On PBS, this old house is a testament to social ranking

If you ever get a chance to experience life in an Edwardian manor house, here’s a tip: Try for a part in the upper class.

“It was absolutely wonderful for the most part,” said John Olliff-Cooper, who was Sir John, master of the house.

But two scullery maids -- faced with scrubbing pots for 18 hours a day -- didn’t see it the same way. They left. One lasted only three days.

“Manor House,” a six-part series filmed at Manderston, a 109-room Scottish mansion, will air over three nights this week on PBS.

“This house has become a time machine,” narrator Derek Jacobi says at the start of each program. “For three months, one ordinary family and 12 volunteers are living as they would have at the dawn of the 20th century. They’re finding out what it means to be masters and servants, living upstairs and downstairs in a grand manor house.”

It was filmed from August to November in 2001 and aired as “Edwardian Country House” on British television in spring 2002. The U.S. version has been edited differently, adds more historical context and is longer, said Beth Hoppe, executive producer at Thirteen / WNET New York.

Hoppe also has executive-produced “Frontier House” and “The 1900 House,” considered part of PBS’ “hands-on history” series. The PBS approach to reality television is to take modern-day people and see how they would cope with everyday life in another time and place.

There were about 8,000 applications for the “Manor House” project. Originally, Anna Olliff-Cooper was interested in being the lady’s maid but “got her whole family on board” and ended up as the lady of the house, Hoppe said.

Some applied because of an interest in history while others wanted a connection to their relatives who had been servants, to understand what their lives had been like. Applications weren’t limited to families, as in other projects, Hoppe said, so people of various ages could apply.

“We want people who are interested in history and will gain something from the experience,” she said. “It’s like fitting a puzzle together.”

The Edwardian period was chosen, she said, because “the thought was that this time of innocence before World War I would be interesting to explore. It was a time when people could buy their way into the aristocracy. You could be someone you weren’t -- but there was this incredibly rigid hierarchy.”

All participants were given rule books telling them how to dress, how to behave and what their duties would be.

To keep mansion life running smoothly, the servants worked long days, had little time off and were told when to take their weekly baths. Lower servants were not allowed to speak to the family and were expected to avert their eyes and do their best to be invisible when a family member passed by.

“It’s a lot of hard work. It takes a phenomenal amount of organization to run a big house,” said Hugh Edgar, who as butler had to see that things ran smoothly. “I knew that in theory but it was much harder than I bargained for in terms of physical effort.

“One of the hardest things is all of the walking.... And at mealtimes, you stand very straight and very still. That’s very tiring. And you are wearing leather shoes with a thin sole. My feet hurt for eight months after I left the house.”

Rob Daly participated as second footman -- Charlie Clay was chosen as first footman because he was taller. Daly’s day began at 6 a.m. and often ended at midnight, filled with tasks of setting up and clearing tables and washing “glass, silvers and cutlery” for the many meals eaten by the family and servants.

“It proved to me that if you flog me like a dog, I can keep going,” he said. “I was quite surprised by my energy.”

Much of Edwardian life revolved around meals, with the family’s breakfast at 9:30 a.m., a five-course lunch at 1 p.m., high tea at 5 p.m., and a multi-course dinner at 8, he said.

“Food was difficult,” said Anna Olliff-Cooper, mistress of the house. “You spent a vast amount of time eating. But as a woman, you are in a corset very tightly laced.... No matter how much the chef may make large meals, I simply wasn’t able to eat it. Food was ladled in cream and fried. It was quite an assault on the gallbladder.” Lady Anna, who in her 21st century life is an emergency-room doctor, added, “They must have fallen like flies from coronary disease.”

There was frequent conflict over the food. In the fourth episode when Sir John criticizes the food in front of guests, the chef takes revenge and prepares an Edwardian-style dish of a pig’s head, carried into the dining room and sliced before the family.

Ongoing tensions included the relationship between the tutor and servants; the hall boy and scullery maid trying to conceal their affair; a revolt when the servants demand better working conditions; and difficulties faced by Miss Anson, an unmarried woman living in her sister’s home.

“There was a definite pecking order,” said Lady Anna. “Men were always more important than women, married women were more important than single women, and children basically don’t matter. Everything follows from that. Everyone knew their place and it was ruthlessly enforced.”

Her son, Guy, as an Edwardian child, spent more time with the servants than with his parents and experienced life upstairs and downstairs. “It was a lot more relaxed downstairs. Upstairs was about formality and if you don’t do this, you’ll get in trouble,” he said.

“At the end of three months, I was distant from my children and had to change back,” said Lady Anna.

“It wasn’t a nice time to live with such hard work and only one bath a week,” said second footman Rob. “But everyone in the group reinforced the hierarchy. That’s what society at the time imposed on you. On the modern side, we formed quite a close family bond and everyone got along quite well. But it’s kind of sad that a system can grind you down and you end up not fighting it but reinforcing it.”

One aspect of a very strict and hierarchal society, said Mr. Edgar, the butler, is that there is less communication. “No one can speak to you without permission. If it displeases you, you ask them to keep quiet.... It made me realize how lucky we are to be so free. We can talk to each other now, be friendly without losing respect.”

But it was harder to return to the 21st century than it had been to travel back in time.

“After three months of beautiful architecture and fineness and our association with Edgar [the butler] and Morrison [the lady’s maid],” said John Olliff-Cooper, “we found ourselves thrust on commuter trains and swearing about us and it seemed to us that in some ways we lost something.”

Edwardian society was strict, said Daly, “but despite the menial jobs, many pressures were removed. The day after we finished the program, we were back in our jobs, facing mortgages and phone bills, in crowded streets. It was almost threatening.”

Many of the participants have kept in touch with each other and value the friendships made and their experiences.

“I learned about myself and had time to think about what I wanted to do,” said Daly. “I saw how the servants’ lives were wasted -- lives spent to make sure someone else was successful. We have opportunities in the 21st century and I want to make the most of them.”

Daly is working as a researcher for “Regency House Party,” the next “hands-on history” television program, which will take modern participants to the time of Jane Austen, in the summer of 1811.

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‘Manor House’

Where: KCET, KVCR

When: Tonight, Tuesday and Wednesday, 8-10 p.m.

Rating: The network has rated it TV-PG (may be inappropriate for young children).