The Young Victoria

 

The Young Victoria is a 2009 British-American period drama film directed by Jean-Marc Vallée and written by Julian Fellowes,

based on the early life and reign of Queen Victoria, and her marriage to Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. Graham King, Martin Scorsese, Sarah, Duchess of York and Timothy Headington served as the film's producers. The film stars Emily Blunt, Rupert Friend, Paul Bettany, Miranda Richardson and Jim Broadbent among a large ensemble cast.

Fellowes sought to make the film as historically accurate as possible. With this in mind, Academy Award-winning costume designer Sandy Powell and historical consultant Alastair Bruce, 5th Baron Aberdare were hired. Filming for The Young Victoria took place at various historical landmarks in England to further the film's authenticity. Despite this, various aspects of the film have been criticised for historical inaccuracies.
Momentum Pictures released the film in the United Kingdom, where it appeared in cinemas on 6 March 2009. Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions Group opened The Young Victoria in limited theatrical release in the United States on 18 December 2009 through Apparition. Critical reception was generally positive, and it scored a 76 percent rating on film review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes based upon 139 reviews. The film was nominated for three Academy Awards, winning the 2009 Academy Award for Best Costume Design. The film also won for the Best Make-Up and Hair and Best Costume Design at the 63rd British Academy Film Awards.

 

Sherlock (TV series)

  is a British television crime drama that presents a contemporary update of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes detective stories. It stars Benedict Cumberbatch as Sherlock Holmes and Martin Freeman as Doctor John Watson. Six episodes, broadcast since 2010, have been produced, with three more episodes scheduled to begin production in March 2013. The series has been sold to over 180 territories.
The show was conceived by Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss during train journeys to and from the Doctor Who production base in Cardiff, where they were both writers. They aspired to produce a modern-day version of Conan Doyle's stories in which Sherlock uses the technologies that are available to him today in order to find things out and solve crime. Credited as co-creators, Moffat and Gatiss each write one episode per series, with the other written by Steve Thompson. Hartswood Films produced the series for the BBC and co-produced it with WGBH Boston for its Masterpiece anthology series. The series is primarily filmed in Cardiff, although the production also uses a variety of other locations. North Gower Street in London was used for exterior shots of Holmes and Watson's 221B Baker Street residence.
Sherlock depicts "consulting detective" Holmes, assisting the Metropolitan Police Service, primarily DI Greg Lestrade (Rupert Graves), in solving various crimes. Holmes is assisted by his flatmate, Dr John Watson, who has returned from military service in Afghanistan. Although the series depicts a variety of crimes and perpetrators, Holmes' conflict with his archnemesis Jim Moriarty (Andrew Scott) is a recurring feature. Pathologist Molly Hooper (Louise Brealey) assists Holmes in her laboratory. Other recurring roles include Una Stubbs as Mrs. Hudson, Holmes and Watson's landlady; Vinette Robinson as Sgt. Sally Donovan; and Mark Gatiss as Sherlock's brother, Mycroft Holmes.
After an unbroadcast pilot in 2009, the first series of three 90-minute episodes was transmitted on BBC One and BBC HD in 2010, with a second series of three episodes first broadcast in 2012. Critical reception was overwhelmingly positive, with many reviews commending the quality of the writing, performances and direction. Sherlock has been nominated for numerous awards, including BAFTAs and Emmys, winning several across a variety of categories. All six episodes have been released on DVD and Blu-ray Disc in the United Kingdom, alongside tie-in editions of some of Conan Doyle's original books. Soundtrack albums from each series have also been released.

 

The Remains of the Day

This article is about the novel. For the film based on the novel, see The Remains of the Day (film). For the song featured in "Tim Burton's Corpse Bride", see Remains of the Day (song). For the Law & Order episode, see List of Law & Order episodes (season 17).

The Remains of the Day (1989) is Kazuo Ishiguro's third published novel. The work was awarded the Man Booker Prize for Fiction in 1989. A film adaptation of the novel, made in 1993 and starring Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson, was nominated for eight Academy Awards.
As in Ishiguro's two previous novels, the story is told from a first person point of view. The narrator, Stevens, a butler, recalls his life in the form of a diary while the action progresses through the present. Much of the novel is concerned with Stevens' professional and, above all, personal relationship with a former colleague, the housekeeper Miss Kenton.
 

 

Pride and Prejudice

This article is about the novel. For other uses, see Pride and Prejudice (disambiguation).

