BBC Ends Production on ‘Upstairs, Downstairs’ Revival

BBC/Masterpiece From left, Ellie Kendrick, Keeley Hawes, Adrian Scarborough, Jean Marsh and Nico Mirallegro in the new “Upstairs Downstairs” on “Masterpiece.”

The British love their period costume dramas, except when they don’t. In a familiar tale of a teacher being surpassed by its student (which, come to think of it, would make a pretty good British period costume drama), the BBC said it would not order another season of its revival of “Upstairs, Downstairs,”  a revival that came on the heels of “Downton Abbey,” which in turn owes a creative debt to the original “Upstairs, Downstairs.”

In a statement reported by BBC News, the BBC said that 2012 “has been a great year for Original British Drama on BBC1 but at this stage there are no plans for ‘Upstairs Downstairs’ to return.”

The original “Upstairs, Downstairs” was produced by London Weekend Television and shown in the United States on PBS from 1974 to 1977. It chronicled the aristocratic Bellamy family and that family’s downstairs servants over five seasons spanning 68 episodes, through such early 20th-century events as the sinking of the Titanic and the onset of World War I.

After the success of “Downton Abbey,” which chronicles the aristocratic Crawley family and its downstairs servants through such early 20th-century events as the sinking of the Titanic and the onset of World War I, the BBC brought back “Upstairs, Downstairs” for a new series that resumed its story in the 1930s.

In a review of the “Upstairs, Downstairs” sequel, which was again shown on PBS in the United States, Alessandra Stanley wrote in The New York Times that it “sticks to the rules established by the original and defies the odds by being as good, and in some ways, even better.”

But the ratings told a different tale: While the British debut of the new “Upstairs, Downstairs” drew 8.8 million viewers in 2010, the final episode of its second series drew 5.22 million viewers there in March, according to BBC News.

In a post on her Twitter account, Heidi Thomas, the creator and writer of the new series, wrote: “Really touched by all the love and sadness for #upstairsdownstairs. It was made by a tremendous team and I can’t praise them enough.”

Source & Image : New York Times