Respose to Upstairs Downstairs

1) Is the representation of the Chauffeur portrayed from a biased point of view? If so why?
The chauffeur is represented as a bad person because in his spare time he is a black shirt. The BBC is a London based compoany so most of the people working for the BBC will be from London, they will allready have views on what the black shirts stood for and they could have been biased against the character. Nowadays people know more about Hitler and his regimes so the biased points to make him look bad would have to be slightly exagerated to really come across as bad.

2) In what ways could you say the upstairs family and downstairs staff are clinging to tradition in a changing world?
One way that this is shown is through the values of clothing at different time periods, e.g. white and pink dress, and apron for the morning, and a black dress and white apron for the evening for women servants.
The values of this are shown when the Chauffeur eats in the evening wearing his "black shirt" attire rather than the traditional evening wear, not only does it cause problems because its the wrong clothing but also because there is a jewish servant that takes offence to it. This relates to the change in society and the new views of people, which are that they want a new government regime like the one that Hitler is using, but the servants downstairs cannot see passed their own old views of dressing correctly and the beliefs. They dont think that anyone should be wanting a change in society and going to a "black shirt" march is wrong.

3)Why do you think Lady Persephone wants to join the black shirts?
Lady Persephone wants to join the black shirts because she fancies the chauffeur, and is mesmirised by his such strong views and belief in change, she sees this as a bit of excitement, not truely understand the depth of their views and actions they take, this is evident after the black shirts march, when she drives home in the chauffers car leaving him in bedlam.

4) Can you find similarities between Lady Persephone and Jenny from An Education?
They both want to break away from tradition female lives, and live their lives to full, especially at a young age. Both of these girls did the things they did because they were wanting attention from a man, for Jenny it was to make David think that she was mature and could handle the things they did, but for Lady Persphone it was to prove that her status doesnt meen she cant go on a march and to show that she is not boring even though she is bored in life.

5) Whos British collective identity do you think is the strongest and why? The downstairs staff, upstairs family, or the black shirts
Both the upstairs and down stairs families are the strongest because they are both tradional British families, which are most recognised through out Britian and reflect families today and the way they have changed. We are able to identify the classes of each era, through their traditions and clothing. The most traditional value is class, it is imediatly clear on the class of the up and down stairs families through clothing, and that they are serving and cleaning after the upperclass.  Today class is still reflected through living conditions and clothing, but upper class commonly don't treat lower class with as little respect as they used to. The black shirts have the least collective identity for britsihness because they are beliving and marching for regimes in Germany. They believe te same views as Hitler which the rest of Britain is against, this means that they are outcatsted and in Upstairs Downstairs it shows how people hate them when they try and fight them.