Pride and Prejudice is a novel by Jane Austen, first published in 1813. The story follows the main character Elizabeth Bennet as she deals with issues of manners, upbringing, morality, education, and marriage in the society of the landed gentry of early 19th-century England. Elizabeth is the second of five daughters of a country gentleman living near the fictional town of Meryton in Hertfordshire, near London.
Though the story is set at the turn of the 19th century, it retains a fascination for modern readers, continuing near the top of lists of "most loved books" such as The Big Read. It has become one of the most popular novels in English literature and receives considerable attention from literary scholars. Modern interest in the book has resulted in a number of dramatic adaptations and an abundance of novels and stories imitating Austen's memorable characters or themes. To date, the book has sold some 20 million copies worldwide.
As Anna Quindlen wrote, "Pride and Prejudice is also about that thing that all great novels consider, the search for self. And it is the first great novel to teach us that that search is as surely undertaken in the drawing room making small talk as in the pursuit of a great white whale or the public punishment of adultery

 

 "Upstairs, Downstairs"

 redirects here. For the 2010 BBC revival, see Upstairs Downstairs (2010 TV series).
Upstairs, Downstairs is a British drama television series originally produced by London Weekend Television and revived by the BBC. It ran on ITV in 68 episodes divided into five series from 1971 to 1975.
Set in a large townhouse in Edwardian, First World War and interwar Belgravia in London, the series depicts the lives of the servants "downstairs" and their masters—the family "upstairs". Great events feature prominently in the episodes but minor or gradual changes are also noted. The series stands as a document of the social and technological changes that occurred between 1903 and 1930.

Plot

The stories depict the lives of the wealthy Bellamy family ("upstairs"), who reside at 165 Eaton Place in London's fashionable Belgravia, and their servants ("downstairs").
 The household is led by Lady Marjorie Bellamy (née Talbot-Carey), daughter of the Earl and Countess of Southwold, and her husband Richard Bellamy MP, the son of a country parson. They got married   despite the objections of her parents and set up house at 165 Eaton Place, one of several London properties owned by Lord Southwold. Richard is a politician, and several plots revolve around his political ambitions and conflicts arising from his desire to follow his conscience and his allegiance to his father-in-law's political party, the Conservatives (the "Tories").
Richard and Lady Marjorie Bellamy have two children, James and Elizabeth, who are, respectively, in their early twenties and late teens when the series starts in 1903. In 1912, James' ill-fated wife Hazel becomes the new mistress of the house, and the following year, Richard's ward, Georgina, comes to live at 165 Eaton Place.
The original servant staff comprises the authoritarian butler Mr. Angus Hudson, cook Mrs. Kate Bridges, pragmatic head house parlourmaid Rose Buck, sweet Irish kitchen maid Emily, eccentric footman Alfred, mischievous under-house parlourmaid Sarah, who dreams of a dramatic life beyond servantdom, coachman Pearce, and Lady Marjorie's lady's maid Maude Roberts. Over the years they are joined by Edward, a cheeky footman who later becomes a chauffeur; Daisy, the parlourmaid who eventually marries Edward; Thomas Watkins, the devious chauffeur who dabbles with Sarah's affections; and Ruby, the slow-witted kitchen maid.
In the episode "Another Year" from series 4, Hazel Bellamy notes that there are two families living in the house, one upstairs and the other downstairs, which she likens to a related family: Mr Hudson and Mrs Bridges are the father and mother; Rose, the eldest daughter who lost her man at the front; Edward and his wife, Daisy; and Ruby, the youngest child.

Downton Abbey 

is a British-American period drama television series created by Julian Fellowes  and co-produced by Carnival Films and Masterpiece It first aired on ITV in the United Kingdom on 26 September 2010 and on PBS in the United States on 9 January 2011 as part of the Masterpiece Classic anthology.
The series, set in the fictional Yorkshire country estate of Downton Abbey, depicts the lives of the aristocratic Crawley family and their servants in the post-Edwardian era — with the great events in history having an effect on their lives and on the British social hierarchy. Such events depicted throughout the series include news of the sinking of the RMS Titanic in the first series; the outbreak of World War I, the Spanish influenza pandemic, and the Marconi scandal in the second series; and the Interwar period and the formation of the Irish Free State in the third series.
Downton Abbey has received critical acclaim from television critics and won numerous accolades, including a Golden Globe Award for Best Miniseries or Television Film and a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Miniseries. It was recognised by Guinness World Records as the most critically acclaimed English-language television series of 2011, and became the first international television series to receive the largest number of nominations in the history of the Primetime Emmy Awards, with twenty-seven in total. It was the most watched television series on both ITV and PBS, and subsequently became the most successful British costume drama series since the 1981 television serial of Brideshead Revisited. By the third series, it had become one of the most widely watched television shows in the world.