The House of Eliott

A stitch in time
Best of all, get the creative team behind one of British television's most successful period dramas ever, Upstairs, Downstairs, to bring it to life. This was the premise behind The House of Eliott and it was spot on: the programme soon won over millions of fans the world over, attracting impressive ratings during its three-season run from 1991 to 1994.

A woman of substance
Beatrice and Evangeline Eliott are left penniless when their father dies. Bea is the elder, so she has to take charge. But behind her capable exterior there beats a heart of pure passion. Stella Gonet, who plays Bea, does a marvellous job of balancing the contrasting strands of her character. She's certainly got the looks, along with the definite air of someone who knows what she wants. That's just as well, because what Bea wants is her own haute couture business. This was a tall order in the 1920s when dressmaking was a cutthroat industry that viewed women as merely seamstresses or mannequins and female entrepreneurs were thin on the ground. Our sisters have a fight on their hands to establish their own business.

It girl
Beatrice is the sister admired by women yearning to be taken seriously, and Evangeline appeals mostly to blokes. All blokes. To say the camera lingers on Louise Lombard as Evie Eliott is one of TV's great understatements. It's more like plain staring. Lombard has a fine pair of shoulders and The House of Eliott, with all its flapper frocks and backless numbers, is the perfect showcase for a girl who knows how to wear clothes. But Evie is more than a beautiful clothes-horse. As the series progresses, we see her emerge from her sister's shadow and get up to all sorts of romantic mischief.

After Eliott
Gonet was a huge hit as Bea but nothing she's done since has quite matched the popularity of that part. She has been on our screens regularly since, including appearances in The Crow Road, Supply and Demand and Nicholas Nickleby. Like Gonet, Lombard has had some trouble shaking off The House of Eliott. She enjoyed a jolly good romp with Sean Pertwee as gun-toting Liz Shaw in Bodyguards a few years ago but it seems costume drama and Louise Lombard have a thing for each other. She's just finished making a movie called Hidalgo, a caper through 1890s Arabia in which she stars opposite Viggo Mortensen. Lucky lucky girl.

Creative input
When Jean Marsh and Eileen Atkins dreamt up The House of Eliott they were already a respected team. Upstairs, Downstairs, which they also created, was a massive hit in the 1970s. Like Upstairs, Downstairs, The House of Eliott weighed the glamorous goings-on of posh types with the more prosaic lives of working-class characters. Marsh and Atkins knew what they were talking about: both were from modest London backgrounds. They had to work hard to establish themselves as serious actresses during the 1960s. Despite the pedigree of its creators and performers, many fans thought the real stars of the show were the frocks. It seems the critics agreed: costume designer Joan Wadge picked up a BAFTA and an Emmy for her work on The House of Eliott.

Frock follies
They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders must have been huge fans, because they had a whale of a time spoofing The House of Eliott. In 1993, the pair created The House of Idiot for the French and Saunders comedy sketch show. They even managed to persuade Stella Gonet, Louise Lombard and Cathy Murphy (who played seamstress Tilly Watkins) to join in the fun. The result was a spoof that took the mickey out of The House of Eliott's cheesier moments but still retained enough affection for the drama to please its millions of fans.