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- The Duchess of Duke Street is a BBC television drama series set in London between the late 1800s and 1925. It was created by John Hawkesworth, previously the producer of the ITV period drama Upstairs, Downstairs. It starred Gemma Jones as Louisa Leyton Trotter, the eponymous "Duchess" who works her way up from servant to renowned cook to proprietor of the upper-class Bentinck Hotel in Duke Street, St. James's, in London. The story is loosely based on the real-life career of Rosa Lewis (née Ovenden), the "Duchess of Jermyn Street", who ran the Cavendish Hotel in London, at the corner of Duke St, St. James's. When the show first aired, there were many people who still remembered her, as she lived until 1952. According to census returns, she was born in Leyton, Essex, to a watchmaker. In the series, Louisa's family name is Leyton, and her father is a clockmaker. The programme lasted for two series totalling 31 episodes, shown in 1976 and 1977. Shown later on PBS in the United States, it was nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Limited Series in 1980. The theme music was composed by Alexander Faris. (en)
- La duchessa di Duke Street (The Duchess of Duke Street) è una serie televisiva britannica in 31 episodi trasmessi per la prima volta nel corso di 2 stagioni dal 1976 al 1977. È una serie drammatica ambientata a Londra tra il 1900 e il 1935 e incentrata sulle vicende della cuoca Louisa Trotter che lavora al Bentinck Hotel di Duke Street, Marylebone. La storia è vagamente basata sulla vita di Rosa Lewis, la "Duchessa di Jermyn Street", che gestiva l'Hotel Cavendish a Londra. (it)
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- When Louisa's brother returns from his travels after a long time away, his doting mother talks her reluctant daughter into hiring him, as the hotel is short-staffed. Arthur soon antagonises the longtime servants, precipitating an ugly family quarrel after Louisa discharges him. (en)
- Louisa rouses Charlie out of his depression after Margaret's death. Meanwhile, Sir Martin Mallory, a famous but aging actor, seduces admirer and hotel chambermaid Violet. When Louisa finds out, she sacks her without a reference, forcing the poor girl to try to take up streetwalking. An understanding police inspector persuades Louisa to relent a little and provide a reference and assistance finding more respectable employment. (en)
- The funeral of King Edward VII provides the occasion for a visit from Louisa's former employer, Lord Henry Norton. As Charlie Haslemere's sole surviving relative, he tells Louisa it is time for Charlie to marry - and he thinks he has found the right woman. One snag: as soon as Charlie's engagement to Margaret Wormold is announced, Irene Baker sues him for breach of promise. Louisa and Merriman are required to testify in the court case. (en)
- Louisa tells Mary, Starr, and Merriman Lottie is her daughter. She has the Major show the young woman the sights of London, but inevitably, rumours swirl around her. Brian returns, embittered by the war and irritated by Mary's attempts to help him. He leaves, breaking Mary's heart. Finally, Louisa decides to send her daughter to a Swiss finishing school. (en)
- When Great Britain enters the First World War, Louisa is ultra-patriotic, until Charlie joins the Coldstream Guards. The Major returns to active duty. In exchange for getting Starr reinstated in the Army , the Major gets Louisa to hire Gaspard, a Belgian refugee. (en)
- Charlie pushes Louisa to accept as a hotel guest an obviously mismatched unassuming man. Seeing that Charlie is at loose ends, Louisa arranges for an art dealer to include his paintings in a gallery show, where he discovers the difference between being an amateur and having genuine talent. (en)
- A discontented departing guest's refusal to pay his bill lands him in court and the hotel in the newspapers, to the displeasure of both Louisa and his newspaper publisher uncle, who sends a journalist to work undercover at the hotel. The publicity gives the Bentinck's owners ammunition for their demand to renegotiate Louisa's lease now that the hotel is successful. With the hotel at risk, Louisa is forced to sue the paper for libel, pushing the journalist to unearth the details of her earlier life. (en)
