Period dramas were a class act

LONG before Downton Abbey there was, of course, Upstairs, Downstairs.

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The 1970s television drama about the British class system in Edwardian England was a forerunner of Downton.

Jean Marsh co-created the series and played one of its best-loved characters, the hard-bitten but kindly maid Rose Buck.

Marsh conceived of the idea of a period show, involving the servants of a wealthy family, while house sitting in France with her friend, the actress Dame Eileen Atkins.

The pair went on to write the hugely popular TV hit about the Bellamy family and the servants who lived below them.