The most common servant, the lowly
maid-of-all-work, is hardly mentioned whilst the butler gets a whole chapter, and the servants of the industrial North, Wales, and Scotland are largely absent.
Since I don't have an army of cooks, coachmen, laundry and nurse maids, like her Victorian "mistress of the house" I found the closest example to today's parent - mum or dad - seemed to be the "
maid-of-all-work" who does all the jobs in one.
"June Allyson's a film star, isn't she?" Mrs Bolton stared hard at the little maid, and the little
maid-of-all-work smiled back.
At best, many employed one
maid-of-all-work, and at worst, they might do all the housework themselves.
James Albrecht is the wonderfully indefatigable Garry, poor Bradley is the hapless Frederick, Tilly Gaunt is the dizzy scantily clad sex bomb Brooke, while Andrew Pointon as the
maid-of-all-work Tim, along with Nicky Callanan and Sylvester McCoy all play with the kind of ferocious comic zeal that leaves you on the floor.
We also had beautiful lace curtains and velvet draperies, and Mama was a furious housekeeper, keeping everything shined and polished and scrubbed while she bewailed her lot in America at not having a
maid-of-all-work as she had had in England.
