Yes on production values--they were SO good on Downton the movie.
I'm old enough to recall the original 'Upstairs Downstairs' when it first aired. Nobody at the time thought it was a soap opera fluff. On the contrary.
It had serious literary and historically knowledgeable writers--even Fay Weldon wrote some of U-D at the beginning as well much original drama back then and so she was famous for writing shows that pertained to women's lives--which U-D addressed. She did several good tv series back then.
The "window dressing" of the show was the frocks and mannerly traditions. But the undercurrent was nothing but serious social history about the lives of servants below stairs and it never pulled any punches--when it showed the back story of the servants' lives.
No holding back on the issues of abuse between servant and the employer, etc. The Great War episodes and the aftermath were especially gut wrenching. They also examined the social aspect of The Bright Young Things without any rose colored glasses.
As for production values, I just love every UK tv show from especially the 70s and early 80s--I seek them out everywhere. When you tube first arrived they were all on there---then the UK companies apparently realized they had a gold mine sitting on their shelves and began to resurrect them for sale to streamers. And a lot disappeared quickly as they were wiped from YT.
Back then BBC and Thames Television and places like Yorkshire television had no money. It was all golden writing by highly educated genius writers (as well as the kitchen sink folks doing their thing) and the world's best actors essentially slumming it back then between theater or film gigs.
So the production values on set in tv were not very good.
In U-D there is a close up of a big phone box on the wall, after the Edwardian "house" gets its first telephone. The close up of the phone is from the side with the door to the butler's pantry on the other side next to it.
The phone rings...you see the famous butler Mr. Hudson enter and close the door as he picks up the receiver to answer. You can see when he closes the door the "wall" around the phone and door wobbles all over the place because it is clearly made out of some kind of heavy cardboard!
Classic!
Miss the old frugal days of British tv companies, very long on brilliant a-class acting and award winning mature writing by literary folks that never pandered or pulled any punches, with their shoe string production qualities that were utterly charming.
Similar for "The Sandbaggers" too. Their "walls" were never quite "still" when doors were shut during a scene. :-))))))))))))))
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