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3 Episodes 2010 - 2010
Episode 1
Mon, Feb 7, 201161 mins
Six years after the Bellamy family closed 165 Eaton Place, diplomat Sir Hallam Holland and his wife Agnes buy the deserted house. They seek staff from an agency run by Rose Buck, once the Bellamys' maid, who provides them with her friend Mrs. Thackeray as cook, Pritchard, a butler whose previous experience was on ocean liners, and chauffeur Harry Spargo. Perky Barnardo's orphan Ivy is the new maid and shy Northerner Johnny the footman because they are inexperienced and therefore cheap. Hallam's mother Lady Maud, recently widowed, returns from India with her pet monkey Solomon and a secretary, Mr. Amanjit, to whom she is dictating her memoirs. She and Agnes clash over household management, leading to Rose being asked to step in as housekeeper. Maud is, however, adept at taming Persie, Agnes's spoilt young sister but her invitation to Wallis Simpson for the house-warming turns sour when the American woman, a known Nazi sympathiser, brings Von Ribbentrop with her. Thus nobody is particularly annoyed with Johnny when the boy spills a drink on the German. However, attitudes change when the footman is arrested for brawling and it turns out that he is on probation for fighting.
Episode 2
50 mins
Lady Agnes learns that she is pregnant and is over-joyed following one unsuccessful attempt.A new maid arrives,Rachel,a Jewess fleeing persecution in Germany. Hallam must meet another refugee, the Abyssinian emperor dethroned by Mussolini and he becomes aware of the fragility of world peace. Rachel gets on particularly well with Mr. Amanjit,as fellow 'foreigners' and brings him into the staff's social circle. She also tells him that she has a child,Lotte,looked after by a minder. Lady Persie and Spargo become lovers,united in their admiration for the Fascist politics of Oswald Moseley and attend a rally in Whitechapel where Rachel and Mr. Amanjit are among the many protesters. Persie is arrested but Rachel dies and Hallam,a committed anti-Fascist,vows to care for Lotte.
Episode 3
61 mins
Mrs. Thackeray is enchanted by a meeting with society photographer Cecil Beaton, who takes a glamorous snap of her, rather to Rose's annoyance. The Duke of Kent persuades Hallam to throw a dinner party at which plans are made to forge a compromise should the king marry Mrs. Simpson, though the problem is solved by the abdication. Lady Maud believes that Lotte, virtually an elected mute since her mother's death, should have psychiatric help and takes her to a residential home. In pursuing them Hallam discovers that Pamela, the sister he thought had died but actually has Downs Syndrome, is also there, a fact Maud has thought it her duty to keep from him. Whilst Hallam gains a sister Agnes loses hers as Persie, now a committed Fascist, throws over the repentant Spargo to go to Germany with Von Ribbentrop. Agnes goes into labour and Pritchard assists Lady Maud in delivering her baby. The grateful family grant him a favour - the reinstatement of Johnny, now released from Borstal. Christmas 1936 sees - barring the absent Persie - a house united, both upstairs and downstairs.