Line #63 Series/YouRangMLord


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/yourangmlord.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350:The "below stairs" characters. Clockwise from left: Mabel, PC Wilson, James, Ivy, Mrs Lipton, Alf.]]
3
4	->''From Mayfair to Park Lane,\
5	You will hear the same refrain,\
6	In every house, again, again,\
7	You rang, M'Lord?''
8
9	''You Rang, M'Lord?'' was a BritCom in the early 1990s. Written by Jimmy Perry and David Croft and featuring many cast members from their previous comedies ''Series/HiDeHi'' and ''Series/ItAintHalfHotMum'', the show was set in a London townhouse in the late 1920s, and centred around an aristocratic family and their servants.
10
11	The pilot, broadcast two years before the series properly began, opens with a prologue set during UsefulNotes/WorldWarI, where a soldier called Alf Stokes (Creator/PaulShane) robs the body of a fallen officer, to the disgust of his reluctant partner in crime James Twelvetrees (Creator/JeffreyHolland). He plans to use the body as a HumanShield but the officer [[NotQuiteDead isn't dead after all]]: recovering in hospital, the Honourable Teddy Meldrum (Creator/MichaelKnowles) [[AccidentalHero thanks them for heroically saving his life]].
12
13	Nine years later, James is Teddy's family's footman with aspirations of promotion to household butler, until Stokes - who's been performing with his daughter Ivy (Creator/SuPollard) in a music hall act - applies for the position with references he blackmailed out of a former employer. Stokes gets Ivy a position as a maid in the household, warning her not to reveal that he's her father, and pointing out to James that anything he might say to discredit him would incriminate himself.
14
15	The rest of the below stairs staff comprise Mrs Lipton the cook (Creator/BrendaCowling), Henry Livingstone the boot-boy (Creator/PerryBenson), and Mabel Wheeler the charwoman (Creator/BarbaraNew), who's looked down on by the other servants. The family are Teddy's older brother, Lord Meldrum (Creator/DonaldHewlett); his senile, alcoholic mother-in-law, Lady Lavender (Creator/MavisPugh); and his two daughters - Poppy (Creator/SusieBrann), a spoiled flapper, and Cissy (Creator/CatherineRabett), a crossdressing, lesbian aviator and socialist. Other recurring characters include the local policeman Constable Wilson (Creator/BillPertwee); Lord Meldrum's mistress, Lady Agatha Shawcross (Creator/AngelaScoular); her jealous husband, Sir Ralph Shawcross (Creator/JohnHorsley); Teddy's AbhorrentAdmirer, Madge Cartwright (Yvonne Marsh); her maid and the love of Teddy's life, Rose (Creator/AmandaBellamy); Charles, the Lord Bishop (Creator/FrankWilliams); Cissy's girlfriend, Penelope Barrington-Blake (Sorel Johnson); and Poppy's on-again, off-again boyfriend, Jerry (Creator/JohnDCollins).
16
17	The four series, 26 episodes in all, are a mix between standard sitcom plotlines (Stokes has stolen some money and hidden it in a vase, but it's been sent to the church auction), ongoing story arcs (Ivy's unrequited love for James, Teddy's obsession with servant girls that leads to him eloping with one) and social commentary on the 1920s class system. The series is reminiscent of both the drama series ''Series/UpstairsDownstairs'' and the ''Literature/JeevesAndWooster'' novels: the latter is {{lampshade\|Hanging}}d several times in the series, most obviously when Stokes responds to Teddy's [[ZanyScheme convoluted plan]] for getting out of his arranged marriage with "I think perhaps, you've been reading too much Creator/PGWodehouse, sir."
18
19	Unusually for a British sitcom, the episodes were 50 minutes long: while this allowed for more complex plots, this has been cited as a reason for why the show has been less frequently repeated than other comedies.
20	----
21	!!This series provides examples of:
22	* ActorAllusion: Creator/FrankWilliams, who played the Bishop, had previously played TheVicar in ''Series/DadsArmy''.
23	* AllGirlsWantBadBoys: At least cruelly strict boys. Ivy.
24	* AllLoveIsUnrequited: Henry loves Ivy, Ivy loves James, James loves Poppy. Madge loves Teddy, Teddy loves Ivy...
