BBC bosses have sexed up Upstairs, Downstairs with a lesbian love affair in a bid to ramp up the ratings.
Silent Witness star Emilia Fox will play Lady Portia Alresford who arrives to resume an old romance with Sir Hallam Holland’s aunt Blanche, played by ER’s Alex Kingston.
The ladies’ relationship is kept under wraps by the household at 65, Eaton Place for fear of a scandal.
But as their love simmers away behind closed doors, the secret is exposed and the family finds itself mired in controversy.
Writer Heidi Thomas explained: “These are two brilllant, intellectual women who have a deeply romantic frienship in the tradition of the great Edwardian romantics, which gives each of them endless stimulation and satisfaction.”
She described their relationship as “covert and difficult”, adding: “It causes a bit of a stir when it all comes out, but Blanche finds support and sympathy from an unlikely quarter.”
Alex said that explorer and archaeologist Blanche is an “adventuress” who struggles to fit in with life in the house. “She is quite a radical, very used to a free existence, and doesn’t understand why she would have to conform to the beautifully kept world they’ve created for themselves.”
Thomas – who also wrote BBC hit Call the Midwife - said that Upstairs, Downstairs was set 20 years later that Downton Abbey, in London rather
than the country, and so was entirely different. But she admitted to hoping for a “large, healthy and varied” audience.
There will be a further romance in the new series, which starts on BBC1 next month, between new character Miss Violet Whisset, played by
former Coronation Street star Sarah Lancashire, and prissy butler Mr Pritchard (Adrian Scarborough).
Miss Whisset is the maid of Lady Brackenbury and meets Mr Pritchard on a committee. However, their dalliance ends in heartbreak, at least for
him.
Thomas added: “This series will be more intimate, more epic and contain far more about people’s personal lives.”
And another love affair will blossom between former Nazi-sympathiser chauffeur Harry Spargo and beautiful new housemaid Beryl, who dreams
of becoming a high-class hairdresser.
The series is set in 1938, as Britain finds itself heading for war with Germany. As Sir Hallam (Ed Stoppard) struggles to prevent the Prime Minister from entering into rash agreements with Hitler, he finds his marriage to Lady Agnes (Keeley Hawes) also comes under strain.
Things worsen when he kisses her younger sister Persie (Claire Foy), who has run off to live in Germany and refuses to return.
In turn Lady Agnes has her head turned by a wealthy American businessman whom she finds “liberating and refreshing”.
Dame Eileen Atkins has quit as Hallam’s domineering mother Lady Maud, who has died in the plot.
Jean Marsh, the only cast member from the original Upstairs Downstairs to return, was taken ill during filming but will return later in the run as head maid Rose Buck.
Yesterday she said: “I had a stroke and a heart attack but I was determined to get back to work. Three weeks after filming I’d thrown myself out of hospital. The main doctor said, ‘All right, you can work again, but only four hours a day’. I said terrific.”