The continuing infatuation with the Upstairs, Downstairs dynamic in drama, the old dance between toffs and servants, is something of a puzzle.
On the surface, films like The Help and Albert Nobbs are appalled at the treatment of the serving classes of yesteryear; but these films, along with Downton Abbey on television, also hungrily feed off nostalgia and our pleasure in the fetishistic details of service – shining the silver, and all that. It's rather muddled, milord.
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