Upstairs, Downstairs
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Miscellaneous 5

Pauline Collins' 1973 single of the show's theme tune. Click for details of the labels.

Lady Prudence was the closest friend of Lady Marjorie and Richard. After Lady M's death, she remained close to Richard, and befriended both of the subsequent mistresses of the house – Hazel and Virginia.
Actress Joan Benham was the wife of the series' casting director, Martin Case. The couple lived just around the corner from Eaton Place.

A portrait of Rachel Gurney as Lady Marjorie Bellamy.
Rachel was not over-fond of her character and would have preferred to have played a "softer" version of Marjorie, eventually telling producer John Hawkesworth that her role was "exactly the sort of hard, shallow, unattractive woman that I don't fancy playing any more". She left the show after the second season but agreed to return for one last episode to provide her character with a definite conclusion.

Meg Wynn Owen as the second mistress of 165 – Hazel Bellamy.
Little-known fact... In 1969 Meg presented children's story TV show Jackanory and read from The Castle Of Yew by Lucy M Boston. Hannah Gordon had also presented the show earlier in the same year.

Cathleen Nesbitt played Lady Southwold, Lady Marjorie's mother, in two episodes: An Object of Value and Goodwill to All Men. Nesbitt's transatlantic acting career dated back to 1910 – she was 83 when the first of her UpDown episodes was made. As a young woman, she had an affair with poet Rupert Brooke (the original inspiration for the Lawrence Kirbridge character). In the 1950s heyday of the American TV anthology format, she was a familiar face. She died in 1982.

I'm not sure Mr Hudson would approve!

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