Upstairs, Downstairs
Season Five
Upstairs, Downstairs
Season Five
| 5.1 (53) On With the Dance 5.2 (54) A Place in the World 5.3 (55) Laugh a Little Louder Please 5.4 (56) The Joy Ride 5.5 (57) Wanted - a Good Home 5.6 (58) An Old Flame |
5.7 (59) Disillusion 5.8 (60) Such A Lovely Man 5.9 (61) The Nine Days Wonder 5.10 (62) The Understudy 5.11 (63) Alberto 5.12 (64) Will Ye No Come Back Again |
5.13 (65) Joke Over 5.14 (66) Noblesse Oblige 5.15 (67) All the King's Horses 5.16 (68) Whither Shall I Wander? |
Like Season Four, the fifth and final set of Upstairs, Downstairs episodes is very strong with few negative points. It also marks the return to episodes that are more self-complete - Georgina's romance and marriage to Robert Stockbridge being one of the few plots that bridges more than one episode.
Both Meg Wynn Owen and the show's creators had decided that Hazel had no place in the swinging Twenties and she had been written out at the end of the last season. Replacing her as mistress of the house was Richard's new wife Virginia, played by Hannah Gordon.
The series spans the twelve years 1919-30 and was originally planned as a run of thirteen episodes. London Weekend Television pleaded with John Hawkesworth, the producer, to give them a further season (the sixth - taking the Bellamys into the Thirties) but he declined. Households like 165 Eaton Place were fast dying out by the end of the Twenties and the apparent ages of most of the series' characters were becoming extremely anachronistic by this point (for example, if Rose was supposed to be around 25 in the first episode she would be over fifty in the last!) As a compromise, Hawkesworth agreed to add three more episodes to the original plans, making a season of 16 episodes.
Although this season has its detractors, it is my personal favourite and there are some highly enjoyable episodes here, such as: Wanted - a Good Home (a strict governess is employed at 165 to teach Alice); Disillusion (Mr Hudson becomes romantically involved with one of the housemaids); and The Understudy (Hudson falls ill leading to rivalry between Edward and Frederick). The "upstairs" episodes that concern Georgina and her friends are often slightly uncomfortable to watch as the antics of immature members of the upper classes with too much time and too much money on their hands are as distasteful now as then.
The episode Such A Lovely Man is probably the weakest of the sixteen segments. The narrative shifts about in time too much, and the usually reliable Robert Hardy plays his role of Sir Guy Paynter too quirkily. Noblesse Oblige is also one of the less successful episodes - a largely throw-away affair with a tedious "upstairs" plot and a "downstairs" plot about a troublesome maid that had been done several times before (e.g. A Cry for Help, Desirous of Change and various segments featuring Sarah). There is a saving grace, though, in the form of Joan Sanderson, who turns in one of her usual excellent performances as the harridan Mrs Waddilove, who gives Ruby an even harder time than Mrs Bridges!
The best set-piece of the season is the emotional dinner-table argument between Edward and Hudson in A Place in the World as Edward and Daisy return to Eaton Place after a disastrous attempt to fend for themselves in the outside world. The sequence features some superb acting from Christopher Beeny and is a candidate for the best ever single scene in the entire run of 68 episodes.
Also worthy of mention is the under-rated Laugh a Little Louder Please - a dark little play about an obsessive lover of Georgina who gives her a somewhat grisly ultimatum during a fancy-dress party.
The series ends its run with number 165 sold to pay off James' creditors. The final scenes of the last episode have Rose wandering pensively around the empty building as she recalls some of the many events that have occurred in the house over the years.
This final season once again won the programme an Emmy for Outstanding Drama Series. Additionally, Jacqueline Tong was nominated for Outstanding Continuing Performance by a Supporting Actress in a Drama Series.
For a legend/key to the episode guide click here.
Additional notes...
Most plot synopses are taken directly from the original issues of the TV Times. In addition to the listed writer/s, it should be assumed that the script-editor, Alfred Shaughnessy, also had story input into each episode to a greater or lesser extent. Shaughnessy's own scripts were edited by John Hawkesworth, the producer. All episodes (except A Suitable Marriage) were story-lined by Shaughnessy. Episodes marked with a @ are the "gusset" episodes (see above).
Factfiles have been added for each episode. These
detail character backgrounds, continuity points, and bloopers. Click on the 
icon on the left of each episode's entry.
Additional notes for the Factfiles...
All timings are for the UK DVDs of the show as released by Network. These will vary slightly on other releases of the show. Timings are given as mm'ss". All the Factfiile notes are drawn from what was actually shown on the screen - additional or contradictory material from the novelisations (etc) is not included. To print a Factfile, press CTRL-P. Any comments/additions for the Factfiles, please email me.
Three short stories for Woman magazine
For the three issues of Woman magazine starting February 15th 1975, script-editor Alfred Shaughnessy penned a three-part story covering the period between the fourth and fifth seasons. This featured events not seen on screen, such as Hazel's funeral, Edward and Daisy leaving Eaton Place, and Richard and Virginia's wedding. The story appears to have been untitled, other than a generic Upstairs, Downstairs heading. (All three parts can be found on my Odds and Ends page).
Regular cast: Jacqueline Tong (Daisy), Angela Baddeley (Mrs Bridges), Christopher Beeny (Edward), Gordon Jackson (Hudson), David Langton (Richard Bellamy), Jenny Tomasin (Ruby), Lesley-Anne Down (Georgina Worsley), Jean Marsh (Rose), Simon Williams (James Bellamy), Gareth Hunt (Frederick), Hannah Gordon (Virginia Bellamy), Karen Dotrice (Lily), Joan Benham (Lady Prudence Fairfax), Anne Yarker (Alice Hamilton), Anthony Andrews (Lord Robert/Marquis of Stockbridge), Madeleine Cannon (Lady Dolly Hale), Raymond Huntley (Sir Geoffrey Dillon), Jonathan Seely (William Hamilton), Celia Bannerman (Diana Newbury), Shirley Cain (Miss Treadwell), Ursula Howells (Duchess of Buckminster), John Quayle (Bunny Newbury)
Almost immediately after the end of the series, plans were
underway for spin-offs. One idea was to have Georgina and her new
husband, the Marquis of Stockbridge, buying back the house as a
London pied-à-terre thus giving rise to further stories. An
American company wanted a series in which Hudson and Rose
emigrated to the United States to work for a new employer.
Another programme idea, You Live or You Die, saw the
footman Frederick seeking his fortune in America. All these ideas
fell through but one plan came very close to production. It would
have seen Hudson, Mrs Bridges and Ruby running their seaside
boarding-house which they were seen leaving for in the last Upstairs,
Downstairs episode. This probably would have entered
production had it not been for the sad death of Angela Baddeley
in February 1976 - less than two months after transmission of the
final Upstairs, Downstairs episode.
The only spin-off actually made was Thomas & Sarah shown in 1979. Many of the original cast - Gordon Jackson, Angela Baddeley, David Langton and Patsy Smart - are now dead and so many years have passed that it seems unlikely a further spin-off will ever be attempted, and perhaps this is no bad thing?
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