Upstairs Downstairs

[dotty.]

So it;s on BBC not ITV now, and Jean Marsh is back playing Rose, but the setting is only 6 years after the last series finished, but how many decades ago was that? Jean Marsh was supposed to be playing a 50 year old when it finished, (1975) I;m spending way too much time trying to get my head round this lol I know it finished before I was married, seems very strange.

[DTCwordfan]

the scenario is that the Communists have taken over so it is now to be titled Downstairs Upstairs.

[AlBags]

Was Rose really supposed to be 50 at the end of the last (original) series? I remember her as being in early 20s!

[sandyRoe]

Rose turned down a proposal from an Australian soldier. So she must have been in her 20's or 30's.

[ABerrant]

The original 5 series spanned the years 1903-1930

[welshlibranr]

If it spanned 1903 to 1930, and firls went to service at about 14 years old, that would make Rose at least 40 in 1930!...........

[welshlibranr]

sorry! that's not firls!.........should be girls!..........lol............

[Invictas]

Rose said in this episode,about the Bellamy family.
!I served that family for 50 years"
so assuming she entered service at 14 0r 15,that would make her 64 or 65.
Although Jean Marsh is actually 76!
and for 5 years (1955-1960) was married to Jon Pertwee.

[Invictas]

If you work backwards that would mean the Rose entered service at 14 in 1885,at Lord and Lady Southwolds house.
She then moved to 165 Eaton Place in approx 1903 aged 32,and left in 1930 (when the house was closed up) aged 59?

[Invictas]

But of course all these ages are open to debate,as we don't really know hold people are in these series unless it is stated categorically.

[welshlibranr]

Yes Invictus, that sounds about right!.................she couldn't have been any younger given the maths!.....

[Invictas]

Well welsh it's difficult to work out really as we don't know Roses real age,but it seems to fit.
Oddly enough when Jean Marsh started in the original series she was 34, not that far off of Roses presumed age.
Of course there has been a much longer gap in the real world,than in the time between the old and new series.

[welshlibranr]

Well yes Invictus, that's true, and in the end it is a fictional story, so we have to forgive the time lapse being inaccurate!........

[ABerrant]

The quote from Rose is "40 years I was in service to that family" so a revision of a decade is applicable to the above calculations.

[welshlibranr]

well Invictus, that makes her about 54 then, doesn't it!.............

[mike11111]

Eileen Atkins as the matriarch is almost as good as Maggie Smith was in Dowton Abbey.

[ABerrant]

In early Victorian England working class girls tended to enter domestic service aged 12-13 but by the 1860s it was not unheard of for first placement to occur at age 8.

Factor in that Rose was the daughter of a servant on the Southwold estate and she could have entered service around age 10. This would bring us back to dotty's original contention that she was 50 at the end of her service in 1930.

All conjecture of course!

[welshlibranr]

Yes, AB, you may be right there, I was basing the age on what my mother told me about girls going to service at 14, but she was born in 1915, so maybe true!.........

[mike11111]

A slight historical slip in the last episode. A maid referred to the 'Queen's English' when at the time the phrase was the 'King's English'.