Customer Reviews

Upstairs Downstairs - The Second Season [VHS]

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

The second season of UPSTAIRS DOWNSTAIRS continues the saga of the Bellamy family of Eaton Place; their loves, losses and everyday life.

At the end of the first season, young Elizabeth Bellamy (played by Nicola Pagett) was publicly humiliated at the hands of political activist Evelin Larkin (Georgia Brown), before marrying the handsome Lawrence Kirbridge (Ian Ogilvy) in a lavish ceremony...

Season 2 includes the following episodes -

"The New Man" - Elizabeth and Lawrence return from their honeymoon in Europe, and set up housekeeping in Greenwich. Rose (Jean Marsh) is on hand to make sure Elizabeth is well looked-after, but all is not well in their marriage.

"A Pair of Exiles" - The erstwhile Sarah (Pauline Collins) confesses to her lover James Bellamy (Simon Williams) that she is carrying his baby. Sarah is then shipped off to Lady Marjorie's estate at Southwold for her confinement...

"Married Love" - Elizabeth is angry and hurt that her marriage to Lawrence is still unconsummated, so Lawrence orgainises a discreet tryst between her and his publisher, Sir Edwin Patridge (Charles Gray).

"Whom God Hath Joined.." - Elizabeth demands a divorce from Lawrence, but discovers that she is pregnant with Edwin's child.

"Guest of Honour" - King Edward VII (played by Lockwood West) dines with the Bellamy family in this special episode, and Sarah makes a dramatic return to Eaton Place.

"The Property of a Lady" - Thomas (John Alderton) and Sarah resort to drastic measures in order to help Lady Marjorie (Rachel Gurney) and the explosion of a secret from the past. This episode refers to events that took place in the season 1 episode "Magic Casements".

"Your Obedient Servant" - Hudson (Gordon Jackson) has to think quickly when his brother and sister-in-law come to visit from India. Richard Bellamy (David Langton) endures a visit from his pompous elder brother (John Nettleton).

"Out of the Everywhere" - Elizabeth gives birth to Edwin's child, and Nanny Webster (Daphne Heard) is sent up from Southwold to look after it.

"An Object of Value" - When Lady Southwold (played by Cathleen Nesbitt) comes to visit, the servants get into an uproar when her antique brooch goes missing.

"A Special Mischief" - Rose suffers a horrifying ordeal when she is mistakenly arrested as a suffragette. Elizabeth meets Julius Karekin (Donald Burton).

"The Fruits of Love" - A sudden financial crisis threatens the Bellamy's gilded world, and Julius Karekin offers a solution for the future of Elizabeth.

"The Wages of Sin" - Sarah is pregnant again, and this time Thomas is the father, though he cleverly avoids the blame and exploits the situation to his own advantage.

"A Family Gathering" - Elizabeth breaks off her relationship, James returns from India with a new fiancee, Phyllis Kingman (played by Delia Lindsay), and Lady Marjorie's birthday celebration is interrupted by Thomas and Sarah. King Edward dies and the Bellamys all join together to mourn his passing. (This is the final episode for Elizabeth, Thomas and Sarah).

Also starring Angela Baddeley, Patsy Smart, Christopher Beeny, Jenny Tomasin, Joan Benham and Dorothy Frere.

Here we are again at 165 Eaton Place, the home of the Bellamy family and their servants. This boxed set includes all thirteen episodes of the second season of Upstairs Downstairs. I give this a 4 rating because of the storylines involved. Elizabeth Bellamy Kirbridge almost steals the season, and one grows tired of her whining about her unhappiness. After going through an impotent husband, an illegitamate baby, a lover, and joining the suffragettes, no wonder she left for America between the end of this season and season three. Her exit gave James Bellamy more screen time. This is still a wonderful season, though. My personal favorite episodes are THE NEW MAN, MARRIED LOVE, A PAIR OF EXILES, YOUR OBEDIANT SERVANT, and THE WAGES OF SIN. First rate entertainment.

Short and sweet here. This is an incredible screen play and I very much looked forward to the release on DVD. All three seasons have some type of problem be it audio, shadowing, discoloration untimely skips and pauses. The 3rd season is the best in video transfer, however during certain episodes the above information I listed still applies. I have contacted the distributor and they offered to replace all 3 seasons. I was told there is a recall from the first person then a supervisor told me they had no knowledge of any recall. The story line is priceless to bad the copies are not. I am betting down the road in a year or two they will release all new copies leaving us folk to fork out another bundle. My rating is not based on the story I can only give it 3 stars because A&E New Video should be ashamed of themselves.

This is a disgrace!

This is a wonderful and unique series in television history mastered so poorly as to be nearly unwatchable. The second episode of the first volume actually jitters for the entire 50 minute length. A major step down from the well done first season set.

If you don't care about artifacting and display quality, by all means buy a copy. But if you were looking for an even mediocre visual quality presentation, skip it. I pray they don't screw up Season 3 this badly!!!!!! A&E Home video should be ashamed of themselves for peddling such a dreadful presentation.

Don't mean to be so critical. But people should know that quality is a word that should be synonymous with DVD. I own many of A&E's products. MOST of them are good to excellent. I don't know what has happened to the transfer of this most excellent story to DVD. Most of the episodes are fine, but there a couple of episodes on this second collection that fail in the quality control area. I live in HOPE and will be ordering the third in the series, then the fourth, and finally the fifth. Please let's get it right the next time.

I love the series, but the DVD quality is really bad. I'm only on the 3rd of 4 disks and one episode was so bad I could only listen to the sound. Trying to watch the screen gave me a headache. The last episode I watched had large yellow bands across the screen. It was just like watching it on a bad color TV set back when the series was released. Since I also purchased the First season and thought the video quality on it was very good, this Second season is a particular disappointment. Stay away unless you are a hardcore fan who has to have it.

The third DVD in Series 1, was defective.
Now I find that the second DVD in Series 2 is also defective.
I wonder how many others I'll find defective in the five seasons I purchased.
Not at any price should such poor quality merchandise be sold, and I resent A&Es continuing to produce these defective DVDs.

A&E have done it again I'm afraid. Yet another Upstairs Downstairs DVD collection that has been sourced from dreadful master tapes. The color is all over the place and some episodes judder for their entire length.

Some episodes are not too bad quality-wise, but there have to better copies of this show tucked away in a vault somewhere - surely. It would really be a shame if this is the best that remains of this timeless series.

When television was reaching for the stars this series which lasted 5 years was like a rocketship in the anals of entertainment. Thirty years later it is still totally absorbing, sophisticated, and fun to watch. It is a classic that my husband and I re-visited recently over a period of several months. If you missed Upstairs Downstairs in the '70's don't miss it now if you can help it. A combination of a British soap opera, classical drama and comedy, we got totally involved in the family upstairs, and the second family of servants, downstairs. It's a hoot.

The original series is undeniably great entertainment, but these mis-mastered DVD's would be unacceptable even if done by an amateur. The fact that A&E is pressing the sets by the thousands is unconscionable. The 3rd and 4th episodes in disk 1, for instance, are mastered with offset fields such that they jitter and bob through the entire length. (episodes 1 and 2 are acceptable.) It is hard to advise even a fan of the series to waste their money on these sets. These are some of the worst mastered DVDs I have ever viewed in my life. Series 1 also contains gross technical issues. One can only deduce that A&E cares not a whit for the technical quality of their DVDs. If you can tape these from a TV or cable showing, you will have a far superior copy. It is sad. Not even suitable for viewing on a laptop computer.