Latest news with #Upstairs
Otago Daily Times
05-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Otago Daily Times
Obituary: Jean Marsh, actress
Jean Marsh in a publicity portrait for the British TV drama series, Upstairs, Downstairs, ITV, 1976. Jean Marsh and close friend and collaborator Dame Eileen Atkins created not one but two hit TV series, Upstairs Downstairs and The House Of Eliott. While different in subject matter — the former focused on the servants quarters of an Edwardian home while the latter told the tale of sisters who established a fashion house in the 1920s, each shared female starring roles, great scripts and exceptional acting. Marsh was born in London but raised in Stoke Newington. She left school at 15 to train as a dancer, before building a career in repertory theatre as an actress. Her big break came in 1959 when she appeared on Broadway with John Gielgud in his production of Much Ado About Nothing. That same year she moved into television and during the 1960s appeared in such shows as The Saint and Doctor Who. Marsh had a long association with Doctor Who: as well as being married to the third Doctor, Jon Pertwee, for five years, Marsh played Joan of England in The Crusade; Sara Kingdom, a companion of the First Doctor; and was a villain opposite the Seventh Doctor. Upstairs Downstairs first aired in 1971, and its five series earned two Bafta awards and Marsh won an Emmy for best actress. At its peak, viewership exceeded 18 million. The House of Eliott (1991-94), which the duo produced, proved equally as popular, rating highly and selling worldwide. In 2010 Marsh and Atkins remade Upstairs Downstairs, in which Marsh reprised her role as parlourmaid Rose Buck, but the show was overshadowed by another period blockbuster Downton Abbey. It was cancelled after its second season. Her film credits included Cleopatra (1963), The Eagle Has Landed, Return To Oz and Willow. Jean Marsh was made an OBE in 2012. She died on April 13 aged 90. — APL/agencies
San Francisco Chronicle
02-07-2025
- Business
- San Francisco Chronicle
A hip Oakland bar shut down after 5 days. But controversy had been brewing for months
It was set to be Oakland's coolest new cafe and bar: an acclaimed chef serving top-tier coffee and snacks during the day, then wine to a soundtrack of vinyl records until 2 a.m. It looked like a residential apartment. That's because it was one. In early March, chef Andres Giraldo Florez opened Upstairs in the second-floor unit above his popular restaurant Snail Bar at 4935 Shattuck Ave. Customers poured in on opening day, posting Instagram selfies while sitting among mismatched pillows on couches and dancing with glasses of wine as the sun set. Five days later, city officials abruptly shut it down, citing a lack of permits. For weeks leading up to the closure, Florez, city staff and neighbors had been clashing over the unusual proposal to turn a residential apartment into a bar. City staff wrangled with complications such as an ice machine in a bedroom closet and a 'problematic' bathtub, according to emails the Chronicle obtained under the Public Records Act. Depending on who you asked, the challenges of Upstairs represented another example of city bureaucracy hampering a small business — or an owner with a history of flouting regulations. In an interview with the Chronicle, Florez acknowledged that he opened Upstairs without all of the required permits. He was frustrated, he said, by the slog of a city process that left him paying rent without bringing in income for months. 'We were just trying to open and then fix things as we go,' he said. 'I got a lot of bills that pile up if I don't operate.' The City of Oakland did not respond to questions for this article. It's the latest chapter in a line of permitting snafus for Florez. Snail Bar's original location in the back of a classic car dealership in Oakland closed after three days due to permitting issues in 2020. Since the restaurant opened on Shattuck Avenue in 2021, there have been 10 code enforcement issues, according to city records, including illegal construction and noise ordinance violations. The busy restaurant has drawn ire from neighbors, several of whom have since sued Snail Bar and its landlord over noise and other complaints. For 22 years, the second-floor space overlooking Shattuck Avenue was the home of Chris Cantor. He moved out last year amid a long feud with Snail Bar. Cantor alleged he was forced out and sued the restaurant as well as the building's property management company, Advent Properties, and landlord Gee Whiz LLC for wrongful eviction. They've denied his allegations in court. The case is set for a September trial. With the apartment vacant, Florez announced last fall that he'd open a business there in part to relieve crowds at Snail Bar. But he soon learned from the city that converting an apartment wholly to commercial use would violate state and city housing laws. So Florez came up with a new plan: preserving a two-bedroom apartment with its own kitchen and bathroom on one side, connected by a hallway to Upstairs on the other. For months, the Upstairs team sent frustrated emails to the city about the status of their application. After a nearly six-hour phone call with Florez in February, Oakland city planner Danny Thai signed off on Upstairs' plans, according to emails. Thai reminded Florez's team that the next step was to secure a building permit. Then, Upstairs' designer 'suddenly' asked if the business needed a permit to host DJs playing vinyl music, Thai wrote in an email. Oakland businesses that serve alcohol, offer dancing and operate later than 11 p.m., like Upstairs would, are required to get a cabaret permit. 