Christopher Biggins lifts lid on extraordinary details of behind the scenes of Upstairs, Downstairs
Broadcaster Christopher Biggins has shared “extraordinary” details from behind the scenes of iconic British series Upstairs, Downstairs – following the death of one of the show’s co-creators.
Jean Marsh passed away at her home aged 90 on Sunday, following complications from dementia.
Her death was confirmed by filmmaker Michael Lindsay-Hogg, a close friend of the actress.
Paying tribute to Marsh, broadcaster and TV star Christopher Biggins told GB News she was a “great girl” who had “good innings”.
Biggins told Breakfast host Eamonn Holmes and Miriam Cates: “Very sad that. She was 90 years of age, very good innings.
“Jean Marsh was a great, great girl. And what an accolade to have done a wonderful series like Upstairs, Downstairs, to create it.”
Sharing more details of the iconic British show, Biggins recalled how he was “privileged” to have starred in the series himself in 1972 – and exposed some behind the scenes secrets.
Shedding light on filming the show, Biggins told GB News: “I was privileged to do Upstairs, Downstairs in my career, and I was in the middle – I played a car salesman, selling them a car for the chauffeur who was played by John Alderton, and it was great fun.
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“However, what was interesting was in rehearsals, one end of the rehearsal room was the upstairs people, and the other end was the downstairs people, and they didn’t mix – it was the most extraordinary thing.”
Sharing even more of his experience, he added: “So if you were an upstairs, you sat there and very grandly talked about lovely things, and then downstairs was all, ‘cor blimey’, and it was bizarre – but very good thing to do.
“It was sort of sort of setting out who was who, that you were the downstairs common people and you were the upstairs grand people.”
The idea for Upstairs, Downstairs was born when Marsh and actress Eileen Atkins were house-sitting in the South of France for a wealthy friend.
Marsh was best known for her role as Rose, the strict head parlour maid in the historical drama set in Edwardian England.
The series ran from 1971 to 1975 in England and from 1974 to 1977 in the United States, with Marsh winning an Emmy Award in 1975 for outstanding lead actress in a drama series.
In 2012, she was made an Officer of the British Empire (OBE) for services to drama.
When asked about Britain’s fascination with the master-servant dynamic, Marsh told The Telegraph in 2010: “Because if you rose out of your class, you knew you had done well.”