Hairpin Costume Drama Club: The Duchess of Duke Street
Loving costume dramas must be how some people love sci-fi, or renaissance fairs: You get to explore power structures, but in a fun way. You get to calm your lower brain with the fantasy of what it was like to live back then (the snacks, the bedside decanters, the cloaks!), while your upper brain gets to chew on things like patriarchy and class structure. Thus, hoop skirts are great! Cordials all around!
When steeped in something from the Masterpiece Theatre oeuvre, you can’t really think about mountaintop removal mining in West Virginia, or why abortion isn’t part of regular health insurance, but you can chew on urchinhood, or why everybody had to give their babies opium. Costume dramas are very equal-opportunity escapism. Plus, I think most people like to think about corsets, in one way or another.
So, I hereby call together the very first meeting of the Hairpin Costume Drama Club. It's like a book club, but we'll only watch the books, not read them. And because of Netflix Instant, public libraries, and PBS, we're rich in period pieces. The club is not for the weak. Some of these shows come in volumes. But, you need to watch something, right? And the more peau de soie and inter-class romance, the better!
I hope we can find some eternal truths in our club. I'm betting we'll find consensus on things like following one's heart, the responsibilities of the aristocracy, and which particular era of men's fashion was the hottest. I'm also hoping we can stir up such a ruckus about some of the older dramas that their creators join our conversation.
For our inaugural meeting, I invite you to watch The Duchess of Duke Street. Netflix cruelly removed it from their instant offerings, but if you have Amazon Prime, the first season is streaming on Amazon Instant Video for free. Your public library should have the rest, fingers crossed. I’m suggesting we start with this one because it’s a classic (BBC 1976), and though slow to start, it will slay you. It covers the costume-rich decline of London leaving the age of decadence and sliding past the first world war.
We have Gemma Jones starring, who coincidentally later played Bridget Jones’ mother. There is pluck, there is food, there is a doddy butler. This is the same era as Downton Abbey, but it will break your heart more, even though it looks goofier. I promise.
If you’ve already seen it, watch it again. Order a case of champagne (cava is fine), and dig in. We have a month or so. Check back here, let me know how you're keeping up, and then join us in October, where we will reconvene and brag about how much we cried.
Seriously, they drink champagne like water in this series, so get ready. You're going to want some champagne, or at least some Martinelli’s on deck.
Danielle Roderick will dress up if you will, and writes as Carla Fran at Millicent and Carla Fran.
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Awww, I haven't seen this in forever, but I love Gemma Jones in everything she does. I loved how in charge (and not) she is in this story.
(And as an aside, to throw it out there, I feel like I'm the only BBC costume drama fanatic who really dislikes Downton Abbey, aside from my mom. Am I alone?)
@KatPruska I don't really like Downton Abbey either. There doesn't seem to be enough plot momentum, and if I want to see sassy Maggie Smith I would rather watch Gosford Park.
@adminslave Yay! An army of two!
I do not want to derail the delectable Duchess of Duke Street discussion, so I can save it for the Downton Abbey thread (if I'm not a giant wuss, which I AM!) But honestly, a bar of soap?! Really?! Really.
@KatPruska You are not alone. We will talk!
Yea! I just checked and my public library does indeed have this. Popping by on my way home. Needed to stock up on champagne anyway.
I will totally join your costume drama club. I just discovered Duchess of Duke Street at the public library last week and finished watching Season 1 last night. Louisa Trotter can hang out with me any day.
Hell-to-the-yeah! I want to live in this thread.
@marchaeo And never leave. I'm pitching a tent.
@marhissa I'll bring the booze!
I'm so into this.
I'm so very in. Costume Drama Club sounds so much more official than my previously unnamed obsessive consumption of this genre. Official enough to wear a corset and cloak while I drink champagne and watch Duchess of Duke Street? Possibly.
Count me way in. Downtown Abbey rocked my world (or shall we say, salted my pudding?), so I'm going to LOVE this. Why wasn't there a Hairpin when I was in high school???!!! I would have actually fit in.
@SassyAsh TRUTH. It's so nice to have my decade-long obsession with costume dramas validated by my favorite blog. It sounds like I wasn't the only one who considered the highlight of her week to be Sunday nights because that meant Masterpiece Theatre.
@SassyAsh Forget high school, this gives me a place to fit in now! But I totally get what you mean.
@heyits Oh, it wasn't just the highlight of MY week. My mom and I are obsessed with costume dramas. I think I inherited my obsession from her.
@SassyAsh my grad school roommates and totally bonded over our love of Masterpiece Mystery! cue "sweet miracle of life at last i've foooooouuuunndd yoooooooouuuuu"
Ugh, DownTON Abbey! Damn auto-correct. That's what I get for not proof-reading.
