Upstairs, Downstairs
Out of Costume
After Upstairs, Downstairs 2
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| Nicola Pagett in the BBC's 1977 production of Tolstoy's Anna Karenina. Newspaper The Evening News claimed: "Nicola Pagett has created the classic Anna. She doesn't appear to be acting. She is Anna Karenina." |
| The 21-year-old Lesley-Anne Down found Upstairs, Downstairs the first rung on the ladder to fame which would later see her go on to star in the mega-soap Dallas. Her earlier career was rather less well-paid and she had resorted to posing for a syndicated set of tasteful topless photographs in 1975. In the UK they were published in Mayfair, which informed us: "Daughter of a caretaker, she was born in Putney, South London, and began her career at the age of 10 by enrolling for a modelling course. Two years later she was one of the country's top child fashion models and soon appearing in a succession of films, like That Smashing Bird I Used to Know, All the Right Noises and Scallawag [sic]. Her failure to get a part in That'll Be the Day left her open for the role in her favourite TV series, Upstairs, Downstairs. 'It was fantastic,' she said. 'I never missed an episode.' A willowy five feet seven, 33-22-33, Lesley shares a King's Road flat and spends what spare time she has very unaristocratically - swimming and watching football." The magazine added: "Although this Mayfair is Lesley's first unclothed photographic sequence, she received an offer to strip when she was only 14 for a sexy film." Ahem!!! Just as well Lesley turned the offer down! |
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| Husband and wife John Alderton and Pauline Collins were reunited on
screen in 2002 in the cinema film Mrs Caldicot's Cabbage War.
Collins plays a woman sent to an old people's home who tries to start a
revolution amongst the inmates over the penny-pinching ways of the owner
(played by Alderton). Sadly, in recent years, the pair - for whatever reasons - have been reluctant to discuss UpDown on-screen, in the way of interviews etc. A great shame. |
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| The cast reunite in Summer 2002 for the After Upstairs, Downstairs documentary. Left to right: Jackie Tong (Daisy), Meg Wynn Owen (Hazel), Simon Williams (James), Jenny Tomasin (Ruby), Lesley-Anne Down (Georgina) and Gareth Hunt (Frederick). Note the hastily added "1" in front of the 65! |
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| Put Down The Duckie! |
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