User Reviews

***Spoiler Alert***

While Upstairs Downstairs is sympathetic to characters of all social classes, this episode shows most clearly the moral failings of the English aristocracy. It reveals in stark clarity the social mechanisms of the decline and fall of Victorian England: female privilege, chivalry and male disposability. These were all perfected during Queen Victoria's rule, reaching their zenith around the start of WW1. That Upstairs Downstairs captures the detail in such a personal and intimate way makes the program worth its weight in gold.

In this episode Georgina's self-centredness provides a series of object lessons in why the decline and fall was right to happen. The first is the threat of violence-by-proxy via Georgina's drug-pushing American friend as he bullies Edward into relinquishing the keys to the car to satisfy the lady's merest whim. Georgina is the true instigator but a man is placed in the frame for plausible deniability.

The second lesson is when Richard Bellamy chastises Edward in true chivalrous chest-thumping fashion without the slightest interest in hearing the facts of the matter. He assumes the little lady Georgina has done nothing 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 but still there is no attempt to hold the irresponsible woman accountable, as if she has suffered enough by the trauma of killing an innocent man. Even Richard Bellamy's apology, which comes much later after Georgina comes clean with the truth, falls well 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 is when Georgina herself completely fails to take responsibility for what she's done, assuming that 'just having fun' is sufficient to absolve her of responsibility. It's as though she considers evil not to be related to what she has just done, but some sort of congenital defect that those not born into the female aristocracy have.

The fourth is 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 is how everyone seeks to present Georgina to the judiciary 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 when driving a car. Even the sensible but sel-involved Lady Bellamy doubles down on the chivalrous tendencies of her husband and denies Georgina moral agency. This is not dissimilar to the way many men and women behave today; it's clear where today's public exaltation of deviancy had its beginnings.

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.

Perhaps the strongest lesson is the chest-thumping behaviour of the principal white knight, Richard Bellamy. A more disgusting display of misguided chivalry is hard to find. Richard rarely has any good reason to play the white knight other than to make himself feel good about himself. This isn't love and it certainly isn't honourable. It shows through whom female privilege primarily comes about - the patronising protector provider male.

This episode shows how easily woman in the West can count on weak-willed men who are hungry for women's approval to stand up for women despite their most egregious behaviour. 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 have made this episode very revealing indeed.

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.