@SassyAsh You mean it's NOT "Downtown Abbey"??? I've not seen the show, only read about the phenomenon, so I must have been misreading it all this time.
@SassyAsh hah I've always thought it was Downtown also even though they do say it "Downton". My 11 year old daughter and I say it randomly to one another because we are nerrrrds.
@klaus Hahaha, I say it to myself alone in my apartment. I also walk around going, "The Dowager Countess of Grantham", because that's a great character title, and Dame Maggie Smith is a baller.
I just finished watching this. I've never cried so much from a TV show in my life.
This was already next in my queue! I'm so proud to be on the cusp of such trends.
YES! I am stamping my feet up and down under my desk in a fit of excitement. Grr to Netflix for removing it from Instant, but maybe I'll just buy a copy since I don't do Amazon Prime (yet).
May I humbly suggest local watch parties? Anybody in DC interested?
@BethH Fantastic idea. Anybody in LA interested?
@BethH ummm yes, yes, YES!
@BethH Oh, yes.
@droderick LA! Yes! LA! LA! It would give me a chance to make up for that hairpin meetup I missed, except with more waist-cinching and heeled lace-up booties!
@BethH And NYC????
@BethH Double yes!
@BethH Yes! I was so bummed I couldn't make the meetup last week. I just told someone yesterday that if I had to make a Sophie's Choice between PBS (Masterpiece) or CBS (reality junkie)it would be a no-brainer no matter how much I love Phil Keoghan's eyebrows.
@BethH YES!!!!! LA Costume Nerds Unite!
@BethH I'd love to join!
@BethH I've got a hold in at the library! Shall we discuss logistics more once the DC google group is up and running?
@BethH Yessssss! Please oh please viewing party in the DC area! I've just moved back to the area after 5 years in London, so I've got Yorkshire tea just waiting to be steeped! Costumesssss!
@droderick @candybeans I missed the LA pin up too! Would love to do this!!
@pterodactgirl @droderick Beck Rea@facebook how do we make this into a real-life thing, this viewing?? i am also @candybeans on twitter; is that a real-er way to get in touch?
@BethH I am all in for a DC viewing party!
@BethH @marhissa Registered just to say that if there is a NYC viewing party for this, I am so in!
This show is so good! I have seen several episodes! I'm trying to convince Sly Librarian to host a few weekly viewings for our mutual champagne consuming benefit.
I logged in for the first time in weeks just to say how incredibly into this I am.
Love this. LOVE THIS.
I am incredibly excited and overwhelmed! And mildly resentful, because I'm watching Bramwell now! Because you made me! And I love it!
@millicent Oh, we're doing Bramwell, don't you worry.
@millicent BRAMWELL <3 <3 <3
Watch out for Bramwell, though- I loved it SO UNBELIEVABLY MUCH and was completely. Hooked. Until the last season. I have no idea what happened, but the last season is completely unpalatable- I would highly recommend not watching the last season at all (I wish someone had warned me!!!!) I was seething by the end of the show. Did anyone else have this experience with Bramwell???
I always loved this show. Also I have been waiting for this club my entire life.
I will join this club and agitate every day for the inclusion of You Rang, M'Lord? so that we may launch an auxiliary chapter of Anachronistic Lesbians for Cissy Meldrum.
I want to stand and salute that woman. That monocle. She's like a lesbian Niles Crane.
@melis Can "my chum Penelope" become a standard phrase? Can we slang it?
@droderick Absolutely…Vice President Droderick.
@melis I LOVE You Rang, M'Lord!! And of course, Cissy… well, she's just something else.
@meredithmo She's just my future goddamned wife is what.
@melis I hadn't encountered Cissy Meldrum before; thanks for posting that link. She just joined Vita Sackville-West in an inspirational corner of my gay male heart. They're now sitting in Peter Wimsey's library in jodhpurs, talking loudly.
The fact that this now exists makes me love The Hairpin even more. Has anyone here watched North and South? I'm a couple segments in and I'm struggling to get into it.
@MagnificentMess Not to start any shit, but I feel that North and South is on the b team of costume dramas. A good one to watch when you have run out of everything else. But breathing cotton air does look really terrible.
@droderick That's kind of where I'm at. I've exhausted my Netflix instant options for costume drama. I'm about to resort to rewatching my well-loved copies of the BBC Pride and Prejudice, BBC Sense and Sensibility and Mansfield Park.
@MagnificentMess Ooh, I really liked North and South. But then I really liked the book (after years of avoiding it, mistakenly associating it with the Civil War) and watching it just made me run back to reread the book.
