Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #23802 in DVD
• Released on: 2006-11-06
• Rating: Suitable for 12 years and over
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Box set, Full Screen, PAL
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 21
• Running time: 3400 minutes

Synopsis
Features every episode of the classic comedy of manners. One of the most popular shows on British television in the 1970s, UPSTAIRS DOWNSTAIRS offered an amusing juxtaposition on the lives of a rich family, who live upstairs, and their servants and staff, who all live downstairs. Although comedic in its outlook, the show did highlight a number of points about the class divide in the UK, and ended up winning a substantial amount of awards as a consequence.

Customer Reviews

Brilliant series
I watched this first time around on TV when I was a teenager. How lovely to own the set and see it all again. The box set is so long that I've only managed to see approx 6 episodes so far. I like the way some of the storylines tie in with actual historical events. If like me you're a fan of period dramas then this is for you.

upstairs rather than downstairs!
this is an excellent series and well worth the price given that there is over 60 hours of viewing, newcomers will initially find the production a little dated but will soon be won over by the storylines and superb acting skills from the likes of gordon jackson,pauline collins and the rest of this brilliantly cast masterpiece!

quiet portrait of hard unequal times
This series is very good and over the background of the times 1903- 1930, there are many considerations to do. The obvious are the difference between living upstairs or downstairs, that sometimes it's not son big, and rich and poor suffer the same problems. Servant corps achieve much physical work, but I think excepting in special celebrations, they are people enough and very capable to maintain that complex house, cars, etc. Hudson, the pompous butler, thinks his obligations include the dubitable facet of moral counselling to his subordinates, excepting the superb cooker Mrs Bridges, as conservative as him. That should be relatively convenient, as many of the servants lack formal education, so, perhaps, old fashioned manners are better than nothing by pure utilitarianism. I think Hudson isn't stupid nor so narrow minded when necessary.
Upstairs, Mr Bellamy is a judicious political man which doesn't attain top of politics hierarchy as he has constant oscillations between the rules of the Conservative party and his own, more advanced social ideas. Mrs Bellamy lives only for social life but she seems not very happy, corseted by the stiff conventions in spite his richness. Both had to admit from time to time, a joking hypocrisy to maintain his marriage, that has much of convenience. Correlatively, downstairs, many persons of the service had to renounce to a normal private life, that is truly of a very poor quality, but outside the house of Eaton Place, life is harder for the workers.
The two sons from upstairs (downstairs can't practically permit to have descent), James and Elizabeth, paradoxically are seriously disoriented, damaged and bitterly deceived in his lives owing to the bitter jokes of destiny, precisely for his privileged situation. It's necessary to be a strong person to remain in his social position, or abadon it for a more democratic way of life, but they are weak, confused people.
For me, there's a personage that although from upstairs and secondary, is the most sympathetic: Lady Prudence Fairfax, a wealthy but realistic and very humane and wise lady.