List of Upstairs, Downstairs characters

List of Upstairs, Downstairs characters

This is an alphabetical list of characters from the ITV drama Upstairs, Downstairs, that aired from 1970 to 1975.

Contents

Upstairs

Bellamy family

Elizabeth Wallace

Portrayed by Nicola Pagett, Elizabeth Wallace (née Elizabeth Bellamy, later Elizabeth Kirbridge; born 1886) is the daughter of Richard and Lady Marjorie Bellamy and the sister of James. A socialist and a Suffragette, she marries poet Lawrence Kirbridge but the marriage is later annulled. Elizabeth gives birth to a daughter Lucy Elizabeth, whose father is Kirbridge's publisher. Elizabeth moves to New York and marries Dana J. Wallace in about 1911, after which she never appears in the series again.

Georgina Worsley

Portrayed by Lesley-Anne Down, Georgina, Marchioness of Stockbridge (nee Georgina Worsley, born November 28, 1895) is the step-daughter of Lady Marjorie's brother Hugo, her natural father having died in a hunting accident when she was six years old. Her mother and step-father die along with Lady Marjorie in the sinking of the Titanic in 1912, after which she moves into 165 Eaton Place. She spends the war years serving in France as a VAD Nurse, where her patients include her step-cousin James. During the 1920s, she joins the ranks of young people known as the "Bright Young Things"—silly, giddy, empty-headed types—but changes her ways after she accidentally runs over and kills a Penfold Farm cowherder. She is saved by the testimony of Robert, Marquess of Stockbridge, whom she marries on June 12, 1930.

Hazel Bellamy

Portrayed by Meg Wynn Owen, Hazel Bellamy (nee Hazel Patricia Forrest; circa 1883-1918) first appears in the episode "Miss Forrest" as secretary to Richard Bellamy. James is immediately attracted to her, and within two years they marry, after her initially declining his proposal, having been married before to a violent alcoholic named Patrick O'Connor. The class divide between James and Hazel causes early marital conflicts and disagreements. In the early months of 1914 Hazel suffers a miscarriage which sends her into a extended depression. During the war she falls in love with a young airman named Jack Dyson, who dies in action. Hazel is particularly close to Richard, Georgina and Rose, but Hudson never truly accepts her, a middle-class woman, as mistress of the house. Hazel dies from the Spanish flu pandemic days before the First World War ends in 1918.

James Bellamy

Portrayed by Simon Williams, Major The Honourable James Rupert Bellamy MC (1881 – October 1929) is the son of Richard and Lady Marjorie Bellamy and the brother of Elizabeth. He attended the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst and served as an officer in the Life Guards of the British Household Cavalry until 1919. He married Hazel Forrest in 1912, but she predeceased him in 1918. He commits suicide after losing his fortune in the Wall Street Crash of 1929.

Lady Marjorie Bellamy

Portrayed by Rachel Gurney, Lady Marjorie Helen Sybil Bellamy (nee Lady Marjorie Helen Sybil Talbot-Carey; 6 May 1860 or 12 July 1864 – 15 April 1912) is the wife of Richard Bellamy and the mother of James and Elizabeth. She dies in 1912, a victim of the sinking of the RMS Titanic, while her lady's maid, Miss Roberts, survives.

Richard Bellamy

Portrayed by David Langton, Richard Pemberton Bellamy, Viscount Bellamy of Haversham, is the youngest son of a parson. As a young man he won a scholarship to Cambridge University, where he excelled. In 1880, he married the wealthy Lady Marjorie Talbot-Carey and became a Conservative MP. They had two children, James and Elizabeth.

Following Lady Marjorie's death, he marries Virginia Hamilton, a war widow, in about 1919. By this time he has become a junior minister connected with the Admiralty in the Balfour ministry, and he is later created Viscount Bellamy of Haversham.

In the 2010 revival of Upstairs, Downstairs, Rose Buck refers to her late Master, the Lord Richard Bellamy of Haversham, with the implication that Richard had died sometime between 1930 and 1936.