@MagnificentMess I really, really liked North and South. Have you seen Middlemarch? Daniel Deronda? He Knew He Was Right? Bleak House? All the Jane Eyres? Probably, but they're on netflix instant. I'm doing a search now, and there are SO MANY Masterpiece Classics, and too few on watch instantly. Clearly they haven't heard about this club yet.
@MagnificentMess Yeah I could never really get into North and South, not sure why. I think because it was so super-serious and I had just watched Cranford, which rules. Also the main dude was kind of a huge dick?!
@MagnificentMess I couldn't get into North and South all the way either, though I've sort of run out of options and have thought of re-visiting it.
@MagnificentMess I found North & South hard to get into too, but I really like the payoff at the end. I'm such a goddamn sap and I need the writers to throw me a bone, making out-wise, which doesn't happen in a lot of the period dramas. I don't know, I stuck through it and I've even re-watched it!
@marhissa I agree! The pay off is is worth it. I watched the entire thing in a flu-addled state last winter, and by episode three or so I was OB. SESSED.
@meatcute YES! I very much want Richard Armitage to whisper sweet, gravelly, northern accent nothings in my ear while wearing puffy sleeves and a waistcoat. And then make out with me.
@MagnificentMess Ahh North and South is one of my favorites! But I love love love Richard Armitage, in either costume drama mode or Spooks mode. It is a bit of a slow burner, but I can watch the last 10 minutes of the series and over and it never fails to make me smile. The train!! Ahhh!! I'm so excited for Costume Drama Club. It's like The Hairpin knows my life.
@KatPruska THAT IS THE DREAM.
yes! this was a nonstop every day for a week thing when I found it. amazing. (and thank god for netflix.)
Lucia, you may wish to know that you have already been pre-approved for membership in Anachronistic Lesbians for Cissy Meldrum.
@melis yes! is my membership card in the mail?
@Lucia Martinez I sent it by zeppelin. I do hope that's all right.
This is pretty much the coolest club ever!! I would describe myself as an ADVANCED costume drama-watcher.
Ooh oh oh I have a suggestion: The House of Eliott! Ladies fallen on hard times! Couture! Flappers! THE BEST!
@waffleswaffleswaffles OMG House of Eliott. I haven't seen that since it first aired. Happen to know if it's available on DVD?
When I originally watched it a few years ago I got it through Netflix (not streaming; actual DVDs)…so hopefully it's still available that way?
@waffleswaffleswaffles cannot wait to watch this one!
@waffleswaffleswaffles Okay, I have beef with The House of Eliott – Evie was just terrible as the seasons went on. I found her to be such a spoiled brat, with basically zero redeeming characteristics. I completely gave up somewhere in season two. Especially knowing that it wasn't given the proper ending it deserved! I don't know.
@waffleswaffleswaffles Oh man Evie became so insufferable, I was pretty bummed out. Especially when she started in on her, "How dare all you guys talk to me about the practicalities of running a business when I am trying to make ART here! ART!"
@Dani OK, so yeah, you are both totally right about Evie and her insufferableness. And the fact that the series doesn't have a proper ending is indeed a bummer. I think that I love historical dramas so much that most of my critical judgement kind of flies out the window when I watch them. Like, I am so distracted by my enjoyment of the costumes, sets, fun period slang, etc. that I DON'T EVEN CARE if the acting is occasionally questionable, or some of the characters are kind of ridiculous/annoying, or the plots are unrealistic, or whatever.
YES! I am all over this.
I stumbled across The duchess of Duke Street on Amazon Instant recently, and found the first episode a little too "Jest you wait, 'enry 'iggins!" for me, but am totally willing to stick it out. Seriously, costume dramas 4-eva.
@killer_queen I agree! I watched the first two episodes a while ago, and then I was like, this is bonkers, and I stopped. So I'm intrigued to see what people think here. Maybe it stops being so bonkers!
@chicago sally @killer_queen the bonkers stays, but it pays off. I swear!
@MagnificentMess North & South is a bit of a drag (but don't you love those accents?) but after you get through it, hit up Gaskell's Wives & Daughters on Netflix streaming. Oh. My. God.
@slopette Yes! Second this!
@slopette And The Buccaneers! American and Brazilian heiresses in England!
@slopette I loved the Buccaneers!
@slopette Wives and Daughters is in my queue, I've heard it's fab! I just want to slog my way through N&S. I refuse to give up!
@slopette Mira Sorvino! Gay husbands!
The husband and I were just at the Ren Faire this weekend. WE LOOKED AWESOME! (Sorry, I get a little excited. I look forward to the Faire all year.)
