Upstairs, Downstairs
Scrapbook
Miscellaneous 5
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!