The Duchess of Duke Street

There is still great pleasure to be had from this series. Set in the earlier 1900s in London, it is the story of a young woman who begins as a kitchen hand and, through talent and determination, becomes a great chef and hotelier, (though she refuses to lose her cockney speech).

Louisa Trotter, played by the truly WONDERFUL Gemma Jones, must be one of the most memorable characters in television history. A creature of so many moods - haranguing her staff in the kitchen, deliriously in love, vulgar when she's angry, prickly with her mother, sentimental about her affair with the old King - it's hard to know whether to laugh at her, or cry. But there is one constant about her - her artistry in her profession, and that is always awe-inspiring.

During a long series, relationships between characters can acquire great reality. Louisa's covert affection for her staff, her enduring love for Charlie (Christopher Cazenove), and her deep friendship with the Major (Richard Vernon) - mainly because of the exquisite playing of the cast - have an extraordinary conviction.

Yup, it was the seventies that was the golden age of the miniseries, and it was the British who ruled, with PBS acting as as kind of Prince Regent, offering up such televisual feasts as Upstairs Downstairs, Poldark, and the Duchess of Duke Street.

To people over a certain age, Gemma Jones will be forever remembered as Louisa Trotter, the plucky lower middle class girl, practically sold into service by her selfish mother, who works her way up in the world to become the proprietress of the best gentle-person's hotel in London, the lover of the Prince of Wales, and a legend in her own time.

The Duchess of Duke Street is an artifact of a crossroads of two very special times - the 1960's, when there was a serious interest in the not-too-distant past (the Belle Epoque, the Edwardian Period, the Roaring Twenties, etc.), and the 1980's when the interest in the past had more to do with escapism and romanticism and produced some of the most beautiful visuals in film history. Because of this, The Dutchess is a treat, full of historical detail, with wonderful fictionalizations of Edwardian fact (Prince Edwards practice of taking mistresses for example).

The series paved the way for some of the great miniseries to come - including Brideshead Revisited, the 1980's production of Love in a Cold Climate, Flickers, and To Serve Them All My Days - and ensured that a certain segment of television viewers had grand images of Edwardian London and Art Nouveau imprinted in its memory.

This extraordinary series, so greatly loved by Britons, deserves a new generation to view and be mesmerized by the wonderful acting, writing, direction, and costumes. It is still compelling 25 years after it was made and still ranks as one of the most superb examples of what truly grand television can be. Most of the show feels as if you are sitting front-row in a theatre with the actors within inches of your seat but occasionally the production ventures outside when, perhaps, it starts waxing a tad towards "drawing room soap opera." Still, trust me, this series, and its stalwartly resilient characters, will become forever etched in your heart, as they have in mine.

When you are finished with this series, it is truly like losing a good friend. You are more than sad to see it go and lament the loss of anything else to watch. (Yes, there's always "Upstairs, Downstairs," but, for my money, the Duchess has more beauty, comedy and heartwrenching drama than the "Upstairs" gang could even contemplate!)

In this time of mostly dour TV mediocrity, it is a relief to be able to savor and enjoy the stupefyingly satisfying excellence that Duchess of Duke Street imparts. Truly a classic and a treasure, it has not dated a second and still packs a wallop both dramatically and historically. The cast boasts an amazing array of superb actors, all of whom best, with rare exception, any working TV actor today.

Gemma Jones is so delicious and perfect that she is indelible in the part to anyone who watches. Her energy and conviction carry the show even when she has little to do in some of the episodes. Christopher Cazenove is sexy, charming and touching and should have become a big star.

If one had to give a reason to substantiate the continued existence of television, one need only to turn to this dramatic jewel that is the Duchess of Duke Street.

One of my all time favorite Masterpiece Theatre shows. My only complaint is that it didn't last long enough.