Upstairs, Downstairs

Upstairs, Downstairs was a 1970s British television series set in a grand Edwardian town house in London and depicting the events of the early twentieth century as they affected the servants ('downstairs') and masters ('upstairs').

DVD releases

The complete series was originally released on Region 2 DVD by VCI beginning in 2001. In common with most VCI DVDS there were no extra features. The black and white episodes, although made first, were released last together with the alternative colour version of the pilot, presumably due to public demand. Thomas and Sarah was also released in matching packaging.

Related Topics:
DVD - 2001

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Network Video subsequently acquired the rights to the series and released The Complete First Series on DVD in 2005. This comprised digitally remastered versions of the colour and black and white episodes from series 1 in chronological order. Six of the episodes have newly-recorded audio commentaries by various cast members and writers. The alternative version of the pilot is included as a special feature together with part 1 of a specially-produced documentary.

Related Topics:
Network Video - Digitally remastered - Audio commentaries - Documentary

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The episodes on the Network DVDs are complete to the extent of including the original animated LWT logos and commercial bumpers. Some episodes even include as Easter eggs the original countdowns preceding each segment .

Related Topics:
Commercial bumper - Easter eggs

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There have been other video and DVD releases around the world with widely varying sound and picture quality, as detailed on the updown.org site (see external link below).

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