Upstairs, Downstairs (1971 TV Series) - Spin-offs

Spin-offs

Following the final episode of Upstairs, Downstairs many ideas for spin-offs were thought of. These included having the new Lord and Lady Stockbridge buying back 165 Eaton Place and an American company wanted to make a programme based around Hudson and Rose emigrating to the United States. Jack Webb was interested in a series of Marsh and Gordon Jackson reprising their roles as head of a Los Angeles Employment Agency. Another idea, called You Live or You Die, was to have Frederick Norton seeking his fortune in the US. A further idea would have followed Hudson, Mrs Bridges and Ruby running their seaside boarding house, and this probably would have been made had it not been for the death of Angela Baddeley on 22 February 1976. The only spin-off to make it onscreen was Thomas & Sarah, which broadcast in 1979, and this followed the adventures of Thomas and Sarah after they left Eaton Place.

A short-lived CBS series entitled Beacon Hill, which aired in the fall of 1975, was loosely based upon Upstairs, Downstairs; its executive producer, Beryl Vertue, was Jean Marsh's literary agent and had been responsible for helping sell the original Upstairs, Downstairs to the BBC.

In 2011, the BBC ran a series entitled "Royal Upstairs Downstairs" in which Tim Wonnacott and Rosemary Shrager tour country houses visited by Queen Victoria. Tim tours the Upstairs concentrating on the architecture and events of Victoria's visit, while Rosemary concentrates on the downstairs, demonstrating recipes cooked for the Queen.

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