Upstairs, Downstairs Joke Over (1971–1975) HD online

Summer, 1928, I'd just about lost all my patience with the character Georgina by this time - yet another bunch of lives ruined by her silly recklessness...

Georgina and a lot of her silly friends (including a Marquis!) and along with Lady Dolly Hale, who we'd already learned from previous episodes was pretty irresponsible, end up in the early hours after a night out at 165 on a stupid 'Scavenger Hunt'. All high, on either alcohol or drugs (or both!) Georgina takes the Bellamys car without allowing Edward, the Chauffeur to drive - tragedy ensues... Driving down a bank at 6 am, Georgina doesn't see a cyclist as he appears in front of her suddenly and ends up under the wheels of the car... The man later dies, leaving a wife and children, and there is an Inquest into his death. The outcome of which is pretty obvious, but it does a pretty good job at highlighting the idle rich and their pastimes during the late and idle twenties. Most of the party doesn't turn up to give evidence, and those that do (re Dolly Hale) actually make matters worse for Georgina... Then, just like the Knight in shining armour Georgina doesn't deserve, Robert Stockbridge - about the only sensible character of the bunch, turns up to give the evidence that will save her! This begins an affair, which eventually leads to their marriage in the Summer of 1930 - just two years later.

Trivia: Features a young Nigel Havers.

It's wonderful to look back thirty five years to when I was a lonely, romantic 12 year old boy sighing over Miss Georgina in UPSTAIRS DOWNSTAIRS. I have to say this episode remains a particular favorite! There's something so deeply romantic about the heartbreaking yet hopeful conclusion to this episode. Every since the war, Georgina has been such a lost soul, dancing and drinking, always on the go, trying desperately to forget all the boys she lost in the trenches. And you can't help but feel sorry for her when she's on trial, even though her own careless driving causes the death of an honest working man. It's clear Georgina has learned her lesson, and it's so romantic when brave and honest Lord Robert stands up for her. You can just see they have a future as a couple -- I still remember the way she looks at him at the very end, tearful and yet hopeful.

Having said all that, when I review this story line as an adult I see some fascinating classic parallels -- not to English literature, but to an American classic, THE GREAT GATSBY. Everything is the same, up to a point. A childish, drunken, upper class female, driving carelessly, kills a member of the lower orders, and a strong, devoted lover has to bail her out.

The difference is that Georgina, unlike Daisy Buchanan, is basically decent and responds to her rescuer with real gratitude. And Lord Robert is, alas, yet another virtuous nobleman, not a dangerous bootlegger who has risen too fast. The truth is that this is really a very "conservative" episode -- the aristocrat saves the day, justifying his continued existence, and the daring upper class girl readily repents of her so-called "rebellion" and is clearly very ready for a safe, conventional marriage.

I know it's mush, but I still sigh every time I watch!

***Spoiler Alert***

For the umpteenth time, Lesley-Anne Down's character Georgina destroys the lives of others with her rampant self-centredness. In this episode, as in many others, she is aided and abetted by aristocratic women and chivalrous men who seek to uphold the white woman's feelings as the prize of Western civilisation.

Upstairs Downstairs is a multi-faceted study into the moral failings of the English ruling classes but this episode in particular reveals in stark clarity the true mechanisms behind the decline and fall of that very Victorian feature of the nineteenth century British Empire. Female privilege, chivalry and male disposability were all perfected during Queen Victoria's rule, reaching their zenith around the start of WW1. That Upstairs Downstairs captures the evil in such a sensitive way makes the program worth its weight in gold.

In this episode Georgina's repulsiveness provides an object lesson in how this three-faced evil is revealed. The first sign we see is violence-by-proxy via Georgina's drug-pushing American friend as he bullies Edward into relinquishing the keys to the car to satisfy a lady's merest whimsy. Georgina is the true instigator but a man is placed in the frame for plausible deniability as usual.

The second comes when Richard Bellamy chastises Edward in true chivalrous chest-thumping fashion. He assumes the woman driver has done no wrong and provides the chauffeur no chance to tell his side of the story. His assumption from the outset is that when a damsel is in distress it is always a man's fault. Edward's very livelihood is on the line and still there is no attempt to hold the irresponsible woman accountable, as if she has suffered enough by the trauma. Even Richard Bellamy's apology, which comes later after Georgina comes clean with the truth, falls short as it would never have happened of its own accord; it was Georgina's feelings that Richard was seeking to protect yet again.

The third sign is revealed when Georgina herself completely fails to take responsibility for what she's done, assuming that because she was 'just having fun' she would be absolved of responsibility. It's as though she considers evil not to be what she has just done, but some sort of congenital defect - a common view amongst those who live by the Feminine Imperative. Such a mindset places unattractiveness or, in more vulgar terms, the failure to attract a suitable breeding mate and then consummate the union as the very nature of evil. This is often described as 'sexual compatibility'.

The fourth is evident in the petulant way Georgina reacts when Peter her trust fund 'friend' says he isn't going to testify on her behalf. She wants him to say she wasn't going too fast, presumably in order to suggest to the magistrate that even though she was drunk, selfish and acting completely irresponsibly she should not be punished because some unidentifiable part of her was being careful. Again, the presumption seems to be that evil is somehow unrelated to her behaviour.

The fifth sign is how everyone seeks to present Georgina to the system as having no moral agency; that even though she's an adult in every other respect, she's not responsible for the consequences of her own actions and decisions. Lady Bellamy doubles down on the chivalrous tendencies of her husband. This is not dissimilar to the way many men and women behave today, even as it's abundantly clear how today's public exaltation of deviancy was borne.

Perhaps the key lesson is learned from the behaviour of the chest-thumping White Knight Richard Bellamy. A more disgusting display of misguided chivalry is hard to find. It serves to show through whom female privilege is made possible - the misguided protector provider male. Such behaviour still exists in the age of 'equality' even though it fails to follow even the most basic precepts of such a fair-seeming paradigm.

Finally there's Lord Stockbridge's evidence at Georgina's inquest. He eventually comes forward to 'reveal' that Georgina wasn't travelling very fast, and it is this that gets her off a conviction. Forget the fact that she was a beginner driver who was drunk-driving a car she'd no experience driving with idiot drunk friends in the early hours of the morning after a party. Lord Stockbridge proves his love by charging in to save the fair maiden, even though she deserved to be sent to prison for what she did. This is foolishly upheld as the good, right and proper thing for a gentleman to do.

This episode chronicles beautifully how easily a woman even now can count on weak-willed men who are more hungry for women's approval than God's approval to stand up for women ahead of everything else. Things like justice, honour, righteousness mean nothing to such men. While the discerning viewer will apportion blame appropriately, it's a shame the show didn't make the point that a man in Georgina's position could never count on similar support from a woman. That would make this very revealing episode perfect.