Upstairs Downstairs & the BBC obsession with 'equality'

[Deleted User] · 14/12/10 - 05:37

Just had a look at some preview (might have been the TV TImes?) & the new family at Eaton Place have a secretary who wears a turban.......it;s set in 1920's London....
I would bet on him being one of the most stable & likeable characters in the show, hardly putting a foot wrong while all the misdameanours are left to other characters....
You just KNEW the BBC would have to give the line-up an 'ethnic' tweak when they brought this show back......

Killary45 · 14/12/10 - 07:15

Giving stories an ethnic element is not new. Many people my age will be familiar with the stories written by Frank Richards. Perhaps the guy with the turban will be related to Hurree Jamset Ram Singh (1908 - 1961). The ethnic-ness will be terrific.

Verence · 14/12/10 - 08:13

The Squire wrote: »

Just had a look at some preview (might have been the TV TImes?) & the new family at Eaton Place have a secretary who wears a turban.......it;s set in 1920's London....
I would bet on him being one of the most stable & likeable characters in the show, hardly putting a foot wrong while all the misdameanours are left to other characters....
You just KNEW the BBC would have to give the line-up an 'ethnic' tweak when they brought this show back......

It's not inconcievable that a rich family in 1920's would have an Indian servant. Plenty of families who lived in India would have brought some of their Indians servants back with them when they came home.

[Deleted User] · 14/12/10 - 08:19

Art Malik plays the character of Mr Amanjit, a Sikh hence the turban, who has been working for Lady Holland for some time, mainly in India, and then comes with her to Victorian London and finds it all very strange. As her secretary he has one foot in the upstairs but also becomes part of the downstairs too.

India was a major part of the British Empire - the Jewel in the Crown - and a lot of British people who worked over there and had staff brought them back with them when they returned to Blighty. It is not unusual or a unnecessary obsession with equality whatsoever.

Verence · 14/12/10 - 08:20

vidalia wrote: »

Art Malik plays the character of Mr Amanjit, a Sikh hence the turban, who has been working for Lady Holland for some time, mainly in India, and then comes with her to Victorian London and finds it all very strange. As her secretary he has one foot in the upstairs but also becomes part of the downstairs too.

India was a major part of the British Empire - the Jewel in the Crown - and a lot of British people who worked over there and had staff brought them back with them when they returned to Blighty. It is not unusual or a unnecessary obsession with equality whatsoever.

Snap!!

Monkey_News · 14/12/10 - 08:21

Thats the BBC for you.

Im sure at some point, we will have a strong women with liberal views who doesnt take any crap from the men, even though that would have been pretty damm rare in 1920.

[Deleted User] · 14/12/10 - 08:50

I know we should really wait to see it first before we criticise, but I fear that the criticisms expressed here will probably be well-founded.

I wish the BBC would do drama about people, not stereotypes. The BBC sometimes gives the impression of being a Sunday school teacher, reading the children morally improving stories to make them into good citizens.

I want more Poliakoff.

Glengavel · 14/12/10 - 09:03

Monkey_News wrote: »

Thats the BBC for you.

Im sure at some point, we will have a strong women with liberal views who doesnt take any crap from the men, even though that would have been pretty damm rare in 1920.

Yes, like that shrinking wallflower Emmeline Pankhurst.

Shrike · 14/12/10 - 09:04

Monkey_News wrote: »

Thats the BBC for you.

Im sure at some point, we will have a strong women with liberal views who doesnt take any crap from the men, even though that would have been pretty damm rare in 1920.

Quite - its not like women were conducting a campaign of civil disobedinance to further womens rights and votes for all...oh:o

xRHBx · 14/12/10 - 09:12

It amuses me to no end that the people frothing at the mouth about PC are being swiftly shot down on every point.

jake lyle · 14/12/10 - 09:19

Verence wrote: »

It's not inconcievable that a rich family in 1920's would have an Indian servant. Plenty of families who lived in India would have brought some of their Indians servants back with them when they came home.

Eileen Atkins character is an old eccentric just back from the British Raj in India.

The Squire wrote: »

Just had a look at some preview (might have been the TV TImes?) & the new family at Eaton Place have a secretary who wears a turban.......it;s set in 1920's London....
I would bet on him being one of the most stable & likeable characters in the show, hardly putting a foot wrong while all the misdameanours are left to other characters....
You just KNEW the BBC would have to give the line-up an 'ethnic' tweak when they brought this show back......

Eileen Atkins character has also brought back a pet monkey from India . I don't remember that being in the original or typical of the time. Typical BBC I bet the monkey is nice and humourous, while the cat will be evil and mean:mad:.
I must write to the Daily Mail at once.

jake lyle · 14/12/10 - 09:19

Monkey_News wrote: »

Thats the BBC for you.

Im sure at some point, we will have a strong women with liberal views who doesnt take any crap from the men, even though that would have been pretty damm rare in 1920.

