I have to admit that Downton Abbey, despite its focus on the whole upstairs-downstairs theme in an early 20th century setting, has largely passed by me. However, as a compulsive collector of maid images for years I could not help but discover quite a number of screen grabs from that show - they are literally ubiquitous! What I did not realise (but strongly suspected given the subject matter) was that one of the episodes in Season 4 had one of the ladies dressing up as a maid to fool a non-suspecting commoner who finds her attractive. Fans of the show please prove me wrong, but as far as I can tell it did not really go anywhere plot-wise in later episodes despite the classic "lady-to-maid" set up... This small subplot was uploaded to youtube in two short clips and I am happy to share it with you even though it's quite light on lady-to-maid content (but I am sure we can easily invent the rest!).
As a teenager 60 years ago I was in digs with an elderly couple in the SE of England. Mrs Wilson had been in what was euphemistically called 'service' until she married. She worked for a wealthy family in London an there was no doubting her opinion of the people she was forced by circumstance to serve - she despised them for the way she was treated.
ReplyDeleteI don't own a TV but I could have watched Downton Abbey on my PC via the iPlayer. I didn't. I think it's main purpose was to celebrate a fantasy of England (rather than the UK) for foreigners - particularly the US.
Robi
I don't fully agree with your comment about Downton Abbey and the US market although it is very popular there, well they have so little history of their own. I think that we English have always enjoyed period dramas, possibly to view history through rose tinted glasses although they aren't always the case. I remember watching Upstairs, Downstairs, The Forsyte Saga and the BBC's production of War and Peace with my Mother when I was much younger and being captivated by the costumes more than the story lines. Period drams, whether produced by the television companies of film studios still seem to be appreciated so I think there is still, thankfully a demand for them.
DeleteHonestly, I don't think it is any worse than dozens upon dozens of movies and TV productions celebrating "Britishness". We all know the drill. I guess the main reason why I didn't really follow Downton Abbey is not because it is celebrating the fantasy of England, but because this fantasy has grown incredibly tired over the years. All this stiff-upper-lip holding, charge of the light brigading, Oxbridge attending, posh-speaking {insert stereotype of choice here}. Add to this a modern fascination with the Victorian/Edwardian period when women were still women and men were still men and the lower classes knew their place and you'd get a winning formula that you are bound to repeat over and over and over again until it becomes a montypythonesque parody of itself.
DeleteI have read that many of the actors on Downton Abbey had a low opinion of the show. For example, the link
Deletehttp://www.pajiba.com/seriously_random_lists/a-brief-history-of-british-actors-badmouthing-downton-abbey.php
contains the following delicious quote:
"They can ignore the adornments and peer underneath to see Downton for what it really is: A badly written, melodramatic sh*tshow."
On a related note. The Lucy Lethbridge's book "Servants" also contains a delicious quote concerning the show "Upstairs, Downstairs:"
"It is an interesting illumination of the extent to which upstairs-downstairs values, so apparently discarded by the 1970s, continued their deep hold, that when filming began on the series the actors who played ‘upstairs’ were allotted the finest dressing rooms with showers, while the ‘downstairs’ actors, including Jackson and Angela Baddeley (Mrs Bridges, the cook), who were at the time far better known and established, were furious to find out that they had been given the inferior ones."
I'm convinced there's an L2M story struggling to get out of the last quote.
T. H. Enerdly
Thanks, T.H.Enerdly! I never quite understood why it became such a huge hit to begin with. Still, they get half a point for L2M overtones!
DeleteIf it's any consolation they had a Christmas special for Downton Abbey that pokes fun at the show's tropes and some fun cameos.
Deletehttps://vimeo.com/115023404
Jean Marsh played a maid on "Upstairs,Downstairs" and was co-creator of the show...I can't believe they gave her inferior quarters compared to some neophyte playing a toff...
DeleteIn fact, in an “Upstairs, Downstairs” retrospective that is sometimes broadcast on public TV, Jean Marsh made that very point* and said she did so at the time, resulting in the different segments of the cast rotating the dressing-rooms every week, so that everyone had an equal chance to enjoy the nicer ones. * In fact, she said she was astonished as the creator and chief promoter of the show to find herself relegated to the lower-class facilities.
DeleteRespectfully Submitted,
Renegade Spirit
You're probably right, Camille. I'm perhaps a bit poisoned after watching the first third of Robin Hood with Freeman and Costner on Netflix. It is so bad I couldn't continue. The bit that made me laugh out loud was when they landed on the beach under the white cliffs of Dover and aimed to be over 200 miles away in Nottingham the same day. With traffic, it's quite enough of a gruelling drive even now!
ReplyDeleteMy nom de guerre isn't a total fantasy btw :)
Robbi
Yes, the Costner version is one of the worst offenders both when it comes to Robin Hood adaptations (and the bar is set pretty low there!) and to historic movies in general. It's anachronisms galore. What, "the Celts" (looking like Roman-era Germans or something) attacking Sherwood? Lady Marian asking "Robin, are you OK?" A true classic.
DeleteWhen I saw Robin Hood PoT at the cinema back in the day I laughed from start to finish,
DeleteI thought it a hilarious spoof!
BillA.
That Downton Abbey find is indeed a good one. Thank you for providing it.
