The Wayback Machine - https://web.archive.org/web/20100922110234/http://www.walesonline.co.uk:80/news/wales-news/2010/08/13/remake-of-upstairs-downstairs-filming-in-wales-91466-27054006/

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Remake of Upstairs Downstairs filming in Wales

IT was a hugely-popular drama series which depicted the lives of an English high society family and had millions glued to their TV sets almost 40 years ago.

Now filming of a BBC Wales remake of Upstairs, Downstairs has begun with Keeley Hawes, of Ashes to Ashes and Spooks fame, leading a top-flight cast.

Film crews this week transformed Cardiff into fashionable 1930s Belgravia, London, as they shot the first of three hour-long episodes to be screened on BBC One.

The National Museum Cardiff in Cathays Park was draped with banners featuring the logo of Oswald Mosley’s British Union of Fascists.

The distinctive lightening strike symbols had some bloggers mistakenly speculating online yesterday that it was part of the Doctor Who Christmas special.

Hawes was also spotted filming a scene on location in Bute Street, along with co-stars Claire Foy, Jean Marsh and Neil Jackson and filming is set to continue at the BBC’s Llandaff studios for another seven weeks

The original was a hit series for ITV between 1971 and 1975 and depicted the lives of the wealthy Bellamy family who lived “upstairs” at 165 Eaton Place and their servants “downstairs”.

It was thought up by two friends, actresses Jean Marsh and Dame Eileen Atkins. It went on to become a international success winning seven Emmys, two Baftas and a Golden Globe.

It has been confirmed the revival will be set in 1936, six years after the original series finished. A new family, the Hollands, will reside at the iconic address and viewers will see how their lives take shape in pre-World War Two Britain.

“This series has been beautifully cast and I was completely enthralled listening to them bring the scripts to life at the read-through. I feel very happy and very comfortable – I feel very lucky,” Marsh, who will reprise her role as the maid, said.

“For the rest of the cast it was their first episode of Upstairs Downstairs. For me, it was my 56th. I am very much looking forward to the start of filming and I am very much looking forward to returning to 165 Eaton Place.”

Writer Heidi Thomas, who also scripted the successful drama Cranford, said: “Bringing 165 Eaton Place back to life has been the greatest honour and privilege of my career. It really is a dream come true for me, and I am thrilled that our actors feel the same.

“The series will be shot through with sensuality. This is a drama very much about warm-blooded human beings. In a house like Eaton Place, there is a limit to what you can keep behind closed doors. The place is a pressure cooker and the tensions continue to rise and rise until they boil over.”

Piers Wenger, of BBC Wales, said: “Upstairs Downstairs is not just one of the most loved and famous series in the history of British television but of television all over the world.”

BBC One controller Jay Hunt added: “Upstairs Downstairs is a piece of TV history and this wonderful cast are set to bring it alive for a whole new audience.”

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