I'm too young to have seen the original, 1970s UPSTAIRS, DOWNSTAIRS but I understand this three-part miniseries is supposed to be a continuation of the same story/situation. It was broadcast by the BBC on three consecutive nights, beginning Boxing Day 2010.
Many naysayers remarked that this series was hurriedly conceived to cash in on the success of ITV's rival drama, DOWNTON ABBEY. Having seen some episodes of DOWNTON, I have to admit that it's vastly superior to what we have here. In terms of character interaction alone, DOWNTON wins hands down because UPSTAIRS, DOWNSTAIRS never for a moment features the kind of master-servant interaction you'd expect from the title.
The two classes lead totally separate lives and involved in pretty much unconnected story lines. Downstairs, there's a rebellious maid who wears nail polish and a butler who used to work on a cruise ship. Upstairs, dead-eyed Keeley Hawes is pregnant and her younger sister's a bit of a tearaway. That's it in terms of decent plotting.
The characters are dull and because the cast is so large we never get a feel for any of them, so decent actors like Art Malik are wasted while others go through the motions. There's a whiff of political correctness in the air and things only pick up later on with the introduction of a back plot involving the rise of Oswald Mosley and his blackshirts, but again that has little to do with the premise of the show. A bit of a missed opportunity, then, and another example of the BBC's desperate attempts to make money.
