Lucy Gannon’s latest drama is set in the servants’ quarters of a large country house in the 1850s; and if that sounds like a remake of Upstairs, Downstairs, it isn’t. Today’s counterparts of Hudson and Mrs Bridges are in turmoil because the under-footman has walked out, threatening to take one of the chambermaids with him; and his replacement is busy writing his own references. Meanwhile, the Master is coming home from the Grand Tour, with a collection of naked statues and a folio of erotic prints.
The bad language and bad behaviour may well give a reasonably accurate flavour of life below stairs, but beware of showing this to your GCSE history class (your A-level students will probably be watching it anyway).
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