The Squire wrote: »

it;s set in 1920's London....
......

At least try and get the basics right, its set in 1936 not the 20s.

ftv · 14/12/10 - 09:28

jake lyle wrote: »

At least try and get the basics right, its set in 1936 not the 20s.

Do you think they will have a Baird Televisor in the drawing room ? At least exterior shots of houses with TV aerials will be authentic (unlike some series we can name).

Killary45 · 14/12/10 - 09:28

Monkey_News wrote: »

Thats the BBC for you.

Im sure at some point, we will have a strong women with liberal views who doesnt take any crap from the men, even though that would have been pretty damm rare in 1920.

You are joking here I presume. If not then you must be too young to remember the ITV series which took the story up to 1930 and had strong female characters.

Mike Teevee · 14/12/10 - 10:06

glad people have pointed out that the series in set in 1930's, thought I'd imagined reading that

as for the other stuff, do people honestly think that ethnic people were invented in the 60's and didn't exist before Windrush docked here

Art is playing one character out of the cast, he's not representing everything single minority who ever existed (nor is he being over represented).

The concept of an Indian staff member in 'Upstairs Downstairs world' isn't that unbelievable.

having seen some of the recent repeats of the old series on ITV3, it's not like this new adaptation is any more "PC".

Sven945 · 14/12/10 - 10:11

Mike Teevee wrote: »

as for the other stuff, do people honestly think that ethnic people were invented in the 60's and didn't exist before Windrush docked here

Stop being silly. There weren't any people who weren't pure 100% British and (more importantly) white here before 1997.

Glengavel · 14/12/10 - 10:32

jake lyle wrote: »

Eileen Atkins character is an old eccentric just back from the British Raj in India.

Eileen Atkins character has also brought back a pet monkey from India . I don't remember that being in the original or typical of the time. Typical BBC I bet the monkey is nice and humourous, while the cat will be evil and mean:mad:.
I must write to the Daily Mail at once.

Maybe the monkey is carrying a fearsome plague that turns everyone into flesh-eating zombies roaming around a post-apocalyptic wasteland? Or maybe not.

[Deleted User] · 14/12/10 - 10:44

Glengavel wrote: »

Maybe the monkey is carrying a fearsome plague that turns everyone into flesh-eating zombies roaming around a post-apocalyptic wasteland? Or maybe not.

That primatism, that is. Why are monkeys always portrayed as plague carriers apart from when they are stereotyped as Clint Eastwood's partner in crime and called Clyde?

[Deleted User] · 14/12/10 - 11:22

Monkey_News wrote: »

Thats the BBC for you.

Im sure at some point, we will have a strong women with liberal views who doesnt take any crap from the men, even though that would have been pretty damm rare in 1920.

Oh they are bound to have the suffragettes in there somewhere. How apt is that word?
They were suffering and bitched and complained for changes. They get changes and they are still bitching, conplaing as they "suffer" on and us guys have had decades of suffering hearing all their bitching and complaining.

How much nicer would it have been if they were, shutupandlivewithitgettes.

[Deleted User] · 14/12/10 - 11:26

As the series is set in the 30s and women got the vote in 1928, it's unlikely that the suffragettes will make much of an appearance.

Frood · 14/12/10 - 11:27

cunningham1471 wrote: »

Oh they are bound to have the suffragettes in there somewhere. How apt is that word?
They were suffering and bitched and complained for changes. They get changes and they are still bitching, conplaing as they "suffer" on and us guys have had decades of suffering hearing all their bitching and complaining.

How much nicer would it have been if they were, shutupandlivewithitgettes.

Well the Suffragettes were not a factor in the 1930s - women having got the vote by then.

And that was actually covered in the original series (how dare the BBC show such left wing bias:mad: Oh, it was ITV)

Digital Sid · 14/12/10 - 11:40

xRHBx wrote: »

It amuses me to no end that the people frothing at the mouth about PC are being swiftly shot down on every point.

This.

Verence · 14/12/10 - 11:43

vidalia wrote: »

As the series is set in the 30s and women got the vote in 1928, it's unlikely that the suffragettes will make much of an appearance.

In the 30s there were quite a few women MPs so maybe one of them could put in an appearance.

mossy2103 · 14/12/10 - 12:10

Good to see that some here have already decided how the writers and production team will portray certain characters without even seeing any part of the drama.

Verence · 14/12/10 - 12:20

mossy2103 wrote: »

Good to see that some here have already decided how the writers and production team will portray certain characters without even seeing any part of the drama.

It's the knee-jerk "let's bash the BBC" reaction that is all too prevalent on DS

Tassium · 14/12/10 - 12:50

And the equal knee-jerk "let's defend the BBC".

The original point was that "ethnic" characters in BBC productions are invariably saints, this is true so how can anyone argue otherwise?

Hey there!

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