THE MOVIE

The House of Eliott is one of the BBC’s most popular period drama series. The series was created by Eileen Atkins and Jean Marsh, and it follows thirty year old Beatrice (Stella Gonet) and her eighteen year old sister Evangeline (Louise Lombard) as they enter the world of high fashion during the Roaring Twenties. The series also stars Barbara Jefford, Peter Birch and Aden Gillet to name just a few. The series is comprised on twelve 50 minute episodes spread across six DVDs, here is a more detailed look at each of the episodes.

DISC 1
Episode 1
The first episode is set in the spring of 1920. Bea and Evie’s father passes away and they are the sole beneficiaries of his estate. Unfortunately, their father didn’t have any money and only left them the house and lots of debts. Bea and Evie decide to look for work, but it’s not that easy now that all the men are back from the war. Through a new friend, Penelope, Bea is offered a job as an assistant to photographer Jack Maddox.

Episode 2
Bea’s new job is going well, and Evie has started to perform some charity work and make clothes as well. Jack invites Bea and Evie to a party, the pair design some fabulous gowns to wear and they make quite a statement in front of the high society flappers. Evie learns that her father was having an affair and tries to locate his mistress. Meanwhile Bea finds out that there finances are even worse than they thought, the house is still mortgaged.

DISC 2
Episode 3
Evie sets off for her first day at Aunt Lydie’s dressmaker, Mrs Partini. Meanwhile Bea has lunch with Arthur to discuss their future, they must sell the house and quickly. Arthur offers to let Bea and Evie live with him and Aunt Lydie, but the girls find a small flat in town to share. Bea also gets a job working for Mrs Partini, but Bea soon quits and resigns for Evie as well when Mrs Partini refuses to give them a pay rise.

Episode 4
Aunt Lydia comes around to tell Bea and Evie off about quitting their jobs with Mrs Partini. However, another fashion house run by Mr Duroc offers to hire them when word gets around they have left Mrs Partini. Mr Duroc later finds out that Bea and Evie have been making clothes for his clients, and sacks them. Arthur has also been running off to meet someone in secret, what could he be hiding from the sisters.

DISC 3
Episode 5
Jack encourages Bea and Evie to set themselves up properly in business, starting with their own telephone, they are soon run off their feet with orders. Bea and Evie attend a lively fancy dress party for New Year’s Eve and the sisters decide to start their own business, The House of Eliott. Bea has difficulty finding finance though, none of the banks will give them money. Arthur is also developing a major crush on Evie, but she’s just not interested in him.

Episode 6
Bea goes to see Evie’s godfather, Sir Desmond Gillespie, to see if he can help with their money situation. He’s willing to raise some funds with his investors so long as Arthur goes guarantor for them. So Bea goes to see Arthur against her better judgement, he refuses to help. Jack offers them money, so they make him a director of their company. Meanwhile Arthur gets arrested for some illegal activities that have been occurring in his nightclub.

DISC 4
Episode 7
Bea and Evie move their business downstairs, across the hall from Jack’s studio. Hugo Bunting is responsible for the redecoration and Madge is the new head seamstress. They finally have their grand opening of The House of Eliott. Hugo and Evie spend time together talking about art and design, and are becoming a bit of an item. Jack has also found a celebrity client, actress Francine Bailey, who need a new wardrobe within three weeks.

Episode 8
The business is going really well, Bea and Evie are even starting to produce their own designs. On the other hand, Evie’s love life is getting a little complicated, she’s been seeing both Hugo and Sebastian. Poor Jack is feeling little jealous. Meanwhile Bea’s childhood sweetheart, Phillip, turns up at the shop, he is now the husband of one of her best customers. Aunt Lydie, who is obviously very lonely, also invites Bea over to tea.

DISC 5
Episode 9
The two sisters and their staff are working very hard with lots of orders. However, Jack’s business is in trouble, it seems that no one wants to have their portrait taken anymore. Evie turns 21 and Jack organises a surprise party at his studio. She is also made a full director of the firm. The first board meeting occurs and Desmond tells Bea and Evie to produce their first collection in six months time.

Episode 10
Evie and Bea are still arguing over what sort of designs to put into their show, whether to make traditional styles or Evie’s new designs. Bea wants the designs to be something that people will want to buy, whereas Evie wants to design outrageous stylish clothes. Evie thinks she should move out of the flat and live by herself for a while. Thankfully Desmond’s daughter Rose gets them to reach a compromise with their designs.

DISC 6
Episode 11
Jack and Bea have started spending Sunday’s together, Jack is becoming very keen on Bea and wants to spend more and more time with her but Bea keeps putting him off. Jack introduces Evie to Victor Stride, a legend in fashion journalism, he wants to come visit The House of Eliott to see more of their work. Victor’s writes an article about the fashion house but it is misconstrued by the newspaper and it all turns into a huge scandal.

Episode 12
Bea and Evie find a location for the fashion show. Jack suggests using young aristocratic ladies as the models for the dresses. The collection is a huge success, until one of the other designers, Yolanda Hermaine, declares that the girls have stolen all of her designs. Turns out that Victor was in love with Yolande and told her about the girls designs. Once the mess is sorted out, The House of Eliott is popular again, they are fully booked until the new year.

THE TRANSFER

Video:

The House of Eliott is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1 full frame. The visual transfer is reasonably good. This first series was produced in 1991 and the visuals are relatively crisp and clear, the series was also free of film grain and film artefacts. I had a problem with the lighting though, it just seems all wrong. During many of the indoor scenes, the sets appear positively fluorescent and this doesn’t help portray 1920s London very convincingly. On the other hand, the outdoor scenes looked rather good. Colours in this series are also quite rich and vibrant, flesh tones also appear realistic.

Audio:

All episodes in this series of The House of Eliott feature an English Dolby Digital 2.0 channel soundtrack. The audio transfer is quite good, dialogue is clearly audible throughout all twelve episodes and there were no noticeable audio synch problems. The music composed by Jim Parker is excellent and theme music during the opening and closing credits is quite catchy. Unfortunately there are no subtitles available for this series.

THE EXTRAS

Filmographies
Here you will find very basic filmographies for the main actors in this series (Stella Gonet, Louise Lombard, Barbara Jefford, Aden Gillet and Cathy Murphy) along with their respective mug shots from The House of Eliott.

Production Notes
Four pages of textual information providing details about who created the series, what it is about, how long it ran (1991-1993), the fashions involved and how popular it was.

Picture Gallery
This quite basic and rather lacklustre photo gallery includes production images from the first series. Navigation is manual, but that shouldn’t be a problem given that there are only ten images to be found in this gallery.

1920s’ Fashion Background
More textual information, this time you will find five pages all about the ‘Roaring Twenties’ and the fashions of the time; including flappers, short skirts, short hair and cloche hats.

SUMMARY

The House of Eliott is another classic BBC drama series, it follows two sisters in the world of fashion during the 1920s. The series stars Stella Gonet, Louise Lombart, Barbara Jefford, Peter Birch and Aden Gillet to name just a few. This six disc box set includes all twelve episodes from the first series. The visual and audio transfer are both quite good and there are also a number of extra features to be found, though it puzzles me why the same extras have been included on discs 1, 3 and 5.