User Reviews

One of the BBC's best documentaries, "Servants: The True Story of Life Below Stairs" is a well presented and well researched glimpse into the lives of an overlooked and oppressed class from an era in history when they were particularly numerous in society. Focusing on Britain from the rise of the servant class in the 18th-Century to its decline in the mid 20th-Century the film chronicles the lives of a group of people who were just a rank above those of slaves. From their gruelling and tedious day to day work to how they were treated, their pay, their living conditions, how society viewed them, their relationship with their masters and how they got by are all covered. From how they dressed to the social upheavals that ushered changes in how servants eventually got out of their servitude the documentary goes into the nitty gritty, nuts and bolts of this fascinating story. Surviving servants from the profession's heyday are interviewed offering an authentic view on what it's like to live in the lower-rungs of society. It's a marvel to see the old mansions and castles that onced housed the work-ridden individuals that toiled in them and the books, pamphlets and articles that discussed, narrated and debated their condition and what to do with them. Old footage and photos from the time add further reality to the tale. While such a topic usually leads to bias and prejudice (in this case towards the rich, and it does so pretty prominently here) the well crafted job done more than outweighs its obvious flaws. As someone who has experienced having servants most of my life I can attest to the film's accuracy and how it gets the facts mostly right. Fun and informative, this is a compelling document that shows how many changes occur with time but reality stays basically the same.

We are all aware of the greats of the Victorian and early Edwardian ages as the history of Britain are full of all their names. But we know little about the lives of their servants. We have no idea what their lives were like. This series fills that gap. It's fascinating a study of a life of drudgery and most times sheer purgatory of the duties and expectations of servants in a life of no rights and at a whim of a household. It was poorly paid slavery. Then it goes on to document how they gathered their rights. Dr Pamela Cox delivers the series with a passion and gives a very human side of the story. Her voice and smiling face always makes her watch-able. I somehow come away from this series a little bit more socially aware that in our modern times there are people in this age still working with no rights and suffering similar exploitation