- Insufficient staff and a row over a racing result nearly derail a special dinner that the King's newly married former equerry asks Louisa to cook at his Ascot home for a group of guests that includes Charlie Haslemere. (en)
- Louisa is in dire financial straits, but stubbornly refuses to cash the cheques of the soldiers who stayed at her hotel. Grief-stricken over Charlie's death, she decides to sell up the Bentinck. Her father makes her read a letter from Charlie, which gives her renewed resolve to go on. With the money he left her in his will, she sets about restoring the hotel to its former glory. (en)
- A visiting German baron claiming to be a friend of Lord Haslemere's creates trouble at the Bentinck with some of the other guests. (en)
- When the Prince of Wales asks to borrow Louisa's services as a cook, it turns out that more than her cooking appeals to him. To preserve appearances, she is pressured into marrying Gus Trotter, who has fallen in love with her, even though she does not return his feelings. The newly married couple leave the Nortons' service for the house provided for them. (en)
- Autumn 1915. Louisa is cold to shirkers who avoid military service, particularly Bentinck resident Mr. Appleby. A naval intelligence lieutenant uncovers an espionage ring which is reading the correspondence of high-ranking officers who frequent the Bentinck. Gaspard commits suicide to avoid arrest. His confederate, American hotel guest Brewster, is not so quick. Louisa is embarrassed to learn Appleby is also a spy, but for the British. (en)
- When an elderly but vibrant Bentinck regular guest dies unexpectedly, she surprises everyone by leaving nearly all of her considerable wealth to her attentive chauffeur Prince rather than her indifferent, spendthrift nephew Eddie Sturgess. When Prince considers entering British society, Louisa decides it would be fun to pass him off as a gentleman, under Eddie and the Major's tutelage, despite the latter's warning. The Major is proved right in the end. (en)
- The death of Queen Victoria ends Louisa's relationship with the Prince, now King Edward VII, forcing the Trotters to face their future together. Under the influence of his resentful sister, Nora, Gus wants to take in lodgers to make ends meet. Instead, over his objections, Louisa sets out to rebuild her career as a chef, taking on Mary as her assistant. When Gus's drinking begins leading him into indiscretion, Louisa buys the Bentinck Hotel in Duke Street and installs him as manager, with disastrous results. (en)
- Louisa visits the Haslemeres at their country estate and finds that Margaret's strange behaviour is putting a great strain on the marriage. Louisa also sees her daughter Lottie for the first time since giving her up as a baby. Louisa tries her best to help Margaret, but in the end, the disturbed, emaciated woman wanders outside one night and is found dead the next morning. (en)
- Lottie returns on a school holiday, bringing with her one of her teachers, Miss Olive Bradford. The Major and Miss Bradford fall in love and become engaged. Lottie falls for a handsome young man, but when she incautiously reveals her parentage, his interest in her vanishes. (en)
- After throwing Gus and Nora out of the hotel, Louisa sets to work to repay the debts they have allowed to accumulate with the assistance of Mary and the hotel's long-serving, aged head waiter, Merriman. When Louisa collapses from overwork, Charlie Tyrrell steps in and becomes a silent investor in the hotel in return for a permanent private suite. (en)
- Louisa returns to the Haslemeres' estate for a memorial service, and the truth of Lottie's parentage is exposed. Louisa offers to take Lottie back to London. (en)
- A mysterious young woman causes dissent between Charlie and Louisa, speculation among the staff, and a visit from the police when she comes to stay with Charlie for a few days. (en)
- While Louisa takes a holiday in France, Starr's estranged former common-law wife, Lizzie, blackmails him into helping her get a job as laundry maid at the Bentinck. Starr finally confides in the Major after money is found missing from a hotel guest's room. (en)
- Wishing to learn to be an excellent cook, outspoken and ambitious Louisa Leyton is hired as assistant to Monsieur Alex, a French chef working in the London home of Lord Henry Norton. Resented by other kitchen staff, Louisa bonds with Mary, the target of their frequent malice, forms a friendship with head butler Gus Trotter, and fends off the attentions of the aristocratic Charlie Tyrrell. When Lord Henry unexpectedly returns during Monsieur Alex's holiday, she must cook dinner for a group that includes the Prince of Wales. (en)
