Date: Summer 1925 (from opening caption).

Goof: Look at the letters Ruby has at 1'55". These include a long brown envelope. However, the pile of letters destined for Ruby that Hudson is holding earlier at 1'13" does not seem to include this one. (In fact, he gives a long brown envelope to Hannah Gordon which I suspect is the one that Jenny Tomasin is holding later.)

Goof: David Langton stumbles through his line about Paynter: "...and quite often goes to Max's a little... 'cabinet meetings' at the Vineyard in Fulham." (4'00")

Robert Hardy is probably Upstairs, Downstairs' biggest guest star. He is best known for the title role in the TV series Winston Churchill: The Wilderness Years in 1982, for which he was nominated for a BAFTA. Viewers will also remember him as the ebullient Siegfried Farnon in the long-running veterinary drama All Creatures Great And Small (1978-90), and as Russell Spam, sleazy editor of newspaper The Crucible in Hot Metal (1986-8). Also, recommended to fans of UpDown, is ATV's Edward The Seventh (US: Edward The King) (1975) in which Hardy played Prince Albert, husband of Queen Victoria. Hardy died in 2017 at the age of 91.

Rooms: A rare shot of the usual "fourth wall" of the morning room (10'10").

Goof: Angela Baddeley's padding shows through her uniform clearly as she mounts the stairs (14'18").

Goof?: Wasn't the Long Bar at the Trocadero famously for men only? Thus, how can Virginia meet her other dinner guests in there? (17'36")

Goof: The London premiere of Valentino's The Eagle was at the Marble Arch Pavilion on Monday November 23rd this year, so Ruby cannot have been off to see it during the summer (19'07").

The quotation: "They also serve who only stand and wait," is from the last line of the poem On His Blindness, written c.1655 by John Milton (1608-74).

Goof: The champagne served by Paynter is as flat as a pancake, even when he has just uncorked it (37'59").

People have asked what Paynter is doing to Virginia's glass of champagne at 38'20". He is defizzing it with a "swizzle stick". Some people thought champagne too gassy so used a small stick (with thin whip-like tails attached) to swish some of the bubbles out. Paynter takes the device from his pocket, opens it with his teeth (to slide the main stick and tails out), dabbles it around in the champagne, and then sucks the excess liquid off it. To champagne connoisseurs, the use of such implements is considered somewhat heretical.

Goof: There seems to be an error in the days. Paynter asks Virginia to dine with his mother on Tuesday (36'47"). The newspaper at 43' says that Virginia and Rose returned from Shelbourne on the Monday. So why, on the same day as Virginia and Rose return, does Polly mention than Virginia is dining with Paynter's mother "this evening" (i.e. on the Monday) (41'29")?

Richard background: He is made Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs at the end of the episode.