'Andres did say that he has been slapped on the wrist and would like to do things the right way,' Cristy Johnson, a deputy director for business development in the city's Economic & Workforce Development Department, wrote in a Feb. 10 email to city staff. Florez told her that the space would be sound-proofed to avoid noise complaints from neighbors. 'What the heck does this mean?' Candell wrote in a Feb. 11 email to Thai. 'Do you know how hard it is and what little resources we have available to enforce a nighttime noise issue?' Other issues bubbled up. A Planning & Building supervisor told Thai that the kitchen in the residential apartment needed a stove and a fridge, 'not a hot plate.' And Thai noticed something else: a bathtub. 'Bathtubs are not appropriate for a commercial activity,' he emailed Florez on Feb. 11. Florez responded with a photograph of the bathtub in question. It was covered with a patterned cloth and decorated with a ceramic vase. 'The tub is not a tub that's just a table,' he wrote. 'You will need to remove that bathtub. It is not a table,' Thai told Florez. 'The fact that this 'bathtub' exists in a commercial area is problematic.' (Florez hired a plumber to remove the bathtub.) Whether anyone would actually live in the apartment, and if the city asked for proof of that, is unclear. Florez declined to answer if he planned to use the apartment for a residential purpose. By late February, Florez still hadn't filed for the required building permit, which usually takes at least four months to process, according to an email from Thai. Thai again reminded Florez and his team that they can only operate once they complete that step. Meanwhile, neighbors pressed the city to look more closely at Upstairs. They argued that Florez didn't intend to maintain the residential apartment. They filed an appeal, which the city denied. 'It's your job to help people and guide applicants successfully through the application process, but there have to be limits to what you will overlook,' Cantor wrote to city staff. 'Even for small business owners, even if they are budding celebrity chefs.' The next week, a splashy SFGate article announced Upstairs would open on March 7 with specialty coffee, natural wine and a 'state-of-the-art DJ booth.' (The Chronicle and SFGate are both owned by Hearst but operate separate newsrooms.) 'Nobody's ever going to live up here peacefully,' Florez told SFGate. The article circulated among city staff and neighbors. Cantor sent city employees a screenshot of what he claims was supposed to be a bedroom but was billed as a public 'lounge room.' He questioned whether anyone would actually live in the 'imaginary' apartment that shares walls with an all-day cafe that serves alcohol and plays music late at night. He asked the city attorney to scrutinize the city's handling of the case. Florez declined to confirm to the Chronicle whether the 'lounge room' is on the residential or commercial side of the space. 'It's still something we're working on zoning wise,' he said. Mark Romoser, an Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) program analyst for the city, saw potential accessibility issues in the published photographs. 'It sure doesn't look accessible from the pics in this article. It's even called 'Upstairs,'' he wrote. 'There must be an elevator out of frame, or else how could (Planning & Building) have granted permits for it?' (There was no elevator.) The city also received an accessibility complaint from Richard Skaff of nonprofit Designing Accessible Communities, which has filed dozens of ADA lawsuits against businesses, asking whether Upstairs had met requirements such as access from the ground to second floor. With the increased media attention, city inspectors flagged internally, again, that Upstairs did not have a building permit. 'Use of the upstairs area should cease until the required permits, inspections and approvals have taken place,' David Miles, principal inspection supervisor for the city's Planning & Building Department, emailed an inspector and other staff on March 4. The city opened a code enforcement case, according to records. Three days later, Upstairs debuted anyway. Neighbors emailed city staff that crowds spilled out onto the sidewalks that first night. 'The upstairs business represents an escalation of unpermitted activity and the impact on the neighborhood and public safety is going to be significant,' they wrote. Inside City Hall, Candell again admonished the planning department for failing to 'put some guard rails on approvals to hedge against issues that are likely to come up.' Zoning manager Robert Merkamp told him that the department had done what it could within its scope, even if 'sometimes we suspect they're not giving it to us completely straight.' On March 11, the city sent a cease and desist letter stating Upstairs was operating without proper permits in violation of city codes and had to close immediately. 