The Ashes To Ashes’ actress stars as the sexy chatelaine of Eaton Place, parlour maid Rose in charge below stairs... plus a storyline set in the 1930s that’s ‘shot through with sensuality’
She has already travelled to the Eighties as Ashes To Ashes’ DI Alex Drake – now actress Keeley Hawes is heading even further back in time for an updated revival of classic period drama Upstairs, Downstairs.
The 34-year-old leads a stellar cast for the lavish new series, set in pre-war London and promising a plot ‘shot through with sensuality’.
Originally, the show was a hit for ITV in the early Seventies, but it is the BBC that is reviving it, with the help of American backers.
Lady of the house: The beautiful and ambitious Lady Agnes Holland, played by Keeley Hawes (right), will be responsible for the running of 165 Eaton Place – just like her predecessor, the imperious Lady Marjorie Bellamy. Lady Marjorie, who was played by Rachel Gurney (left), had an affair with an Army officer in 1906 and lost her life on the Titanic six years later. Ms Gurney, who went on to enjoy success on Broadway, died in Norfolk in 2001, aged 81
Art Malik, Anne Reid and Ed Stoppard are also among the distinguished cast, while Jean Marsh is to revive her role as Rose Buck, originally a lowly parlour maid but now elevated to housekeeper. She is the only character from the original series to return.
There is also a part for Dame Eileen Atkins, who first came up with the idea for the Seventies series with Ms Marsh, and now plays the formidable matriarch of the aristocratic family who move in ‘upstairs’ at 165 Eaton Place.
In the new series, which takes up the story six years after the original left off in 1930, Rose makes an emotional comeback to the London townhouse to serve the new family, under the steely Lady Agnes Holland.
upstairs downstairs cast
Played by Ms Hawes, the lady of the house is described as ‘fragrant but ass-kicking’.
Writer Heidi Thomas, who also scripted the successful BBC’s drama Cranford, said: ‘The series will be shot through with sensuality. This is a drama very much about warm-blooded human beings.
‘In a house like Eaton Place, there is a limit to what you can keep behind closed doors. The place is a pressure cooker and the tensions continue to rise and rise until they boil over.
‘Whether the characters are upstairs or downstairs they are *living in close proximity to each other and these are the dramas that will engage viewers.’
The original series, which was broadcast between 1971 and 1975, charted the lives and loves of the Bellamy family and their servants in the first 30 years of the last century.
Key characters below stairs included loyal butler Hudson, played by Gordon Jackson, who went on to star as George Cowley in The Professionals, and the *autocratic cook Mrs Bridges, played by Angela Baddeley.
Thomas said: ‘When people hear you are bringing Upstairs, Downstairs back, they sort of stop breathing for a moment because they love the *programme so much.
upstairs downstairs cast
‘Everyone involved in the new version is very much aware of that feeling and they have an extraordinary desire to do it justice.
‘The original ended rather abruptly and there was a feeling the story had not run its full course. People quite rightly felt there was years’ more drama to go.’
The BBC is certainly confident of success. At first a series of three hour-long shows was commissioned for a Sunday-night slot – but the *corporation has believed to have ordered another six scripts.
And a full-scale replica of Eaton Place has been built at studios in Cardiff by producers eager to avoid *criticisms of cheap sets and limited locations that were levelled at the nonetheless much-loved original.
In the new series, set against the drama of the 1936 abdication crisis, the house has been inherited by the wealthy Sir Hallam Holland, a young and well-connected diplomat, *following the unexpected death of his Baronet father.
Holland, who is played by 35-year-old Ed Stoppard, the son of playwright Sir Tom, takes up residence with his wife and his imposing mother Lady Maud, a free-thinking intellectual played by Dame Eileen who keeps a pet monkey called Solomon.
Art Malik plays Lady Maud’s brooding private secretary Mr Amanjit, brought over from her *previous residence in India and now struggling to find a place in a *household where he is considered *neither upstairs nor downstairs.
The new butler Pritchard, played by theatre actor Adrian Scarborough, is described as a complex character who is ‘a very different kettle of fish’ from the stern Hudson.
upstairs, downstairs cast
The way they were: A scene from the original series, starring Angela Baddeley as Mrs Bridges and Gordon Jackson as Hudson
The younger servants include a spirited parlour maid called Ivy, played by 20-year-old Ellie Kendrick, best known for taking the title role in the BBC’s mini-series The Diary Of Anne Frank last year, and a *footman called Johnny, played by 19-year-old *Hollyoaks star Nico Mirallegro.
Meanwhile Rose commands the staff with the aid of the fastidious Mrs Thackery, played by veteran Dinnerladies star Anne Reid.
The new series, which begins filming next month, is being jointly funded by the American TV drama producer Masterpiece, and will be broadcast in the US shortly after it makes its British debut.
The original was not just a hit in the States, but was broadcast in more than 70 countries to an audience of more than a billion.
The BBC is planning to screen the drama as early as autumn in an attempt to steal the thunder from a new ITV drama called Downton Abbey, which also focuses on the lives of masters and servants in a single home.
Piers Wenger, head of drama at BBC Wales where the series is being made, said: ‘We are delighted to have secured the rights to Upstairs, Downstairs with the full blessing and support of the original co-creators.
‘This is not a remake but a *completely new version, set in a different era with a whole new cast of characters.’
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Still enjoying the repeats of the original on ITV3
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