Return to The House of Elliott?

[SiHart]

Joseph, will you come in here a minute. http://bit.ly/1f78pX1

When the BBC revived the classic 1970s series Upstairs, Downstairs, it failed to survive the inevitable comparisons made with the rival costume drama Downton Abbey and was axed after nine episodes.

Jean Marsh is determined to avoid such a fate befalling the remake of another classic TV series that she is planning.

Marsh, who co-created Upstairs, Downstairs, is working on a new version of The House of Eliott, the BBC drama about two sisters who set up their own haute couture fashion house in the 1920s.

This time she will make sure the drama is set in a different period to Downton Abbey.

"I want to bring House of Eliott back," Marsh says.

"We've thought about it for a while, but now seems like the right time.

"We'd like to set it in the '40s and '50s rather than the '20s. That way we would be a couple of decades ahead of Downton and wouldn't have to worry about comparisons."

Marsh, 79, created The House of Eliott with Dame Eileen Atkins, also 79, the same writing partner on Upstairs, Downstairs. It received positive reviews and won big ratings when it ran for three series in the early 1990s.

The House of Eliott would lend itself to a new series as it ended without a conclusion to its storyline.

The drama, which starred Stella Gonet and Louise Lombard, was dropped by the BBC in 1994.

Oh please let this happen!

Thank you Joseph, that will be all.

[Rob McCow]

Go Jean Marsh! I hope this happens too.