'We're trying to be patient but we are being hit (with) overwhelming costs,' Florez emailed city officials, including a councilmember, that day. 'I would really appreciate some urgency here as I have 6 employees.' Some city officials, including City Councilmember Janani Ramachandran, checked in about Upstairs' approval, records show. And despite Florez's frustration, planning and zoning staff told him in emails that his process was relatively quick. While Upstairs remains temporarily closed, Florez plans to start construction to bring the business into compliance with city regulations. He has to install a three-compartment sink (a health department stipulation that requires new plumbing, he said) and replace tiled countertops with stainless steel. A pending building application filed on March 6 also proposed constructing a new wall to divide the unit, commercial kitchen facilities and a dining area, at an estimated cost of $20,000, according to city records. He applied for a cabaret permit for Snail Bar though he said it's on hold until Upstairs is approved. He hopes to reopen Upstairs in August. Yet the business hasn't been completely quiet. On Sunday night, during Snail Bar's fourth anniversary party, social media posts showed people congregating in the still-closed Upstairs space, drinking wine while a DJ played music.
Telegraph
19-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
‘The dish of the year': William Sitwell reviews Upstairs at Landrace, Bath
It was the most fabulously delicious, gracefully homemade, perfectly cooked and gloriously un- Instagrammable dish of the year. The sausage and porcini ragu turned through fettuccine would vex the monkeys of social media. Faced with its various shades of brown, from tan brogue to croissant, autumn puddle to tawny owl, the influencers would be wrestling with their filters until their phones started smoking. Which, in an era where restaurants are urged to cook dishes that can market themselves in all their sparkling, colourful self-aware vanity, made it all the more tasty. But then Upstairs is above the Landrace bakery in Bath, and this is the sort of bakery that bakes and sells actual bread, as opposed to the gut-destroying fakery peddled by most supermarkets. So their heart and soul is in the right place, as is their design aesthetic. In fact, it's a bit like that pasta dish, once showered in Parmesan: the sepia tones of the wooden floor, wooden slatted divides and the sides of the kitchen pass, on the shelves of which sit collections of ancient bottles and candles on pewter dishes, the ceiling fans with dark brown paddles as blades, ivory white walls and paintings with shades of cubism and futurism. Even the staff are dressed in beige aprons. It's my kind of mood board. And my kind of food. It's British with a hint of Med, a well-crafted offering of ingredients given gentle pushes towards greatness, rather than smothered in a cheffy muddle. Cantabrian anchovies, that great appetiser de nos jours, sort-of spatchcocked and unusually still with their tails, were in a herby oil with flecks of lemon rind. Large cuts of ham came with a pile of celeriac remoulade, silky smooth save for the crunch of the raw vegetable and delivering just the right balance of seasoning from the capers in the sauce. A dish of three scallops (each with their orange coral intact, which too many chefs discard) was cooked in butter just so, with a hint of green from chopped parsley and cleverly elevated with the umami hit of bottarga. Then came that wonderful, earthy and rich sausage ragu, before two fabulously messy dishes of monkfish and pork. Emily's sturdy piece of fish was nicely caramelised, hiding under cubes of salsify and spinach; hearty and soulful, as was my pork chop. It was huge, with crisp skin, sliced along the plate alongside a jumble of broad beans and waxy ratte potatoes, cooked and then squished. Next time my life is laboured by a tasting menu where various clean-looking but lonely bits of protein and veg stand to attention on a plate before a sauce is introduced in an attempt at unity, I'll show them these dishes. This is food, this is how we need to eat; cooked with passion and confidence and served with generosity. What with the bread at the start, we had very possibly over-ordered. But then the words Paris-Brest jumped out from the menu. Sounding like some Gallic poultry but named after the cycling race (just the thing after you've cycled for some 800 miles), this was a version to make its inventor Louis Durand proud. It was correctly round, flaky and fluffy with cream, had added crunch with shards of caramelised biscuit and nuts on top and was dripping in rich chocolate sauce. A friend of mine has just returned from Switzerland where she dined in a smart establishment on the banks of Lake Lucerne. Course one was entitled 'Low Temperature Carrot'. I'll see her gastronomic aberration and raise it with my brown ragu and a dinner at Landrace, which, with great service and wine from the Loire, bottled in house, provides virtue, flavour and fun.