- When the Liberals celebrate a by-election result at the Bentinck, a politically ambitious MP at the party sets out to seduce a visiting artist believed to be incorruptibly devoted to her husband. (en)
- Spring 1917. The hotel is empty as repairs are being made. The Major persuades Louisa to set up a canteen in Boulogne for troops with no place to go while waiting for transportation back to Britain. A helpful soldier eventually confesses to Mary that he is a deserter. She consults the Major, who comes up with a plan to get him out of his predicament. A rival do-gooder creates trouble for Louisa, but the general in charge turns out to be a Bentinck regular. Louisa agrees to marry Charlie after the war ends. (en)
- Louisa permits an American woman to write her biography, though she insists on final approval of the result. Merriman wins a newspaper contest and samples life, even sauntering into the Bentinck for a drink, before his money runs out and he returns to his usual post. Mary and Starr become engaged. Louisa is furious at first, as she has a policy of not employing married people, but eventually gives in. (en)
- Summer 1918. Louisa opens the Bentinck to recuperating soldiers. Mary is attracted to Brian, one of the convalescents. Charlie receives a head wound and returns to the hotel for a rest. The wound takes a turn for the worse, and he begins to go blind. An eminent brain surgeon advises against surgery so soon after the previous operation. Charlie suddenly dies while sitting Louisa's parlour as she is talking to him. (en)
- Winter 1916. The hotel sustains minor damage from a Zeppelin bomb attack. Some soldiers are assigned to deal with what may be a buried unexploded bomb very near the Bentinck. Ethel is attracted to one of them, a conscientious objector despised by everyone else. Among Louisa's guests are an 18-year-old and the officer with whom she has eloped. Tired of waiting for a demolitions expert and fed up with the sneers aimed at him, the conshie Clive digs around and finds there is no bomb. He also discovers the body of Fred, Starr's dog. Before Clive leaves, Ethel accepts his engagement ring. (en)
- Mary's disapproving Aunt Gwyneth, the servants' ball, and attentive guest Marcus Carrington sow dissent between Louisa and Mary, whose abrupt departure leaves the hotel in a muddle. Louisa and the Major give their money to Carrington, a risk-taking City whizkid and the son of an old friend of the Major's, to invest in the stock market. (en)
- Two young men play a prank, sending Louisa love letters purportedly from their Oxford University professor. Louisa and Professor Stubbs soon turn the tables on the tricksters, but she is tempted by his somewhat inebriated offer to take her to America to start a new life. The next morning, however, he remembers nothing of the previous night. Charlie's wife, Margaret, seeks Louisa's help in searching for a house in London. (en)
- Equipped with hall porter Starr and his dog, Fred, the newly refurbished Bentinck reopens and, under Louisa's management, becomes a success as long-term guests such as the Major take up residence until her developing friendship with Charlie begins to put the Bentinck at risk. When Charlie leaves for America to see his dying father, Louisa regains her focus on the business - only to discover she is pregnant. Leaving Mary in charge, she goes into hiding to have the baby, a girl she names Charlotte. Charlie, now Lord Haslemere, finds the baby a place with a childless couple on his estate. (en)
- Louisa and Lottie clash over her future. Lottie is determined to become a singer. She meets her grandfather for the first time. He becomes her ally, giving her his meagre life savings before he dies. Lottie moves in with her grandmother, who tells Louisa she understands Lottie, whereas she could never fathom Louisa. (en)
- Charlie is caught in the middle when Louisa buys a house at Cowes to move her entire operation to the seaside for a few weeks' summer vacation, upsetting the stuffy sailing club next door. Among Louisa's guests is the professional dancer Irene Baker, who develops a close friendship with Charlie. (en)
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