Upper Class, Lower Class
This first season of Upstairs, Downstairs begins in 1903 at the residence of the wealthy Bellamy family. The show is about the lives and relationships of the Bellamy’s and their servants. Sir Richard Bellamy, daughter Elizabeth, wife Majorie, and son James all live upstairs. Meanwhile, the workers, including Rose, Sarah, Hudson, and Mrs. Bridges live downstairs.
Season one contains thirteen episodes. Like most British television, it’s an acquired taste — while the production values are higher than some other British TV I have seen, the material is dry and slow paced.
In terms of presentation quality, the set comes packaged in a nice looking box set. Underneath the removable cover is a standard sized case that contains four discs. Menus are consistent between the discs. Image quality is on par for what you expect — full screen with acceptable quality. The only catch being that some episodes are in black and white due to a worker’s strike during the time of production. Subtitles are included for all episodes.
Extra features include a Making of documentary that runs about fifty minutes. An alternate pilot episode is also offered as the original one was actually lost. Several episodes have commentary tracks, too.
To the summary…