Yahoo
26-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
‘Willow' star and ‘Upstairs, Downstairs' co-creator Jean Marsh dead at 90
English actress Jean Marsh, known for her roles in the fantasy film "Willow" and the ITV series "Upstairs, Downstairs," has died at age 90 due to complications from dementia. Her longtime agent, Lesley Duff, confirmed the news to Fox News Digital, saying it had been "my pleasure to represent Jean for many years and she will be greatly missed." Duff also provided a statement from Marsh's close friend, director Michael Lindsay-Hogg, who said, "Jean died peacefully in bed looked after by one of her very loving carers." "We were very close for 60 years," he added. "She was as wise and funny as anyone I ever met, as well as being very pretty and kind, and talented as both an actress and writer. An instinctively empathetic person who was loved by everyone who met her. We spoke on the phone almost every day for the past 40 years." Val Kilmer, 'Top Gun' And 'Batman Forever' Star, Dead At 65 Marsh began her acting career in the 1950s, appearing on British and American television, including an episode of "The Twilight Zone" titled "The Lonely" in 1959. Read On The Fox News App She also appeared opposite Laurence Olivier in "Moon and Sixpence" and Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton in "Cleopatra," among other film roles. Younger audiences may recognize her most from her roles as the evil Queen Bavmorda in 1988's "Willow," alongside the late Val Kilmer, and "Return to Oz" as the witch Mombi. Marsh's TV career also included co-creating the hit ITV series "Upstairs, Downstairs," following the wealthy Bellamy family and their servants, including her character, Rose Buck. Click Here To Sign Up For The Entertainment Newsletter The role earned Marsh four Emmy nominations and one win in 1975 for outstanding lead actress in a drama series. "Upstairs, Downstairs" ran from 1971 to 1975 and was later revived in 2010, with Marsh reprising her role. Marsh was appointed Office of the Order of the British Empire in 2012 for her services to drama. Other roles throughout her lengthy career include parts in films like Alfred Hitchcock's "Frenzy," "Dark Places" and "The Changeling" as well as television roles on "The Saint," "I Spy" and "Doctor Who." Like What You're Reading? Click Here For More Entertainment News She also had a career onstage in London's West End, and wrote five novels. Marsh's last credited onscreen role was in the Disney+ revival series of "Willow," reprising her role as Queen Bavmorda. Born on July 1, 1934, in Stoke Newington, London, Marsh was briefly married to "Doctor Who" star Jon Pertwee and later had relationships with Albert Finney, Kenneith Haigh and Michael Lindsay-Hogg. "I have had partners who I have thought about marrying and who have thought about marrying me," she told The Telegraph in 2010. "The problem was that we never thought it at the same time. I should have taken the advice of my mother, who told me 50 years ago that I should marry and settle down."Original article source: 'Willow' star and 'Upstairs, Downstairs' co-creator Jean Marsh dead at 90
The Guardian
15-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Jean Marsh obituary
Jean Marsh, who has died aged 90, created the classic 1970s television series Upstairs, Downstairs with her friend and fellow actor Dame Eileen Atkins. As well as co-writing the series, Marsh played the part of Rose Buck, a parlour maid, who became something of a sex symbol in the early 70s and returned as the housekeeper when the series was revived nearly four decades later. The period drama, 'the everyday story of Edwardian folk', as the Guardian described it at the time, followed the intertwined lives of the upper-class Bellamy family and their servants, at 165 Eaton Place in Belgravia, London. Set between 1903 and 1930, the series documented a period of immense social change. Marsh and Atkins had originally conceived of a story centred around two maids. Both from working-class families, the actors wanted to create a drama that depicted characters with backgrounds more like their own. They came up with the idea 'over a Sunday lunch'. The Forsyte Saga was then a popular television drama series. 'It was beautiful, of course,' Marsh recalled. 