In the U.S., the Public Broadcasting Network has used the Masterpiece Theatre series for 40 years as an umbrella for presenting the best serialized dramas from the UK. These programs are reliably Anglo-centric, well cast, perfectly costumed, and true to their source material. Downton Abbey is simply the most recent presentation with a season-length focus on the events of 1914-18. Over the decades, Masterpiece Theatre has presented numerous programs that were set in or had major links to the Great War. Here are reviews of three of our favorites, all produced in the 1970s, before 500 station cable and program recording systems, when we reserved Sunday evenings for viewing Alistair Cooke and Masterpiece Theatre.

Upstairs Downstairs First Shown on ITV in 1971 This illustrious Masterpiece Theatre series from 1971-1975 effectively created the fixation so many of us have with "heritage porn." We were quickly engrossed by the lives and fortunes of the Bellamys and their servants, whom we met in 1903 and to whom we said goodbye in 1930. The residents of 165 Eaton Place, Belgravia, experienced in those years the deaths of two monarchs, the sinking of the Titanic, the suffragette movement, the Great War, the Roaring Twenties, and the Crash of 1929—the stunning introduction to our modern world. Both upstairs and downstairs shared in the joys and sorrows of those years. The Great War is covered in season 4, when the focus is on the house's two soldiers of the Great War, Captain (Major, by war's end) James Bellamy and Private Edward Barnes, and James's cousin, the VAD nurse Georgina Worsley. THE OFFICER, THE PRIVATE, AND THE VAD NURSE Captain James was a career Guards officer who served in India but left the army to seek his fortune in the City, where he was never happy. He met the guns of August (literally, for he was at Mons) with the vision of Brooke's swimmer "into a cleanness leaping." James represents the misbegotten modern man, however. His paternalistic concern for his men is outmoded, however sincere, and ultimately useless in the carnage of the Somme and Passchendaele. While lying wounded in the shell hole in 1917, James encountered a German officer finishing off the wounded; James shot him before he could kill James. This serious wounding and near death in a Passchendaele shell hole were a detour for him—he spends all the 1920s searching for a lost world, frantically, and ultimately commits suicide in 1929, having lost both his money and that of Rose, the head house parlor maid. His suicide, in James's own note, "finished what the German officer should have done" in 1917. James's military experience in the Great War is the central metaphor in "Upstairs Downstairs" tolling a dirge for the 19th century and the aristocracy. Private Barnes, the footman Edward, however, is the resilient, surviving modern man. While James's physical (and spiritual) wounds exemplify one type of survivor of the war, Edward bears the scars of shellshock. His strength to overcome that and face the future is bolstered by his meaningful marriage to Daisy (housemaid) and his supportive "family" of the other downstairs servants. Edward has a difficult time in the 1920s also—he is hopeful that the postwar "fit for heroes" society will help him and Daisy find independent work, but the reality finds them destitute and in need of returning to 165 Eaton Place. They do get back on their feet there and by 1930 move on to work for Miss Georgina in her household as the newly married Marchioness of Stockbridge. Private Barnes is now the chauffeur to a wealthy marquess, heir to a dukedom. Captain James had no meaningful marriage, and he resisted the understanding of his family, who tried to help him. Georgina begins the war as a cheery debutante, enjoying the attentions of young lieutenants on leave and seeing them off at the depot. She encounters a transport of severely wounded soldiers and decides to train as a nurse. Her stalwart service at the front and her embracing the Roaring Twenties in full swing as a "Bright Young Thing" make her the female icon of the war and its results. Like Edward, ultimately her identity as a true modern enables her to survive both the war and the Twenties. They are both veterans in all senses of the word. This series handles the Great War with depth and knowledge in many areas, political, military, and social. There are deaths in battle and from influenza; we experience Belgian refugees and doomed aviators. All is presented with sensitivity and realism. It is more than worthy of the epithet classic. Kimball Worcester

