Upstairs, Downstairs
Out of Costume
Before Upstairs, Downstairs 2


 

Jean Marsh as Space Security Service agent Sara Kingdom in the 1965/6 Doctor Who story, The Daleks' Master Plan. In this story, she played opposite William Hartnell as the Doctor. Years before her Upstairs, Downstairs time, Marsh had been married to another Doctor Who - Jon Pertwee (below).

 

Yet another Upstairs, Downstairs star to have an association with the sci-fi show Doctor Who was Hannah Gordon. In the historical story The Highlanders (which ran through Christmas and New Year 1966/7) she played Kirsty McLaren, daughter of a Scottish laird badly injured at the battle of Culloden in April 1746.

 

Meg Wynn Owen as Lily Smalls in the 1973 film version of Dylan Thomas' Under Milk Wood – a tale of the (mainly) sexually-obsessed inhabitants of a small Welsh village, Llareggub.

 

An uncredited Gareth Hunt plays a bit part in Space: 1999. The episode is called Guardian Of Piri and was filmed in May 1974. Apparently, Hunt's role was to have been bigger, but he had an argument with the director, Charles Crichton, and walked off the set. His part was rejigged and given to Michael Culver.

 

At around the same time as she started playing Daisy in Upstairs, Downstairs, Jacqueline Tong appeared in an episode of ATV's anthology series Thriller entitled Sign It Death. Francesca Annis played a disturbed young girl who murders to wheedle her way into the affections of a businessman (played by Patrick Allen). Also shown is Edward Judd, who played another boss at the same company. Jackie Tong's role was a small one as Sally, a fellow secretary to Annis' character. Click for a larger version.

 

Jean Marsh in, of all things, a 1959 episode of CBS' The Twilight Zone called The Lonely. In the story, Jack Warden plays a lonely criminal imprisoned on an asteroid. A sympathetic supply-ship captain takes pity on him and leaves him a robot friend, with whom he falls in love! Marsh remembers: "I remember filming The Twilight Zone out in the desert and I've never forgotten the address of the place where I was staying – Furnace Creek Inn, Funeral Range, Desolation Canyon, Death Valley. Out there every place had been the scene of some pioneering disaster. It was 130 degrees in the shade. I had an air-conditioned caravan, sacks of ice, jugs full of pure lemon juice, sticks of iced cologne, cool clothes, a swimming-pool and a nurse standing by – and I still felt dodgy from time to time! The crew, on the other hand, were falling about all over the place." Click the picture for a bigger version.

 

Simon Williams pictured with his sister Polly during their childhood and, below, in 1995. Recognise her face? She played in the UpDown episode Tug of War as Lady Viola Courtney, a nurse training alongside Georgina. She married actor Nigel Havers in 1989 but sadly died in 2004 after a four-year battle with cancer.