Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #5993 in VHS
• Released on: 2002-06-03
• Rating: Exempt
• Number of discs: 2
• Formats: Box set, PAL
• Number of tapes: 2
• Running time: 300 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
Part role-play fetishist heaven, part serious historical study, The Edwardian Country House is the most successful of Channel 4's period recreation series. Whereas it was impossible to insulate the Victorian and 1940s participants completely from the modern world, the Edwardian Country House provides a hermetically sealed environment with fascinating results. The middle-class 21st-century confidence of the family upstairs--the Oliff-Coopers, complete with pompous pater familias and suitably obnoxious young master Guy--recedes with alarming ease as their Edwardian privileges suck them back in time. The ersatz family below stairs--13 volunteers playing the staff--find it much more difficult to suppress their defiantly modern sensibilities. The constant simmering rebellion of the younger participants, led by hall boy Kenny, provides a nice dramatic tension. The harshness of the upstairs/downstairs divide, the hypocrisy of servant/master attitudes and the sheer hard work of running a house for a family of the leisured class come vividly to life.

There are casualties: the maiden sister, stifled to the point of breakdown by the social limitations of her position on the periphery of the family; two scullery maids fall at the first hurdle before a more spirited replacement arrives and quickly develops an attachment to Kenny with interesting moral consequences for the entire staff. The stars are Mr Edgar the butler, clearly fulfilling a life-long fantasy, and Sir John, so engrossed in his role that he is able to claim without irony that "a maid that smiles is generally a happy maid". Returning to the real world at the end, he must have been startled to learn that his staff found so little to love in his benign authority. But the tears of parting testify that for everyone involved, this must have been a life changing experience. A companion book is also available. --Piers Ford

Synopsis
Featuring all six episodes from the Channel 4 television series in which a modern-day family are turned into Edwardian aristocrats supported by a team of 13 servants looking after their every need. Episodes include: Upstairs Downstairs, Getting Up To Scratch, The Servants' Revolt, Cold Comfort, Home And Empire and Winners And Losers.

From the Back Cover
Take one modern family from Hampshire, remove them from their 21st century home and lifestyle and transport them back to Edwardian Britain. For 3 months they will have a team of 13 staff who will attend to their every need.
However, by abiding to strict Edwardian standards and rules how will each of the 21st century volunteers react to a social structure where there is a place for everyone, and everyone knows their place?

Upstairs Downstairs
The volunteers arrive at Manderston House and are briefed about their new roles, routines and positions in the rigid upstairs-downstairs hierarchy.
Getting Up To Scratch
During a dinner party, the Butler has to impose a stricter regime and show the staff the value of knowing their place.
The Servants’ Revolt
Sick of the long working hours and living conditions, the Chef takes matters into his own hands – will this be enough to curb the swell of working class militancy downstairs?
Cold Comfort
The pretty new scullery maid arrives and already she is the object of the hallboy’s affection. But living under the same roof, the relationship must be kept secret if they want to keep their jobs.
Home and Empire
Another ball results in even more work for the staff downstairs. Questions are raised to challenge the system of command, control and hierarchy within the house.
Winners and Losers
The three months are drawing to a close and everyone has to face going back to their normal lives. A staff ball brings everyone together for the last time.

Customer Reviews

Great for GCSE syllabus B students
Having found a dirth of video footage for this period in history I was thrilled (and so were my pupils) with The Edwardian Country House. You do warm to the characters 'downstairs' and get a real feeling of the lives of domestic servants before 1914. We also found that we took a real dislike to the family 'upstairs' who played their parts extremely well.....maybe too well! The producers did a good job adding relevant important events into the series for example, the The birth of the Labour Party, Suffragettes and the start of the First World war.
The end of the series came too soon but a valuable insight has been given to this neglected area of British Social history.

Oustanding & Riveting
We were fans of The 1940s House which we caught on PayTV and this promped us to search out other series of a similar nature. The online review said that this was the best of the Channel 4 series and after viewing it it would be hard to argue. Beautifully made and thought out with some real characters. You grow very fond of them all (most of the time) and this is a series not to be missed. We are now eager to order The 1900 House.