The House of Eliott

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The House of Eliott
Series title card
Genre	Costume drama
Creator(s)	Jean Marsh Eileen Atkins
Starring	Stella Gonet Louise Lombard
Theme music composer	Jim Parker
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Language(s)	English
No. of seasons	3
No. of episodes	34
Production
Producer(s)	BBC Television
Location	United Kingdom
Running time	0:50 (approx)
Broadcast
Original channel	BBC 1
Picture format	4:3
Original run	31 August 1991 – 6 March 1994
Links
IMDb profile
TV.com summary

The House of Eliott is a British television series produced and broadcast by the BBC in three series between 1991 and 1994. The series starred Stella Gonet and Louise Lombard as two sisters who start a tailoring business. It was created by Jean Marsh and Eileen Atkins who had previously devised Upstairs, Downstairs.

1 Plot
2 Production
3 DVD release
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Plot

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

In series one Beatrice and Evangeline Eliott are left orphans (Beatrice is thirty and Evangeline, known as Evie, is eighteen) by their father's sudden death and they have to sell the family home as he has left them with no money and by providing them with no education, no means of earning a living. To earn money they make use of their passion for dressmaking and Bea gets a job at a local photography studio run by Jack Maddox, soon to become a friend of the sisters and investor in their new London based dressmaking business "The House of Eliott", helped by the loyal and hardworking seamstress Tilly Watkins. A consistent theme is that of the men in their lives to stop Bea and Evie becoming independent (first their father and then cousin Arthur, executor of the father's estate and Evie's legal guardian, who keeps a rightful inheritance from the girls). Evie also dismisses a suitor who tricks her into missing a flight to Paris 'for her own good' although missing the flight saved Evie's life as the flight (piloted by another beau) crashed on the way to France, killing all aboard. After Arthur's arrest for involvement in drug smuggling he emigrates to Boston, USA, releasing a large amount of cash owed to the sisters from their father's estate allowing the sisters to expand the business and by the end of series one the future looks good, Evie celebrates her twenty-first birthday and is made a partner in the firm, and the firm is creating exclusive designs for the aristocracy.

In series two they go to France to learn more about fashion design. While there Bea marries her former employer and friend, Jack Maddox and they move back to London, leaving Evie alone in Paris to work at the fashion house "Maison Gilles". After a year and an affair with the designer Gilles Caragnac, a new glamorous and grown up Evie returns to work as the designer for the house of Eliott. She celebrates her twenty-first birthday and is made a partner in the firm and begins an affair with a married member of parliament. This causes complications throughout the series. Jack and Beatrice separate due to their inability to agree about whether to have children and the pressure of work as The House of Eliott goes from strength to strength and Jack's new career as a director of moving pictures takes him to Berlin. Meanwhile as the market for couture gowns wanes in the depression of the late 1920s, Beatrice and Evangeline are offered a tour of America showing their new ready-to-wear designs for the department store Sears Roebuck. Bea still has feelings for Jack. Back at the fashion house, after a crisis of confidence Tilly marries Norman Foss, a young chef in a local hotel, and has been reinstated as head of the workroom. She announces her pregnancy in the last episode of the series.

In series three Bea and Jack are reunited and become parents to their daughter Lucy. Meanwhile, Evie has a romantic liaison with artist Daniel Page before they get married.

[edit] Production

The House of Eliott is believed to be the last major BBC drama series to be shot at BBC Television Centre — by the time the series came to an end in 1994, its multi-camera video production methods were being abandoned for most drama series in favour of shooting on film.^[1] Some scenes were shot at Clifton Hill House and Goldney Hall in Bristol.

The series was lampooned by comedy duo Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders in a sketch for their TV series entitled "The House of Idiot".

In the first series, Louise Lombard was nicknamed "the mouse of Eliott" due to the drab clothes her young and supposedly fashion obsessed character was dressed in. This was put right in series two when Evie returned from Paris as a darling and glamorous socialite.