Imagine this - John Alderton was a much bigger star then than any of the other cast - on the back of Please Sir - and was paid double. His performance as a wily Welsh manservant is beautiful - a sort of deferent arrogance, if such a thing is possible. He spent a week in Abergavenny getting the accent.
The inevitable has happened - Sarah is pregnant - and so the family and their lawyer whisk her off to the convenient 'other' location of Southwold (I don't think we ever go there), whilst James meekly capitulates. Elizabeth's marriage collapses, with the somewhat shocking involvement of Charles Gray - Nichola Pagett getting in some great scenes. The King coming to dinner one of the few stories I remembered - though erroneously thought that Mrs Bridges was summoned to the royal table for praise. (Those prawns they finished off with - I'm sure they'd been out all day!) Lots of humour throughout these episode, mixed with drama - Sarah's unexpected arrival.
Loved the episode involving brothers - Hudson pretends he's well off to receive his bridge building brother - whilst Richard has to tolerate his own brother (John Nettleton), who is convinced Hudson is a drunken lecher, and tricks Richard into going to a posh restaurant knowing Hudson and family will be there. Richard of course does the noble thing, goes over and treats Hudson like an equal. Jackson didn't like that Hudson was behaving in this dishonest way but as writer Fay Weldon pointed out, it's when people behave out of character that they become more human, and more interesting. And there's another monstrous character in the episode featuring old 'Nanny'.
Then in a horrific aside, Elizabeth gets caught up with the Suffragettes, is arrested along with Rose, who's there to protect her, of course, and - get this - Elizabeth doesn't stick up for her and Rose ends up in prison and being force fed - very rich material for 1972 of course, but Miss Elizabeth.. really. (But also the humour - Edward and Ruby realise they've been on their own together in the house all night. What with this combined with poor old Rose getting slapped about in prison and it's an oddly surreal episode.)
We learn that Roberts suffers from 'train fever'!
I'm extremely pleased to report that John Alderton is still with us (83) and is still married to Pauline Collins. They have been together since May 22 1970. Her pregnancy in this series was written in to the story.
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