Virginia Bellamy

Portrayed by Hannah Gordon, Virginia, Viscountess Bellamy of Haversham (formerly Virginia Hamilton) is the widow of Naval Officer Charles Hamilton (killed during World War I when the HMS Monmouth sank in 1914). She meets Richard when she asks for help to establish a fund for the children of naval officers killed in battle, and they initially dislike each other. Virginia returns about a year later, when her seventeen year-old son Michael (who is at that time serving as a Midshipman aboard a British Navy Coastal Patrol Boat) is court-martialled for cowardice. At Hazel's urging, Richard asks family solicitor Sir Geoffrey Dillon to help. Michael is subsequently killed in action. By this point, both Richard and Hazel have become extremely fond of Virginia and her two other children, Alice and William. Virginia and Richard marry ca. 1919 and she becomes Viscountess.

Other Upstairs characters

Lady Southwold

Lady Mabel Talbot-Carey (1843-1936), Countess of Southwold was the mother of Lady Marjorie and grandmother of James and Elizabeth Bellamy. She married Walter Talbot-Carey, large landowner and influential Conservative politician, sometime in the early 1860s. On a visit to 165 she allegedly lost a valuable brooch, sending suspicion of theft towards the staff. A jeweller later arrives at the house stating that Lady Southwold left the item at the shop to have a loose stone reset; at Christimas 1913 she gave Georginia a diamond filagree necklace that had been in the family for four generations. She is often accompanied by her useful but snobbish Lady's Companion Miss Hodges, a clergyman's daughter. Mabel's sister, Lady Katherine "Kate" Castleton, was to have presented Elisabeth to King Edward VII at a Londonderry House ball. Portrayed by veteran actress Cathleen Nesbitt.

"Bunny," Marquess of Newbury

Portrayed by John Quayle, Lord Newberry (later the Marquess of Newberry) is James Bellamy's best friend who attended the same schools and served as an officer in the Household Cavalry with him. A meek, quiet, and decent man known to his friends as Bunny, he marries Lady Diana Russell in 1912 having inherited his title and estates the year previous. He served gallantly in the Great War up to 1917 when he was promoted aide de camp and taken out of the frontlines. Dominated by his spouse, he is happiest playing his expected role of a traditional English country squire, a duty denigrated by his wife as "scratching the backs of pigs with a glazed look in his eye." Faced with his wife's adultery, he refuses to cause a scandal believing that "no man should divorce a woman" and offers to give her grounds instead. When Diana returns to him, he takes her back without qualm, but the couple remain childless.

Diana Newbury

Portrayed by Celia Bannerman, Diana, Marchioness of Newbury (nee Lady Diana Russell) is a childhood friend and love interest of James who, taking her mother's advice to 'marry well', weds his wealthy best friend Bunny instead. At a weekend hunting party at Somerby Park in 1913, Diana, jealous and contemptuous of James' middleclass wife Hazel, secretly switches horses on her nearly causing a disastrous accident. In the spring of 1923 James and Diana meet by chance at an illicit London jazz club and have a weekend fling at a cottage in Sandwich as Diana schemes for them both to run away to the Continent to live the life of the migrating rich. Diana's plans are thwarted and a divorce scandal looms; James offers to marry her but confesses that the war destroyed the man she once knew and that he cannot 'get on' with life, content instead to watch it go by. Diana, faced with James' ambivalence and defeatism, returns to Bunny who takes her on a world cruise to try and rekindle their relationship.

Henrietta Winchmore

Portrayed by Jenifer Armitage, Henrietta Winchmore is the best friend of Elizabeth, and a fellow feminist and Fabian Socialist who takes her in when Elisabeth runs away from her family after an altercation. She briefly challenged Richard on his conservative view as opposed to her liberal/radical views, and serves as Elisabeth's Maid of Honor at her wedding.

Julius Karekin

Portrayed by Donald Burton, Julius Karekin is a wealthy social climber and a very knowledgeable and talented stockbroker of Armenian descent, who has an affair with the recently separated Elizabeth Kirbridge. He saves Elisabeth from imprisonment by mentioning her family and connections to the police after she takes part in a suffragist attack on a government minister's London home. He uses her to futher his career and contacts, and gives Elisabeth a hat shop in Mayfair's Brook Street and successfully manages the stocks she inherited from a recently deceased great-aunt. To further his influence, Karekin buys the lease on 165 Eaton Place when it is put up for sale upon Lord Southwold's death, subsequently giving the deed to Elizabeth to help save her parents from eviction. Owing to Richard Bellamy's connections, he becomes a good friend of Arthur Balfour, a financial adviser to the Tory Party, and a candidate for membership in the exclusive Pall Mall men's club, the Athenaeum.

