VeteranLight I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

Kailansorac Clever, believable, and super fun to watch. It totally has replay value.

AutCuddly Great movie! If you want to be entertained and have a few good laughs, see this movie. The music is also very good,

Justina The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

evans-15475 Just binge watched both series of this after not watching it since originally screened and it held up well and I really enjoyed it, but I must comment on Gemma jones acting everything she does from shouting her lines the way she bustles about and her facial expressions just shout out look at me I'm a cockney made good realistic acting it is not and there is absolutely no character development from the 1st to last episode,indeed you could watch the episodes in any order and still enjoy it

Sebastian (sts-26) Yup, it was the seventies that was the golden age of the miniseries, and it was the British who ruled, with PBS acting as as kind of Prince Regent, offering up such televisual feasts as Upstairs Downstairs, Poldark, and the Duchess of Duke Street.To people over a certain age, Gemma Jones will be forever remembered as Louisa Trotter, the plucky lower middle class girl, practically sold into service by her selfish mother, who works her way up in the world to become the proprietress of the best gentle-person's hotel in London, the lover of the Prince of Wales, and a legend in her own time.The Duchess of Duke Street is an artifact of a crossroads of two very special times - the 1960's, when there was a serious interest in the not-too-distant past (the Belle Epoque, the Edwardian Period, the Roaring Twenties, etc.), and the 1980's when the interest in the past had more to do with escapism and romanticism and produced some of the most beautiful visuals in film history. Because of this, The Dutchess is a treat, full of historical detail, with wonderful fictionalizations of Edwardian fact (Prince Edwards practice of taking mistresses for example).The series paved the way for some of the great miniseries to come - including Brideshead Revisited, the 1980's production of Love in a Cold Climate, Flickers, and To Serve Them All My Days - and ensured that a certain segment of television viewers had grand images of Edwardian London and Art Nouveau imprinted in its memory.

valsocool This show was one of the best British series ever imported to the States. I watched every episode and was the most entertained by the story, the relationships, the detail to clothing, the acting, and especially as I was a working chef at the time, the food. Seeing Gemma Jones make her character so real from her very humble beginnings at the bottom of the kitchen staff to become a renowned chef and hotel owner was probably a fantasy of mine in the 20th century. I absolutely loved this show and wish I could get it on DVD. I wish we had more good TV like this today. To me even Upstairs Downstairs which I also loved was not as good because the story was more long winded and drawn out. Would someone please bring back good drama to TV.

barryjwilliams2003 This extraordinary series, so greatly loved by Britons, deserves a new generation to view and be mesmerized by the wonderful acting, writing, direction, and costumes. It is still compelling 25 years after it was made and still ranks as one of the most superb examples of what truly grand television can be. Most of the show feels as if you are sitting front-row in a theatre with the actors within inches of your seat but occasionally the production ventures outside when, perhaps, it starts waxing a tad towards "drawing room soap opera." Still, trust me, this series, and its stalwartly resilient characters, will become forever etched in your heart, as they have in mine.When you are finished with this series, it is truly like losing a good friend. You are more than sad to see it go and lament the loss of anything else to watch. (Yes, there's always "Upstairs, Downstairs," but, for my money, the Duchess has more beauty, comedy and heartwrenching drama than the "Upstairs" gang could even contemplate!)