The Duchess of Duke Street First Shown on the BBC in 1976 The Duchess of Duke Street is a 31-episode, 2-season drama which takes place between 1900 to 1925 and does an outstanding job of presenting the sweeping changes that took place in British society over those years. It focuses mostly on working and middle class characters (although in one episode Lord Kitchener makes a brief appearance!) The five episodes that cover the years of the Great War are Episodes 6 through 10 in Series 2. The "duchess" of Duke Street is Louisa Trotter, a former kitchen maid modeled on London character Rosa Lewis, who, through hard work, toughness, and a few noble connections has risen to be the co-owner and manager of an upscale London hotel. Louisa is played by Gemma Jones, who also portrayed Princess Vicky in The Fall of Eagles, reviewed here last month. As with most BBC presentations, the acting is nuanced and the characterizations, especially in the supporting cast, are outstanding. Louisa is a complex character, and because of her success in "rising above her class" she often covers her insecurity with a brittleness that is not always likeable. She is surrounded at the hotel by marvelously eccentric and well played staff members, including the aged butler Merryman (John Welsh), who served with Lord Raglan in the Crimea, middle-aged porter Starr (John Cater), who fought with Kitchener at Omdurman, and retired Major Smith-Barton (Richard Vernon), who works as greeter and general assistant and is called to service with the War Office when hostilities break out. Louisa's long-time lover and silent partner in the hotel, Lord Haslemere (Christopher Cazenove), enlists in the Coldstream Guards but over the years of the war his initial enthusiasm fades to a quiet sense of futility and loss. He and Louisa agree to marry after the war but sadly Haslemere dies from his injuries before they can do so. Through the war period episodes, the series does an excellent job dramatizing the characters' changing attitudes toward the war. In Episode 6, "Your Country Needs You," Louisa nails a picture of the Kaiser upside-down over the toilet as war is declared and her staff members bring out their old medals. Life gets tougher as the hotel deals with rationing, staff shortages, and later a possible bomb in the garden from a zeppelin raid. The ever-practical Louisa learns that things are not always what they seem as she hands a white feather to a potential guest, only to learn he has already received the Military Cross and lost his foot in combat. She treats with disdain another young guest who works at the War Office, unaware that he is a valuable British spy whose "vacations" are trips to Germany. It's definitely possible to watch just the Great War period episodes and enjoy them for their portrayal of the times, but be advised that without a little online research you won't know the full back story and complex relationships among the characters going back more than a decade before the war begins. Also, each episode is much more interconnected with prior ones than, for example, in The Fall of Eagles, a series in which episode can be viewed as a stand-alone. Diane Rooney

Testament of Youth First Shown on the BBC in 1979 Cheryl Campbell does a magnificent job portraying Vera Brittain in this five-part presentation that closely follows her tragic and haunting war memoir. Trip-Wire readers are probably familiar with the general story of the educated middle class young woman, who serves in England, Malta, and the Western Front as a VAD nurse, meanwhile losing her brother, fiance, and best pal in the war. Viewing this series, however, yields rewards beyond a reading of the famous text. I found that despite the deletion of many the story's details (out of necessity, I'm sure), by putting faces on the participants, timbre to their voices, and showing their meaningful posture and movements, the video treatment of Vera's story strengthened my personal bonds and identification with the characters. I suspect this effect would have been stronger had I viewed the same presentation in person, on stage. This is the reverse of what I usually find when watching filmed or live versions of a good book. The portrayals usually don't counterbalance the missing narrative and descriptions. By the way, a new filming of Testament of Youth is in the works. I'm dubious that it will be done with the same sensitivity and respect for Brittain's memoir as this series. A couple of caveats about the 1979 series, though. Apparently, the only DVD-set available for purchase is in the UK format, so U.S. viewers will need the universal-type player. Also, you might want to skip the last episode—it's sort of a postscript to the war story—unless you long for an hour's worth of feminist and pacifist doctrine. MH