I just watched the first 2 episodes of "Manor House" on PBS. I think it originally aired on Channel 4 in the UK, but I'm not sure if that's true and if it is, I'm not sure when it actually aired...

ANYWAY, I found it really interesting to see modern people try to fill the Upstairs/Downstairs roles of an Edwardian manor house. I knew it was a very segregated thing, but I had no idea how much minutia was actually involved. No wonder they went through 2 scullery maids in the first 2 episodes! Amazing!

I have set up TiVo to record all the episodes. Even my husband was enthralled from the historical point of view. I think I will have a completely different perspective when I read books like "Sense and Sensibility", "A Room with a View", "Howard's End" and the like.

I think most Americans really don't have a true understanding of class differences as we aren't brought up that way for the most part. I think Brits have a sort of underlying knowledge of it, at least. Not that it's a good thing, mind you but it's still interesting!

It was Channel 4. The Manor House was the culmination of a whole series of modern-people-living-in-the-past programmes; it began with Victorian House (where they had the same servant problems even though they only had one servant), Wartime House and one in the US, Frontier Houses where the volunteers recreated the life of pioneers; in that case the problem was, as you might expect, not class but race.

I would consider the servant problems on these shows to be a result not of British consciousness of class but of the lack of it. We are a great deal less bothered about it, and less informed of its subtleties, than we were even 20 years ago, let alone 100. Nobody today knows how to be either a servant or a master (and a good thing too, say I) or how to deal with class distinction on the increasingly rare occasions it manifests itself. People no longer aspire to or pretend to be upper class - rather the reverse; Tony Blair is a good example.

Anyway, I dropped out of the class system once I realised I had no forelock left to tug.



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I am very interested in the Universe. I am specialising in the Universe and everything surrounding it. - E. L. Wisty

I saw parts of Frontier House and Wartime House...both were quite interesting. I think I would have done fine in the Wartime House. Everything but the air-raid stuff happened to me when I was a small child. We were very poor so "rationing" was not uncommon! But I think living in fear of constant bombing would not have been cool.

It's a very interesting premise though. Makes you appreciate just how much better it is now. Sheesh, I don't think I'd want to go back to living 15 years ago. No internet :-) (and hence, NO Fforde Fforum!)

If you're ever over here, you can visit the Edwardian County House - I think it's called Manderson House - it's up near Berwick Upon Tweed. My mother went a few years ago, before the series was filmed.

The family who did the 1900 House came over as constantly complaining throughout the 'experiment' - "Oh, I can't cope without electricity", "Oh, how do I have a bath without hot water?" - for goodness sakes, they knew what they were letting themselves in for!

The 1940s lot on the other hand really seemed to enjoy themselves - they threw themselves into it and I read a couple of interviews with them afterwards which said that they had become stronger as a family and now did much more things together rather than just putting on the TV (or heavens forfend! plugging in the computer!!) - although I don't know if I could go for a week without washing my hair!

The really interesting thing about class in Britain viz the Upstairs Downstairs thing was that far more people applied to be servants than the landed gentry....



PSD

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This is the work of an Italian narco-anarchic collective. Don't bother insulting them, they can't read English anyway.

I watched the Manor, and was fascintated by the attitude of some of those who applied to be servants. How they whinged about being expected to do the laundry and make beds and open curtains !

"Why can't they do some of the work. It's not fair,"
Because they're posh and they've hired you to do it, you moron !

"We have to live by all these rules they set. We have to do whatever they tell us."
Yes, you're not there to be a friend, you're staff paid to do what they want. That's how it was in those days.

The scullery maid thought it was unfair that she should always do the scrubbing jobs, and why couldn't she be the lady's maid for a bit ? Because she agreed to be a scullery maid and her job is to scrub things. Surely you wouldn't take on a job in the real world without finding out what it entailed ? Yet more than one of the servants arrived with airy-fairy ideas about dressing up, living in a fancy house and appearing on telly. If they didn't know they'd be sharing dingy rooms and getting up at five in the morning to light fires, it ruddy well serves them right for not doing their homework.

They were certainly doing the homework afterwards...



PSD

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This is the work of an Italian narco-anarchic collective. Don't bother insulting them, they can't read English anyway.

50 years from now, families will be queuing up for Channel Fours' latest documentary, 'The Millennium House'.

"...and it's day two in the Millennium house, and the family have collapsed from exhaustion.

"It's no good!" exclaimed Dad Pete, "We just can't be doing with having to press all the keys on the computer keyboard. I can't see how people used to get along without though-activated software."

Meanwhile, sons Granville and George are puzzled at what the children of 2000 took for entertainment.

"I mean, what's with this 'Teletubbie' lark? It's so 2040 for people to be having TVs implanted in their stomachs. What's so fascinating about that?"

hehe.... lol



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There's a hole in my creativity bucket and it's all leaked out.

ya, makes you think and wonder what the "highlights" of our time will be to future generations. One will probably be the Internet. Maybe another will be the Nextian Cult (who knows, one can wish!) LOL

Commuting by car will probably seem odd at some stage in the future



PSD

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This is the work of an Italian narco-anarchic collective. Don't bother insulting them, they can't read English anyway.

Just think of their frustration of having to reboot their Pentium 4 computer a zillion times because Windows ME (of course they'd use Millenium Edition LOL) had memory leaks and kept locking up...what a hardship. Even the "computer expert" would be in tears!

Get XP then - it rarely goes down on me, even with the stick I give it!



PSD

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This is the work of an Italian narco-anarchic collective. Don't bother insulting them, they can't read English anyway.

PSD - You are unaware of the opening you left there, aren't you?

(snicker, snicker)

sorry - couldn't resist

Resistance is futile - as Skiffle and I have proved time and time again...

Welcome to the smutty corner...



PSD

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This is the work of an Italian narco-anarchic collective. Don't bother insulting them, they can't read English anyway.

(I have XP, which is a damn sight better than ME) But that wouldn't be available to them in 2000. In fact, they might not even be able to get ME depending on which part of the year they set it in...rememeber, ME didn't come out until about November of 2000 IIRC...it just barely made it. Perhaps "Millenium House" computers would be using Windows 98, which is actually much more reliable than ME.

Mental note to self: collect ole' mind out of the gutter over the weekend...

Nah, Millennium Computers would have to use ME.

Besides, wouldn't it be so much more fun to watch the Millennium Family have a nervous breakdown as all their technology crashed when the Millennium Bug got it? (Or didn't, as the case may be!)

Why take your mind from the gutter? It's so comfortable there, and in such good company too...



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There's a hole in my creativity bucket and it's all leaked out.