Lady Dolly Hale

Portrayed by Madeleine Cannon, Lady Dorothy "Dolly" Beatrice Louisa Hale is one of Georgina's closest friends and a fellow "Bright Young Thing". Lady Dolly is the daughter of the Earl of Shelbourne and lives, in 1928, in Mayfair. In 1927, while visiting Georgina, Lady Dolly meets Frederick, the Bellamy's footman, and they soon start an affair. Lady Dolly then secretly arranges for Georgina and Frederick to have to kiss in a film that they are both starring in. Despite this, Georgina and Lady Dolly remain friends, although Frederick leaves service. However, in the summer of 1928, Lady Dolly, Georgina, Lord Stockbridge and three others take part in a scavenger hunt, Georgina drives them down to finish the hunt and Georgina runs over and kills a man on his bicycle. At the following inquest, Lady Dolly, who takes cocaine, gives evidence which harms Georgina's case. After the inquest, Georgina states that she never wants to see Lady Dolly again.

Lady Prudence Fairfax

Portrayed by Joan Benham, Lady Prudence Fairfax is Lady Marjorie's oldest and closest friend. She can be gossipy and frivolous, but she remains a close and trusted family friend until the end of the show's run. The early series suggest that Lady Prudence was married with a daughter in her late teens or early 20s named Agatha. Subsequent series refer to an aging husband who dies off screen leaving her a widow; she attends Georgina's wedding with Agatha (her only appearance during the entire run, but with no dialog), suggesting that Agatha never married. At one time, after Lady Marjorie died, Lady Prudence periodically visited to see how Richard Bellamy and son James were coping.

Lawrence Kirbridge

Portrayed by Ian Ogilvy, socialist poet Lawrence Arthur Kirbridge is Elizabeth Wallace's first husband. The maternal grandson of a Dorset baronet, he was educated at the University of Cambridge and marries Elizabeth in June of 1908 or 1909.[1] Their marriage soon falls apart as Lawrence is an unrealistic romantic who is uninterested in sex or willing to accept marital responsibilities; unable to consummate the marriage, he encourages his publisher to seduce Elisabeth instead. The event, fueled by too much pink champagne, occurs at a soiree in the Kirbridge home, but it does little to improve their marriage. When three months later Elisabeth seeks an annulment, the affair and a surprise pregnancy come to light, and to avoid scandal Lawrence is given an allowance and sent abroad, to return only for the sake of appearances at the baby's christening, where he accepts paternity.

Robert, Marquess of Stockbridge

Portrayed by Anthony Andrews, Lord Robert Charles Algernon St. John Stockbridge, Marquess of Stockbridge is the son of the Duke and Duchess of Buckminster. He is a somewhat reluctant member of Georgina Worsley and Lady Dolly's social group of wild young things. He and Georgina fall in love, but his parents insist that he be sent on a long trip around the world without her before they will give him their permission to marry, which they do in the summer of 1930.

Sir Geoffrey Dillon

Portrayed by Raymond Huntley, Sir Geoffrey Dillon is the Talbot-Carey family solicitor, as well as the Bellamy family solicitor and a personal friend of Richard and Lady Marjorie. His first loyalty is to the Talbot-Careys, but he often proves helpful to the Bellamys as well. Sir Geoffrey was originally called Sir George Dillon in John Hawkesworth's novelisation of the show's scripts.

Downstairs

Alfred

Portrayed by George Innes, the deeply religious Alfred Harris (1868-1912) is the original footman at Eaton Place from 1895. He flees from the house in disgrace in 1905 after being caught in a sexual situation with an upstairs guest, the German spy Baron Klaus von Rimmer. He returns to the house in 1913 seeking refuge after murdering his new employer and (it is implied) lover. Hudson tells Mr Bellamy who notifies the police. A dramatic standoff results, with Alfred holding Edward hostage at knifepoint. Alfred is subsequently hanged.

Daisy

Daisy Barnes (nee Daisy Peel) (born May 11, 1895) is the under house parlour maid from 1913 to 1918, and the head house parlour maid from 1919 to 1930, when she goes with Edward to work for Lord and Lady Stockbridge. Portrayed by Jacqueline Tong, who was nominated once for an Emmy (Outstanding Continuing Performance by a Supporting Actress).

Edward

Portrayed by Christopher Beeny, Edward Barnes (born January 24, 1889) replaces Alfred as footman in 1906, and stays until he leaves to go to war in 1915, having just married Daisy. After the war, and following a short period in which he and Daisy leave service, he becomes chauffeur and under butler to the Bellamys, and in 1930 becomes butler to Lord and Lady Stockbridge.