25	* BettyAndVeronica: Ivy is Betty and Poppy is Veronica to James's Archie. James loves Poppy and he is oblivious to Poppy's true nature - she toys with his feelings. [[spoiler: This is notably seen in "Meet The Workers" when she pulls Dickie Metcalfe onto her armchair while James is looking. The footman finally realises that Poppy is a bitch and a SpoiledBrat when she tries to embarrass Ivy in "Come To The Ball". This causes James to lose interest in Poppy and ruin her dress using food]]. Ivy truly loves the footman, but he is {{Oblivious To Love}}. [[spoiler: However, in the final episodes, it is implied that James started to reciprocate the affection.]]
26	* {{Bifauxnen}}: Cissy really does rather suit those dinner suits.
27	* BlackComedyRape
28	** Teddy is obsessed with maids and has got Ivy's five predecessors pregnant. It's taken for granted that he'll try the same with Ivy, even though she's horrified at the idea. Teddy also causes a major problem at one of Lord Meldrum's businesses by sexually assaulting two female factory workers.
29	** The staff implies that Cissy is equally threatening, if not worse, though she's a perfect [[WholesomeCrossdresser gentleman]].
30	* BreakTheCutie:
31	** When Poppy was trying to ruin the ball for Ivy.
32	** When Lady Agatha dumped George and made him cry.
33	* BreakTheHaughty: James and Poppy in the servants' ball.
34	* ButtMonkey: Henry and Mabel share the role.
35	* CatchPhrase: About once an episode:
36	** "Least said, soonest mended."
37	** "That'll be nice(!)"
38	** "That's what you ''always'' say, Mrs Lipton."
39	** "...starched aprons and scrubbed shiny faces..."
40	** "Can I have a cup/bit of your excellent tea/cherry cake, Mrs. Lipton?"
41	** "I can't remember the last time I had ..."
42	** (Anyone to Ivy after she announces she's been to Cissy's room) "You didn't stop long, did you?"
43	* {{Cloudcuckoolander}}: Lady Lavender.
44	* CrazyJealousGuy: Sir Ralph, though he has a reason to be.
45	* TheCutie: Ivy, Lady Marigold.
46	* DeadpanSnarker: Mostly Mabel, Henry, Cissy, and Stokes. But James, George, and Teddy also have their moments.
47	* DirtyCommunists: subverted. Stokes and Cissy are both openly communist, and when Cissy takes over the family business in the finale she makes it far more successful by running it "like they do in Russia".
48	* DoggedNiceGuy: Henry for Ivy, James for Poppy.
49	* DoubleStandard: James gets himself in hot water with Poppy for defending Mrs Lipton against Poppy's criticism, claiming that he couldn't stand to see her humiliated, oblivious to the fact that he and Mrs Lipton are equally are harsh towards Henry, Mabel and (sometimes) Ivy.
50	* DoubleStandardRapeFemaleOnMale: Teddy plans to get out of marrying Madge (the employer of his real love, Rose) by letting her believe he's impotent; she has her way with him instead. Although the character seems distressed, it's very much played for laughs. On the other hand, when you remember all the woman he sexually assaulted, this could be viewed as Teddy [[KarmicRape getting a taste of his own medicine]].
51	* EconomyCast: The servant body is surprisingly small, consisting only of Stokes, James, Ivy, Mrs Lipton, Henry and Mabel. Although the house isn't huge, compared to say, Series/DowntonAbbey, you would at least expect there to be more than one maid.
52	* FakeOutMakeOut: James and Ivy in the cinema, when Lady Agatha enters with her lover.
53	* FawltyTowersPlot: Stokes' schemes usually end up as this.
54	* FemmeFatale: Poppy for James.
55	* ForegoneConclusion - After [[spoiler: the family losing most of their fortune]] in the last few episodes things seem to be looking up, and in one of the last scenes Lord Meldrum cheerfully says that he thinks the next year will be a very good one for them. The next year is 1929; the Wall Street crash is only months away.
56	* GenteelInterbellumSetting
57	* GrumpyOldMan: Sir Ralph.
