The British social classes have always been seen as the pinnacle of the world’s elite, but what is it really like behind the scenes of a country estate?
The BBC is hoping to shed some light on this with their revival of the hit 1970s series Upstairs Downstairs, which portrayed how the Edwardian upper class houses ran from both sides of the picture. This follows the incredible success of the ITV short series Downton Abbey.
If that was a real portrayal of how life was in an Edwardian household, how does it differ from today’s large estates? That is what the Independent set out to find out with a series of interviews of real people from both the employers and staff of various country houses.
