Servants
is a bold and irreverent
new drama for BBC One,
set below stairs in a
country house in 1850s
England. Written by Lucy
Gannon, it focuses on
the hopes, dreams and
ambitions of the
servants who make a
great household work.
An
ensemble cast of
established and new
talent is led by
Christopher Fulford
(Spooks), Joe Absolom (EastEnders),
Orla Brady (Pure
Wickedness), Kenny
Doughty (Sunday), Shaun
Parkes (Lock, Stock And
Two Smoking Barrels) and
television newcomer
Felicity Jones (The
Archers).
Servants
enters Taplows, the
Sturges Borne family
seat, not through the
elegant façade of its
portico, but by the
backstairs. Life below
stairs is a hive of
activity; home to a
thriving hidden
community, where
intrigue, rivalry,
secrets, laughter and
love abound. Servants
opens as the Sturges
Borne family return with
their retinue of
servants after a summer
away in Italy. As the
house springs into life,
canny head butler Mr
Jarvis (Christopher
Fulford) is unconvinced
by the merits of the
newly arrived second
footman, George Cosmo
(Joe Absolom).
Housekeeper Flora Ryan (Orla
Brady) is happy to take
him at face value, but
first footman William
Forest (Kenny Doughty)
sees George differently,
sensing a rival in more
ways than one. Elsewhere
at Taplows, life is not
what it might seem and
young Lord Harry’s
nursemaid, the beautiful
and clever Grace May
(Felicity Jones), has
painful choices to make
about her future.
Lucy
Gannon says: "I
really wanted to write a
new drama set in the
past which was funny,
relevant, energetic and
exciting – definitely
not set in a stuffy
drawing-room! Servants
is about you and me as
we would have been had
we been born in another
era." Gareth Neame,
the BBC’s Head of
Independent Drama
Commissioning, says:
"Costume dramas are
often adaptations filmed
in lavish locations and
usually concerned with
aristocratic characters,
but Lucy has created an
original precinct drama
that focuses on the real
lives of ordinary
working people who found
themselves below stairs
in an English country
house in the mid-19th
century. It is not,
however, a show about
drudgery and servitude
because Taplows is a
place of opportunity,
rivalry, advancement and
love
affairs."
Filming
began in the West
Country in locations in
and around Bristol in
October 2002 and
completed in early
February this year. Lucy
Gannon is one of British
television’s most
prolific and successful
writers, with a career
spanning popular series,
serials and hard-hitting
single films. She
created Soldier,
Soldier, Peak Practice
and Bramwell for ITV and
Hope And Glory and
Insiders for the BBC.
Her films and serials
for the BBC include Pure
Wickedness, Big Cat,The
Gift,Trip Trap and
Tender Loving Care.