58	* HaughtyHelp: The servants are deferential to their employers, but have their own hierarchy of snobbery. In particular, James the footman and Mrs Lipton the cook can both be quite unpleasant towards Mabel the charwoman and Henry the boot-boy, who are at the bottom of the heap. By contrast, Mr Stokes the butler (nominally at the top of the servant hierarchy) is usually quite nice to the junior staff, only taking a hard line when it's necessary to keep up appearances. A certain amount of the conflict between him and James comes from their differing attitudes on this subject -- Stokes is something of a closet socialist, proud of his working class background and secretly disdainful of his wealthy employers, while James fully believes in the class system and his place it it.
59	* HiddenDepths: James' human side, for example his hopeless love for Poppy or his troubled family background.
60	* IfICantHaveYou: Sir Ralph.
61	* ItsAllAboutMe: Poppy all over.
62	* IWantMyBelovedToBeHappy: In tears, Ivy tells James that because she loves him she'd be happy for him to be with Poppy if Poppy didn't treat him so badly.
63	* TheJeeves: Technically Stokes is a butler but he is very much the Jeeves.
64	* JerkWithAHeartOfGold:
65	** Lord Meldrum can be very harsh towards other people, but he treats his servants well - even the [[ButtMonkey charwoman Mabel]] and helps his daughter Cissy (and the United Workers Party) in her work while he does not like socialistic ideas.
66	** The {{Schemer}} butler Alf is a thief and often pursues financial gain, but he cares for his daughter Ivy, is loyal to Lord Meldrum and his brother in his own way. He also, in contrast to Mrs. Lipton and James, is not a jerk towards the lower-rank servants.
67	* KindheartedSimpleton: Ivy.
68	* LoveDodecahedron: A very complex one, actually. Tedy pursued various servants girls and was loved by Madge Cartwright, Cissy, Teddy and Henry the bootboy were attracted to Ivy, Ivy loves James, James loves Poppy, Poppy had a romance with Dickie Metcalfe, who had a romance with Lady Agatha, Lady Agatha is married to [[CrazyJealousGuy sir Ralph Shawcross]], has an affair with Lord Meldrum and attempted to seduce James. And there is also the LoveTriangle between Mrs. Lipton and Constable Wilson.
69	* LoveMartyr: James for Poppy, Ivy for James, Henry for Ivy, George for Agatha.
70	* MaybeMagicMaybeMundane: Sir Ralph curses Lord Meldrum with a home-made voodoo doll over his affair with Lady Agatha. [[spoiler: Lord Meldrum's business goes under]] and the house is struck with a run of bad luck, it's not clear whether the curse actually worked or if it was all just coincidental.
71	* NaiveNewcomer: Ivy joins the staff in the pilot, having never worked in service before.
72	* PoliticallyActivePrincess: Cissy
73	* RichBitch: Poppy.
74	* RunningGag: Teddy chasing maids, Mabel trying to scrounge food from the other servants and being thwarted, Henry getting smacked round the back of the head.
75	* {{Schemer}}: Alf.
76	* ShoutOut: To ''Film/{{Jaws}}'', of all things: on Cissy's poetry reading evening one of the artists plays the iconic theme on her cello.
77	* ASinisterClue: Inverted. Ivy is left-handed.
78	* TheSpock: James.
79	* SpoiledBrat: Poppy.
80	* StoryArc: To a surprising degree for a SituationComedy.
81	* SuspiciouslySpecificDenial: "You're not [having an affair with another man], are you?" "What woman of my age would want to carry on with a man ''twenty'' years younger than herself?"
82	* TimeSkip: 1918 to 1927 in the pilot, and a "one year later" in the finale.
83	* UpperClassTwit: Teddy, Jerry, most of the friends of the younger members of the household.
84	* UptownGirl: The Honourable Teddy is a gender-inversion to Rose the maid. Although Teddy chases maids in general, his feelings for Rose seem to be genuine. Averted with James and Miss Poppy, although they clearly like each other his sense of propriety and her stubbornness means neither is prepared to do anything about it and the [[UnresolvedSexualTension Sexual Tension]] remains Unresolved.
85	* WelcomeEpisode
86	* WholesomeCrossdresser: Cissy dresses as an English gent throughout the series.

Context Series / YouRangMLord