent ones disappear or recede. In this respect, it resembles family life in any era. The audience feels like a fly on the wall over the period as we see the intimate details of the lives of characters upstairs and down amid the changing face of British society. When the series ends, we feel the loss of the characters but with a great sense of satisfaction for knowing them and the world in which they lived.

My wife and I are just starting the fifth and last season. Last fall we started going through all the episodes on DVD in order. We do around 3 per week.

I never saw the series in the 1970s, though I heard of it. Some time in the mid 80s the local PBS station in New York showed most of them in order, a couple per week. I was absolutely enthralled. It's been about 20 years so we decided to have another look.

They absolutely stand up well. Better than well. I will emphatically repeat the judgment I made twenty years ago: this series is the finest thing that has ever been on television.

Yes, I know, you can't compare "apples and oranges" like that. I suppose the single ONE best thing that's ever been on television (in the sense of a one day or briefer event) in my experience was the moon landing in July 1969.

Still, in spite of that, all in all, if I had to pick, Upstairs-Downstairs is the best PROGRAM that has ever been on television. Far and away. If you are new to it, I envy you. I am already mourning the last episode, which I will see again in a few weeks at most. My only consolation is that in twenty years, I can watch it all again.

Probably the best TV series ever! For someone Anglophile like me it is the perfect time machine to enter a typical household of the Victorian/Edwardian era. Although it shows an "upper class" household, the focus is on the "downstairs" personnel. The problems and stories of the kitchen maidens, footmen etc are much more colorful and sympathetic than the actions of "her ladyship" and Lord Bellamy upstairs. Nevertheless absolutely all characters are designed thoroughly, sympathetic and authentic. Furthermore this series shows a sort of real "theater" which has left TV long time ago and will never appear again! Long close-ups which show the affection of every actor, long dialogs with full sentences and - long pauses between them to enable the actors and the viewer to reflect everything. In addition the fine set design, the costumes, the "funny stuff" around, for example an early - hand-crafted! - vacuum-cleaner! Another extraordinary fact is the combination of fictional characters with real history: Everything finds its way into the story, the death of Queen Victoria, the Titanic Disaster, WW I, the Spanish Influenza, Wall Street and so on. A period of nearly 30 years is described, and with the last episode you are crying, just because you wish to know how everything will continue... But, that was a lack of this absolutely brilliant series: The main characters hardly age during the decades! Butler Hudson and cook Mrs. Bridges for example are already "old people" in the first episode, playing 1901. In the last episode - 1929 - they have not changed in any way, they even plan to "start a new life", running a small guest-house. After having seen it in German TV, where several episodes are not shown, I bought the complete DVD edition and can only recommend this to everyone!