'The clothes, the houses ... But we thought ... who is cooking the food and ironing the clothes? At the time, apart from Dickens there was nothing written about the working classes. And I was determined to be the maid and not the lady.' Their idea was developed by the television producers John Hawkesworth and John Whitney and taken up by London Weekend Television. Upstairs, Downstairs ran for five series on ITV between 1971 and 1975, winning two Baftas. For her role as the hard-working parlour maid, Marsh won an Emmy for outstanding actress in a drama series (1975) as well as two Golden Globe nominations. Audiences in the UK peaked at 18 million and the show was sold to 80 countries. The two repeated the success with The House of Eliott, about two sisters who set up a fashion house in the 20s, which ran for three BBC series (1991-94). However, when they proposed a re-make of Upstairs Downstairs for the 21st century – this time on the BBC – the series (2010-12) was overshadowed by ITV's Downton Abbey. Marsh, the only member of the original cast, reprised her role as Buck, and Atkins played an 'upstairs' character, Maud, Lady Holland. Despite critical acclaim, with Keeley Hawes and Ed Stoppard in the starring roles, the series could not capture the same audiences as Downton and was axed after nine episodes. Marsh's big screen credits included Alfred Hitchcock's Frenzy (1972), The Eagle Has Landed (1976) and the fantasy films Return to Oz (1985) and Willow (1988), but Rose Buck is the role for which she will be best remembered. Born in London, Jean grew up in Stoke Newington. Her father, Henry, was a printer's assistant, and her mother, Emmeline (nee Bexley), a parlour maid 'in a big pub hotel' who lived to the age of 102; Jean later described her as the prototype for her Upstairs, Downstairs character. (Atkins's father, meanwhile, had been a chauffeur and an under-butler in 'a grand household'.) The Marsh family of four lived in two rooms with no kitchen and no bathroom. Jean and her elder sister, Yvonne, shared a bed. She left school at 15 to train as a dancer. 'If you were very working class in those days you weren't going to think of a career in science,' she told the Guardian in 1972. 'You either did a tap dance or you worked in Woolworth's.' She quickly built a career in acting, working first in repertory theatre, in Huddersfield and Nottingham. In 1959 she went to the US to appear on Broadway with John Gielgud in his production of Much Ado About Nothing. One of her first television roles was alongside Laurence Olivier in the US television film The Moon and Sixpence (1959), playing his Tahitian mistress. 'People would say: 'If it turned out you were an earl's daughter we wouldn't be surprised ... I was, like: 'Excuse me, but I am actually a scrubber.'' She went on to appear in The Saint (1964-68), The Tomorrow People (1994) and, much later, the 2007 BBC adaptation of Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility, playing Mrs Ferrars. She also had a long association with Doctor Who, appearing as Lady Joanna in the 1965 serial The Crusade, Morgaine in Battlefield in 1989, and the companion Sara Kingdom in the 12-part The Daleks' Master Plan in 1965-66, with William Hartnell as the first Doctor. She reprised the role in a series of Doctor Who audio plays between 2008 and 2016. Her friendship with Atkins was a long collaboration. They met in their 30s, Atkins just divorced from the actor Julian Glover and Marsh separated from the actor Kenneth Haigh after a 10-year relationship. 'We were exactly the same age, both sort-of working class and we were always laughing,' Marsh said. She was married for five years from 1955 (when she was 19) to the actor Jon Pertwee, who later played Doctor Who; as well as the relationship with Haigh, she had an affair with Albert Finney and a long-term partnership with the film director Michael Lindsay-Hogg. He said that they had spoken by phone 'almost every day for the last 40 years'. Marsh enjoyed her image as a sex symbol and was fond of speaking mischievously in interviews. At 78, she said: 'Men look at me. They might be very happily married but they just think: 'Nice'.' Marsh was appointed OBE in 2012. Her sister Yvonne died in 2017. Jean Lyndsey Torren Marsh, actor and writer, born 1 July 1934; died 13 April 2025
