The award-winning British drama series Upstairs, Downstairs, which ran from 1971 to 1975, is getting resurrected with a familiar face returning to the small screen.
BBC Television announced over the weekend it is reviving the series, which originally ran on rival network ITV, along with one of its creators and stars, Jean Marsh. Eileen Atkins, who created the series with Marsh, will be hired for the new show.
The public broadcaster said the drama will be relaunched with two 90-minute films in 2010 and will be set in 1936. A series may follow in 2011 but that has not been decided yet.
'I am hugely looking forward to spending time with Rose. I have missed her enormously'—Actress Jean Marsh will reprise her role of maid Rose
The series was highly acclaimed for its realistic portrayal of life in a London townhouse, split between the servants and the wealthy Bellamy family they serve.
Marsh will reprise the role of parlour maid Rose, who will now be a housekeeper with a new family in the same house. There's no word about Atkins's character.
"I am hugely looking forward to spending time with Rose. I have missed her enormously," said Marsh, who won an Emmy in 1975 for her role.
The original series was first set around 1903 and ended in 1930.
"The house itself remains the central character,” Heidi Thomas told the Telegraph newspaper.
Thomas has been hired to write the show.
“It’s very, very close to the corridors of power. In the original series, Mr. Bellamy was quite an influential MP and King Edward VII came to dinner. This house ... remains at the hub of empire – we’re going to have politicians and royalty passing through the house."
BBC says filming will begin next spring.
