40th Birthday Her

This five-disc 40th Anniversary Edition DVD set includes all 68 episodes of the landmark series as well as over 25 hours of additional features.

Who would have thought that a television series about an aristocratic family and their servants set in London in the early 1900s would continue to be held as a standard among TV dramas? Upstairs Downstairs was co-created by Jean Marsh, who also starred as Rose in the series. As she explains in one of the “making of” bonus features, she wanted the show to be as much about the servants as it was about the Bellamy family.

The Storylines

The first season, or as they call it in the UK, the first series, begins with a newcomer to the household when young Sarah (Pauline Collins) comes to join the staff. She has a grand imagination and manages to stir things up a bit among the staff and the Bellamy family. She is basically a non-conformist and her naiveté for many things creates a special bond between herself and Rose.