Season 1 - SPOILERS

Episode 2 - The Mistress and the Maids

Just when I praise Hudson in the first episode he goes and throws Sarah and Rose under a carriage rather than defend them so that he could protect his own position. A little inconsistent. The first episode was like this too when Sarah was in trouble for selling a chicken from the larder but Mrs Bridges the cook got off scot free for doing the same thing.

Otherwise this episode was pretty dull. Much ado about nothing really from today's perspective. Awful paintings.

Episode 3 - Board Wages

Like Rose James Bellamy's true nature is on display right off the bat. He was in a foul mood because one of his friends had swooped on a girl he had the hots for " she was a real corker ! " and taken her away from him so he took it out on the servants.

Underneath his outer shell he is a bit of a blighter. He can be selfish, resentful and given to resigned petulance as well. And Sarah is an existentialist philosopher ! Who would have thought ?

Episode 4 - The Path of Duty

Elizabeth Bellamy for me is a breath of fresh air, up to a point. She at least is enthusiastic and joyful, poor lamb. But she chafes at the yoke Society wants to put around her neck. I am with her in that regard. All of Rose's knowing your place and playing your part in the Empire guff is eyewash for useful idiots. Rose was naive which would partly explain her bitterness later on.

Episode 5 - A Suitable Marriage

For a supposedly intelligent girl Elizabeth is quite a scatterbrain. First she wants to marry Angus who she has known for quite some time and then she doesn't. Then she runs away from the Ball and recklessly walks the streets alone for hours. Followed by falling head over heels for a Kraut she doesn't know at all because he plays the piano well.

And poor Rose to walk in on such a depraved, unnatural and unspeakable scene !

Episode 6 - A Cry for Help

It's a pity Richard Bellamy the man of the house didn't have that cad Myles Radford down to Southwold so he could have set the dogs onto him ! Poor Mary Stokes the new servant, plundered and sundered by that bounder!

Miss Roberts, Lady Marjorie Bellamy's lady's maid, is a nasty piece of work. It's a wonder she hasn't taken a hideous tumble from the top of the narrow and steep servant's stairs. Why on earth does Lady Marjorie put up with her ?

And Sir Geoffrey Dillon the Bellamy's lawyer is a bloodless and odious toad making his shabby arrangements to "deal" with the Mary Stokes problem and taking the time to give Richard a lesson in Realpolitik as though it was a matter of State. Pompous arse.

Mind you Mary Stokes ( pretty girl ! ) wasn't completely helpless. She saved her tears for Richard where they might do her the most good. I don't believe she would have refused the twenty five pounds though. That would have seen her through the pregnancy and birth.

Episode 7 - Magic Casements

The spy who came in from the cold ! Oh dear, Lady Marjorie went and made a mess of things with that silly Captain Charles Hammond and his mummy issues. All's well that ends well I guess.

But I must say that Richard is such an impeccably decent chap that these days he would be at risk of being labelled a Mary Sue !

Edward the new footman is another character on the show that I took an instant dislike to. A grinning pillock ! Very well played by Christopher Beeny.

Episode 8 - I Dies from Love ( or Tragic Basements )

I don't think I have ever seen a more affecting performance where utter misery and despair is depicted so convincingly as Evin Crowley did in this episode as Emily the scullery maid. Scullery maids being the lowest of the low in the pecking order.

When her dream of love and a future with William ( a footman from another household ) and thereby escape from her current dreary existence abruptly fell through Emily didn't have anything left to sustain her. And so she committed a mortal sin and departed from her vale of tears leaving behind a hefty measure of regret and self recriminations for those she worked with and served.

Poor Emily had an idealised notion of love in her head and she threw herself headlong into it with William the footman. She started to present it as an ultimatum. You're all that's left on the slate William. And she began to catastrophise to herself as well. But how can you look after me William ? What are we going to do ?

Then when he threw her over she had nowhere to go but down and down she went. Every criticism and sleight just added to the calamity in her mind and even Edward's usual annoying japes became a torture to her. She was circling the drain and no-one knew it and at the end there was nothing to stop her.

Episode 9 - Why is Her Door Locked ?

Mrs Bridges the cook loses her marbles as she blames herself for being too hard on Emily and contributing to her suicide. In her deranged state she steals a baby and takes it back to her room at Eaton Place. And all hell breaks loose of course.

I found this episode rather far fetched, from Mrs Bridges kidnapping the baby to Saint Hudson addressing the Court and offering himself as a life long guarantor for Mrs Bridges future good conduct and the Court unanimously agreeing to go along with the scheme.

And this time it was Hudson eulogizing the British class system and stating how honoured he feels to know his place and be in service to one of the old and noble families of England. Like Rose in a previous episode it's a bit cloying.