@Magpie Shinies I'm going up to Northern California Renaissance Faire tomorrow–can't WAIT.
Yesssss!!! I've been pining for the next installment of DA, so this will fit the bill nicely. Changing my queue now…
Oh I am in. Are we eventually going to be doing Cranford? Because I could use an excuse to buy it on DVD.
@scully Cranford is the BEST. And there's a sequel! And Judi Dench!
@scully @han I think Cranford is definitely on the books.
@han WHAT!? A sequel?? You, Madame Han, have just made my day.
@scully My friends and I literally cried from about 15m in straight through to the end during the Crandford S1 finale
This Costume Drama Club is just my cup of tea. I live in the SF bay area anyone in the East Bay interested in viewing club? My purple velvet sofa is being delivered tomorrow
@Beth Hooper@facebook I'm in the east bay, but willing to trek. I can contribute some overly sweet brut to the menu (if only I could find ratafia).
@Beth Hooper@facebook
Yes please! If we start having regular viewing parties I can start bringing tea and scones.
@Beth Hooper@facebook @anotherkate I'm in Alameda so less of a trek by far. Please email me at shhygal at yahoo dot com. Let me know some times that might work for you. Of course I have to find the series– but we have a month.
I love everything about this idea, and i volunteer to make scones for when we talk about it. I also volunteer to sleep with Charles Haslemere, if that's needed.
Do Anne of Green Gables and Anne of Green Gables the Sequel and the Road to Avonlea count? Please tell me they count.
@ginalouise With those puffed sleeves, you know they count!
@ginalouise OOOHH Road to Avonlea!! Love love love this series so much!
@waffleswaffleswaffles MEGAN FOLLOWS. 'Nuff said.
Oh lord, of course I had to finally create an account for this. I just checked my library and someone has a hold on it — Is one of you fair ladies in rural VA? Also, if my library hadn't had it, I was all prepared to add it to my Midwest Tape order this week, because that is the power of being an acquisitions librarian. Muahahaha! And please, let's do Cranford next. Or Wives and Daughters. OR ALL OF THEM.
@PrimarySource I grew up in rural VA–I'm not the culprit here but I wondered where you live. Just because I love talking about the country.
@PrimarySource That was the one of the best parts of my old job, getting to buy stuff I wanted to read/watch/listen to for my library. But new job means no more acquisitions.
OMG YES, YES. Also, will this club cover non-English-speaking costume dramas? Because I can't watch Curse of the Golden flower without fainting from all the beauty.
I'm in! Also, can I nominate Flambards for the next series? Early 1900s. A teenage orphan goes to live with her spoiled cousins and falls in love with the stable boy. It's so so good, you guys. I got it at the library.
yessss. can we also have a masterpiece mystery edition? you know poirot could run style circles around some of these ladies, even in his patent leather spats.
@yeah-elle I second that! So many episodes to choose from, but it must include Miss Lemon.
@yeah-elle
DID YOU KNOW that some future Nobel Peace Prize winner has graciously uploaded tons of Poirot episodes in their entirety on Youtube?!
@Diana This is truly a blessing, since I am far, far removed from my parents' house and their MULTIPLE dvd sets of Poirot episodes. I know what I'm doing on my next lonely/lazy night. I require a smoking jacket and teasan.
@yeah-elle I just liked every comment on this thread. Poirot forEVER.
@pterodactgirl Poirot is flawless in all things.
@yeah-elle: Late to the party, but adding to the Poirot-love. Whereas the latest Miss Marple series has my head exploding from all the ridiculous changes they've made to the original books. I mean, I'm OK with some changes, but really, Why Didn't They Ask Evans? White slavery and Chinese tattoos? Really?
Duchess of Duke Street was my introduction to non-Austen costume dramas back in the day. So heartbreaking. Yes, the production value is pretty low compared to Downton, but it's so much more emotionally-packed while still being true to life.
So pumped about Costume Drama Club!
This is such good timing! I just got an Amazon Prime account on Monday (cancelled my cable last week finally), and have been craving a period drama. I tried to get into the old Upstairs/Downstairs last night since I've heard good things, but couldn't get past the second episode.
I just watched the first episode of Duchess of Duke Street, and I already love it. Very charming!
@formergr Upstairs/Downstairs is hard to get into. I didn't love Sarah at all at first, but as the episodes progress, they focus on different characters. Hudson episodes forever.
I would also like recommend Lost in Austen (http://movies.netflix.com/WiMovie/Lost_in_Austen/70114373?trkid=2361637) to my fellow club members. It's so completely cheesy, and kind of not quite so well done, but it's great Friday-night-on-the-couch watching, preferably with a glass of wine or three.
