Manor House

I enjoyed this series when it first aired in the USA and have thought about it often, so purchased the DVD set. It is as good as I remember, and one advantage of watching on DVD is I can forward through the whining bits - which were annoying in 2001 and equally so today. As many other reviewers have noted, the lower servants spend quite a lot of time complaining about how hard they have to work, and you have to wonder (as Mr. Edgar, the perfect butler, muses at one point) what they thought they were getting into when they volunteered for these positions. As a historical experiment, it's far from accurate. A house of that size would (and did) have far more servants than used in the show - this is basically a skeleton crew. If the family with so few servants wanted to entertain on a lavish scale as they do here, even in Edwardian times, the staff would have not put up with it and forced them to hire additional help for balls and such. A butler would not be required to valet for his master - he would have been busy running the house. The lady of the house would have had a lot more duties than changing her clothes four or five times a day, as is implied in the show (As they do mention briefly, she would have planned the menus, and met with the housekeeper daily, she'd have spent several hours on correspondence and paying calls). Though the narrations says that this lifestyle was about to collapse with the onset of WWI, that isn't exactly true - many hung on until after the second world war, and the high taxes and death duties. I also thought they would have mentioned that a lot of big country place like Manderston served as hospitals during the war, run by ladies of the manor - the real life Lady Oliff-Coopers. The sister-in-law, unhappy with her status in the house, would have been allowed to see her beau, and invite him to house parties and such. But, having since read interviews with the producer of the program, Caroline Ross Pirie, I think she purposely set it up the way it is to make the upstairs folks look as bad as possible and to get the worst reactions from the downstairs volunteers. She made it very plain afterwards that she despises the Edwardian era and has nothing but contempt for it (see her interview with the Washington Post online for example). To be more realistic, maybe they should have chosen people who were in the service industry, and perhaps paid them, so that they were truly working for the family. Staff of the period would come to the job familiar with how to do the work unfamiliar to most modern people, and/or would have had the opportunity to train on the job under an experienced person. So, I bore this in mind on this viewing, and am still very glad to have the DVD set. The parties that they held, and just scenes of day-to-day life in the house are beautiful to see. I also liked the ladies' maid, who had an ancestor in service and takes her temporary job seriously - she's terrific as were the butler and housekeeper (Actually, most of the "staff" did try to stay in character and did a good job, considering what all they were given to do and lack of resources to do it). At one point they bring an elderly lady the house who had been in service there, c.1930s, and she tells some of her experiences. No extras included, unfortunately - it would have been nice to see additional footage, for example. I also purchased the companion book for the series. Anyone interested in visiting Manderston: you can stay there or just go for the day.

So called "reality TV" is usually not my favorite form of entertainment. However having enjoyed many entertaining hours watching presentations set in the Edwardian era and/or early 20th century such as "Gosford Park", "Upstairs Downstairs" , Downton Abby". "Brides head Revisited" "Maurice", et al, I was intrigued by the premise of "Manor House"--modern 21st century people filling and "playing" the roles of upper class gentry and the working class that waited on them "hand and foot" trying to cope with a huge Edwardian house (for three months) with only the means of the early 1900s (no modern gadgets at all). In other words, "Manor House" tries to show the viewing audience what life was really like when the rich were viewed as "very special" and those that looked after them "knew their place" and thought it good to be working for them (the British class system of early 20th century). "Manor House" the very wealthy "upper class" family and owners of the huge estate is the 21st century Copper family (consisting of Dad, mother and two sons plus the mother's spinster sister). The Mother (especially), dad and their kids take to the life of privilege, of course, easily and for three months seem to really enjoy having it all--people to do their bidding, fine wines, hunting, fishing, planning many "high society" social events, tons of people desiring their company because of their stations in life, etc. Because of stringent protocol and "status/place" roles of each member of the Edwardian household, the mother's sister does not take to her new position too well feeling isolated and very much alone--so much so that she leaves the estate for awhile and when at the Manor she has to form an alliance with another "looked down" on member of the household, the East-Indian tutor of the youngest child of the Copper family. The Indian tutor is neither considered "upper class" nor "lower class" and tends to whine a lot. All that said, in comparison with the "lower class" working people down stairs, the upstairs folks had it rather easy and very little to complain about filling their days giving orders and in, to me, rather trivial pursuits, The "real" action occurs downstairs.Bossed (more or less) by the head butler, the working class, downstairs crew have a very difficult time adjusting 21st century sensibilities to the early 20th century's severe British class oriented sensibilities especially on an humongous estate with loads of work and severe isolation. The Butler (who is responsible for the running of the house) has a very difficult time keeping the "help" doing what they are suppose to do and just being happy to serve. The "acting" Butler is, after all, of the 21st century and tries to apply some of today's standards to the workers. This does NOT work for the Edwardian age. Therefore, after losing staff and suffering insubordination, he with more success becomes somewhat of an early 1900s disciplinarian. The butler still comes across as a basically nice person.I really enjoyed all of the episodes of "Manor House". I certainly got some insight of what life was like for some in England in the early 1900s.(Being an amateur chef myself, I must add that "my heart went out" to the French chef in this series. He was perceived by especially the downstairs group as being just irrational and temperamental. In reality, he indeed was just trying to recreate the artery-clogging foods of the Edwardian era kitchen which the upstairs people did not understand or appreciate offering him no support for his efforts.)

Having found a dirth of video footage for this period in history I was thrilled (and so were my pupils) with The Edwardian Country House. You do warm to the characters 'downstairs' and get a real feeling of the lives of domestic servants before 1914. We also found that we took a real dislike to the family 'upstairs' who played their parts extremely well.....maybe too well! The producers did a good job adding relevant important events into the series for example, the The birth of the Labour Party, Suffragettes and the start of the First World war.The end of the series came too soon but a valuable insight has been given to this neglected area of British Social history.

Timely shipping, and although product was "used", the discs were absolutely flawless (no dust, scratches, anything).The show itself is excellent. I have to admit, I got it here because I couldn't find it "elsewhere", so to speak. Worth it, though - I watched it ages ago when it was broadcast, and had been wanting to re-watch it since.

little pricy, but nice to get all in one box.

Looking for materials on the master/servant age in history this gave me a real insight into not only the relationships between upstairs and downstairs but also how much the working world has changed. Highly recommended

excellent - pleasantly surprised at how well it was presented.