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By
FRANK BEHRENS
From September 1976 to
December 1977, British television viewers devoured
two seasons of a series called "The Duchess of
Duke Street" with Gemma Jones as Louisa Trotter,
nee Leyton. Americans viewed it starting a year
later and it proved equally popular. Now at long
last, Season 1 is available in a boxed set of 5
DVDs from Acorn Media. With three episodes on each
disc, we have here a most enjoyable 781 minutes of
fine drama.
This not quite quintessential rags to riches story
begins when a lower class young woman, Louisa,
makes up her mind to become the best cook in
England. Working for a "lord," she attracts the
attention of the son (Christopher Casenove), with
whom she later has a child, and of the Prince of
Wales. She learns through an emissary (a pimp for
royalty) that should she become the Prince's
mistress, she would be set up in a lovely building
on Duke Street. Should she not, she would never
cook for the upper classes again. Given little
choice, she goes to the Prince, but first she must
marry since royalty insists on affairs only with
married women. So she becomes Louisa Trotter and
the rest you will have to see for yourself and
savor every new development.
As Louisa, Jones is fabulous, giving us a complex
character that is at once a wonderfully generous
person and a streetwise fighter who will do
anything to succeed, even if it comes to bullying
her staff (and bullying her "betters" when needs
be) and taking a share of some ill-gotten tips
received by one of them.
She is surrounded with an excellent cast of
regulars: John Cater as Starr the porter and his
dog Fred, John Welsh as Merriman the superannuated
head waiter, Richard Vernon as the staff/guest
Major who cannot pay his bills, and Victoria
Plunkett as the Welsh maid Mary. The guest stars,
including the ubiquitous Anthony Andrews, are
mostly all played with that mastery that British
training gives an actor.
There are some printed bonus features about Rosa
Lewis (the historical Louisa), the Edwardian age,
a photo gallery, and a filmography. |