And available on Instant Watch!
@formergr I looooove Lost in Austen. I actually bought it after getting it from Netflix, because it's so terribly good.
@formergr I love this one, too, though have always been kind of apologetic about my love for it. No more!
I'm in!
I am so excited
Oh my god I am so excited for this club. I'm going to go ask my mom to burn her copies of this series and send it to me.
I would love for one month to be the House of Elliot…
Also, what is up with that Downton Abbey hate going on up there? I'm crying and clutching my chest.
this is awesome! am def up for this
Regional viewing parties? I ask because the BPL has limited supplies and with all the Boston 'pinners, it will probably be February before I can get my turn and I want to play!
@lobsterhug Definitely down for setting up a Boston-Area viewing party!
@lobsterhug Yay!
My library already has a waiting list for these! I'm number four. Hope I get to watch it in time.
I love that we might have started a run on Duchess of Duke Street DVDs nationwide.
Also, I think you can do a 1 month free trial of Amazon Prime…
I fully support this, as I have seen most of the series and adored every moment. I do need that last kick in the pants to finish it up, though.
May I suggest "The Pallisers" next? It's AWESOME. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0075557/
@meredithmo Oh god, I second "The Pallisers" vote! Sooo good! I used to mainline all 26 episodes every year on Christmas break.
Yes! In!
I grew up with this programme. Loved it. May I also commend Lillie, about Lillie Langtry, which came out at almost exactly the same time in the UK and about almost exactly the same era. Bonnets a-go-go. And then for a change of tone, cheap, poor people's bonnets in "When the boat comes in".
oh god…my people. i found my people. i have to loosen my corset i'm so excited.
I cannot say how profoundly this has changed my life! I've shamefully hidden my deep, slightly compulsive love of costume dramas all my life, afraid that people would point and laugh if I ever confessed my love for Daniel Deronda, Wives and Daughters, etc. Also, does Horatio Hornblower count, as a very man-centric costume adventure? Because that is definitely the hottest period of male costume.
@dudavocado is your profile pic a la Deronda?
@droderick Yes! Romola Garai may be my favorite costume drama actress— she's so saucy (in the most genteel way possible) in Deronda.
Also, Brooklyn viewing party?
@dudavocado Yes, please!
I don't think you got it on PBS as it was on channel 4 over here, but I oh so heartily suggest The Devil's Whore. Proto-feminism, cross-dressing and Michael flippin Fassbender in the English Civil War. Also McNulty from The Wire is Oliver Cromwell.
@Fayebelline I felt very torn about that series; on the one hand I had a friend in it (he played Anjelica Fanshaw's first husband) and it had a ton of excellent British actors in it, but on the other it almost felt like a fanfiction wish-fulfillment project instead of a historical miniseries. But then there's Michael Fassbender! In the nude! Ergo, torn.
OH! OOH! Blimey, what a delightful ladies' club! Please permit me to join. I shall be most grateful. Tea, anyone?
I just put a hold on the DVDs from my local library. Can't wait to get it and join in the discussion. Such a great idea!
I love this. JUST moved to NYC, so if people are meeting up here I want in! Friends! (too desperate?)
@Anna Weber@facebook Hey, I just moved to the Upper West Side myself…costume dramas are my not-so-secret obsession!! I am also down if people in NYC are meeting up! This thread just made me really happy
im superduper excited to start this. with college apps looming overhead, i need a new obsession to be my procrastination partner. nifty!
oh my god. i am totally and utterly complete now. can i suggest everything elizabeth gaskell?!! wives & daughters, anyone?!?! north & south!!!
Soooo excited – I would love to do a NYC meetup!! How can we go about arranging this?? Richard Armitage FOREVER.
This is a first for me, but I couldn't resist the call. The Duchess of Duke Street is one of the first I can remember watching. Love Downton Abbey. In reply to dancingbulldog, "Yes!" to "North and South" and everything Elizabeth Gaskell. How about "Vanity Fair"? So much drama, so little time.
I love this idea! I'm so glad to find other ladies who share my love of costume dramas. I created an account just so I could join you all over a glass of champagne and gossip about the goings-on in Duke Street.
I've just finished the first dvd. It was a bit of a slow start, but I'm completely hooked now. I was excited to learn that the series is loosely based on the actual life of Rosa Lewis. (And here I was thinking the story was a bit far-fetched).
Does anyone else think Charles Tyrrell (Christopher Cazenove) looks a little like Eric Northman (Alexander Skarsgard) from True Blood?