This glossy ITV drama series, set in the Roaring Twenties, revolved around the Bretts – a snobby theatrical dynasty headed by Charles (Norman Rodway) and Lydia Brett (Barbara Murray).
Rich and talented, vain and wilful, they’ve been married for 30 years and spent most of them bickering.
He’d rather die than admit he was wrong, and she would rather die than spoil a good exit.
The Brett family has a taste for fast cars and champagne . . . and a little bit of nookie on the side.
Eldest son Edwin (David Yelland) is an actor in his father’s swashbuckling tradition. He’s dashing and handsome, but can be a cad.
Edwin’s hard-drinking twin sister, Martha (Belinda Lang), is highly strung and nervy actress. Mentally, the girl’s a mess, but physically she’s always immaculately dressed to kill and has no shortage of lovers. She uses men, drink and drugs to deaden the pain of losing her young husband in the trenches.
Their serious younger brother, Thomas (George Winter) shows talent as a budding playwright but often feels the odd man out in the Brett family (the reason for this could turn out to be a skeleton in the family closet).
Youngest daughter Perdita (Sally Cookson, pictured) is the spoilt brat of the family. She’s been packed off to a convent to stop her from treading the boards too early in life.
Nell Caldwell (Victoria Burton) was a Brett but opted for marriage rather than the stage. Her hubbie John (Charles Collingwood), is a stockbroker who dishes out advice to the free-spending Bretts even when it isn’t asked for.
Charles’s ma and pa – George (Frank Middlemass ) and Maeve (Helen McCarthy) – are a couple of old hams who should have given up acting years ago.
The Bretts retain a quartet of faithful servants, headed up by Butler Alfred Sutton (Tim Wylton), a former second-rate actor, who is totally devoted to his mistress, Lydia and does all her bidding. He also has an unfortunate tendency to comment on his employers’ affairs even when they are in earshot.
Nanny/Cook Flora Evans (Rhoda Lewis) is a bit of a puritan but turns a blind eye to the saucy goings on of her bosses The only romance in her life comes when she takes the evening off to see her heart-throb Rudolf Valentino at the local flicks
Chauffeur Patrick Hegarty (Billy Boyle, sometime straight man to the wisecracking fox Basil Brush) lives on his wits and has a way with the ladies, which ensures that the folks he works for aren’t the only ones to lead scandalous private lives.
Parlourmaid Emily (Rebecca Lacey) keeps her head down and tries to ignore what’s going on around her. But her lively personality soon gets her into trouble.
Charles and Lydia buy the Princess Theatre in London’s West End to guarantee starring roles for their offspring (the Opera House in Buxton, Derbyshire, was used for filming), though their new theatre manager, Piers, finds expensive work needs to be done on the building. He also starts an affair with Martha.
As the second series begins, it is now 1931, and Charles is told he needs a vacation. So, he and Lydia visit their son, Edwin, now a Hollywood film star, at his villa in the south of France. Perdita sneaks home once they are gone so she can carry on with her boyfriend.
Charles suffers a heart attack, which scares the family, alerts the press, and leaves Charles considering an offer for the Princess Theatre.
Meanwhile, Martha and Thomas find themselves on opposite sides of an electoral campaign to win a seat in Parliament, and Hegarty’s nephew, Fergus Ryan (Padraig O’Loinsigh), appears. He’s on the run from Irish thugs, which ultimately leads to Hegarty’s death.
The advent of “talking pictures” begins to take a toll on Charles’ and Lydia’s touring companies, but Charles refuses to believe people won’t come if the show is good. Edwin’s proposal to turn some theatres into cinemas angers Charles.
Dubbed “Upstage Downstage” by critics and produced in association with the WGBH television station in Boston, USA, the Central Television series cost £15 million and was ITV’s most expensive drama to date.
A significant percentage of the money was spent on gorgeous period costumes and creating the interior of the Brett family’s fabulous Hampstead mansion and the Princess Theatre.
Charles Brett
Norman Rodway Lydia Brett
Barbara Murray Edwin Brett
David Yelland Martha Brett
Belinda Lang Thomas Brett
George Winter Perdita Brett
Sally Cookson Nell Caldwell
Victoria Burton John Caldwell
Charles Collingwood George Brett
Frank Middlemass Maeve Brett
Helen McCarthy Alfred Sutton
Tim Wylton Flora Evans
Rhoda Lewis Patrick Hegarty
Billy Boyle Emily
Rebecca Lacey Jean Lacy
Janet Maw David Green
Daniel Hill Claudia
Amanda Murray Brewster
Bert Parnaby Piers
Clive Francis Laszlo Sandor
John Castle Gerard Lee
James Laurenson Diana Lucas
Christine Kavanagh Polly
Jo Rowbottom Tatyana
Bernice Stegers Fergus Ryan
Padraig O’Loinsigh Ben Silverstein
Shane Rimmer Eduardo de Freitas-Curtis
Oliver Cotton Oliver Mortimer
Hugh Fraser Meg Burns Susan Franklyn Guy Benson
Roland Curram Billy Caldwell
Simon Snelling Giselle Caldwell
Juliette Fleming
Episodes
The King Shall Not Die | Driving Ambition | Vagabonds and Thieves | Full House | Moving Pictures | Broadway, Here I Come | Revenge Is Sweet | Get Me to the Church on Time | The Actress and the Bishop | Forbidden Fruit | Forbidden Fruit: Part Two All Right on the Night | Grand Finale || Home and Away: Part One | Home and Away: Part Two | A House Divided | The Luck of the Irish | I’ve Got You Under My Skin | The Golden Dustman
Video
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Rich and talented, vain and wilful, they’ve been married for 30 years and spent most of them bickering.
Youngest daughter Perdita (Sally Cookson, pictured) is the spoilt brat of the family. She’s been packed off to a convent to stop her from treading the boards too early in life.
Parlourmaid Emily (Rebecca Lacey) keeps her head down and tries to ignore what’s going on around her. But her lively personality soon gets her into trouble.
Meanwhile, Martha and Thomas find themselves on opposite sides of an electoral campaign to win a seat in Parliament, and Hegarty’s nephew, Fergus Ryan (Padraig O’Loinsigh), appears. He’s on the run from Irish thugs, which ultimately leads to Hegarty’s death.