ReplyDeleteI had the great fortune to be able to speak with my great Grandmother who was in Service in 30s thru to 50s at the 'Big House', she became the cook, my Great Grandfather was the Chauffeur.
I used to listen with awe when she spoke of those days, she did say it was hard work, the deference required to be shown to the members above stairs was total, even to point of if any of her family were to see my Great Grandfather driving His Lordship, Ladyship or whoever on the driveway into or out of the House, they had to stand at the kerb facing the drive, males removing their caps, until they passed, eyes to ground, most definitely not acknowledging their father the chauffeur.
However she said that to have a job in service gave you security, a roof over your head, food in your belly and money, this important before any welfare state came into being.
In her years after being in service, she said that the Big House always ensured its former staff had a roof over their head and in her words, "neither your coal scuttle or your larder was ever empty".
I am sure there were many many instances of staff in service being given life of hell, and maybe my Great Grandmother and Grandfather were the lucky ones.
As an aside she did say that certainly my Great Grandfather being in direct contact with the Family on daily basis, was party to many secrets that he never ever would divulge, both from His Lord and Ladyship and particularly regarding the scrapes and social faux pas that the daughters of the Family got into. He was 'required' to 'keep an eye' on the daughters when driving them to and from social occasions/events, she did say say without ever giving details that he had to intervene in a 'bodyguard' role on many occasions and spirited the lively Ladies away from situations by the backdoor.
Secrets were kept out of sense of duty by the staff, but the Lordship had sense of duty to the staff at time of service and afterwards as well, a win win situation.
betsy
Interesting recollection, thank you very much! I don't have similar family history for better or worse, but this is very close to numerous accounts I've read. What I've always found fascinating about life "in service" was this balance of security (roof over one's head, food, a sense of belonging to something higher/better) and complete surrender of one's dignity (even when you had a good master or mistress that treated you with respect it was clearly understood you were second class and you own desires, likes and preferences were inconsequential). However, I am sure people back then looked at it very differently and did not see this lifestyle particularly demeaning (or at least they did not until very late into Victorian or even Edwardian period). They knew that for 90 percent of the population the only two other viable options were working in the fields or becoming a factory worker - both hardly occupations to aspire to in terms of security (and not particularly dignified to boot).
DeleteDidn't Nellie Bly write in one of her articles that many young women would rather work for less money and live in poor conditions rather than wear the cap and apron, a symbol of oppression?
DeleteThe cap as a sign of oppression is a recurring theme. Similar sentiment one can find in Elizabeth Banks' In Cap and Apron. However, please note that both were journalists with an agenda to exposure poor working conditions so it stands to reason they would look at a serving profession differently than a country girl with next to no viable options. Obviously, in an ideal world no one would want to work as a maid and everyone will be a celebrity journalist interviewing Jules Vernes, but when your other respectable option is a match factory girl or a street sweep, what would you chose?
DeleteI agree that journalists such as Bly had their own agenda, her "10 days in a madhouse" is a prime example of her desire for a "good story" but arguably shows her commitment (no pun intended) to write a factual account, which resulted in the largest increase in the mental health budget. Her "Trying to be a servant," although I felt that she was just "playing" at being a servant did show that women did want something other than a life of service, which was certainly echoed following the Great War when Edwardian houses saw the need to restructure their staff to meet these changes. It’s interesting that this era also saw a change in the attitude towards actresses, who were seen as little better than prostitutes for “exposing” themselves on the stage rather than follow the accepted role of wife, mother and mistress of the house.
DeleteRegarding the cap being seen as a sign of oppression, my wife carried out an audit several years ago in her hospital and this was cited by many as a reason to remove them from the uniform.
DeleteYes being in service necessitated virtual total subservience and deference to ones employer, their family and visitors to the 'Big House.
ReplyDeleteBut certainly at that time British society in general had that outlook in daily life, a easy comparison is our Royal family, the utter unquestioning respect/deference that was given to the family in general only a few generations ago was nigh on total, wheras today much less so.
I am extremely interested in the dynamics be that physical, emotional, financial or psychological of power relationships such as these.
There are of course still work environments where subservience, deference and unquestioning obedience are both expected and enforced (even with legal penalties), i speak of course of our Armed Forces, what employer other than her Majesty has their own prison for its personnel, though they deny it is a prison, calling it The Military Corrective Training Centre, i assure you prison is way way easier to spend your time in.
Sadly the real life experiences of those who were in service are primarily lost in history, with most now dead.
At least Ladies Becoming Maids is in its way keeping alive a bygone era, was the life good, bad or just accepted as the norm, it would differ from whom you asked, and the experience they lived through.
betsy
Camille Langtry what can you recommend for humiliation/ domination/ foot slave/ f/f links you like
ReplyDeleteI made a few posts earlier with my favourite story recommendations, you can find them by clicking my name tag. I do frequent a few sites (some of them are linked to this blog), but it's not like I have "the" site that I start my day with (other than this blog of course!).
DeleteI will definitely call it a shame that Lady Rose's secret identity as Rose Smith the maid went no further than it did, although clearly it would have been unfair of her if she had pursued it solely for her own temporary gratification.
ReplyDeleteNow, if she had become trapped as Rose Smith, OTOH....