Emily

Portrayed by Evin Crowley, the Irish kitchen maid Aoibhinn (pronunciation the same as the Anglicised version of the actress's name) is known in the house as Emily (1881-1907). She is a very kind, if awkward, girl who is frequently scolded by Mrs Bridges. In the episode I Dies From Love, Emily falls hopelessly in love with a footman named William from the household of Lady Bellamy's friend, Mrs Van Groeben. They spend several of their days off together, and Emily desperately wants to marry him. However, Mrs. Van Groeben tells William he cannot see Emily any more, and William drops her like a stone- it seems he may never have cared about her anyway; he tells his mistress "It was only a bit of fun". But no-one really understands how much in love Emily is. She is completely lost without William, and when he coldly returns her farewell letter, unopened, Emily is so upset she commits suicide.

Frederick

Frederick in costume for a film shoot in the episode "Alberto"

Portrayed by Gareth Hunt, Frederick Norton (1885-?) first appears as James Bellamy's Army batman Trooper Norton when he arrives at Eaton Place to return some of James's belongings when James is believed killed in October 1917. After the war, and following Edward's departure, Frederick is hired by James as footman. In June 1927, Frederick and Lady Dolly Hale start an affair, and Frederick resigns to start a new life in films and as an escort.

Gregory Wilmot

Gregory Wilmot, 1914

Portrayed by Keith Barron, Sergeant Gregory Walter Wilmot (circa 1879 – 1916) is Rose's fiancé. A British sheep farmer living in Australia, he has socialist views. He and Rose meet on a tram in April 1914 when he accidentally sits on a plum cake she is carrying. They soon start courting, and within a week, on 12 April, Rose agrees to go back to Australia with him and become his wife, but she changes her mind at the last minute. After the outbreak of war, he becomes a Sergeant in the ANZACs and fights at the Battle of Gallipoli. While on leave in London 1916, he seeks out Rose and they agree to marry when the war ends. However, later in 1916 he is shot by a sniper while returning from patrol. He leaves Rose £1200 in his will.

Hudson

Angus Hudson (1855-?), known, as is traditional, as "Hudson" to the Bellamys and "Mr Hudson" to the servants, is the Scottish butler of the house at Eaton Place throughout the whole series. Portrayed by Gordon Jackson, who won an Emmy (Supporting Actor, Single Performance, Comedy or Drama Series, for "The Beastly Hun.").

Lily

Portrayed by Karen Dotrice, Lily Hawkins (born circa 1901 in Shoreditch, London) arrives at Eaton Place as under house parlour maid in January or May 1919 to replace Daisy, who has left for a new life with Edward. Lily is a quiet, hardworking and caring girl. In the spring of 1924, Lily and Hudson start to spend their time off together and Hudson expresses a desire to marry her. However, Lily sees Hudson as more of a father figure. She leaves Eaton Place without telling anyone and goes to live with her widowed mother in Banbury.

Miss Roberts

Portrayed by Patsy Smart, Maude Roberts (1850-1935) is Lady Marjorie's longtime lady's maid (or personal maid). She is often fussy and suspicious of those around her, both upstairs and downstairs. During an afternoon tea in the servant's hall she reveals a little about herself to the other servants stating that as a young woman her father had caught her dating a young man. Displeased, he later sent her into domestic service where she has risen through the ranks to her lady's maid position and remained to the present. In April 1912, Miss Roberts survives the sinking of the Titanic while travelling to America with Lady Marjorie, who perishes. After a week being listed as missing Miss Roberts shows up at 165, to the astonishment of the household, having not been registered on the Carpathia's manifest of survivors. She is however emotionally disturbed by the sinking and loss of Lady Marjorie, taking the blame personally, and is later sent off by Richard to a psychiatric ward. According to Rose, in the revival, she died in 1935.

Mrs Bridges

Kate Bridges (1858-1930) was the cook at 165, Eaton Place throughout the whole series. She was portrayed by Angela Baddeley, who was nominated twice for an Emmy (Outstanding Continuing Performance by a Supporting Actress). Information given on-screen about the marital status of Mrs Bridges is contradictory. In the first series episode "Why is Her Door Locked", Mrs Bridges mentions a husband who died fifteen years previously; and in the episode featuring a visit to the house by King Edward VII, Lady Marjorie states their cook is not a French chef but "a temperamental widow from Bristol." However in the third series finale "The Sudden Storm", Mr Hudson states that there was never a "Mr Bridges", but that the "Mrs" is a courtesy title customarily applied to a cook in a gentleman's household. In the final episode, she and Hudson are married and move to open a seaside boarding house. She died two months after her marriage to Mr Hudson.

