"Upstairs, Downstairs" was never like this.
In what is sort of a real-life sequel to that classic BBC series, "Manor House" placed 19 modern-day Brits at Manderston, a 109-room Scottish estate for a three-month experiment in re-creating history. While the Olliff-Cooper family lived the life of Edwardian nobles in the early 20th century, the servants slaved away. And how the participants viewed the experience depended largely on whether they were upstairs or downstairs.
"For me, it was just wonderful to adapt to a life of idle luxury," said Anna Olliff-Cooper, a part-time emergency-room doctor and housewife. "And heartbreaking to have to give it up and go back to hard work again, I'm afraid."
"It was wonderful to experience the Edwardian house, and it has been desperate to leave it," said John Olliff-Cooper, a businessman.
At the other end of the spectrum was 19-year-old Kenny Skelton, the hallboy who was "a bit gutted about it . . . because, as it happens, I really was shoveling crap all the time.
"I got there and I could not believe it. It was horrible. It was bad enough being a servant but being a servant for the servants? It really can't get any worse."
Meanwhile, the Olliff-Coopers took to the noble life a bit too easily, perhaps. "We had no problem, really, about working out how we should behave," Anna Olliff-Cooper said. "Once you understand that the whole system is class-based. And everything you must do or look or be has to be to show everyone else where they sit in the pecking order."
And they, at times, went out of their way to impose that pecking order. There was an incident when the staff — which had been told a certain nearby hotel was off limits — was seen partying there by the lord of the manor. "I was duty-bound to effectively tell them off," John Olliff-Cooper said. "It sounds dreadful in 2002. In 1905, they'd have all been sacked on the spot."
That dressing-down didn't sit well with all the servants. The, um, rather feisty Antonia Dawson, who assumed the role of a kitchen maid, was not happy at all. "I always thought that I was quite meek and mild, and would let things wash over me, and I could cope with any situation," Dawson said. "And, in actual fact, I'm not like that at all. And everyone used to use the word 'feisty' to describe me, because if I think something is wrong or I don't agree with it or (feel) unfairly treated, then I will say something."
Not that the Olliff-Coopers cared. "I'm not overblessed with political correctness," John Olliff-Cooper said. "I believe in hierarchy, and I believe that people should work within their station, and I think that works very well. I had no problem at all transferring myself from my 21st century life to my early 20th-century life."
"It's no different, really, from living in a big hotel," insisted Anna Olliff-Cooper. "I mean, I don't imagine you're particularly concerned about the people who swept the floor for you today or who've laid the tables and things. You don't agonize over it, you live your life and, really, you're quite separate from the servants. The servants lived below us in the basement or above us in the attic so we scarcely saw them, really."
"One tends to say 'staff' because it sounds less unattractive," John Olliff-Cooper said.
"Our slaves," Anna Olliff-Cooper joked (rather badly).
Anna Olliff-Cooper mentioned several times how difficult it was for her to transition back to regular life, and she did seem to carry some rather aristocratic attitudes out of the experience. "I worked very hard changing my clothes on a very regular basis. It took me a lot of time. It takes about an hour to get my hair up, and it's a real labor, isn't it darling?" she said to her husband. "It was very busy. The whole of your life is, in part, dictated by the servants.
"So you had to be at breakfast, and breakfast took about an hour. Then you had just a couple of hours before you had to start getting ready for lunch. And that took an hour and a half. And then you had to change again for whatever you were going to do in the afternoon — maybe go for a walk. And you'd just be back in time to change for tea, which was 5 o'clock to 5:30, and talk to your child. And then you had about a half an hour before you had to go and dress for dinner. Not a moment to spare, really."
The poor dear.
Even months after the experience ended, there do seem to be some lingering resentments. As the Olliff-Coopers recounted their experiences, Skelton and Dawson exchanged glances and whispers and rolled their eyes repeatedly.
"Uh, let's just say, he took to the, uh, role of an aristocrat rather well," said Skelton, who gave Olliff-Cooper credit for playing the role realistically, although it obviously grated on him. Prodded a bit, Skelton admitted, "I thought they were lazy, sit-on-the-backside, hoity-toity, boring people." Prodded a bit more, his description was unprintable. "If I could have thrown a stick . . . and made him fall over sort of thing, I think I really would have done it. I was foul, honestly."
Young Skelton is a bit of a star of "Manor House." His adventures included a drinking binge that ends with him and a footman passed out on the lawn of the estate. And he finds romance in the mansion — and, um, is even caught in the middle of a romantic encounter with a maid.
"Before I went into the country house, I never, ever expected to find love sort of thing. I thought there might be a few maids I could maybe touch up or something, by accident," Skelton said with a laugh. "I'd never really been in love in my life, and then I went in and found this girl, and she's such a lovely person, I can't tell you. . . . So that was, like, ace. And it did go well, but it went wrong."
As did the end of the experience for the lords and ladies of the manor. The Olliff-Coopers went home to their "very beautiful house," and "It felt like a rabbit hutch," John said. "We were appalled. . . . We missed the utter beauty and the quality of Manderston."
But leaving the "Manor House" behind was a bit different for Skelton. "It was amazing. It's, like, liberating. I suppose it's different if you're upstairs."
What: "Manor House"
Where: KUED-Ch. 7
When: 7 and 8 p.m., Monday-Wednesday
E-MAIL: pierce@desnews.com