Royal Upstairs Downstairs is a British television documentary series of 20 half-hour episodes broadcast by BBC Two each Monday to Friday evening from 7 March to 1 April 2011. The title is a reference to the drama series Upstairs, Downstairs , which was about life "above stairs" (the family), and "below stairs" (the servants) in an early 20th-century aristocratic household.
In each episode, antiques expert Tim Wonnacott and chef Rosemary Shrager visited a country house or castle which had been visited in the 19th century by Queen Victoria. They told the story of Victoria's travels using her own diaries, other contemporary accounts, the household records of the stately homes, and contemporary illustrations, including many from the Illustrated London News , which provided extensive coverage of Victoria's travels, its reporters and artists even being allowed inside the houses where the queen was staying to describe and draw the interiors and entertainments. Wonnacott examined items of art and furniture seen and often commented on by Victoria. Shrager examined how the servants coped with the demands of a royal visit, and cooked Victorian dishes with the assistance of food historian Ivan Day. In most cases they used the same kitchen as the Victorian chefs who cooked for the queen, and many of the dishes demonstrated were known to have been served to Victoria in the house in question.
The series progressed through Victoria's life in chronological order, starting with her visit to Chatsworth House at the age of 13, where she attended her first grown up dinner party. The following eighteen episodes visited Shugborough Hall, Harewood House, Holkham Hall, the Brighton Pavilion, Scone Palace, Walmer Castle, Wimpole Hall, Belvoir Castle, Blair Castle, Burghley House, Hatfield House, Castle Howard, Stoneleigh Abbey, Warwick Castle, Penrhyn Castle, Floors Castle, Hughenden Manor, and Waddesdon Manor. The final episode was a compilation.
Hatfield House is a Grade I listed country house set in a large park, the Great Park, on the eastern side of the town of Hatfield, Hertfordshire, England. The present Jacobean house, a leading example of the prodigy house, was built in 1611 by Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury and Chief Minister to King James I. It is a prime example of Jacobean architecture. The estate includes extensive grounds and surviving parts of an earlier palace. The house is currently the home of Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 7th Marquess of Salisbury. It is open to the public.
A maid, housemaid, or maidservant is a female domestic worker. In the Victorian era, domestic service was the second-largest category of employment in England and Wales, after agricultural work. In developed Western nations, full-time maids are now typically only found in the wealthiest households. In other parts of the world, maids remain common in urban middle-class households.
Upstairs, Downstairs is a British drama television series produced by London Weekend Television (LWT) for ITV. It ran for 68 episodes divided into five series on ITV from 1971 to 1975.
A great house is a large house or mansion with luxurious appointments and great retinues of indoor and outdoor staff. The term is used mainly historically, especially of properties at the turn of the 20th century, i.e., the late Victorian or Edwardian era in the United Kingdom and the Gilded Age in the United States.
Jean Lyndsey Torren Marsh is an English actress and writer. She co-created and starred in the ITV series Upstairs, Downstairs (1971–75), for which she won the 1975 Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series for her performance as Rose Buck. She later reprised the role in the BBC's revival of the series (2010–2012).
In great houses, scullery maids were the lowest-ranked and often the youngest of the female domestic servants and acted as assistants to a kitchen maid.
Madeleine Angela Clinton-Baddeley was an English stage and television actress, best-remembered for her role as household cook Mrs. Bridges in the period drama Upstairs, Downstairs. Her stage career lasted more than six decades.
The Duchess of Duke Street is a BBC television drama series set in London between the late 1800s and 1925. It was created by John Hawkesworth, previously the producer of the ITV period drama Upstairs, Downstairs. It starred Gemma Jones as Louisa Leyton Trotter, the eponymous "Duchess" who works her way up from servant to renowned cook to proprietor of the upper-class Bentinck Hotel in Duke Street, St. James's, in London.
Timothy Wonnacott is an English chartered auctioneer, chartered surveyor, antiques expert, narrator, and a television presenter. He was previously a director of Sotheby's, one of the world's oldest auction houses.
Alfred James Shaughnessy was an English scriptwriter, film director and producer best known for being the script editor of Upstairs, Downstairs.
Servants' quarters are those parts of a building, traditionally in a private house, which contain the domestic offices and staff accommodation. From the late 17th century until the early 20th century, they were a common feature in many large houses. Sometimes they are an integral part of a smaller house—in the basements and attics, especially in a town house, while in larger houses they are often a purpose-built adjacent wing or block. In architectural descriptions and guidebooks of stately homes, the servants' quarters are frequently overlooked, yet they form an important piece of social history, often as interesting as the principal part of the house itself.
"Will Ye No Come Back Again" is the twelfth episode of the fifth and final series of the period drama Upstairs, Downstairs. It first aired on 23 November 1975 on ITV.
Rosemary Jacqueline Shrager is a British chef and TV presenter, best known for being an haute cuisine teacher on the reality television programme Ladette to Lady, and as a judge on Soapstar Superchef. She also made an appearance on the reality TV series I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here!. Other television projects have included Kitchen Showdown with Rosemary Shrager, where she weaned unhealthy fast-food families onto nutritious cuisine. Shrager is an accomplished chef and has worked with fellow Soapstar Superchef judge Jean-Christophe Novelli.
"The New Man" is the first episode of the second series of the British television series, Upstairs, Downstairs. The episode is set in the summer of 1908.
Upstairs Downstairs is a British drama series, broadcast on BBC One from 2010 to 2012, and co-produced by BBC Wales and Masterpiece. Created and written by Heidi Thomas, it is a continuation of the London Weekend Television series of the same name, which ran from 1971 to 1975 on ITV.
The Modern Cook was the first cookery book by the Anglo-Italian cook Charles Elmé Francatelli (1805–1876). It was first published in 1846. It was popular for half a century in the Victorian era, running through 29 London editions by 1896. It was also published in America.
"The Swedish Tiger" is the eleventh episode of the first series of the British television series, Upstairs, Downstairs. The episode is set in October 1908.
Victorian Slum House, or Victorian Slum, is a historical reenactment reality television series made by Wall to Wall Media for the BBC in 2016, narrated by Michael Mosley. First broadcast on BBC in the United Kingdom and on PBS in America in May 2017, the narrative centers on families and individuals trying to survive in a recreated slum of the East End of London from the 1860s to 1900s. It has a similar concept to The 1900 House, as well as the same producer. In Australia, the series aired on SBS in July 2017 as Michael Mosley: Queen Victoria's Slum, to avoid possible confusion with the state of Victoria.
