The Edwardian Country House

You don't see so much quality films on television, but this is certainly one of them. A success formula, take people from the 21th century and rules from a 1904 time and bring them together. The results are "The Edwardian Country House". It must have been an amazing adventure for the participants,live in that old country house and live by the rules of that age. You can see what the staff has to do every day from 6 AM until 11 PM and what the different tasks are witch the staff has to carry out. More and more you will feel more sympathy for the staff and in the last episode it's very emotional if everybody leaves again to pick up there 21th lives. You can see at the end of the film, that they are all going to meet again (the staff), what an amazing experience that must be. Unfortunately things like this aren't been organized in Belgium, otherwise I would join this project without thinking.

This was a classic case of "What did they expect?" You were going there to work, not play. The crew--especially the kitchen crew (including the French chef)--was full of whiners. So what if the Family did not have to speak to you? Haven't you worked at a job where management acted like class snobs? What's the difference? I had a boss a lot like the chef (really, I did). There were times when I turned my head and cried, and times when I yelled back at him (I will note he always won the arguments). But overall, I knew what the person expected, and no matter what a victim I was, I did things how they wanted them done.

Anyway, I like this series. I thought it was very well done and not scripted. People are used to soft lives and not expressing their emotions. In real life, people get mad. People don't always like their jobs. However, complaining and not doing your job because you don't like something is no solution.

As SuperChicken used to tell Fred, "You knew the job was dangerous when you took it!"

Hugh Edgar, a retired architect, was a true `method actor'. He didn't just act the Butler, he became the butler. Some of the younger staff seemed unwilling to accept everything they had signed up to. Even the Master of the House wanted to bring in the 21st century if it made him even more comfortable. That made the series more interesting. Not just a glimpse into history but a look at how self-centred we and the younger generation have become.

Edgar relaxed his mask only for one scene on the last day, adding to its humour and showing the series' raison d'être.

An off-putting title, but a fascinating and unmissable series.

I have never watched any of the crop of "reality" tv shows because none of them seem realistic, or worth watching. This show (called Manor House on PBS in the US) was some of the more entertaining 6 hours of TV I've seen in a while. The idea is to try and take modern people and have them live as they did in the start of the 20th century - the family in the house, and their servants. Since they didn't really want to replace people mid-show, some of the strict rules of conduct of that period were not as enforced as strongly as they would have been - ie. people didn't get sacked when they should have.

The show gave an insight as to how appreciative the "servants" are of the way society changed in the 20th century...especially two of the cast members who had relatives who were in service like this.

My only real complaint was that they seemed to repeat things from episode to episode to make sure you understood something. Watching the whole thing over three nights made this redundant commentary annoying. I would have prefered to have seen more interaction between the family and the head servants, and between the servants than the constant voice over about the duties and shots of people working.

Watching this also changes the way you watch Gosford Park.

This is one of the most fascinating programs I have ever seen in my life! I've always wanted to go back in time and see what it was really like to be there. This program had so much to offer, both as entertainment and education and seeing how people of different "classes" interact with one another. It should be required watching for high schoolers and college history and psychology students. I've seen it four times already and will watch it many more times. I rated it ten on a scale of 1 - 10.