Pearce

Portrayed by Brian Osborne, Mr Pearce (1872-?) , whose first name is never revealed, is the coachman from 1903 until 1909, when he is replaced by Thomas Watkins. According to the narrative, Pearce does not like newfangled motor cars, and returns to his previous position as head groom to Lady Wanborough tending to her stables.

Rose

Rose Buck (1877-) was born to a gatekeeper on the Southwold estate where Lady Marjorie was born and raised. At the age of 13 she entered service. Kindhearted and loyal but slightly naive, she is the head house parlour maid at Eaton Place from 1903 to 1919 (including a short stint as Elizabeth Kirbridge's lady's maid and between maid in Greenwich), and Virginia Bellamy's lady's maid from 1919 to 1930. During the war years she also works as a conductress. Portrayed by Jean Marsh, who was nominated for an Emmy for Best Actress in a Drama series four times, winning once. In the 2010 revival, Rose is now running a maid hiring service, and when she hears new owners have bought Eaton Place, she eagerly joins as the head housekeeper.

Ruby

Portrayed by Jenny Tomasin, Ruby Finch (1892-?) is the kitchen maid at Eaton Place. She was preceded by Doris, Nellie, and Emily. It is suggested several times that she is mildly mentally retarded. Ruby first comes to Eaton Place in 1908 or 1909, just after Elizabeth's marriage to Lawrence, but leaves in 1915 to become a munitionette at Silvertown. She returns early in the following year after the factory is destroyed in an explosion. She briefly leaves again in 1929 to become maid of all work to a middle class lady. In 1930 she goes with Mr and Mrs Hudson to work at their boarding house with hopes to inherit it after their deaths.

Sarah

Portrayed by Pauline Collins, Sarah Moffat (born July 1882, also known as Clémence Dumas, Clémence Moffat, and Sarah Delice) claims to be the daughter of Albert Moffat and Marianne Dumas and the great granddaughter of Alexandre Dumas. Illiterate and inexperienced, she is sent to Eaton Place by an agency for domestic servants. She is given the name Sarah by Lady Marjorie. She quickly strikes up an unlikely friendship with head house parlour maid, Rose.

In June 1904, Richard Bellamy commissions Guthrie Scone to paint his wife. Sarah is sent to deliver Lady Marjorie's dresses to his studio, and soon Scone is painting her as well. When both paintings are exhibited together as "The Mistress" and "The Maids", Sarah and Rose, whom Scone has painted from Sarah's descriptions, are nearly fired, but Scone persuades Richard to keep them on. Two months later, Sarah, annoyed by James, leaves Eaton Place.

In 1908, Sarah returns to Eaton Place but leaves again soon after when she is accused of theft. She then begins a career as music hall entertainer Clémence Dumas/Sarah Delice, known for saucy songs like "What Are We Going to do with Uncle Arthur?" At about the same time, she starts an affair with James Bellamy and falls pregnant, resulting in James's being sent to India. Sarah loses the baby and ultimately marries the Bellamys' chauffeur Thomas Watkins, and they leave service. Their lives after leaving Eaton Place are portrayed in the spinoff series Thomas & Sarah.

Thomas

Portrayed by John Alderton, Thomas David Watkins (born circa 1876) grew up in Wales. In June 1909, he becomes manservant and later chauffeur to Lawrence and Elizabeth Kirbridge, and friends with Rose. When the marriage ends Thomas becomes chauffeur to the Bellamys at Eaton Place where he ultimately blackmails Richard and Lady Marjorie and leaves service with Sarah to set up a garage business.

Footnotes

  1. ^ According to Series One, they married in 1909. In Series Two, however, the date was changed, and they were said to have married in 1908.

References

  • Richard Marson, "Inside UpDown - The Story of Upstairs, Downstairs", Kaleidoscope Publishing, 2005
  • Updown.org.uk - Upstairs, Downstairs Fansite
  • Transcript of a story by Alfred Shaughnessy published in Woman magazine, 1975 [1]

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